We've had a lot of rain here lately, followed by warm weather. So I'll be morel hunting tomorrow (wish me luck), meaning I won't have my usual Friday to complete what I've begun. But what I've begun is a little e-chapbook entitled Curios.

For those who have read my more speculative work, this collection of stories is . . . well, a touch less speculative, but no less strange. Let's call the ouvre "literary surrealism". Each story is about, or at least centered upon, certain objects, everything from kaleidoscopes to blue oranges to a set of impossible keys to the very tattoos on the skin of a philosophical hedonist. I guarantee your fill of strangeness for the time it takes you to read this little collection of the unusual, the silly, and the sublime. These were some of my favorite stories to write, truth be told, next to my novel, Heraclix & Pomp and my Italo & Vincenzo novellas (available at Smashwords).

There are eleven stories which first appeared in Notre Dame Review, Gargoyle, Exquisite Corpse, American Letters & Commentary, 3rd Bed (note: My favorite literary magazine of all time and now, sadly, defunct), Polyphony, Prague Literary Review, Cafe Irreal, Diagram, and Pear Noir!. Hopefully, I'll have time to work all the backstage magic over the next few weeks. You'll need $.99 to buy this one, so save those virtual pennies! Maybe you can quit smoking and celebrate by buying a copy. You'll still have plenty of money left over to get one of those expensive sodas to enjoy while you read!