Title

Author: Manuel Sánchez

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 9, 2025

Genres: Science Fiction, Alternate History, Historical, Contemporary

Length: About 97 pages.

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

A delight for the senses that will surprise you on every page. A journey filled with irony, sensuality, and human passions. Catch-all Drawer is an anthology of eight fiction stories where the author transports us with vibrant language to a world full of sensations, fantasy, and extraordinary situations: A fascinating woman in ancient Egypt, Virgil’s curious pet in Imperial Rome, the animal jungle of modern multinational corporations, the sensual dream of a red lantern, a mischievous worm, the circus of politics, the madness of a selfie in Australian waters, or the misadventures of a couple in the solitude of erotic contact social networks immerse us in stories of wild and addictive beauty.

Content Warning: Brief references to  sex and infidelity.

Review:

A little bit of everything can add up to a full meal.

I loved the satirical take on modern workplace politics in general in “The Gazpacho.” Honestly, this was my favorite story of the collection because of how well it described both the joys and frustrations of working with the same group of people over a long period of time. While the specific setting here was in an office, I think the vast majority of the plot would have turned out more or less the same had it been in a restaurant, medical setting, warehouse, store, or just about any other place of work because of how keenly the author focused on the personalities of the characters as they interacted with one another and dealt with sometimes ridiculous rules.

Kudos to the author for experimenting with the science fiction genre so much in this book. While not every tale was to my taste, most of them were and I must tip my cap to him for being so willing to try new things and see what may or may not resonate with his readers. “A Selfie,” which followed a couple who decided to swim with the sharks on their honeymoon to Australia, was one such example of this. I struggled to understand why these characters were not only willing to take so many risks with their safety but also unwilling to learn from their past mistakes. It would have been helpful to have more character development here so that I could understand their perspectives better.

The email format of “The Worm” made me smile. It’s a writing style that pops up on occasion in what I read, and I’m always interested in seeing where new authors take it because of how much it reminds me of the old epistolary novels that share so much in common with this newer form of storytelling one message at a time. Another interesting thing about this piece was related to how trustworthy I found the protagonist. Other readers should decide for themselves what they think of him, of course, but I thought this was a good example of how to create a main character who is simultaneously fascinating and deeply unlikable (in my opinion, of course).

Catch-All Drawer was my introduction to Mr. Sánchez‘s work, and my curiosity has been piqued to see what else he might write in the future. 

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

This week’s Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge theme complements yesterday’s Top Ten Tuesday theme beautifully. I love it when the two blog hops I participate in overlap like that.

Those of you who stopped by yesterday will remember how I do not seek out meet-and-greets with authors because I’m not into celebrity culture.

Meeting characters, though? Yes!

Here are some characters from books and shows I’ve recently enjoyed that I’d like to meet:

Erica Ortegas from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I love her sense of humour and how quickly she thinks on her feet in a crisis. She’s had some interesting storylines regarding her mental health, too, after she was seriously wounded on a mission. If only the writers would give her some happiness in the future, too, whether it’s in the form of her getting a longterm girlfriend, spending time with family, or something else that’s equally wholesome.

Joseph M’Benga, also from Strange New Worlds. He has a tragic backstory that I keep hoping the show will go back to with some sort of resolution arc. I also enjoy seeing how methodically he works in the sick bay, especially when an episode includes multiple people getting sick or injured in the same time period. He’s a kind and dedicated doctor. It would be nice to see him and Erica in the same room more often, too, as they’re generally working in opposite areas of their ship.

This is a good idea for a theme, but I haven’t met many authors. I avoid celebrity culture in general, including when it spills over into the bookish community. Toronto often has celebrity visitors who are here filming movies, performing concerts, doing book signings, or participating in other work events for them, so it’s not exciting to me. They’re just people like you and I are.

If I were able to meet my favourite characters in person, that would be one thing. But I’d generally either rather not meet authors at all or treat them like I would anyone else if we do cross paths. That means I might congratulate them on their latest book if they bring it up, but I won’t be fawning over or swooning over them or anything because if I were in their shoes, I’d rather just have a normal conversation about the delicious food or beautiful music at an event or something instead.

(No offence intended to those of you who enjoy such things as a reader or as an author, of course).

With those caveats in mind, here are three authors I’ve met who all happen to be fellow Canadians.  They were all quite kind in our brief interactions, so do feel free to say hello to them if you know who they are and see them at bookish events.

