Penmancy is a coven of creative characters who are fascinated with the magic of the pen to weave new worlds with words. One of our main goals is to create a virtual space where writers and readers support each other and build a wholesome community that cherishes literature.After the massive success of our first anniversary collection of short stories, ‘a fallen leaf’, we give you our second anniversary collection as ‘SHATTERED’. We hope that you have enjoyed the stories as much as we have enjoyed putting them together for your reading pleasure.
Introduction to ‘Shattered’
Life is beautiful yet filled with pain and suffering. Many people in the world, young or old, regardless of their gender, endure excruciating experiences throughout their life. The smiles that people wear on their faces are not proof of happiness. Deep inside, they may be hurting; their hearts broken; their hopes and dreams shattered; and probably, even the life that they so treasure hangs in the balance. It is in this very premise that this anthology, titled Shattered, was born.
Believe it or not, we do love to read stories that are sad or make us angry and shed tears; tales where vengeance is sought and justice served. And the reason for this is simple- they make us realize the fragility of our own lives and see our own shortcomings; they remind us of the flawed society that we live in and wish we could do something about it. Most often, it is a realization that wakes us up from our deep slumber, urging us to be appreciative of our advantageous situation and forcing us to evaluate how fortunate we are to have not gone through the pain and suffering that others have experienced.
As the title of this collection suggests, this anthology offers a wide range of interpretations of the word ‘shattered’–stories of broken lives, unfulfilled promises, cracked beliefs, fractured egos, crushed hopes that are weaved tugging our heartstrings. While some of these are not shattered pieces beyond repair, others are smashed to smithereens, and the only way to handle the misery is to confront it and try to heal and rise above it or face death.
‘Shattered’ contains nineteen incredible stories in varied genres from eighteen talented writers. It is a product of Penmancy’s second-year anniversary celebration and its attempt to showcase the brilliant minds behind these stories to the world.
Stories and their authors
- Collateral Fractures – Sanjukta Ghoshal
- Sundarpur Chronicles – Nilutpal Gohain
- Him – Pai
- Splintered Souls – Supriya Bansal
- The Road to Hell – Aradhna Shukla
- Scarlet Skies – Chandra Sundeep
- The Best Man – Fabienne Meyers
- Beneath the Golden Seams – Sanjukta Ghoshal
- 1947- an Imprecation – Sonal Singh
- My Journey Beyond Life – Shweta Mathur Lall
- Dialogues Across the Realm – Sreemati Sen
- The Shattered Souls – Kokila Gupta
- The Unheard – Rasya Krishnan
- The Street Without Cherries – Trixiah Ann Gumba
- Wings – Archie Iyer
- Hrishikesha – Ravi Valluri
- Her Place on Earth – Preethi Warrier
- Anastasis – Alpna Das Sharma
- Pietra Angolare Dell’Universo – Olinda Braganza
Note from Anna Bushi:
I am an author of medieval fiction “Heir to Malla” that is available on Kindle Unlimited.
I feature authors in my blog regularly. You can view all the authors I have featured here. If you are an author and you would like to be featured in my blog, please contact me.
Anna Bushi 