Hold Your Fire: Stories Celebrating the Creative Spark

Creativity comes from many places, but often the initial spark of inspiration can be traced to something or someone who challenged us to first put pen to paper or brush to canvas, to pick up a camera, to look at the world with new eyes. Maybe it was the lyrics of a favorite album. Maybe it was the encouragement from a beloved teacher. Maybe it was seeing a wonder of the natural world.

Maybe it was just a feeling deep down inside that demanded to be set free, a voice ready to be heard, a story begging to be told.

Hold Your Fire is a collection of nineteen short stories celebrating the power and influence of inspiration in all its forms—art, literature, music, astronomy, science, inventions, epiphanies.

Here you will find stories of people being inspired as well as stories of people inspiring someone else. Stories not only of artistic inspiration but of scientific discoveries. The “Eureka!” moments that change the whole world and the small moments when someone dares to fight one more day.

From a romance about a teenager’s attempts to win over his first crush with poetry to musicians and artists harnessing the inspiration of unexpected muses to a fairy tale princess seeking for happiness, every story in this anthology shines brightly. And since every fire casts a shadow, there are also a few horror stories that thrive in the dark.

Table of Contents
The Seeker’s Tale, by Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart
The Fire Sermon, by Mary Pletsch
One-Hit Webster, by Brian Corley
The Door, byKristen Bickerstaff
The Burren of Mars, by CJ Erick
White Feather, by Shannon Fox
Into the Valley, by Wayland Smith
The Last Waking Princess, by S. K. Kellermeyer
The First Problem, by Alicia Cay
Mi Jaculpo, by October K Santerelli
One for Hunger, Two for Joy, by Tanya Hales
The Hunter and the Hunted, by Raphyel M. Jordan
Take Me for a Ride, by Mike Jack Stoumbos
Hyde Park, by Shannon Fox. Originally published in Monsters, Movies, and Mayhem (WordFire Press, 2020).
Bow Drill, by Jace Killan
Dream Girl, by Kitty Sarkozy
White Sails and Stormy Seas, by M. Elizabeth Ticknor and Rebecca E. Treasure
Check Yes or No, by Melissa Koons
Don’t Ignore It, by Tanya Hales

Hold Your Fire was released on February 19, 2021.
Trade paperback ISBN 978-1-68057-174-5
Ebook ISBN 978-1-68057-175-2
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-68057-176-9
258 pages

Editor: Lisa Mangum