Persephone's Library and Other Short Stories

“This morning, I walked up past the new subdivision to the end of the world. Or at least, to the beginning of the end, just at the edge of the mud flats.

It’s deceptive, when you stand there, where the asphalt breaks off in that jaggedy line and the flats begin. They look like they spread out forever, but actually, it’s just a couple of hundred yards. And then the world ends.

They’ve set up patrols along the edge at night, so people don’t wander out there accidentally and fall off. They also try to catch the jumpers when they can, but they don’t always succeed. People still slip through.

Take this morning, for instance. I mean maybe I just got lucky, but there was no-one in sight when I walked up. Even the watchers in the houses along the edge weren’t around. I could’ve just kept right on going and maybe even jumped if I wanted to.

But I didn’t. I just wanted to see the flats.

They look a little like I imagine a beach must have looked, back in the day, except of course there would have been ocean, instead of nothing.“

-excerpt from “Persephone’s Library”

Persephone’s Library and Other Short Stories is a collection of five stories centered around themes of social dis-integration. They are stories in which things fall apart, and the centre cannot hold. But, rather than the drama and flash of apocalypse, in each of these stories, the end of society as we’ve known it comes not with a bang, but a whimper. The world is changed, and what remains of civilization is left ragged and flailing–the result of forces that the protagonists find inexplicable, even as they struggle to find meaning and build lives in the context of these ravaged landscapes.

Stories included are: “Persephone’s Library”, “Don Coyote de la Merika”, “Jemelle’s Exile”, “What Rough Beast?” and “The Talents”. The collected stories are 39K words in total.

The first story in the anthology, "Don Coyote de la Merika", is also available in its entirety as a separate, free download, by way of a proper sample for readers who are considering downloading the collection.