Blurb from the author ~
New York City–it’s home to 8 million people trying to make their way through the day–a crop of humanity seething with hopes and fears, dreams and nightmares. Autumn comes, and nine authors harvest nine tales from this unique setting and people. From stories of everyday life in an otherworldly light to nightmarish tales of human darkness, Urban Harvest has something for everyone.
Urban Harvest contains tales of the paranormal from Alex Shvartsman, Laurie Treacy, Donna Ansari, Tara Hill, Laura Wenham, Andrea Stanet, Don Corcoran, Saif Ansari, and Sean Sakamoto.
In keeping with the spirit of harvest, all proceeds from this anthology will go to support City Harvest, an organization that feeds NYC’s hungry.
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Genre: Urban Fantasy, New Adult
Format: paperback, ebook
Release Date: September 21, 2013
Buying Links: Amazon* *affiliate link; the blog receives a small commission for purchases made through this link.
AUTHOR LIST:
Laura Wenham is one of the authors
featured in Urban Harvest: Tales of the Paranormal
in New York City.
Your story, Coexistence, is about
dragons who live under NYC. What prompted you to write this story?
The idea for my story began when I got my first job
in Manhattan and walked every day past manhole covers that were constantly
emitting streams of steam and smoke. At first I largely thought how
inefficient the steam heating systems were to be losing so much heat.
Then, as I kept walking past them, I thought all of that smoke would
make a good cover for dragons hiding underground. Then I began to wonder
how much evidence you would need to support the idea of underground
dragons and what the likely reaction of the rest of society would be
if a scientist claimed to have discovered dragons under Manhattan. I
couldn’t figure out what might cause a scientist to seriously research
this until the various steam pipe explosions began happening in Manhattan.
Like the character in my story, I walked right past the hole left by
the explosion in front of NYU’s library, which made quite an impression
on me.
What other things have you written/are
you writing?
I have folders full of stories and poems and songs
on my computer. I am very good at coming up with interesting ideas and
very bad at figuring out where the plot and characters want to go. I
am currently working on two different short stories. One of them is
based on the idea that we become able to communicate with our dark-matter
doppelgangers and the new rich tourist activity is not traveling into
space, but instead meeting their doppelgangers in a room sealed by plasma
to keep the universe from exploding – until one of the dark-matter
doppelgangers is murdered after the meeting and the detectives on our
side of the universe have to figure out the motive without access to
any physical evidence. The other story is about these tiny kangaroo-like
robots that are built to be used for surveillance of enemy terrain (http://spectrum.ieee.org/
Do you have a writing mentor or
inspiration?
I am extremely grateful to the members of the Mom’s
Writer’s Group at the Midshore Mothers’ Center (http://midshoremotherscenter.
What’s your writing schedule?
Do you have a favorite place to write?
With a 2.5 year old, my writing time is limited –
which is why I value the free write time we have as part of the Mothers’
Center group as well as late nights in bed typing (sometimes incoherent)
story ideas on my iPad.
What’s next?
Our Writer’s Group starts up again in early October,
so I intend to keep working on the two stories I mentioned above (as
well as the several ideas I will probably come up with between now and
then).
Anything else you’d like to add?
I love the idea of writing anthologies and donating
the profits to charities, particularly when they are local, meaningful
charities such as City Harvest. Not only am I now a published author,
but as I encourage my friends and family to buy the anthology on Sunday
because I want them to read what I wrote, I also do so knowing that
they are helping out a great cause! (And I have to confess I am terribly
curious about and anxiously waiting to read the other stories in the
anthology!)
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EXCERPT
The following is a short excerpt from Laura’s story in Urban Harvest. - Coexistence
I knew I had to have an excess of proof in order to
not be seen as another Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster hunter. I spent
months, and then years, creating the most thorough maps of the NYC underground.
During this time, I became increasingly oblivious to events on the surface.
The friend whose apartment I had been using moved during one of my long
periods underground. When I resurfaced to shower and pick up my unemployment
checks, I was very surprised to knock on his door and meet a nice Asian
couple who had no idea who I was. My belongings, and one of my few remaining
connections to the surface world, were gone without a forwarding address.
I can’t explain the patterns I saw without my data,
which the FBI confiscated when they arrested me. It’s probably collecting
dust in an FBI basement now, but back in the spring of 2014 with everything
right in front of me, I thought I had developed enough of an understanding
of the markings that I was considering altering them to attempt communication
with my theoretical life forms. Before I could do anything, however,
the decision was taken away from me.
I was camping in a small open area formed by the intersection
of two of the marked tunnels when I saw it. This was not a small tube
worm or hydrogen-sulfide breathing scorpion. Emerging from the smaller
tunnel was what I would best describe as an earth dragon. Not a winged
creature like Toothless fromHow to Train Your Dragon,
but instead similar to a large worm-snake with a scaly covering of rock
in every earth-tone imaginable.
As the dragon stretched to pull itself out of the
tunnel, I could do nothing but stare in awe. The tangled asbestos fibers
were clearly from a pelt that covered the dragon’s ventral side. As
it emerged fully into the room, I realized it had a “head”
end which had circular shiny, almost polished areas, and a “mouth”
area which had shiny white crystals inside, while its “tail”
end came to a sharp point. It was, I would find out later, on the smaller
side for a dragon—but at the time the fact that it was probably three
feet around and six feet long was impressive enough.
GIVEAWAYS
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GIVEAWAYS
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New one to me. Does sound good. :) Thank you for sharing with us.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. You know I love me Kindle books. :P
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'm supposed to say a charity (direction-reading fail!) -- we support our local Humane Society, the local NPR station, the local community theatre, and a local domestic violence shelter.
ReplyDeleteNone at the monet. But great giveaway.
ReplyDeleteNew author for me, but this book story interesting :D I wanna try
ReplyDelete