Title spotlight - "Scenes from the Second Storey" edited by Mark S. Deniz & Sharon Ring

One of the books I’ve read on holiday, and I am still reading since I am only half through, is Amanda Pillar and Pete Kempshall’s anthology, “Scenes from the Second Storey”. The first interesting thing that caught my attention when I first heard about this anthology is that “Scenes from the Second Storey” is a tribute brought by Mark S. Deniz, the founder of Morrigan Books, the publishing house which released the anthology, to The God Machine’s homonym music album. Each story is dedicated to one of the songs on The God Machine’s “Scenes from the Second Storey” track, but since Mark S. Deniz wished for many talented writers to envision those songs in fiction he ended up with more than thirteen authors for his anthology. Therefore the homage brought to the album came in two forms, a first one edited by Amanda Pillar and Pete Kempshall and featuring an all Australian line-up of writers (which I am currently reading) and a second, international edition, edited by Mark S. Deniz and Sharon Ring. This week, the line-up for the international edition of “Scenes from the Second Storey” was posted on Morrigan Books’ website. It gives me plenty of reasons to look forward to the release of “Scenes from the Second Storey” on 11th November in electronic format and later on in a printed version, but it also makes me wonder, as the anthology’s presentation says, how will the two interpretations in fiction of the same song fare with each other. I am waiting with great anticipation to see how the inevitable comparison will turn out, especially since the bar is set very high due to the impressive and exceptional quality of the stories I’ve read so far in Amanda Pillar and Pete Kempshall’s Australian edition of “Scenes from the Second Storey”.

Thirteen tales of murder, revenge, betrayal, obsession and desire - your usual fare? Well not when adding the fact that all these stories were inspired by The God Machine’s album of the same name, a concept queried by some before reading the first of these two themed anthologies.

Now comes the second instalment, following on from the Australian authors penning their wonderful versions of The God Machine’s classic tracks to a mix of international authors, commissioned by Morrigan Books to give their take on the songs. How similar are the two written versions to the album’s tracks? Do they capture the essence? You, the reader, can decide for yourselves this November when the international version of Scenes from the Second Storey is released.

“Dream Machine” by Miles Deacon
“She Said” by KV Taylor
“The Blind Man” by Carole Johnstone
“I’ve Seen the Man” by Gary McMahon
“The Desert Song” by Adrienne Jones
“Home” by Shannon Page
“It’s All Over” by Paul Kane
“Temptation” by Pete Kempshall
“Out” by Mike Stone
“Ego” by Gerard Brennan
“Seven” by Joseph D’Lacey
“Purity” by T. A. Moore
“The Piano Song” by Ian Whates