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Writer's pictureKirsty Whitlock

Core Truths by Lisa Fox. Extract.


Check out this absolutely fantastic looking and sounding book!!! I'm gutted I couldn't squeeze a review in but read on for an extract!


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Book Description


Core Truths is Lisa Fox's debut collection of 18 speculative short stories that explore the

quintessential values driving our thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Each tale culminates in a character's

pivotal moment, the one that changes them forever. Sometimes their journey leads toward a rare

epiphany or a beautiful resolution. But not every ending is happy.


This assortment of science fiction, fantasy, and horror features robots and androids, biologists and

metallurgists. Witches, vampires, sea elves and other mythical creatures traverse these pages along

with ordinary humans living under extraordinary circumstances.


All the characters in this collection confront hard truths. When a father and son encounter someone

forbidden to exist, they must decide whether extending a kindness is worth risking their lives. Hand-

picked by her deceased father to undertake an impossible mission, a young girl realizes that

sometimes to be a hero, one needs to be a villain. A scientist from a dying planet is forced to weigh

the value of one individual life against the lives of many; a scientist from Philadelphia finds his sanity

challenged upon making a remarkable discovery. An ancient being questions the validity of doctrine.

A clone questions what it means to be human.


As speculative literary fiction, these narratives glean their energy from the fantastical. Written to

shine a light on the world, each story in this anthology is intended to make us think about who we

are as people, about those Core Truths that govern the lives we choose to live.






Extract


Excerpt from “The Healing Power of Witchcraft”

A key theme across all the stories in the “Core Truths” collection is the exploration of the

self—identifying who or what you are, regardless of how you feel about the truth presented

to you. The main character in this piece questions her family’s history as healers, and

whether the special powers passed down from her mother represent something even

more… magical.

“My Mary is a sensitive yet strong woman, Mrs. Winters,” Dr. Burroughs said. “But

sometimes even the strongest bridges cannot bear the weight of those who trudge across them.”

I nodded, swallowing hard past the tragedies lodged within my throat. Like Mrs.

Burroughs, I, too, felt that pain of loss; each defiant tear, each constricted breath an endless

reminder.

I thought again of my mother, how they’d kept her imprisoned for a fortnight, the

companion of thieves and murderers and rats. How the gossips raised their torches and their

pitchforks; clucking to each other conspiracies of dark magic, as if they expected the devil

himself to burst from the lungs of those held captive with each screeching cry.

Only when my mother’s voice was silenced did her captors toss her from that prison onto

the street. They had taken her tongue. She was beyond healing, caked in filth and misery, as I

held her hand. Mother’s depleted spirit had whispered as much when it called out my name,

Abigail, and I moved her from the gutter to the sidewalk so she could take her final rest under a

blanket of moonlight. The mob of Accusers watched with smug indifference; they smirked at my

tears and grinned with yellowing teeth at Mother’s lifeless body. Yet, I saw how their gazes froze

upon my glare, their eyes glazed over like ice in a blizzard. I heard the hardening of their hearts,

how those hearts had stopped beating for that moment when my desire to harm them burned

hotter than any calling to heal. And as that moment passed, I saw the question of who I was

curled over lips that twisted into scowls, their hatred for me palpable as the cobblestones upon

which my mother lay. I knew I was alone, yet I would never be left alone—they’d whisper and watch and wait

for a time when they could, with certainty, call me ‘witch’ as they had with my mother. As they

did the day Dr. Burroughs brought me to his home.

“I understand.” The curtain slipped from my fingers, and I watched the lace swing,

pendulum-like, until it stopped. I hoped I could help Mary Burroughs.

I hoped I could help myself.







Author Bio


Lisa Fox is a pharmaceutical market researcher by day and fiction writer by night. She

thrives in the chaos of suburbia, residing in New Jersey (USA) with her husband, two sons, and

Double-Doodle puppy. Her work has been featured in Dark Matter, Bards and Sages Quarterly,

Metaphorosis, New Myths, Brilliant Flash Fiction, and Luna Station Quarterly, among other journals

and anthologies. Lisa has had work nominated for the Pushcart Prize and for Best Small Fictions and

is a previous winner of the NYC Midnight Short Screenplay competition. You can find Lisa and her

published work via her website: lisafoxiswriting.com or on Twitter @iamlisafox10800.




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