It was difficult to choose one story to represent the varied contents of Cinema Spec: Tales of Hollywood and Fantasy. Not only does the anthology run the gamut from space opera to postapocalyptic horror, from high fantasy to noir suspense, but there's also a wide range of thematic material under the broad rubric "moving pictures," such as television, shadow plays, Internet downloads, and forms that haven't even been invented yet.

But I think that Screening of a Silent Film by J.S. Bangs fills the representation bill pretty well, because it provides a movie theater/film setting, which is what you'd expect from the title of the anthology, but then it moves the story in a surprise high fantasy direction, from roaring 20s silent film to sorcerer's cobwebbed workshop, all blended seamlessly together. It's a moving story of a woman who takes back her life and fate, made all the more wonderful, in my eyes, because it was written by man, and a first-time published author at that. I admit I never fail to cheer and cry at the end.

Please check it out, and, remember, there's plenty more where that came from.