The “Creative” competition-seminar is a unique community of authors, critics and readers united by a love of literature and creativity. The idea of the competition has always been mutual assistance and self-improvement, the desire to improve one’s creativity, share experiences and learn from others. Over the long history of “Creative”, such well-known authors as Natalya Shcherba, Dmitry Perovsky and Natalya Shneider have participated in it, and the jury at various times included Sergei Lukyanenko, Oleg Divov, Maria and Sergei Dyachenko and many other great writers, editors and critics. This collection presents the finalist stories from all completed “Creatives”, united by the common theme “Crazy Worlds”. The authors of these stories have truly limitless imagination: their heroes live inside a nut world, carry the flames of revolutionary fire on an armored train, and play football with a severed head against a team of steam zombies. Not everyone will like the originality of ideas, boldness of execution and disregard for the canons of genres, but if you are confused by some story, don’t rush to put the collection down! Perhaps the next author will easily drag you into a whirlpool of crazy adventures.

Competition-seminar “Creative”: www.litkreativ.ru Compiled by: Lev Vlasenko (www.refantasy.com) Cover: Irina Permyakova (www.griphon .gallery.ru)