Speculative Encounters : New Stories from the Slipstream by C. L. Nichols

Speculative Encounters: New Stories From the Slipstream
Is a lineman really transported to an alternate reality after a lightning strike or is he hallucinating? When vampires steal a man’s wife, he follows to seek revenge with the assistance of a female vampire who offers him eternity. Driving on a lonely country road at night, a man in a pickup sees a woman’s bloody arm reach out from the shoulder of the two-lane blacktop road. In the aftermath of a comet’s disintegration in Earth’s atmosphere, survivors must adapt – and was that an actual comet that exploded? These and other stories await, dark and suspenseful encounters within the otherly realm of the slipstream.

the Slipstream:
Speculative fiction is comprised of three related genres: science fiction, fantasy and horror. The slipstream intermingles these genres then plants imagination’s resulting seeds into the potting soil of mainstream fiction. In the realm of the unknown, all possibilities and even mutations flower and co-exist abundantly. Slipstream is a state of mind. It disrupts and distorts reality, surprising readers into seeing the otherness in all things. It breaks through the safe borders that rationality seeks to enforce.

Dr. Catherine Murray: (from a Goodreads review) SPECULATIVE ENCOUNTERS by C. L. Nichols is an excellent collection of stories that cross many genres. Some are science fiction, some are horror, some are speculative in nature but not easily categorized. Several are mainstream with speculative leanings. I truly enjoyed the short stories in this volume and look forward to reading more from this author. I also look forward to the novel excerpted here, REMNANTS, a post-apocalyptic novel written in the multi-character style of Stephen King. I don’t know if this is available on Amazon, or if he is still working on it. DEAD OF WINTER also looks to be very good.