"Scaring the Stars Into Submission" - Debut Story Collection (Surrealist/Post-Apocalyptic)
A great, unnamed event. A world both drowning and engulfed in flames.
Autopsies reveal gardens of lilies sprouting up inside the rib cages of the dead.
Clouds fall to the earth and affect the behavior of those that come in contact with them.
Revolution and violent uprisings spread through nations across the globe.
Twelve blind men in a basement transcribe the history of the world as it burns down around them.
Nightmares become reality; reality becomes nightmare.
Families turn to reluctant cannibalism in the hopes of waiting out the horrors beyond.
Corporations push to create a new population to replace the old one.
Philosophical musings from a balcony overlooking a dark, empty city.
A brief moment of something good between lovers as the world begins to slowly recover.
These are the stories before the event.
These are the stories during the event.
These are the stories after the event.
These are the stories of people coping and surviving,
Fighting to live, or fighting just to be doing something, anything.
The stories in this collection are brief moments, tiny pockets of surreal happenstance, but pure emotion. Each piece ties into the next by the tiniest filament, each story connected to the one before and the one after, each trying to hold on to some bit of normalcy, but failing in spectacular and terrifying ways.
I wrote many of the stories in this collection years ago as pieces of flash fiction first. Once I finished grad school, I expanded upon them and realized there was a fun theme running through them all. Obviously I needed to combine them into a single collection, which now exists and can be bought here: http://amzn.to/2j5053B
15 of the 16 stories within have already been published in various literary magazines and journals across the country (with a couple being included in apocalyptic collections put out by small presses across the Atlantic). I feel like anyone who likes to read this genre will certainly find plenty to like that will not only surprise them, but keep them entertained and turning pages as well.
