Tales from 13 Realms

The first story of this lucky collection of thirteen, a flash fiction titled “Green Ground Zero”, reveals a captivating window into a post-apocalyptic world where sentient algae long took over the globe turning humanity into swamp creatures. The protagonist, Nap, is a laborer marching in formation on a distribution mission, who uses unexpected chaos in the algae-orchestrated order, to rebel against shepherds and risk his life for a taste of freedom.

“A Growing Madness In Mayaguez” is a flash nonfiction account of A.R. Wheeler’s sudden encounter with a seemingly possessed woman on the otherwise empty streets of Mayaguez, the third largest city and crumbling post-colonial outpost in Puerto Rico.

“Skeleton Soulmate”, is possibly the only optimistic romance story in this collection, telling the dark fantasy entranced meeting of a numb ex-tattoo artist hermit who can only see human beings as walking skeletons, and a carefree wandering man-child who views himself and everyone else as babies. As the two literally collide, their worlds are merged and shaken into an even stranger reality which neither imagined possible.

“Dead End Synthesis”, chronicles a Saturday night on drunkard bustling 7th Avenue of Ybor City in Tampa, where Dusty, a paraplegic Vietnam Vet beggar transcends his current reality to review his life in reverse, following a dose of the experimental psychedelic made by his only friend, Kosmov, the world finessing Afghan veteran and aspiring chemist. This is partly a resilient anti-war statement and also a question of street ethics and best intentions.

“Landowner” is an apocalyptic flash story oozing horror and suspense, following an unprepared and idealistic writer from Florida escaping to rural South Carolina after a possible apocalyptic event. Breaking down nearby and hitch-hiking, he attempts to locate his recently purchased land. His new neighbor, the twisted old man who sold him the property, happily gives him a lift.

“NOWSPIN”, is a surrealist urban fantasy nightmare based in a Tampa, Florida laundromat during a thunderstorm, in which Captain Wolfman, a sewer-dwelling alcoholic pirate hunting late-night prey for petty change robbery, targets a vulnerable Thai Buddhist monk, drying an industrial load of nothingness, resulting in a paradigm shattering confrontation.

In the center of this collection of short stories is “Intermission (An Excerpt From Hierarchy of Eyes)” the intermission from a yet-to-be published interdimensional espionage odyssey novel HIERARCHY OF EYES. This piece from a cyberpunk mind-bending tale about agents from various dimensions waging wars for total oversight, details the origins of Five-Eyes, who turned into a goat-man with five-eyes upon a psychedelic induced reception of a message later written as an occultist holy text called Hierarchy of Eyes. In this story, after recently finishing the book, the tired scribe orders a pizza and attempts to convince Four-Eyes, the visually impaired teenaged delivery boy with dreams of space travel, to be his first disciple.

The horrifying post-apocalyptic monster story titled “A Dirty World War”, set during humanity’s losing war against members of a more vicious and powerful species, experiences Trixie, a very pregnant call girl, attempting to hide in a 24/7 Tampa laundromat from The Drain King, one of the giant winged amphibious alien monsters that uses the flooded sewers to navigate the city. After burning down the Buddhist monastery that sheltered her, the Drain King tracks Trixie down to the laundromat and corners her in a final standoff and revelation.

“Q-Coolin: The Hero of Mars” is an epic hero science fiction retelling of the Celtic myth on Mars, in which Martian human society is founded when Danielle MacNamara, a chemist for terraforming firm TDD, discovers a way to create a utopia that after many generations will be defended by one hive-mind hero against armies of savages.

These and other twisted myths fill out the pages of this book.