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The discovery of a body on the black-sand beaches of Guatemala sparks a chain of events that ripple across the globe.

From an Italian tailor crushed under the weight of his father’s legacy to a mother challenging local snobbery on the cricket fields of England, a vengeful Bolivian priest chasing Che Guevara’s ghost, to a Bay Area therapist blind to his own advice, the lives of a seemingly unconnected group of strangers become fatefully entangled in murder, arson, betrayal, and love. These stories examine abuses of power in a world fractured by inequalities. As their characters confront brutal truths, morality blurs, forcing them to question the meaning of belonging and the lengths they’ll go to carve out their place in an unforgiving world.

Guided by the ancient creed of ‘an eye for an eye’, Ben C. Davies’ And So I Took Their Eye is a gripping collection of interlinked stories exploring what happens when justice is taken into your own hands—and ultimately, what it means to be human.

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Impossible to put down... a treasure trove of insights that deserves slow, careful inspection... Compelling, shifting in its viewpoints and delivery, and thoroughly mind-boggling, And So I Took Their Eye defies pat categorization and rests its appeal upon the unexpected. Prepare to be amazed."
— D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

"Few short story collections have the richness and complexity of a novel. Ben Davies’ does."
— Edward Stanton, award-winning author of Wide as the Wind, Frail Blood, and VIDAS: Deep in Mexico and Spain

"Ben C. Davies writes with precision, curiosity, and a willingness to get close to the nerve... The stories are tough, honest, and threaded with grace."
— Matthew Clark Davison, author of Doubting Thomas and co-author of The Lab: Experiments in Writing Across Genre

"Ben C. Davies’ stories are arresting: the prose sharp and unrelenting, his characters’ ‘true colours’ revealed with an arch wryness. Davies forces us to re-think all that we do not want to see—in our societies, in our cultures. Bravo!"
— Alicia J. Rouverol, author of Dry River and I Was Content and Not Content, nominated for the OHA Book Award

We have made our selection for the Magi anthology

Congratulations to all. Your entries were considered anonymously by two judges. Marks out of ten were given for how well the theme was handled, how strong the story was and for the quality of the writing, A further five points were given for professionalism.

Eighteen stories came in the top twenty-four for both judges. A further six were identified by taking the next best three from each judge.

If your story was not selected this time and it is 3000 words or fewer, why not submit to CaféLit? Let’s stagger those submissions to give them more of a chance of being accepted. Submit about a week before your birthday. You never know, it might even be published on your birthday!

Some stories may also fit well into our Christmas period – submit 23 November to 17 December.

You might also consider submitting to Writing Teacher for a free critique.

Jane Spirit	A royal dilemma for Magi anthology (2230)
Diana Powell	Adoration (3204)
Adam Mizler	Caspar's Story (4976)
Joyce Frohn	Epiphany (2500)
Sally Angell	Follow Your Own Star (2500)
Michael Rogers	In the Departure Lounge (2700)
Margaret Bulleyment	Island Views (4232)
Sara Winslow	Lavender (4975)
Sara Page	Nativity (2213)
Paula Readman	Quizmas Rivalry (2160)
Richard Balou	Return of the Magi (3059)
Steve Wade	Seosamh, Meryem, the Busker and the Boy (2900)
Sharon Keely	Star Over Dartmoor (1591)
John Walker	The Census (1048)
Allison Symes	The Family Legend (1579)
Ian Inglis	The Four Wise Men (3475)
Anne Meale	The Gift of Common Ground (2122)
Rob Whaley	The Lost Magus of Michigan (1398)
Caliman Florentina	The mysterious journey of a soul Magi (4602)
Henry Lewi	The Road Trip (1047)
Yrev Very	The Second Coming (1090)
Liz Cox	They Came from the East Riding on Camels (1721)
Sarah Swatridge	Three Wise...Monkeys? (1716)
Penny Dale	Travelodge Epiphany (2291)

White Moon is a collection of avant-garde short stories, micro and flash fiction.

Together they bring a stronger message than they do individually. The incidents in this book depict imaginary characters and events underpinned by dreamlike, strong surrealistic, even esoteric connections. The narratives bring together a unique blend of absorbing, entertaining and otherworldly experience.

As ever Mehreen Ahmed brings a strong and convincing voice to all of the texts. Enjoy the surreal and dreamlike quality of these stories.

RRP Paperback £9.00, Kindle £2.30

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The tales are timeless treasures to read!

