Stars in the Darkness has launched!

I started working on this anthology last winter. I wanted to put together a collection of stories about why being just matters – here are the guidelines I gave the authors:

Stories should show why being just matters, and/or what the consequences are for individuals, groups, towns, countries, or humanity if justice is not expected, encouraged, or enforced legally.

Your story can be positive or negative, upbeat or dark – anything is fine as long as your story is meaningful. Send a message. Teach a lesson. Show consequences, bravery, courage.

The reader should finish each story feeling that they read something that matters.

I expected the collection would end up with a lot of contemporary and historical fiction, but what I didn’t take into account was that I was working with a group of speculative fiction authors. 🙂 There are several historical fiction stories, including one set in ancient Egypt, and another set during WWII – but there’s also a superhero story, a few fantasies, several science fiction stories, and one story has a zombie protagonist. Regardless of the setting or genre, every story deals with justice in some form.

My own story, “Becoming Free,” is set in southern Texas in 1860, when slavery was still legal. I wanted to write about someone who had to make a choice between doing the easy/safe thing or the right/just thing, because I believe that there are situations where it’s important to do what’s right even if making that choice carries grave consequences. It was a hard story to write, but I’m really, really glad I wrote it.

All of the proceeds from this collection will go to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Human Rights Campaign.

“For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning