William Holden (2)
Author of Secret Societies
For other authors named William Holden, see the disambiguation page.
Series
Works by William Holden
Associated Works
Love Is Proud: A Charity Anthology to Benefit the Victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando (2016) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- male
- Short biography
- William Holden is an award-winning author of more than sixty short stories, and six books.
A Twist of Grimm (Lethe Press), a queer retelling of the Brother's Grimm fairy tales was a finalist for the 2010 Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Erotica. His collection of horror stories, Words to Die By (Bold Strokes Books), received second place in the 2012 Rainbow Book Awards, and was a finalist for the American Library Associations, Foreword Book Award for Best Horror of 2012. Secret Societies (Bold Strokes Books), his first novel set in 18th century London, was a finalist for the 2012 Lambda Literary Award, and it's much-anticipated sequel, The Thief Taker, was released in April of 2014. Clothed in Flesh (Bold Strokes Books), is a collection of 18th century horror stories and was released in 2013.
Members
Reviews
Big warning, this is a very dark anthology, no surprise that it won second place in the Paranormal/Horror category of the Rainbow Awards, highlight on the horror. But it has also another shade of dark other than horror, a dark humor, like right in the first story, The Other Man, where a sex doll becomes jealous of his owner. Despite the humor though, I wouldn't advice readers to embark in this anthology right before sleeping, at least not if you want to have sweet dreams.
The advice is mostly show more given since these stories centers around different types of fear, from the most evident one to the psychological; it's that type of fear represented by the boogie man of your childhood nightmare, the one your parents told it was not true... Only to discover in these stories that it was more than true, it was always there waiting for you. It's the horror of unexpected, that comes when you are feeling safe, and so you are not ready to fight it.
The fact that there is the erotica in the mix is not diluiting the horror making it less fearsome, on the contrary it's accentuating it, sex and fear, letting go and living your basic instincts, there is a feeble line between comfort and danger, and the eroticism is helping reader to open their barriers, only to have the horror striking with even more intensity.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602826536/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less
The advice is mostly show more given since these stories centers around different types of fear, from the most evident one to the psychological; it's that type of fear represented by the boogie man of your childhood nightmare, the one your parents told it was not true... Only to discover in these stories that it was more than true, it was always there waiting for you. It's the horror of unexpected, that comes when you are feeling safe, and so you are not ready to fight it.
The fact that there is the erotica in the mix is not diluiting the horror making it less fearsome, on the contrary it's accentuating it, sex and fear, letting go and living your basic instincts, there is a feeble line between comfort and danger, and the eroticism is helping reader to open their barriers, only to have the horror striking with even more intensity.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602826536/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less
I think I need to start this with the table of content: Highland Sleeper by Jeff Mann, No Mincing Words by Rob Rosen, Elsewhen by ’Nathan Burgoine, Mount Olympus by Jeffrey Ricker, Reunion on the Rails by Hank Edwards, The Blue Train by Erastes, The Train Home by Rick R. Reed, Royal Service by Dale Chase, Resist Me, Please! By Daniel M. Jaffe, Engine of Repression by Gavin Atlas, One Night on the Twentieth Century by Jay Neal, Shadow Mapping by J.D. Barton, Geronimo’s Laughter by Joseph show more Baneth Allen, The Roundhouse Men by Dusty Taylor, The Last Train by William Holden. Why? Because aside for very few names I didn’t know about, this is a collection of la crème de la crème in Gay Fiction. All these authors are bestsellers on their own, and having them all together in one anthology is a treat that make me forget for a moment that anthologies are usually not my cup of tea. It’s also a compliment to the editor, Jerry L. Wheeler, because I think it hadn’t to be simple to put them all together, maintaining by the way the feeling of uniqueness of the collection, all the stories work together for the same target.
Like the majority of these anthologies, Riding the Rails falls into the Erotica category, but I was quite surprise to find out that indeed this is also a Romance collection; some of the stories in it are not even about sex ( see ’Nathan Burgoine’s one), and almost all of them are about love story with an happy ending. Sure there is a bittersweet aftertaste all along the anthology, something that, truth be told, I have always found when reading stories related to trains… there has to be some deep connection between the two things, or maybe the train itself is a metaphor for something you wish but cannot catch. In any case, aside for maybe one or two exceptions (Rick R. Reed and Jay Neal probably), the romance reader will have plenty of happily ever after to enjoy, some of them a little kinky (Jeff Mann), some of them sweet (’Nathan Burgoine) and some of them funny (Daniel M. Jaffe)… to everyone their own.
A collective compliment to all authors go for the high quality of the stories, more little novel than short stories; different in genre, from historical, to sci-fi, to steampunk, but all of them way more than the average you usually are expecting to find in a collection; here the authors sent their best production, not what they had laying around in a forgotten folder.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602825866/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less
Like the majority of these anthologies, Riding the Rails falls into the Erotica category, but I was quite surprise to find out that indeed this is also a Romance collection; some of the stories in it are not even about sex ( see ’Nathan Burgoine’s one), and almost all of them are about love story with an happy ending. Sure there is a bittersweet aftertaste all along the anthology, something that, truth be told, I have always found when reading stories related to trains… there has to be some deep connection between the two things, or maybe the train itself is a metaphor for something you wish but cannot catch. In any case, aside for maybe one or two exceptions (Rick R. Reed and Jay Neal probably), the romance reader will have plenty of happily ever after to enjoy, some of them a little kinky (Jeff Mann), some of them sweet (’Nathan Burgoine) and some of them funny (Daniel M. Jaffe)… to everyone their own.
A collective compliment to all authors go for the high quality of the stories, more little novel than short stories; different in genre, from historical, to sci-fi, to steampunk, but all of them way more than the average you usually are expecting to find in a collection; here the authors sent their best production, not what they had laying around in a forgotten folder.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602825866/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less
I liked this short story about Patrick, who lost his lover to HIV. He receives the gift of an exclusive Christmas dinner from and unknown friend. At first he doesn't want to go, but the restaurant's manager convinces him. He realizes that spending an evening with another man means saying goodbye to his dead lover and what they had.
I liked the description of Patrick's sadness and how he's beginning to come out of it. His gradual return to life, lead by his new lover, is surprisingly romantic.
I liked the description of Patrick's sadness and how he's beginning to come out of it. His gradual return to life, lead by his new lover, is surprisingly romantic.
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 14
- Also by
- 9
- Members
- 87
- Popularity
- #211,167
- Rating
- 3.3
- Reviews
- 3
- ISBNs
- 24