Underground Bookshelf

Please join me in congratulating the runner-up for our our April 2024 flash fiction contest, Mara AU! The premise of Mara's two-sentence horror story is wonderfully relatable and is surely a nightmare many have encountered either in real life or in their dreams. Mara, thank you so much for contributing your work to this contest and for a job well-done!

Welcome back to the Underground Bookshelf Book Club! During the month of May, we are reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. This book tells the story of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan followed by the reign of the Taliban and the subsequent, post-Taliban life through the personal lives and relationships of everyday people. This book has faced book bans because of its discussions of violence, war, abuse, suicide, and depression. It's important to note that the author is not condoning violence, war, and abuse or glorifying suicide, rather he is acknowledging its presence in the lives of the people his characters represent.

Congratulations to the winner of April's flash fiction contest, Maggot! The April theme was two-sentence horror. Maggot's story had all the hallmarks of a classic two-sentence horror with its easy-going opening sentence to the horrific twist that follows in sentence two. Please join me in celebrating our winner! You can read Maggot's winning two sentence horror story and learn more about the author below.

Welcome to our second flash fiction contest! The theme for our Flash Fiction Contest for May 2024 is 280-Word Romance!

I'm trying out something new! This month marks the start of our monthly flash fiction contests! All are invited to participate! These contests will take place in three formats and each format will have its own set of winners. You are welcome to join whichever contest is most accessible/simplest for you.

For a bit of fun, I thought I'd look up books that feature solar eclipses. It turns out that solar eclipses have often been used as harbingers of doom or metaphors for destruction as in the example of Moby Dick by Herman Melville. This largely draws on historical, cultural, and religious interpretations of this natural event. Scientific studies of today tend to downplay the dangers of a solar eclipse, but before our current technologies could predict approaching solar eclipses, they were unexpected and often frightening or spiritual events. These mentalities live on in various aspects of cultures spiritualities, and storytelling, including literature. Below, I have assembled a list of books which feature solar eclipses. Enjoy!

It's generally advisable for professionals of all kinds to dedicate time to professional development. Professional development can help you stay up-to-date with best practices, current events and subject matter in your field, new discoveries or techniques, or can simply be a space in which you are able to improve your craft and become the best professional you can be. The same is true for writers. Writers commonly study their craft by practicing the written word, by reading voraciously, by connecting with other writers through writing groups, conferences, and the like, by connecting with readers through reading clubs, social media and other venues, by taking classes, reading writing blogs, and more.

Underground Bookshelf is a platform that celebrates diverse literature, its authors, and the communities they honor. Our latest series of resource articles pull together free or inexpensive tools that writers (both amateur and veteran) might benefit from. This is also a great opportunity to remind you that I'm always looking for writers to highlight on this platform. If you are interested in sharing your short story, poem, or other work through this website, let me know by emailing me at contact.undergroundbookshelf@gmail.com.

It can be hard to find a book by an indie author at a brick-and-mortar bookstore. Similarly, it can be hard for indie authors to get their books stocked on shelves at bookstores. While a variety of online platforms have helped to democratize reading and writing for many people, some barriers still remain. Storytelling social platforms are another way that people who are passionate about reading and writing further democratize storytelling by adding a social aspect. On these platforms, amateur, indie, and professional writers come together. Anyone can publish their own original work, read other people's work, and build connections over their shared interests. Last week, I shared ten platforms of this nature. This week, I've compiled a list of eleven more platforms that do the same thing. You can find both lists by clicking the buttons below.

Volume One of the Living Stone Series, Contact, will be released on May 30 2024. Join the author, Laura Browne-Lambert, for a virtual launch party including a brief live reading and a Q&A with the author. Contact is the first book in a science fiction series about alien encounters.