Impspired Title

BELOW GROUND

by Sandra Arnold

In Below Ground, we are introduced to a wide range of scenarios and characters. What happens in the tiny minutes of life’s encounters – a stop at a café while waiting for a car repair, a mother whose child is being asked to leave the school, and a mysterious “fever woman.” Each story sets us square in its very specific world, a world of birds and old photos and after-funeral bonfires. And for all of its variety, Below Ground weaves a gorgeous tapestry, each story a strand elegantly fusing with the others surrounding it. Arnold is a writer of such exquisite clarity and imagination that you will want to read one more story and then another and then another. A truly beautiful read. ‒ Francine Witte, author of Radio Water With Below Ground, Sandra Arnold has masterfully written an authentic and deeply engaging flash collection, exploring the losses, the quest for understanding, and the yearnings which sometimes collide and coexist in us all. ‒ Robert Scotellaro, author of Quick Adjustments and Ways to Read the World Sandra’s best collection to date is worthy of a major prize. Her creativity has incredible range, beautiful writing, and covers timeless themes of love and loss, redemption, escaping to nature, and pasts intermingling with the present. She shows readers the complexity of reality, and they will want to read her stories over and over, allowing her creativity to soak into their souls. ‒ Niles Reddick’s newest flash collection is If Not for You from Big Table Publishing Humor, tragedy, unexpected conclusions, Below Ground by Sandra Arnold has it all. She is a top New Zealand writer providing readers with universal truths of life, love and hate, bad acts and retribution. Once you read the first story you will not want to stop until you have finished these addictively glorious stories from a master writer whose use of language and plot leaves the reader in awe. ‒ Zvi A. Sesling, Author of Secret Behind the Gate and Wheels Moments in the lives of ordinary people, sharply-observed. This is a beautifully written collection from a seasoned writer with a masterful command of dialogue - Memorable! ‒ Karen Schauber The Group of Seven Reimagined: Contemporary Stories Inspired by Historic Canadian Paintings (Heritage House, 2019), Editor/Author - a flash fiction anthology