New Short Story Collection from East Texas Author: “A Book to Live By”
LIVINGSTON, TX, Jan. 29, 2026 M.E. Proctor’s new collection A Book to Live By is now available in print and eBook. Published by Wordwooze Publishing, this is Proctor’s second collection after the positively reviewed Family and Other Ailments released in 2023.
In these twenty-four stories, Proctor explores different literary genres. From ‘quiet’ horror to science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism. Half the stories take place on our own planet where reality can sometimes take an unexpected turn. The book is subtitled ‘Stories from a Different World’ even if that world can be very close to home.
In the story that gives its title to the collection, a boy rescues a girl who escaped from an orbital research facility. He finds comfort and advice from fragments of a book he memorized. In Chimera, landscaping a garden opens a portal into the unknown. In Icebound, a training exercise on a frozen planet turns into a murder investigation, and in Boardwalk Oracle, a key found in an arcade game will change a businessman’s life, for the better.
Here’s what readers say about M.E. Proctor’s style of storytelling:
“You can feel the before and after outside the words we get. Some stories lull you into a certain comfort before pulling the rug out from under you.”
“Proctor is a fascinating writer who always seems to hit the mark.”
“What I loved most was how so many of the tales brought the story to the edge of something, as if the reader themselves stood over a precipice and stared down into an abyss. Not all of the stories offered closure, in fact many of them did not—which is a cause for their deep resonance. Great stories should offer a door and a window (closure and resonance), and this is one of the many places where Proctor excels.”
M.E. Proctor is the author of the Declan Shaw detective mysteries: Love You Till Tuesday and Catch Me on a Blue Day(publisher Shotgun Honey Books). The third installment in the series, The Way You Say My Name will be released later this year. She’s the author of two short story collections: Family and Other Ailments and A Book to Live By. She’s also the co-author of the retro-noir novellas, Bop City Swing and Kansas City Breakdown (Spring 2026). Her fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines like Vautrin, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Shotgun Honey, Reckon Review, and Black Cat Weekly among others. She’s a Shamus award and Derringer award short story nominee. Website: www.shawmystery.com.
M.E. Proctor lives in Livingston, Texas, with her husband James Lee Proctor, also a writer.
A Book to Live By – M.E. Proctor
Published by Wordwooze Publishing, January 29, 2026
Available in Paperback
ASIN: B0GK8F29N7 – $16.99
Available in eBook – Kindle – $3.99
Horror, science fiction, fantasy, vampires, dystopia