John H. Dromey – Knightmist's Blog

Originally this saying was used for farmers and the importance of using good seed and taking care of your crops. Be a good farmer to the land, and the crops, and they will return a bounty to you. It’s now used more to tell of the importance of being a good person, and to do good deeds. If you do not then the circumstances of those poor deeds can be dire. The saying I’m referring to is, “You reap what you sow.”

Siren’s Call Publications to the writings of twelve great authors and gave them the opportunity to write stories showing what would happen if you “sowed bad seeds.” The anthology is aptly titled, Now I Lay Me Down to Reap, and tells the stories of hapless individuals who find out those actions have consequences.

The stories found within the anthology cover several different topics, but all have a dark side to them. Some of the stories have creatures you would not think to find within these pages, like unicorns, angels and fairies. There are other stories involving writers, farmers, a grim reaper and grave robbers.

What makes this anthology unique is just that most of the stories deal with a moral dilemma. They will make the reader question what is happening and why. Do you believe the acts of those involved in each story deserve the outcome that meets them by the end? Some of the stories may deal with fantastic creatures that have not been used in such away in the past. They are there to make you question not only what you are reading, but what you know of those creatures.

The stories will make a reader want more, and in some cases could bring up questions of your own morality. Why did it have to end that way? What did they do to deserve that fate? What possessed the writer to come up with this tale?

The last question is one I often found myself asking. This is because the stories had a twist or made me think outside of my normal comfort zone of thinking. We get used to reading, watching, things and expecting a plot to follow a predictable formula. In some of the stories found in, Now I Lay Me Down to Reap, those formulas are totally switched around.

This anthology at times left me just a bit uncomfortable by the way things were turned around. It is rare that you are able to find a book that has a story, plot that can do this to you. The fact this was done by several of the stories in the anthology just shows that the authors Siren’s Call pulled together for this anthology knew what they were doing. Below is a list of those authors.

Ryan C. Anderson

Sergio Palumbo

Bill Read