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Sunday, July 17, 2011

One Buck Horror Review

One Buck Horror is a brand new magazine selling horror short stories for, you guessed it, a buck. The first issue is available now and I had the great pleasure of reading it for this review. As I've said before and will say again, I love short stories.

This first issue has a theme, for me a good theme. Every of the five stories have children (some of them quite young and some teens) as the main characters. Now, there are people out there who disapprove of stories where kids get...uh, into trouble, major trouble. I say, this is horror and what's more frightening than bad things happening to children? One of my favorite stories in this issue was the first so short it might be a flash story entitled, "Jenny's House," a little gem.

Now I really liked One Buck Horror. For a couple of strong reasons. One is that these are truly horror stories, awful bizarre things happen to good people. Delightful, to my sensibilities. Some stories labeled "horror" are too vague/literary for my taste. If I have to ask, did somebody have something bad happen to them or not? I don't consider it horror. The other reason is that none of the stories are horrendously long. By that I mean over 5000 words. In printed anthologies, sometimes there are no stories that are actually short. Give me something tight and quick and hard with bite.

So, if you enjoy horror short stories, buy One Buck Horror!

12 comments:

Lynda Lehmann said...

Sounds good, Conda. I'll have to check it out.

Did I ever tell you that I was part of an online workshop for writers of sci fi, fantasy, and horror? It was a great experience and I wish I had had time to stay in it beyond the 6 months I was there. I had 26 critiques from around the world on one of my short stories!

I'm happy to hear your wonderful news about getting published!!! Thanks for letting me know!

Carol Kilgore said...

Not much of a horror fan. Good horror scares me too much. But I'm glad you like it and have good things to say about a new magazine :)

Kathy McIntosh said...

Good to know about new magazines. I'm a bit of a 'fraidy cat, but I will try it out. The price is great!

Anonymous said...

Conda,

Thanks for sharing. I will definitely check this out.

Cher

Enid Wilson said...

Horror and me don't go together. What a pity!

Chemical Fusion

Donna Volkenannt said...

Short stories are wonderful. Like many others I'm not a huge fan of horror, but I'm a big fan of good writing--no matter what the genre--so I'll heck out the magazine.
Donna V.

Donna Volkenannt said...

Short stories are wonderful. I'm not a huge fan of horror, but I do like good writing no matter what the genre, so I'll take a look.
Donna

Conda Douglas said...

Wow, Lynda, I learn something new about you all the time!

Conda Douglas said...

Carol, that was why I was so blunt in my review. The magazine is HORROR!

Conda Douglas said...

irishoma...yes, there's always something in a well written short story to enjoy.

Caryn Caldwell said...

That does sound like an interesting concept! I'm usually into reading novels, but sometimes - especially when you're short on time or you don't want to get too involved - a short story is just perfect.

Ea Bloom said...

Horror isn't my thing in general, but I must admit - I admire authors who can put such horrors to paper. That's got to be tougher to do than the most raunchy sex scene.

Ea