Engaging, exciting and filled with seemingly impossible complexities.
Extraordinary imagination is on exhibition in Karen A. Parker’s The Art of Capturing Phantoms: Definitive Edition. The author gathers wisps of ideas, fragments of thought, and creative writing prompts and turns these into a quirky digest of dodgy characters, bizarre situations, and action that moves at the speed of light. Each story is no more than a few pages, but the end result is a cultivated collection that you’ll find yourself telling your friends about as you ruminate between each unique tale. More akin to interactive poetry than a compilation of flash fiction, this is the finest collection of raw talent I’ve had the pleasure of reading in ages.
Broken into organic divisions that are identified by different colored flowers, the stories plunge readers into an altered mood or transport them into a new world within the span of a single minute. Though each section has a dominant personality, every story is completely unique. A sense of urgency and tone of gravity is conveyed in The King’s Departure, all within the span of time it takes for a butterfly to flutter its majestic wings. Interview with a Waffle Shop Owner is the transcript from a creepy podcast I only wish I could hear in real life! With unmatched efficiency, Parker envisions a complex family history while infusing the weight of a lifetime burden into a single throbbing moment in The Scabbard of Avalis. Ranging from the supernatural to the super-personal, this collection holds an unexpected medley of literary delights.
So short and evocative are these pieces that it’s reminiscent of sitting around a campfire and being regaled with stories that effectively scare, thrill and wow. Some of them take a beat, until you realize you’re sitting in the boiling pot alongside the author. Enhanced by personal notes and anecdotes at the conclusion of each story, readers gain insight into the complex process of writing even just a few hundred words. These author insights, bookmarking the stories, help readers gauge just how successfully they’ve been transported and whether they’ve traveled the same path the author plotted out. Regardless of your individual experience, you’ll find the prose to be engaging, exciting and filled with seemingly impossible complexities. Through punchy tales of fable and scenes filled with frenetic energy, Parker reveals to audiences that writing is an exercise in patience and thoughtfulness. An offbeat collection about nothing and everything, The Art of Capturing Phantoms is proof that immersive storytelling doesn’t need a minimum word count.
