Biff Bam Pop’s Holiday Gift Guide 2014: The Gift of Reading

Last week I suggested Roof Oasis by our own Marie Gilbert for the Biff Bam Pop! Holiday Gift Guide, but while Marie is one of our family here, she’s also part of another family of mine – the South Jersey Writers’ Group. They have books of their own I’d like to suggest for the Gift Guide as well. Meet me after the jump for the Gift of Reading.

This year the South Jersey Writers’ group published their second anthology, Reading Glasses: Stories Through an Unpredictable Lens, edited by Amy Holiday and Jessica A. Walsh. This collection of speculative fiction short stories features the work of Neal Wooten, Gregg Feistman, Richard Voza, John Farquhar, Randy Ribay, Bruce Capoferri, J. Keller Ford, K.A. Magrowski, Christine L. Hardy, Ray Rebmann, and J.J. Steinfeld, as well as tales by the editors Amy Holiday and Jessica A. Walsh.

As I mentioned, this is the second publishing effort by the South Jersey Writers’ Group. The first book was also an anthology, from 2012, of stories with a local flavor, local to the South Jersey region, of course – Tall Tales and Short Stories from South Jersey. Notably that book was co-edited by our own Marie Gilbert. That’s right, Steampunk Granny strikes again.

And Marie hasn’t been the only South Jersey Writer striking out solo. There are a number of books out right now by other members of the group. Among those would be Fire in the Woods by Jennifer M. Eaton, and Earth Child: The E.D. Piper Chronicles by Laura J. Kaighn, both great genre novels of interest to readers here.

And if you’re looking for speculative fiction short stories, I would be remiss to not mention Strange World: A Biff Bam Pop Short Story Anthology, featuring many writers and contributors with this very website. The book includes work by folks like Andy Burns, Lucas Mangum, David S. Ward, Jason Shayer, and Ian Rogers, among others, and also a short story by some guy named Glenn Walker.

Happy Holidays, happy last minute shopping, and keep reading!