Chambers of the Heart: Speculative Stories by B. Morris Allen

Chambers of the Heart book cover. Author: B. Morris Allen
Cover art by Bonnie Leeman

 

About the book

Chambers of the Heart is a speculative short story collection of love, loss, and movement from author and editor B. Morris Allen. Poignant, heartfelt, and carefully crafted – this book offers a variety of diverse topics and magical realism elements perfect for science fiction and fantasy fans. Take a look at our full review here.

Get a sneak-peak look at the 16 stories included in the book, and an introductory excerpt of the first story, “Chambers of the Heart” below.
The book is scheduled to release April 16, 2022 and will be available in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle e-book. Pre-order your copy on Amazon or on Bookshop.org here.

 

Included Story Titles

  • Chambers of the Heart (see introductory excerpt below)
    – it’s hard, living in someone’s heart.
  • Building on Sand
    – how to choose between children.
  • Blush
    – when everyone else wears a mask, what’s it like to bare your face?
  • Minstrel Boy Howling at the Moon
    – magic, music, and … buffalo?
  • Fetch
    – she may be a simulation, but out on the edge, she’s one man’s best friend.
  • The Humblebract Expedition
    – even dying children like to play.
  • When Dooryards First in the Lilac Bloomed
    – a doorway to opportunity and change, if only humans can understand it.
  • Some Sun and Delilah
    – a sunny island, an abandoned temple, and … truth.
  • Crying in the Salt House
    – the house is built from tears, or so they say.
  • Full of Stars
    – jar half empty, jar half full.
  • Memory and Faded Ink
    – the aliens are perfectly human … and just as flawed.
  • Fountainhead
    – arranged meetings never work, especially with different species.
  • Adaptations to Coastal Erosion
    – when your spouse is literally falling away from you.
  • Outburst
    – Earth is dead, and the one remaining orbital can’t be saved, can it?
  • The Irrigation Ditch
    – they came to hide, but didn’t realize it was from each other.
  • Dragons I Have Slain
    – take hope where you find it.

 

Introductory excerpt from the first short story, “Chambers of the Heart”

Despair and Ecstasy are the simplest. Ecstasy is the small and cozy room of a cottage that looks out on a broad meadow in the forest. In the spring, elk come to posture and to mate, and the wildflowers bloom on every side. In the fall, mist dances in silver swirls framed by gold and bronze and copper trees. It is always spring or fall.

Despair is a vast, dark hall of low ceilings and small windows. In winter, snowdrifts sometimes cover the windows so that they are only squares of gray against black stone. In the summer, shafts of hot, bright light do nothing to warm the room, and only blind us to the room’s darkness, so that we must carry candles to the Master’s hard throne. It is always winter or summer.

Ecstasy and Despair are the simplest chambers, and the worst, and they are where the Master spends his time.

 

About B. Morris Allen

B. Morris Allen is a biochemist turned activist turned lawyer turned foreign aid consultant, and frequently wonders whether it's time for a new career. He's been traveling since birth, and has lived on five of seven continents, but the best place he's found is the Oregon coast. When he can, he makes his home there. In between journeys, he edits Metaphorosis magazine and works on his own speculative stories of love and disaster. His story collection Chambers of the Heart came out in April 2022.

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