I had the pleasure of meeting Quincy J. Allen, and several other local authors, at Denver Comic Con earlier this summer, and have been stalking him on Facebook ever since :o) He sat on several panel discussions that Mr. Awesome Sauce and I attended, and we soon decided that he was our kind of people. After all, anyone with a mohawk that awesome has to be cool, right?

I admit that I’m not usually a fan of short stories, but I strive to support local authors and artists whenever I can, so we picked up a copy of his newly released book Out Through The Attic. I can count on one hand the number of books I’ve read that full out made me cry (Severus Snape’s death gets me every time!). Quincy’s book did that. With the very first story. I’d never have thought that a civil war era steampunk tale would reduce me to tears, but this one did, with astounding ease and powerful prose. From there he led me into a futuristic world where disease and death had been conquered, and man had become a plague upon the earth. Next came the drunken confessions of a drug-addicted, ex-movie star dwarf, who’d finally reached the end of a sordid life. And then I was whisked off into space to a mining colony where corruption was rampant, and good men risked their lives fighting for justice (that one was my favorite).

I have only one complaint about the stories in Out Through The Attic – I want more! I want to know more about these characters and what drives them. Each tale is a glimpse into another world, and I want to immerse myself fully into each one. I’m eager to see what Quincy comes out with next, and won’t ever be hesitant to read a short story again.