Acknowledged

A few months back a friend of a friend emailed me a few questions about my publishing experience.  I gave some honest answers and wished him luck.  He later offered me a free copy in appreciation.

When the book came in the mail, I was quite surprised and flattered to be mentioned in the acknowledgments.  Now that I’ve read it, I figured I’d return the favor with a little shout out here.

Tales of Misery and Imagination is a quirky little book containing 7 short stories chock full of pop culture references and down on their luck characters.  Each tale is preceded by a brief bit of commentary that sets the stage and describes the origin.  This is somewhat reminiscent of the chapter by chapter commentary I did on this blog for TP — albeit much more quick and to the point.

(The origin stories are also thought provoking — I’m left very curious to read the published version of “All the Freaky Live Things” after being teased by the original here.  Scratching my head over how he could have actually sold it by making it raunchy — though I guess that shouldn’t really come as a surprise…)

A few odds and ends that resonated with me:

-“Uncertain Times at Uncle Fatty’s” had me placing the story as an unseen subplot to the circus themed “Leaping In Without a Net” episode of Quantum Leap.  (For no good reason other than I just think that way.)

-There’s a scene that takes place at a Cheap Trick concert in “The Apartment of the Last Neanderthal.”  The title character also does a Yahoo! search while researching info, though personally I think an actual neanderthal would be more inclined to use Ask.com, Lycos, or the old Windows Live Search.

-“Six Girls and a Dozen Donuts” is just an excellent title for a story on so many levels.  (And my brain tries to sing the title to the melody of the “two turntables and a microphone” refrain from “Where It’s At” by Beck, making it all the more excellent.)

Full disclosure: Although I got the book for free, I was under no obligation to write this review.  Much like my surprise upon seeing my name under the “thanks to” heading, Scott S. Phillips should be equally surprised upon reading this blog post.