Once again, Mehreen Ahmed’s prowess in weaving proficient, literary narratives to convey her distinctive creativity and imagination, is affirmed in this anthology of short tales.

The core-theme of the stories revolves around the intriguing intricacies of love as expressed in various phases of love found, love lost and love found again.

What makes it very interesting to read is Mehreen's exceptional creativity in storytelling is expressed in boundless, symbolic and timeless ways. The tales of love are expressed in mythical, legendary, periodical, spatial and even how love unfolds and forms in the current times of online, cyber age.

No wonder some of the tales included in this anthology won awards and recognition. The author I am sure put a lot of time polishing the tales, thus the become timeless treasures to read!

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Lizzie lives a simple life… until Jack moves in next door!

She’s badgered by the local newspaper who want to print a story about her. They challenge her to be self-sufficient for a year. Eventually she accepts – but on her terms. It’s a difficult year, but she learns what’s important to her.

Could you live off the land for a year? Maybe if the consequences were important? When is a bet, not a bet? Lizzie wasn’t interested in Paul’s money. At least, until she found a cause she felt strongly about.

See how this becomes An Honourable Wager in Sarah Swatridge’s intriguing novel.

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We all inhabit multiple worlds and the real person lives in the liminal space between them.

In this fascinating collection of vignettes and creative memoir, we are invited to explore several constructs of the times and places defined by the narrator, and also envisaged by those around her. These accounts have appeared in other publications, but gathered here the whole becomes greater than its parts and tells a larger story.

S. Nadja Zajdman brings her rich and unique voice to this story: Between Worlds.

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This particular collection of Ms. Zajdman's is by far the most interesting, dynamic, illustrative, and emotive all at once. Each essay speaks volumes and is chalk full of descriptions so clear, that one can envision being directly in that particular setting. (this is one reason why I feel that one needs to pause between essays, and perhaps re-read sentences so as to "feel" what is being conveyed and to retain that emotion).

The special moments conveyed...the memories that each appear to illustrate are Ms. Zajdman's special and unique talent in allowing the reader to actually time travel to those special and specific instances and experience those moments as one reads the words expressed.

As Ms. Zajdman expresses in her introduction, these essays were written over a period of 20 years and express her talent of capturing her mother's spirit as well as her own extensive and discriminating and diverse ability to put thought onto the page.

This collection will not disappoint..! Bravo!

Where do the gods of Olympus do their shopping?

Do the Old Gods live amongst us, and if so where? And which jobs do they do?
Where do the Old Gods shop, or do they do it online?
Which football clubs do they support?
When Angels are sent down to Earth, how do they get home?
How did Vampires cope with Lockdown during the pandemic?
And finally, are Extra-Terrestrials dangerous, or do they just want to speak to us?

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Oh, be careful what you wish for.

One person’s good news might be someone else’s bad news. And if you do get what you wished for you might not be getting what you need. Or, if you’re slightly more fortunate, you may no longer have anything to grumble about. These stories challenge the notion of what is good news and yet leave us still a little optimistic.

An amazing group of writers set the record straight in Bridge House’s anthology Good News….?

RRP £9.00 paperback £2.30 Kindle

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We took an excursion around the sun again this year, five hundred million miles back to where we started.’ From A Brief History of Time in Our House, a story in this collection.

There are no UFOs or extra-terrestrials in this first collection of short stories and flash fiction by Steven John. Blood and Electricity is about the vital currents that flow through and around us, powering our lonely orbits of life. We are all bright stars that appear close to one another when viewed with the naked eye, but the truth is, we’re separated by incomprehensible distances.

RRP Paperback £7.50 / Kindle £2.30

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These poems are inspired by David Lythgoe’s world-wide travels, the natural world, our place in the universe, and a (still) developing love of being alive. The poems follow a sequence in which each poem has a connection, sometimes tenuous, with those immediately before and behind. Consequently, you may find here juxtapositions where pathos is followed by unexpected joy, spirituality is intertwined with humour and mundane life engages with the cosmos.

David Lythgoe will certainly invite you to look again at nature in Beside Another Sea, his fourth book of poetry.

