Discontinue If Death Ensues

15 horror stories and 5 poems about women, written by 5 women, facing down the grim tipping point of humanity and offering a glimpse of the hope to come.

Horror stories about women, written by women. This anthology focuses on the strength of women faced with adversity. It explores many ways in which societal structures and personal action – including mistreatment of the environment and other people, particularly women – can reach a tipping point, creating unexpected changes, empowering women around the world.

It contains fifteen interlaced stories and five poems from five authors in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand – all women who were nominated for the 2021 HWA Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction: Lee Murray, Cindy O’Quinn, Kyla Lee Ward, Anna Taborska and Carol Gyzander.

The Flame Tree Beyond and Within short story collections bring together tales of myth and imagination by modern and contemporary writers, carefully selected by anthologists, and sometimes featuring short stories from a single author. Overall, the series presents a wide range of diverse and inclusive voices with myth, folkloric-inflected short fiction, and an emphasis on the supernatural, science fiction, the mysterious and the speculative. The books themselves are gorgeous, with foiled covers, printed edges and published only in hardcover editions, offering a lifetime of reading pleasure.