About Flipped Fables

Edited by SA Clements
241 pages / 58000 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-490-8, 1-60370-490-6
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc, paperback

Flip a fable on its end and what do you get? Heat, wicked humor, and a great romance. Flipped Fables is all about taking the tiny morality plays of childhood and turning them into something more, something that speaks to us about life and love and some good, hot need.

From regular favorites like Sean Michael and Kiernan Kelly, to new-to-Torquere faces Rob Rosen and GS Wiley, Flipped Fables has nine great stories that will wrap you up in worlds of fantasy, featuring tabloid reporters who specialize in werewolves and Greek gods who seduce shepherds. Turn Aesop on his ear. Flip for Flipped Fables today!

Stories include:

The Man Who Cried Werewolf by Kiernan Kelly
A Sheepherder in Fabulous Clothing by Rob Rosen
Shifter 2.0 by Winnie Jerome
Bad Hair Day by Clare London
Wild Fox Chase by Misa Izanaki
Sweet Persuasion by Angelia Sparrow
The Nature of Love by Anah Crow
Court and Country by GS Wiley
The Cock and the Jewel by Sean Michael

Review

From Julia Talbot: I've never been the world's biggest fan of fables. Usually, these tiny tales with their one-liner morals leave me shaking my head and wondering what the heck I'm supposed to learn from them. That's why Flipped Fables is such a breath of fresh air to me.

The basic idea is taking a fable, whether Aesop or other, and turning it into a story. Romantic, erotic, funny as heck, the stories in Flipped Fables really made me appreciate the genre!

There's a gold mine here, from Kiernan Kelly's take on a tabloid reporter who cries werewolf one too many times and Rob Rosen's drag queens and randy sheepherder. Winnie Jerome works the lion and the mouse into something way more fun, with a very sexy were-lion. Clare London's Bad Hair Day pits a naïve prince against a variety of wicked folks on his Quest, and Misa Izanaki explores fox people in a retelling of a Chinese fable. Angelia Sparrow scares up Greek gods and hunky shepherds for a hot day, and Anah Crow explores the very nature of selfless love. GS Wiley give us an Elizabethan city mouse and country mouse, and Sean Michael rounds out the collection with a piercing artist who has loved and lost, but might just find love again.

By turns tender and romantic, then horny and happy, Flipped Fables has something for everyone. Even those of us whose moral compass slides a little to the left of true north.

Sample

From The Man Who Cried Werewolf
By Kiernan Kelly

It was nearly noon by the time Dylan Shepherd slipped into his cubicle, slung his backpack into its usual corner between the short filing cabinet and his desk, and booted up his computer. He hadn't missed the black look Frank Grimes, his editor-in-chief, had given him as he'd passed Frank's office, but chose to ignore it. As far as Dylan was concerned, as long as he got his stories in before his deadlines, there was nothing for Frank to gripe about.

He knew he'd have to suffer through the same, tired drill anyway. Frank would call Dylan into his office later, growling and grumbling and working himself up into a state, his blood pressure making the vein in his forehead throb and his jowls jiggle. He'd jab a stubby finger in Dylan's face and lecture him on who the boss of the outfit was, and on the importance of being on time when you were nothing but a lowly employee, and how there were thousands of other eager young reporters out there dying for the opportunity to jump into Dylan's Ferragamo loafers.

Dylan would sit and patiently wait until Frank ran out of steam -- as always -- and then go right on doing exactly as he'd been doing for the last five years. Frank would cool off, and leave Dylan alone until the next time Frank felt the need to assert his authority.

Dylan was The Inquiring Star's ace reporter, and Frank damn well knew it. Dylan's stories were the bread and butter of the tabloid, the reason people bought the damn paper. As long as his stories sold copies, Frank wasn't going to fire his ass no matter how late Dylan was getting to the office.

He pushed Frank from his mind and turned his attention to his desk. There was a thin stack of bright pink While You Were Out messages on his blotter, along with an angry interoffice memo from the art department about last minute submissions for layout, and an especially colorful one from Wilma, the office manager, explaining in graphic detail exactly where she planned to stuff Dylan's moldy sandwiches if he didn't clean them out of the office refrigerator immediately.

Not a bad Monday morning, all things considered.