Jennifer Shaw

For many of us in The Red Herrings Society (a publishing community within The Writer’s Sanctuary), November 18th will mark the culmination of months of work. That’s the day RHS’s 2024 anthology, All The Promises We Cannot Keep, will be released into the world for readers of many ages and tastes to enjoy.

Yes, the e-book is a free funnel for 51 contributing authors, and you might wonder, how can all of that content be great?

I assure you, it absolutely is.

I’m familiar with many of these contributors’ works, and all of these authors possess an impressive aptitude for language and storytelling. Adding to that, Mary Weber and CJ Redwine, the facilitators and visionaries behind TWS/RHS, are fabulous teachers and book coaches, and their commitment to nurturing their members is evident in the impressive quality of these stories.

Meet Me at Midnight, last year’s anthology (and RHS’s very first one) was an early bestseller and went on to win Best Anthology of the Year at 2024’s Utopia Con.

This is just evidence of how talented our group is, and how carefully Mary, CJ, and their team curate these collections.

I am so very honored to have my gothic piece, “We Were the House of Usher,” included in this magnificent collection. As I type this now (on Nov 14th), Promises already sits at #1 on the Amazon Best Sellers list in Short Story Anthologies & Collections, and I have high hopes for accolades beyond the book’s strong sales.

So, in the spirit of sharing our excitement and pride in this beautiful book, soon to be released, I’d like to mention a little more about my story before gushing about three selections from my fellow contributors, who are all brilliant, talented, and beautiful women, inside and out.

“We Were the House of Usher”

I’ve been practicing blurbs, so here’s the one for this piece:

Madeline Usher was once optimistic. The mines on her estate were profitable, and she was engaged to a handsome man from a Lancashire coal-baron family. She understood that planning for the future was key to strengthening her ancient, feeble line.

If only her twin brother had felt the same way.

Melancholic Roderick believed the Ushers were cursed, doomed to agitation and suffering, and he couldn’t help but disapprove of his sister’s betrothal.

Now, a freak tragedy has sparked a series of events that calls into question everything Madeline has done. As she struggles to regain control, she discovers just how complex her relationship with her dear brother–and their estate–truly is.

I had a ton of fun writing “Usher,” though it wasn’t without its difficulties. I struggled to get a certain transitional scene correct. It was in a place just after the second pinch-point but before the big Dark-Night-of-the-Soul, and for some reason, I couldn’t get Madeline’s words to her brother right. It remained this awkward bump in the narrative road all the way through edits. Thankfully, I finally latched onto the most natural thing for Madeline to say (I think), given their circumstances and her epiphany. I made the change as I was finalizing my line edits, there at the very end of the editorial phase. I think it works better than anything I’d had in its place.

I admit, I’m battling some early post-publication perfectionism, a tendency of mine I’ve described here before. This piece is far from perfect–it needs more space than our word limit would allow, I think, and the beginning is stronger than the ending, which is never great.

But there are things I love about it, too. I love how I got to write in that slightly elevated, archaic style that the gothic genre and the story’s setting/voice call for. It’s actually a style that feels lovely and natural to me, probably because I’ve read a ton of 19th century literature, most of which I adore.

I also love how this anthology’s theme prompted me to finally attempt this retelling, an itch I’ve been wanting to scratch for a long time. I was first inspired with the idea way back in high school, when I initially studied Poe’s masterpiece “The Fall of the House of Usher” and found the subtext intriguing and the entire tale ripe for a backstory. These curiosities only increased each time I revisited the classic, either for coursework or as pleasure reading. It was wonderful fun, then, to finally commit to paper my vision of everything through Madeline’s eyes, taking some artistic license, of course.

I hope a few readers out there will enjoy my story.

Now, about my fellow authors’ amazing selections…

“A Touch of Ink” by Robyn Baker

At the center of this contemporary fantasy is a young woman who’s chosen to live her life as a recluse on an out-of-the-way lake in Wisconsin, where she works remotely and avoids other people as much as she can.

Her firm promise to herself–never intentionally touch another human being.

Why would anyone choose to live this way?

Because, as this woman reveals, she has a secret, both a blessing and a curse. If she touches another person skin-to-skin, she takes on their exact likeness. She can even access their minds and recollections “like a download of all [their] most important memories,” as the protagonist herself puts it.

The consequence–it terrifies other people.

Starting with the protagonist’s very own mother, her first “victim” at the age of ten. Frightened, her mother abandons the young main character, essentially orphaning her for a second time.

Hence the main character’s vow.

One night, however, this gifted-yet-cursed woman faces a sudden moral dilemma. When someone’s life is on the line, and time is of the essence, she must decide, are all promises truly meant to be kept?

Robyn’s emotional story features impressive, precise imagery and a great action sequence–one of her many strengths as a writer–yet it is also a lovely, reflective, touching piece that invites the deeper question, to what extent do people (and even creatures like guardian angels) need other people? Should one make, and keep, so strict a vow? Is that good for anyone’s soul?

Robyn kindly shared with me her inspiration for this story: a dream she had “about a woman who became the person she touched and flew away when the people chased her out of a store. She had an instant tattoo on her arm that she now shared with the other person.” Robyn wisely chose to insert these details into her story, which gives it that dreamy lyricism. She also shared how this short piece is “a sort of introduction” to a novel she’s working on titled Where the Ink Bleeds.

Robyn loves “the depth of the world [she’s] building” for the novel to come. It’s something she’s been “thinking about” and “developing for a long time,” and, personally-speaking, I’m excited to see where she takes this! This protagonist’s ability has amazing implications for understanding others, for making this character a supremely-empathetic (dare I say angelic?) being, which is a fantastic premise for a novel, especially if this character encounters “wicked” people who might simply be misunderstood.

Robyn hopes to publish new stories and books in the coming year.

I want to add, too, that I’m a fan of her novel A Discovery of Legions. If you like contemporary romantasy, I highly recommend you check it out.

Awesome job, Robyn!

“For Better” by Gloria Herdt

Oh goodness, this one. Adelina and Nicco have been married 44 years, enjoying the luxuries Nicco’s successful career on Wall Street afforded them. But now, when they should be reveling in his retirement, they find themselves in a hospital room, the beep of Nicco’s heart monitor their constant reminder that his health is failing and they might never leave that hospital room together.

Much lies between them–episodes of grief and disappointment, numerous examples of wedding vows broken. But there are also delightful, beautiful, transcendent memories of all the love and passion that originally united them and helped them raise a wonderful family.

As Nicco, repentant at the end of his life, muses on the many ways he failed his wife, Adelina–a strong, admirable Italian woman not beyond a certain degree of heartbreak–works to reassure him that all the glorious times are what matter more, for she has chosen, wisely, to focus on everything “for [the] better” instead of the worse.

Despite the heaviness of this piece, I was impressed at the way it continually developed moment after moment of fresh hope, culminating in an emotional conclusion that leaves the reader feeling s/he has been treated to a deeply wise, satisfying lesson in perspective and grace.

Herdt, who is also a poet, is a master of specific, emotionally-incisive, immersive details—in the couple’s reminiscences, their fantasy of Paris, and in the honesty and intimacy of their conversations, which feel so deeply personal and moving and real. I love the contrasts in this story, too–the adoration and heartbreak, the hope and desolation, the mundane and beautiful.

When I asked Gloria about her inspiration, she shared, “Most of my writing comes out of a question I’m asking of myself or the world. [This story] was inspired by the question, what makes people stay in a marriage even when vows are broken and… the relationship feels beyond repair?” She also shared that Adelina’s marriage, though not exactly like her own, was born out of her own experiences “letting go of anger,” which I find so positive and uplifting.

Gloria’s favorite thing about this piece is its source– her own Italian grandparents “who had a kind of forbidden romance given that their families were Neopolitan and Sicilian and there was a lot of feuding between those cultures at the time.” She also loves her character “Adelina’s passionate spirit and the way her loyalty sometimes drives her crazy.”

When I asked about her work in general, she revealed, “I love honing in on a moment and giving the reader an in-depth feel of the character’s nuanced emotions. If I can make you laugh, cry, or scream, then… I’ve done my job.”

This story– a truly impressive piece of realistic, contemporary fiction–had my eyes welling by the end. You certainly did your job with this one, my friend. Brava!

“What Goes Unkept” by Colleen Brown

This rich, dark fantasy features Diana Prescott, a renowned medium battling a murderous demon terrorizing Ashdown Manor and cursing the family within it. She’s become so embroiled in this conflict, in fact, that the demon, a terrible, grasping wraith of a creature, follows her home and lays claim to Almira, Diana’s sleeping elder daughter, a girl blessed with gifts similar to her mother’s.

Determined to keep her daughter safe, Diana travels back to the great gothic Ashdown house and confronts this terrible thing in the catacombs of the family’s estate. There, she is drawn more deeply behind the veil of the spiritual world than ever before… can she withstand the extremity of its malevolent force? What, if anything, can aid her? Does she have the ability to empower her own child before it’s too late? Will she make the ultimate sacrifice, even if it means leaving certain promises unkept?

I loved this story’s chilling, powerful opening scene, and I marveled yet again at Colleen’s ability to effectively convey how things in her story world look, feel, sound, and smell (this group has mastered imagery!). Diana is also an inspiring heroine without being so powerful and perfect than she seems unreal. And while readers only get glimpses of Almira, Colleen does a beautiful job suggesting the deep connection she has with her mother and the power of her own great abilities. It’s hard to describe this wickedly gorgeous, atmospheric story without giving too much away! I also really connected with Raymond Ashdown–bright, modest, noble, he’s my kind of guy. I have my fingers crossed he will be adult Almira’s love interest in the grand scheme of Colleen’s narrative.

I adored, too, Colleen’s nod in this tale to Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”–she and I definitely have similar bookish taste!

“What Goes Unkept” is a prequel to Colleen’s horror duology What Goes Unseen, to be published soon, and she shared that Diana’s story intrigued her so much as she wrote the first book (in which Diana is more of a secondary character) that she wanted to convey, with this story, why Diana might seem so “stern and hardened,” given everything she’s faced in the Ashdown house. She hopes this prequel–a wonderful teaser, I might add–“makes [Diana’s] character more demure and understandable.”

Colleen’s favorite aspect of “What Goes Unkept” is the “dark, creepy gothic vibes” and nod to Poe, whose story “The Cask of Amontillado” plays “a central theme throughout the short story and into the duology.” Yes, ma’am, Colleen–I love it too!

“What Goes Unkept” is a great November spooky treat, perfect for the autumn season, and any time really. Fantastic job!

Currently, Colleen is finishing her YA dark fantasy, The Feast of Souls, as well as her contemporary romance novel, Bring It On Home (which I had a small, very early sneak peek of this summer and absolutely loved! I told her, I can see this on the bestseller shelf at Barnes and Noble one day).

So there you go! I’ve only just begun to discuss all the treats in All The Promises We Cannot Keep, out November 18th. I hope I’ve convinced you to check out this gorgeous anthology, a true literary box of chocolates. There’s a little something delightful for everyone!

How is your November going? Are you reading anything you’d like to recommend? I’d love to hear about it!

XOXO,

Jenn