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Rejected by [Jo-Anne Russell, Walter Rhein, Roy C. Booth, Axel Kohagen, Rose Blackthorn, David Perlmutter, D. L. Turpin, Constance A. Brewer, Adam Zaleski, Brian Woods]

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Randy Attwood

Stuart Conover

Rejected Kindle Edition

by Jo-Anne Russell (Author), Walter Rhein (Author), Roy C. Booth (Author), Format: Kindle Edition

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This is a collection of stories of all different genres by great writers.

Story Listing:
Elements by Jo-Anne Russell
Lewis and the Brain Tumor by Ken MacGregor
The Promise of Ale by Walter Rhein
The Redness at the Edge of the Sore by Roy C. Booth & Axel Kohagen
Blue Kansas Sky by Randy Attwood
Seeing the Future by Rose Blackthorn
A Simple Device by Jack Campbell Jr.
American Death by Joseph J. Patchen
Changeover by Rose Strickman
And He Bought a Crooked Cat by Fraser Sherman
Eli’s Coming by David Perlmutter
Glass Beads by Emily Martha Sorensen
The Skin Crawler by Glen Damien Campbell
Hellfire by D. L. Turpin
In the Shadow of Xerxes Canal by Constance A. Brewer
Labyrinth of the Undead by Carl Thomas Fox
New York’s All Right (If You Like Saxophones) by Marie Michaels
She Is My Nicotine by Z. S. Roe
Saving the Flock by Stuart Conover
Homecoming by Benjamin Sperduto
The Blind Watchman by Paul Williams
The Cleaners by Amanda Northrup Mays
The Crystal Blue Feather by Judi Calhoun
The Pimple on Silverman’s Ass by Ken Goldman
The Vines by Thomas Van Boening
Three Prom Dresses by Priya Sridhar
Threefold by Adam Zaleski
To The Winners Go The Spoils by Tim McDaniel
Two Shades of White by Franklin Charles Murdock
A Warrior’s Second Chance by Ramsey “Tome Wyrm” Lundock
With the Wind by Kevin Bannigan Jr
Your Old Life the Dream by T. Fox Dunham
Zyka’s Last Escape by Gwen Veazey
The Christmas Shepherd by Andrew M. Seddon
Life, Death and Resurrect by Naching T. Kassa

Print length

440 pages
Language

English
Publication date

March 4, 2015
Reading age

13 - 18 years
File size

2112 KB
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Word Wise

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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00UARXUUU
Publisher ‏ : ‎ ACA Books (March 4, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 4, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2112 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 440 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1508865566
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Customer Reviews:
10 ratings

About the authors

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Randy Attwood
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Attwood's fiction offerings are a smorgasbord of genres. Mystery, dark suspense, thriller, literary, comedy—his novels and shorter works touch all the bases. To find a commonality, read the reviews. What you'll find is reader involvement with the writing, the story, and the sense of reality his words create. One reviewer summed it up this way: "You can't explain Attwood's writing; it has to be experienced."
Attwood grew up on the grounds of a Kansas insane asylum because his father was the institutions dentist and the state provided housing on the grounds. His most popular work "Crazy About You" draws on those experiences.
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Stuart Conover
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Stuart Conover is a father, husband, rescue dog lover, blogger, published author, geek, entrepreneur, and horror fanatic. He works IT during the day and tries to battle the urge to sleep with a healthy consumption of caffeine.
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

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3 star		44%
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1 star		18%

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kel

it's a collection of stories

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2015

Verified Purchase

while i'm glad i was told about this anthology and got the chance to read it, it wasn't my favorite thing to read. check out my full take on this book at my blog: http://randomnessbybazib.blogspot.com/2015/05/rejected.html

2 people found this helpful

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immaree

An anthology that asks an interesting question.

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2015

Rejected is an anthology with a simple straight forward theme, every single story within its pages has been rejected by another publisher for whatever reason. Because of this there is no specific genre or theme within the gathered stories, which range from fantasy, urban fantasy, horrors, sci-fi, bizarro and others.

