William Meikle Amazon Digital Services Fiction, Collection/Fantasy/Horror/Sci-Fi ***+
Description
A boy who longs to grow up gets more than he bargained for... a woman meets a stranger on a fateful train trip... Twitter posts from an
unknown source puzzle a young man... a young boy's father helps him deal with bullies in a very special way... These and other tales by
author William Meikle are compiled in this collection.
A Kindle-exclusive title.
Review
Like Meikle's other works, he keeps these tales short and sweet. Unlike the previous collection, though, I found a few of these stories
repetitive, using very similar themes with very similar outcomes. There were also some minor yet irritating formatting issues; parts of
sentences or paragraphs missing, for instance, and a glitch that rendered the last few stories completely in italics. On the whole, they're
not bad, though.
William Meikle Amazon Digital Services Fiction, Collection/Fantasy/Horror/Sci-Fi ****
Description
A drunken PI with a talent for dealing with the unusual... a post-apocalyptic town's dark bargain for survival... an archaeological discovery
that will reshape the world... This collection offers tales by author William Meikle.
A Kindle-exclusive title - no longer available for download.
Review
It's nice to read short stories that don't forget to stay short. Meikle's tales vary between darkly humorous and downright disturbing. They
read fast, and they were free when I downloaded them. All in all, they made for an enjoyable read.
William Meikle Amazon Digital Services Fiction, Action/Fantasy ****
Description
Stolen from his green home, Garn became a thrall in the desert realm of the Witch Queen. By day he fights in the Pits for the amusement
of the masses, while by night the queen demands his personal attention. After his hundredth kill, he finally has a chance to earn his
freedom - if he can survive a ten-mile gauntlet and the Witch Queen's pet killers.
A Kindle-exclusive title.
Review
As I've mentioned in previous reviews, I've had mixed luck with short stories. I was pleasantly surprised here. After a bit of a slow
start, the tale picks up nicely, building to a tense climax. After years of dreaming and longing, Garn finds the road to freedom far more
difficult than he had anticipated... even discounting the assassins on his heels. It made for a fast and enjoyable read, which is just what
I was looking for when I downloaded it.
William Meikle Amazon Digital Services Nonfiction, Writing ***+
Description
Many people dream about writing. Some even talk about writing. Surprisingly few actually write, leaving those dreams to wither and
die. Published author William Meikle offers advice for those who want to take thier dreams and turn them into reality, starting with
the first rule of success: writers write.
A Kindle-exclusive title - currently unavailable for download.
Review
With blunt delivery and occasional sidetracks into humor, Meikle delivers similar advice to most other writing guides I own: a story
cannot be published until someone actually sits down and writes it... and nobody is going to write your stories but you. A basic
start-to-finish workflow follows, a rough sketch of how to transform an idea into a finished, marketable story. He also offers a brief
look at worn-out tropes to avoid (unless you think you're able to put a fresh face on an old chestnut; as they say, there's nothing new
under the sun, and some authors still do very well repackaging the same basic ideas.) Much of this advice has been covered in other
writing guides, but Meikle presents it competently.
