Alternative Liberties
Releasing political satire anthologies on a short timeline is becoming a habit at B Cubed Press. Publisher, Bob Brown, gets a wild idea and then convinces me to play along. The first time it happened President Donald J Trump made an off-hand remark (he does that a lot) about the attendance at his first inauguration.
By Day 100 we whiney snowflakes (the words of from our first rejection) published Alternative Truths. A snowflake is now the publisher’s logo.
A string of other politically themed anthologies followed over the next eight years.
Then Mr. Trump won the election in November 2024. Bob had plans already in place. The next day he announced the call for submissions for Alternative Liberties, to be released on the day of the inauguration.
The editorial team of Bob Brown, Phyllis Irene Radford, Karen G. Anderson, Lou J Berger, and Cliff Winnig, pushed the project forward in 65 days.
I got dragged along in the wake of this massive project. Two months of slush reading, editing, choosing who was accepted and who rejected. A nail-biting period that ate my life and postponed my WIP.
We could not have done it without frequent Facebook video calls. Many, many, video calls.
We launched on time and held a live podcast with readings and discussions from many of the authors. I had no story in the collection, but I read “Four Patriotic Witches” by Susan MacDonald. Worth more than a few chuckles. (Susan’s story in Alerternative Truths “As Prophesied of Old” added Excalibur piercing the snowflake to the logo)
We quickly hit #1 on Amazon’s Practical Politics category and number one in anthologies. Based on the reviews, it seems to have invented a new category of Political Horror.
A review quote calls it the Fahrenheit 451 of our generation.
Alternative Liberties includes a star-studded lineup of authors including David Gerrold, Jim Wright, Louise Marley, Adam Troy Castro, Brenda Cooper, and BVC’s own Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. We are also proud to include many frequent contributors and first time authors.
Available in print and e book everywhere.
Phyllis Irene Radford is a founding member of Book View Café.