It is an interesting premise for an anthology, a theme outside of the actual stories themselves that has more to do with the process of publishing rather than reading. But what makes this so interesting is that unlike most other anthologies (I personally have read about three dozen in my lifetime) is before you even begin reading the first page, the anthology makes you ask a question. Why were these stories rejected in the first place?

While the editor of the anthology, Brian Woods does mention several general reasons why a story may be rejected, no specific reasons are given to why any specific story was rejected. Admittedly apart of me thinks this book would have benefited slightly if each story ended with an explanation as to why they were rejected.

Then again, one of the things I liked the most about this anthology, was trying to find an answer to just such a question. After reading each story, I stopped and thought about the answer. Unsurprisingly some of the conclusions were the clear cut; some stories just weren’t very good. Then again like all anthologies I can’t remember a single one that I have read where I thought each story was brilliant.

What was actually far more interesting were the other conclusions I came to. For example ‘The Redness at the Edge of the Sore’ I actually thought this was a good story, but I came to the conclusion that it would have benefited immensely if the authors had just flat out said what the main character’s occupation was. Another story, ‘Lewis and the Brain Tumor’ was well written, but it lacked a satisfying ending. Then you have stories like ‘Threefold’ that really feel more like the beginning chapter of a novel as opposed to a short story.

But the best ones, were the enigmas, the clear standouts that I couldn’t really come to any conclusion as to why they were rejected. ‘A Simple Device’ was my personal favorite of the bunch, a fine example of what a good short story should be, simple, to the point but with an interesting plot twist at the end. I also really enjoyed ‘The Pimple on Silverman’s Ass.’ Although I am guessing it got rejected because of its sheer strangeness.

Beyond the stories themselves what I found intriguing, is how some of more slice of life styled stories seem to have been plucked right out of the seventies or eighties, (admittedly that is an assumption on my behalf) still they were certainly an interesting peak into the past.

Feeding into this point is something else I found interesting. Out of all the authors I was only really familiar with one of them in terms of their writings, Walter Rhein. I thoroughly enjoyed his books the Bone Sword and the Reader of Acheron. So to me personally it was fascinating to read ‘The Promise of Ale’ as I could see touches of his later works in it but in a rougher form. It was like being able to see the prototype for the fuel injected engine, before it was perfected and was definitely a highlight for me reading this anthology. That’s not to say ‘The Promise of Ale’ was bad, it just wasn't as good as his more recent short stories. I think if you are a fan of any of these authors’ novels, I think like me you will get a kick out of reading their earlier/previously-unpublished works.

It is difficult to judge this anthology the way I would normally judge an anthology, because as I stated earlier this one asks the reader the same question for each story represented. Because of this the theme is grander than any of the individual stories, but I actually feel that is its biggest strength. It is an intriguing insight to the process of publishing, but done in a way that isn’t boring or stale. Which makes it a rather quite unique reading experience and that is always a plus.

So the reason why I have given it four stars is I found it intriguing, insightful, thought provoking and above all else entertaining and that’s exactly what any piece of fictional literature should do. I recommend this book so you can try and find the answers to the question yourself, chances are not only will you enjoy doing so but also you will probably come to different conclusions than I did and again that’s what makes, Rejected such a unique anthology.

6 people found this helpful

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Reader_Reader

An anthology worth the read

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2015

I was really intrigued by the subject of this anthology. Before I read a single story, the Foreword by Brian Woods prepped me well for what I was about to read. Mr. Woods spoke with editors from several small and mid-sized presses to poll reasons why stories get rejected, and he compiled a list of whys that he randomly selected from their answers. Some reasons were sensible (#4 – the opening line of your story was cliché), others were disheartening (#6 - It was the end of the day and the person checking the email had a quota to fill and just deleted/rejected several more stories without reading them, just to fill quota), and some were just odd (#7 - The editor had a headache and the font size, style, or color you used annoyed them). Here I must say, rather than randomly selecting from their answers, a “Top 10 List” would have been beneficial, especially to readers who are writers wishing to avoid some common pitfalls of story submission. The weirder random selections could have made an additional entertaining list, another “Top 10” but of the oddest reasons given for stories getting turned down. Either way, the reasons that determine a rejection, beyond the quality of writing, were sometimes pretty surprising. With Mr. Woods’ list of rejection reasons (something worth a look, so don’t skip it) still fresh in my mind, I dove into the stories.