“I like the way it evokes the past … and yet connects with the present … at the same time containing an element of lightness – even of joking – which is entertaining to the reader.”
Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate emeritus

“David has won awards for his writing and … he unearths feelings as much as facts … his background enables him to merge a travelogue with classical literary, and scientific linguistic devices. In short this collection is a selection of gems to hold, to treasure and to reflect upon. The cliché would be to say, ‘enjoy’. This you will do, but expect also to be moved, perhaps to weep, to sigh, to laugh but, above all, to be grateful for such gifts, skill and insight that have been shared.”
Revd. Dr Andrew Pratt

RRP paperback £7.00 / Kindle £2.30

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This collection takes the reader on a journey through life, from the innocence of young voices to the reflections of those seeking meaning as they look back at the paths they've taken.

Each story captures the very essence of being human. The characters tackle everyday challenges, face inner struggles, navigate familial relationships and friendships, fall in love and out of love, process grief, and reflect on the beautiful fragility of it all.

Something Very Human is the debut short story collection from award-winning writer, Hannah Retallick.

RRP Paperback £ 8.50

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George Tucker and April Jefferson have never met but they share a secret.

Born the same day fifty years apart, in the same town in Florida, both are battling demons.

George is African-American – now living in Atlanta, having run from Jim Crow – only it seems you can't outrun the past. April is a white teenager terrified she will end up like her mother.

George’s story is set over fifty years, April’s over a single year… yet their destinies are tied up together. They must meet… but how is the troubled teenager April the key to unlocking the secrets of George’s past?

Find out in the gripping If Crows Could Talk by award-winning literary writer Debz Hobbs-Wyatt.

Paperback RRP £10.50

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Behind the death of a person, a building or a place, life goes on.

Here is a strong sense of many places: rural North Wales, a quarry, the woods, a Welsh Woollen Mill storeroom, the banks of the Atchafalaya River, a claustrophobic swampland shack, the Texas panhandle and more.

And there are people. Quinn maybe protects two brothers, from their dead Mam’s sexual secrets. Febby plans her escape. Mostyn has to please his publisher and Mary Mc Allister still nurses the Infant Jesus years after her own baby died.

Anne Forrest paints colourful word pictures of these people and places in There’s More to Life than Death.

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Your passport to an Irish boyhood in a less frantic, more adventurous age, reliving a time of skinned knees and home-made go-karts, clean dirt, Saturday night baths, and the kind of sweets that’d nearly cost you your teeth. Back when it always seemed to snow at Christmas, the summers were long and golden, and the friendships were forever.

Eamon O’Leary gives us a glimpse of uncomplicated childhood in I’m a Big Boy Now.

RRP £8.00

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Butterlies and other stories by Jenny Palmer

Imaginative, witty, topical stories with unexpected twists and turns.

The book portrays snippets of everyday life which contain a deeper meaning than is immediately apparent. There are stories about women who try to prove they are not invisible, people escaping from a cult, coincidental encounters with long lost friends, historical characters who reassert themselves into the present, scenarios which foreshadow what is to come, the danger of relying on other people’s philosophy rather than one’s own, alongside suggestions on how best to survive Christmas or deal with unwanted intruders.

In Butterflies and other stories, Jenny Palmer writes from the vantage point of her home in rural Lancashire. She reflects on the turbulent times in which we live, on how people cope in their everyday lives, whether it be living through lockdown, escaping from a cult, dealing with the ‘hostile environment,’ having a pre-payment meter installed, or preparing for an uncertain future. Maintaining a lightness of touch, the stories are imbued with a sense of the healing power of nature and an appreciation of its beauty.

RRP £7.00

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Tales of the Unelected by Dan Corry

Visit the hidden Whitehall world of the unelected special advisers.

Encounter their hopes, dreams, rivalries and compromises as they face the challenge of doing the right thing in a role full of tensions. See how they struggle with the civil service, accusations of being the source of leaking, politicians who need to up their game, negotiating with No 10, finding time with the PM, and worrying about physical attacks on their Secretary of State. All this as they try to keep some semblance of family life intact.

Dan Corry entertains and informs us well in Tales of the Unelected.

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“There are so many tensions and emotional conflicts in being a special adviser and Dan Corry takes you into that world through this fascinating collection of stories.”
Ed Balls (former special adviser, minister and Shadow Chancellor)

“It’s an honour to be a special adviser, as I was, but most of what has been written about them is of the sensational type. Here, in all its everyday glory, is a real feel of what it is like.”
Ayesha Hazarika, former special advisor

“Dan Corry’s subtle and engrossing short stories are the real thing, a window on the largely hidden lives of the fixers and policymakers of the political world, the notorious advisers. His compelling authority is no accident: reader, he was one.”
Robert Peston (Political Editor at ITN)

RRP £7.50

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