Once upon a time, we asked authors with published or forthcoming novels from Casperian Books to contribute a short story representative of their writing to an anthology. The resulting ten short stories have been collected into a book titled And Now for a Story…, which is available starting today.
You may recognize some of the characters and settings of these stories as old friends: Jack Ballard’s “Requiescat in Pace” is an outtake from his mountain-climbing action novel Rock Dance, Lily Richards’ “Strays” is an epilogue of sorts to her literary novel Mouth of the Lion, and William Walsh delivers a vignette set in the fictional town of Ampersand, also the setting of his fictional biography Without Wax, in “Ice Water.” Other characters and settings will be brand-new: Gary Clites’ “Vegas Strip” takes on the adage “Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” thriller-style, Chris Owen’s “Check Your Mirrors” is a jaunt through the day of a personal assistant to the rich and powerful with one hell of a punch line, and A. F. Rützy’s “Who Needs Bobo?” is a satirical romp through the life of a down-and-out mechanic. Yet other stories are thematically similar to the authors’ novels, though the characters, settings, and plots are completely different: Paul Elwork explores the origins of ghost stories and an urban legend in the thoughtful “The Riders and the Shadow Man,” Peter Ohren revisits the theme of Michigan’s economic decline in “Golden,” Sybil Baker explores the alienation of American expatriates in Korea in “Dog House,” and Curtis Smith tackles disability and family relationships in “Without Words.”
Taken together, these stories lead us into the familiar, hilarious, surprising, and sometimes frightening complications of being human–the common predicament that makes us want to share stories in the first place.
Happy reading and happy holidays!
The Casperian Books Team