Rejection may be the subject matter, but by no means does that reflect poorly on the material included. There are some very talented writers in this anthology. “The Redness at the Edge of Sore,” by Roy C. Booth and Axel Kohagen is a haunting story told in first person by the lookout man for a “cleanup crew.” “Elements,” by Jo-Anne Russell is a dark moody tale with a twist that delivers a disquieting sinister justice. In Stuart Conover’s “Saving the Flock” a devoted Father O’ Brian attempts to protect his congregation from a zombie epidemic with troubling results. Franklin Charles Murdock’s “Two Shades of White” is a moving tale of grief, guilt, and supernatural redemption. “American Death” by Joseph J. Patchen is a biting commentary on American consumerism that imagines the desperate scope of its effects.

With approximately three dozen stories included, “Rejected” had many with interesting twists at the end that were not predictable and quite satisfying, and one is bound to find numerous jewels among the diverse plots and prose. However, I also agree with another reviewer that, in a handful of cases, the idea is better than the execution. For the most part, the originality of the storylines compensates for that though, which made them worthwhile reads nevertheless.

Many stories, but not all, have a scif-fi/fantasy or paranormal/supernatural angle. In some, like Rose Blackthorn’s “Seeing the Future” followed by “A Simple Device” by Jack Campbell Jr. the primary element is mortality as each narrator contemplates the substance of their lives while in desperately grave situations. Otherwise these shorts range widely enough in style that, beyond the common ground of rejection, it is difficult to pinpoint them. The only info provided for each is the story title, a word count, and the author’s name. While some might find this frustrating, I found it refreshing. With its “Twilight Zone” vibe, this collection was a pleasure to plug into and enjoy. Whether you're a writer who's felt the sting of rejection and needs a reminder that good stuff gets turned down sometimes, or you're a reader looking to find a few fresh voices to add to your reading roster, "Rejected" is worth the read. It was like dipping into a box of chocolates—I never knew what I was going to get. And I found more than a few flavors that I liked.

One person found this helpful

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Bruce Boston

Good to Weak, Still Entertaining

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2015

There are some good stories here, some okay stories, and some that are weak. All are entertaining to some degree, even the weak ones, since the ideas for those are generally better than the execution. I thought the entries by Gwen Veazey and Rose Blackthorn were among the best included. The book as a whole could have used a better proofing and copy edit.

4 people found this helpful

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Mark Wilkowski

Lots of "meh," a few gems...

Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2015

I can see why most of these stories were rejected. Most are just plain "meh," but there are a few good ones like "Simple Device," "The Redness at the Edge of the Sore," "The Pimple on Silverman's Ass," and "The Promise of Ale."

I read this book on my wife's Kindle.

2 people found this helpful

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Scott West

but I guess that's pretty much par for the course in any short story ...

Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2015

REJECTED makes for a curious read, as it pulls from multiple genres and styles of writing. Some stories hit the mark and others don't, but I guess that's pretty much par for the course in any short story anthology. As something of a grammar Nazi, I couldn't help but notice more than a fair share of typos. Also, the formatting of these stories is . . . peculiar. Did we really need to know the word count of each story? And when was the last time a book was published using Times New Roman as its font?

Otherwise, a worthy read.

2 people found this helpful

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missy whitehurst

A great collection of writers.

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2015

All the greatest stories in the past twenty years have something in common. They have all been rejected. This collection of great stories leaves you wanting more from these writers and you are bound to accept them all.

3 people found this helpful

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Ronald C. Woods

Short, interesting, and kept me guessing. This ...

Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2015

Short, interesting, and kept me guessing.
This collection met and exceeded my expectations.
I look forward to another collection from ACA Books.

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Stuart Conover

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