Notes Toward the Story and Other Stories

Notes toward the Story and Other Stories is a book of disparate parts, a sort of Frankenstein monster of a collection. And indeed there is a monster story, as well as a ghost story, an angel story, a mystical religious story, and a mystical secular story. Some of the work is experimental, some of it is outlandish, and some of it is as simple and comforting as a home-baked pie. It is the full range of the author s short fiction gifts on display. They are made of gypsum, bituminous coal, red bricks and whimsy. They are equal parts crassitude and chimera. The final story, Publisher, the book s longest, concerns a man working for a vanity press who discovers the real thing, a novel he is convinced will blast a hole in the complacency of modern literature. About Publisher, John Grisham said, It s not only funny and clever, it reminded me of the first 80 pages of Sophie s Choice. Great work. The stories have previously appeared in The Pinch, Orchid, Ghoti, Gargoyle and other fine periodicals.