13 Ways is an illustrated story series, combining original photography and fiction, that was first launched on this site in 2011. You can access the series from its category listing on our sidebar (or, simply click here). The stories have been inspired by the photos which accompany them, and they provide an imagined context for – or a particular interpretation of – the photos.
In August 2013, we published a collection of 13 Ways stories, under our imprint, Thirteen Ways Press. The book is available in Kindle or paperback from Amazon, which you can access by clicking on its cover image, at the top of our sidebar. Here’s our book description, as it appears on our Amazon page:
What if, as you stared at a children’s climbing wall, you began to see and hear things that no one else perceived? What if a view of the coast you were enjoying was also being surveyed by an assassin through his rifle scope? What if the last thing you saw when you looked at the sky was the approach of an enormous cloud that looked like a ghost ship?
Ranging from brief vignettes to fully-developed narratives, this collection comprises sixteen evocative, photo-inspired stories from a selection of genres, including contemporary and magical realism, speculative fiction, suspense, and modern Gothic. The book opens with “Sunset at the Hyatt Regency,” in which two strangers at an airport hotel negotiate their way through the complexities of sex, grief, and cold hard cash. It closes with “Hotel Eternity,” in which a woman emerges from an underground train station into a bright spring day, to find a crumpled stranger gesturing to her from the footpath.
For readers who prefer to access the stories via our website, the 13 Ways series will remain here, and we will continue to add to it. However, there will be some stories in the book that are not on the site, and vice versa.
The title of our series pays homage to the Wallace Stevens poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird :
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.
(Stanza VIII)
Editorial Reviews
13 Ways: Illustrated Stories by TD Whittle and Sandra Peterson Ramirez
Each one starting with a picture, ranging from shots of nature, people, and buildings, the sixteen stories included in ‘13 Ways: Illustrated Stories’ by TD Whittle and Sandra Peterson Ramirez are brief poignant perceptions into the world that constantly surrounds us. The images featured at the beginning of each narrative serve as a leaping point, from which the two authors take as inspiration to weave within the story that follows. The tales vary in genre, with everything from surrealism, suspense, comedy and science fiction being present, but they flow together in a pleasing and interesting way that causes the reader to reflect upon the stories and compare them to one another. All of the pieces included within this book can easily be considered touching and memorable, but the real gems are Taking Flight and Side Effects, one story to represent each of the authors’ major strengths.
It is obvious that the two authors featured in this collection have different ideas and writing styles, but they both succeed at capturing the imaginative spirit with the words they write on the page, constructing phrases that evoke enthralling emotions. The stories are written with care, and you can tell that both of these authors really take pride in crafting an entertaining story, regardless of how long it is. Some will make you laugh, others will make you cry, and all will make you wonder about this life and why things are the way they are. The writing is easy to get through and is a real pleasure to read. If you enjoy short stories, then you will definitely take pleasure in reading ‘13 Ways: Illustrated Stories.’