© 2019 Larry D. Moore. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Gordon Korman 

Author:  Rudolph Kohn

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: February 14, 2023

Genres: Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 7 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Moving into a new house can be stressful, and it can be refreshing. But what do you do when you start to hear strange sounds and see hints of motion out of the corner of your eye? What happens to your mind when all of your efforts to get to the bottom of these strange phenomena comes up with nothing? A short Lovecraftian story about figments of your imagination, or perhaps reality.

Review:

Always ask questions if something seems too good to be true.

One of my favorite things about this tale was that almost nothing was revealed about the protagonist. The first paragraph mentioned that they had just bought a new home, but this was really the only piece of information shared about them. Everything else, including their sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, race, ethnicity, and a million other descriptive adjectives that could be used to paint a mental image of who they were as a person, was left blank. This meant that basically any reader out there could imagine themselves in this character’s shoes as they closed on their new home and gradually began to realize they weren’t the only occupant there.

I did find myself wishing that the last scene could provide a deeper explanation of what was already inhabiting the narrator’s new home, especially given the other knowledge this individual had acquired by that point. While I wouldn’t have expected to know everything by the final sentence, having even a few more sentences explaining what was going on would have encouraged me to choose a full five-star rating for this short story.

This started off as a fairly typical paranormal story but soon shifted into something a bit more frightening than is usual for this genre. I loved seeing the protagonist react to each new development as they attempted to figure out how to best handle a situation that was rapidly spiraling out of control. As much as I wanted that final scene to provide a little more guidance, it did end on a deliciously scary note and was well worth the read.

The Corner of My Eye made me shiver.

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Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

I know I’ve done similar topics in the past. This time I’m specifically focusing on books set in Southern Ontario instead of in Toronto.

1.Ghost Road And Other Forgotten Stories of Windsor by Marty Gervais

2. Birding at Point Pelee by Henrietta T. O’Neill

3. Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

4. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Thank you to dark.shelf.of.wonders and Books Are The New Black for submitting this theme!

One of the unfortunate consequences of the rise of large language models is how they anre impacting the indie and self-published corners of the bookish community. I’m seeing more and more authors from these sectors use LLMs not only to design their book covers but also to help write or even sometimes do all of the work of writing their stories. (This is something I know because many of them actually admit to it!).

I am morally opposed to the use of LLMs in general because of how harmful they are to the environment, the widespread theft of written and visual imagery that was used to create them, and the devastating number of people who have lost their jobs as a result of these things. Therefore, the number of indie and self-published authors I review on my blog is seeing a steady and probably permanent decline. As committed as I used to be to featuring authors that needed such exposure, I can’t ethically continue to do so under current conditions.

You have the right to your own opinion on this topic, of course, but I will only be approving kind and respectful replies here.

So this post is looking back at a happier time before all of that stuff started happening. Here are ten self-published books I’ve reviewed here in the recent past. To the best of my knowledge, no LLMs were used in the creation of them.

The links below will take you to my reviews of these stories!

1. Homeless by Neil Shooter

2. Love Bug by Zoe Tasia

3. Five Miles Out Of Black Creek by Neil Shooter

4. Amina by P.B. Cannon

5. Marginal Worlds by Alfred Bekker

6. Cosmophobia by George Saoulidis

7. Mayday Mayday Mayday by Holly Schindler

8. Beach House on the Moon byLeigh Kimmel

9. Chasing June by Holly Schindler

10. A Hundred Julys by Holly Schindler

Title

Author: Steven J. Rolfes

Publisher: Llewellyn Publications

Publication Date: August 8, 2026

Genres: Folklore, Nonfiction, Historical

Length: 324 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

With the inquisitive heart of an adventurer and the rigor of a scholar, this spellbinding work leads listeners through centuries of dark folklore, lost legends, and the wild inspirations behind Bram Stoker’s immortal classic.

Volcanic cataclysms, secret aristocratic scandals, mysterious societies, and ominous landscapes all converge to cast their spell. Historian Steven J. Rolfes skillfully untangles a web of real events, eccentric creators, and uncanny myths that shaped and informed Stoker’s Dracula.

Rolfes’s writing is lively, immersive, and unfailingly engaging, inviting listeners to make sense of what is fact, what is fable, and how the two entwine to birth the world’s ultimate vampire. For those compelled by the timeless mystery of the undead, this book is both an exploration and an adventure, reviving forgotten tales and reimagining the legendary Count for a new generation.

Content Warning: Death, of course. References to epidemics like cholera and tuberculosis. Dead bodies being dug up and mutilated for religious purposes in cultures who believe the recently dead can become vampires.

