I’ve been on such a lengthy and satisfying short story kick, I was delighted when a lovely friend told me that Octavia Butler had published her own collection of short stories. I picked up a copy straight away and enjoyed it from cover to cover – and not just the stories, but how Butler took a moment at the end of each of them to reflect on them with brief afterwards. There is some seriously visionary content happening in these stories – even more so when you realize most were written in the late 70s and 80s and are reminded how little today is actually original. Apologies to Ms Butler if this offends the ghost of a brilliant novelist, but I would happily watch TV series based on “Bloodchild,” “The Evening and the Morning and the Night,” “Speechsounds,” or “Amnesty.” Actually, I just want more of “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” and “Amnesty” in any form. I also particularly appreciated “Positive Obsession” and “Furor Scribendi,” one an autobiographical essay about Butler determination to become a professional writer, the other an essay about the challenges of writing and six rules for new or struggling writers, which boil down to one radiant piece of guidance for so many dreams: Persist.