Hellfire & Damnation II: Synopsis
Hellfire & Damnation II by Connie (Corcoran) Wilson is another tour of the 9 Circles of Hell described in Dante's Inferno. It picks up where the first collection of short stories left off, using the same framing device of the sins punished at each of the 9 Circles of Hell in Dante's Inferno.
The first book was the winner of the Silver Feather Award(Illinois Women's Press Association), and the Gold Medal E-Lit Award (Horror category) from the Jenkins group. It was quite popular with HWA members on preliminary Bram Stoker balloting the year that Full Dark, No Stars won the short story competition.
Hellfire & Damnation II as a tour of Dante's Inferno doesn't require that you have read the first collection of short stories (which also revolved around the sins punished at each of the 9 Circles of Hell.) There are no recurring characters, but there are 11 short stories, accompanying illustrations and a "From the Author" section explaining the inspiration for each story, the latter 2 new to this book.
About the Author
Connie (Corcoran) Wilson graduated from the University of Iowa (English & Journalism) and earned a Master's degree from Western Illinois University (English & Education), with additional study at Northern Illinois, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago. She's taught writing at six Iowa/Illinois colleges, and wrote for five newspapers, and five blogs, (including her own blog - www.weeklywilson.com).
An active member of the Horror Writers Association, her stories have appeared online and in print. Her work has won prizes from "Whim's Place Flash Fiction" and "Writer's Digest," and she has published two books, with 3 upcoming.
She's reviewed films and books for the Quad City Times(Davenport, Iowa) for 12 years, taught for 36 years, founded 2 businesses, functioned as their CEO, and wrote humor columns, as well as conducting interviews for the (Moline, Illinois) Daily Dispatch, and three other newspapers.
Connie's interviews with writers such as Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., William F. Nolan, David Morrell, Anne Perry, Joe Hill and John Irving have appeared in "SciFi Weekly," "Reflection's Edge," "The Brutarian," and a variety of other online and print magazines.
My Thoughts
Hellfire and Damnation II is the second in a series of short stories that take a bit from Dante's 9 Circles of Hell. This collection of 11 stories are very diverse. They range from the wild west to present day, it has a variety of spooky elements, murder, comedy and the paranormal with pictures at the beginning of each story that gives the reader a peek into what the story is about.add a bit of insight to the story. Without giving away any of the stories plots, I will say that this is a collection to read if you enjoy a bit of scariness to your reading. The book was not real long and each story was short enough to hold my interest as I am generally not a short story reader. I read it in a few nights and if I was a person prone to nightmares, these stories in their creepiness would have given me some..I thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it.
I received an ebook copy for review and was not monetarily compensated for my review.
Thanks for taking part in the tour. I'm so glad you enjoyed the book!
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