The Strong Stuff, Volume 2, presents the best creative work we published from 2018-2020
500 full-color pages of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and art from our members
This is one handsome book, and it’s big – 8″ wide by 10″ tall, just a few pages shy of 500 pages of stimulating writing and art. The cover art is an original design by one of our former baristas, Amanda Grafe. Using Amanda’s original painting, Barista Melanie Marston prepared the book’s front and back covers. The interior design and page layout was designed by Sophie Hanks, who has worked with us on several books now. FC Partner Antony Woooten guided it through publishing and printing with Ingram/Spark.
The back cover. Each contributor’s color photo and bio appear in the book.
This contributor’s poetry, accompanied by their art.
Two-column design for longer works of fiction.
Like the first edition, its beauty can only be fully appreciated on the printed page. This is truly a collector’s book, a coffee-table book (if you still have one), and is $39. You have several ways to get copies. One, by asking your local bookstore to special order it, which benefits the authors, publisher and bookstores. Or you can ask your local library to order a copy. Just give the bookstore clerk or the librarian this ISBN number: 978-0-9840369-5-0. It’s also on Amazon where Kindle Direct Publishing manages fulfillment. Here’s the Amazon link: https://tinyurl.com/Fictional-Cafe-vol-2 Any royalties go toward publishing the third anthology.
From all of us who worked so long and diligently on this book, to all of you who contributed your creativity, thank you, thank you, for making it happen. Without your art, your poetry, your fiction, we would have had nothing to publish.
Interested in submitting your creative work? It’s worth mentioning that we’ve cut the wait time for formerly published creators to submit new work from one year to six months. For all submissions, we reply within a record-breaking 30 days. After working on this second anthology for over two years, you can readily see how much really good stuff came from our Coffee Club members. We want you, whether you’re a first-timer or someone we’ve published before, to please come on over and share a cuppa your creativity!
