Flesh Tones: An Anthology

I love reading short stories, but writing them? That's a whole new set of skills.

If I'm honest with myself about my writing, I tend to be a bit flowery, a bit wordy, with some of my stories, and that's okay; that's my writing style. For a long time, I dreaded writing a short story, despite the fact that I'd always wanted to try it.

That's where Flesh Tones: An Anthology came in.

I'd been working on a series of comic books with the same title, and a voice at the back of my head told me that the comic book stories would make a good set of prose tales. I hadn't revisited those comics for a couple of years, so I thought it would be a good way of a) giving them a new life, b) adding some more details and backstory to some fun stories, and c) getting a new skill under my belt.

I'm not going to lie and say it was easy to adapt them; it wasn't. In fact, I found it much harder than when I wrote the first Mother, Dearest novel, but, at the same time, it was actually kind of fun to do. It was even fun to take a fresh look at the characters, at the worlds created within the stories, and all that wonderful writer stuff that makes me sound like a pretentious douchebag.

For Flesh Tones: An Anthology, I wanted to give it a theme of talking about death—cheerful, I know, but I wanted to do it from different points of view. There's a story about a man adrift in space who sees an animated version of David Bowie; there's a romantic tale told from the point of view of an elderly lady living out her last days in a nursing home; there's even a tale from the mindset of a serial killer's victims.

With that in mind, these are the stories I included in the collection, one of which I will include links to below.

Flesh Tones: An Anthology contains:

The Mansion: When a young couple inherits a mansion from a relative they haven't spoken to in decades, they can't help but wonder if it's too good to be true.

Always Follow Your Heart: After attending a fancy party, Lady Scardale decides that she wants to walk home instead of taking her personal carriage, but as she walks through the city, she finds she's not alone in the night.

The Black Dog in the Night: It's late at night, and his personal demons are swirling around his mind, waiting for him to make up his mind. It's a hard choice, made worse by the black dog nipping at him every chance it gets. Does he live, or does he give in to those voices telling him to end it all?

The Tunnel: Will was always a bit of a drifter, floating from job to job and city to city, never bothering to make friends or to set down roots. He's also a serial killer looking for his latest victim.

The Passage of Time: Sitting in a nursing home, as her memories and her faculties begin to fade, an elderly woman just wants to see the love of her life one last time.

Physician, Heal Thyself: What would you do if you, a doctor, found out that the man who brutalised and murdered your daughter had been injured in jail only to be brought to the church that you work at?

The Scared Crow: Keith had always been a quiet child. Bullied by the other children and living in a small town where everyone knew everyone else, he had no friends. No friends, that is, except for the crows, who would go to any length to keep him safe.

Hallo, Spaceboy: Space is a vast, exciting, and wonderous place, but what would you do if you suddenly found yourself adrift with no way to get back to your capsule, especially if that meant you were being followed by an animated David Bowie?

I Speak in My Own Name: Deities, spirits, and creatures not unlike ourselves have been dotted throughout our stories and our history. What if one of those very same deities was looking down at us in disdain at what we do to one another?

You Go Hide, I Go Seek: A local couple had wanted a baby for years, and when they finally give birth, it appears all their dreams and prayers have been answered, but when that baby goes missing, it sets off a chain of events that will forever change the small town they live in.

So, there we have it: ten stories, all taking different looks at death and the consequences that come with it. The collection is available from the following links, so please enjoy the stories and, if you can, leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or anywhere else you can think of.

And if you would like a copy to review for your website or blog, then drop me a line at patricksscattergood@gmail.com and give me the details.