The Sea was a Fair Master by Calvin Demmer

I've been familiar with Calvin Demmer's work for a while now, after we were both published in Sanitarium Magazine way back in 2015. Since then I've been really enjoying his stories which have been regularly appearing on my favourite sites such as, Deadman's Tome, Siren's Call, Dark Gothic Resurrected and most recently the Hardened Hearts Anthology by Unnerving Magazine.

The Sea Was a Fair Master is Calvin Demmer's first collection of short stories, available from Unnerving and I was delighted to have a sneak preview before it comes out on 5th June 2018. It features 23 horror tales which encompass an extraordinary range of sub genres, ranging from crime, zombies, gore, fantasy, science fiction and just weird!

This is his first collection, a truly remarkable debut. I really enjoyed reading this and it took no time at all to finish as you will want to binge on this when it's out in June. The stories in here are short, what you would call flash fiction.

I have to admit that flash fiction was something I have never been interested in before, but Calvin has converted me with his collection. For flash fiction to be great it has to be executed with precision, the characterisation, pacing and plot has to be spot on from the very first word, and Calvin has achieved this with dark grace in each of his 23 tales.

In The Sea Was a Fair Master, no two tales are similar, they are wildly different and show off Calvin's great skills as a writer as well as his dark imagination. What I most love about this collection is the wry sense of humour throughout.

My absolute favourite, was The One, this one really got me! It reminded me of one of my favourite TV sitcoms - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, (but darker!)

About the Author

Calvin Demmer is a dark fiction author. His work has appeared in Broadswords and Blasters, Empyreome Magazine, Mad Scientist Journal, Ravenwood Quarterly, Switchblade, and others. When not writing, he is intrigued by that which goes bump in the night and the sciences of our universe.

You can find him online at http://www.calvindemmer.com or follow him on Twitter @CalvinDemmer.