The first review of Cul de Sac Stories is up at The Inspiration Shelf!

from Glenda Bailey Mershon, author of Eve’s Garden [Twisted Road, 2014]; and Weaver’s Knot: Poems [Finishing Line Press, 2023]; founder, Jane’s Stories Press Foundation [Clara Johnson Award for Women’s Literature]

Tamara Sellman’s Literature of Ideas

Pull up a chair: The Pacific Northwest buzzes with speculation

“Each story has a twist and each twist brings us to an idea. Indeed, it’s this ‘literature of ideas,’ as Sellman describes speculative fiction, that makes this collection shine so brightly.”

“There’s far more here than atmospheric folk tales, or political musings, in this collection of eight stories.”

“Do you like the grit of soil under your nails? Do you speculate about what is to become of us all? Would you like to meet a very active imagination that explores the world with vigor and bristles with ideas? You can have it all in Tamara Sellman’s sparkling new collection, Cul De Sac Stories, from Aqueduct Press.”

From the review: “There is a sharp intelligence at work in Cul de Sac Stories by Tamara Sellman. Ideas that might seem outlandish, like a human war against trees, in her hands become a startling reality. Other stories take a more magical realism approach, treating the miraculous, such as a house infested with thousands of spiders who seemingly reproduce in amplified battalions, or a doll who can bring people and animals back to life, as part of the main character’s routine.

“Were the themes of the stories presented baldly, this might be another routine sci-fi/speculative adventure in world-building. What makes this collection exceptional is not only an active imagination, but a shrewd ability to translate the social zeitgeist into vivid language and believable characters that bring the reader deeply into the realm of possibilities. So, for example…”