Alternative Truths is already at the top of Amazon’s bestseller lists for Kindle science fiction anthologies, paper book science fiction anthologies, and third for Kindle political fiction.  What is Alternative Truths, and how did a small press publisher, paying only semi-pro rates, produce a book that jumped to the top of the sales lists on Amazon and gives every indication of staying there?

When Donald J. Trump was elected 45^th president of the United States, some people rejoiced and some people lamented.  George Takei was not one of the people who rejoiced.  Neither was author/editor Bob Brown.

Alternative Truths anthology was formed, when on February 23, 2017, I, and many of my friends, asked what we could do. We could write, we could join that noble tradition of using the pen, to poke the powerful.  So was born, Alternative Truths. And our pens became word processors and our ideas became stories.  Bob Brown

Bob Brown enlisted a friend, writer/editor Phyllis Irene Radford, and set about looking for writers.  Some were famous, like Jim Wright of Stonekettle Station and Hugo and Nebula nominee Adam-Troy Castro.  Some were making their first semi-pro fiction sale, like technical writer Diana Hauer, who has since made her first fiction sale at professional rates.  Over one hundred stories were submitted.  Two dozen were chosen.

“Twenty-four science fiction writers had one hundred days to think about Trump.  The result is Alternative Truths.” K. G. Anderson

Twenty-four science fiction and fantasy authors remembered that the pen is mightier than the sword.  Editors Bob Brown and Phyllis Irene Radford set them a seemingly impossible task: to come out with an anthology of stories that would explore “the post-election America that is, or will be, or could be” and to have the book ready for publication by or before President Trump’s 100th day in office. It shouldn’t have been possible, or if ’twere possible, it should have been a hastily prepared volume, with copies bought by the contributors’ mothers but otherwise ignored by the reading public.

President Trump’s 100th day in office was Saturday, April 29, 2017.  Amazon released the book on April 26.  Within hours, it was a bestseller.

• #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Anthologies & Short Stories
• #1 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Anthologies
• #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Political

Much of the credit goes to blogger Jim Wright, who spread the word to his many followers, fans, and friends that he had a short piece in the book and they might enjoy reading it.  Wright rewrote the Gettysburg Address as Donald Trump might have delivered it.  Rebecca McFarland Kyle and Joel Ewy wrote stories that would make excellent Twilight Zone episodes. Daniel M. Kimmel, Janka Hobbs, and Gregg Chamberlain used humor, a traditional weapon against pompous politicians since the days of the ancient Greeks.  Wondra Vanian explored the danger of being an American-born Muslim in a country where bigotry is socially acceptable. Ghosts, time travelers, aliens, and confused patriots combine in a collection of stories that one reviewer described as “visions of a post-Trump world” that “are humorous, terrifying, and of course, alternatively true.”

Alternative Truths is available from Amazon for $11 for a paperback or $4.99 for Kindle. Readers can attempt to win a free Kindle version by participating in this drawing.

“To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the ink of patriots,” said Bob Brown.

Disclaimer:  I am the author of one of the stories in Alternative Truths and was one of the assistant proofreaders.

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