Review:

Stories can be the gateway to the past.

One of the things I enjoy most about reading about vampires and vampire-like creatures is imagining the real-life events that might have inspired people living in the distant past to come up with such folklore and legends to explain  how the world must work when they encountered things they didn’t yet have the technology or medical expertise to understand in other ways. This book did an excellent job of explaining the many possible origins for vampires from a wide variety of cultures, beginning with hunter-gatherers in Africa tens of thousands of years ago and moving forward through time from there as various aspects of these legends gradually coalesced into what we now know as Dracula.

I did find myself wishing that this book had been given another round or two of editing. The author went on many tangents, some of whose connections to Dracula and legends about vampires in general were sparse at best. It would have been a far more compelling read for me had it been about 20o pages instead of well over 400 as there simply wasn’t enough material here to justify such a long read in my opinion. This is something I’m saying as someone who was extremely interested in the premise and who thought I’d be giving this one a much higher rating.

It was interesting to read the connections the author made to similar supernatural creatures like golem and Frankenstein that shared some similarities with Dracula. These sections were among the best in the entire book, and I would have liked to read about even more creatures from other cultures that exist in that liminal space between life and death. There’s definitely something to be said for collecting these tales and comparing them, especially from historical and public health perspectives.

The Bloody Road to Castle Dracula could be a good pick for the most hardcore fans of this subject.

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Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

In previous posts on this topic, I’ve talked about my desire for replicators and for top-notch Star Trek medical care to be real due to all of the wonderful things they’d do for us.

I’m sticking with the Star Trek theme yet again this time because that universe was filled with some excellent ideas.

I wish we lived in a world where Warp Drives really existed as well so we could travel faster than the speed of light and see more of the universe. Right now we are only capable of traveling to the moon which, while still a noteworthy place to explore, doesn’t have any life on it.

Imagine a time when we could travel to distant stars and see if the moons or planets orbiting them had anything interesting living there.

Are there plants growing in those distant places that might cure diseases like cancer?

Are there friendly aliens living there with whom we could trade scientific knowledge and resources?

Could humans live there if necessary? Could aliens live on Earth?

The possibilities are endless, and I wish we could have answers to all of our questions.

I’m going to try to not repeat any nationalities in this list!

As I haven’t read any of these titles yet, the only thing I can vouch for is that they fit the requirements for today’s theme.

1. Cuban Sun (Sofia Koury, #1) by Ann Bauer

2. Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett

3. Stefi and the Spanish Prince by Donna Freitas

4. Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li

5. Indian Dust by Rumer Godden

6. 1916: A Novel of the Irish Rebellion by Morgan Llywelyn

7. Jamaican Me Crazy: A Christmas Escape by Debbie Digiovanni

8. I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011 by Lauren Tarshis

9. Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Peña

10. Scottish Ghosts by Lily Seafield

Title

Author: JD Bennett

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 31, 2025

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, Horror

Length: About 45 pages.

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

***Intended for adult readers*****

Magic, Science, & Lions, OH MY! is a collection of short stories that include horrifying tales of a rapist eating monster, the staging of a war between fairy tale and folklore characters, and, of course, aliens.

Content Warning: Poisoning, politics, domestic violence, and murder.  I skipped over the story about the rapist eating monster and so will not be including it in my review. (Yes, I read the rest of them!)

Review:

Some fairy tales have sharp teeth.

”The (Attempted) Murder of a Pot Head” showed what happened after the protagonist was poisoned at a family reunion and had to try to figure out who might have been the culprit and what their motivation was. There was a plot twist involved in the investigation of this crime that I don’t want to reveal in my review for spoilers reasons, but it was as clever as it was attention grabbing and showed off Ms. Bennett’s writing abilities nicely.

Anyone who reads the title of “The Confession” can almost certainly make an educated guess about what it is about. What surprised me about this piece was the complete lack of any fantasy, science fiction, or other speculative fiction elements to it. While I thought it included some interesting ideas and had a satisfying ending, it felt out of place in this collection due to that.

By far my favorite story was “Lion in the Mirror” due to how it blended real-life events like the repeal of Roe vs. Wade in the United States to some heavy fantasy elements of a storyline featuring a likeable and intelligent main character. This is the sort of storytelling that grabs my attention and doesn’t let go, and I loved coming up with various theories about how the fantasy themes could be reinterpreted as metaphors for various experiences that many women encounter in their lives, particularly for those of us who are part of one or more other minority groups as well.

Magic, Science, & Lions, OH MY! kept me on my toes.