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6.14 x 9.21 Paperback |
ISBN: 9781432735074 |
$15.95 |
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Genre: |
FICTION / General |
Publication: |
Jul 17, 2009 |
Pages: |
228 |
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Impressions in Half-Light: Fourteen Tales from the Underside of Reason is an astounding collection of short stories from an author destined to become an American favorite. This inspired compilation takes readers inside the thoughts, feelings, triumphs, and struggles of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people. The stories are heartbreaking, hilarious, perplexing, and utterly entertaining. With just the right amounts of sex, humor, mystery and intrigue, they will stay in your head like a favorite melody and replay themselves again and again, long after you have set this book aside.
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The “studio” was an entirely second-rate operation; perhaps third or fourth-rate even. Imitation velour drapes were thumb tacked to a plaster wall and served as a backdrop. The sixties style camera equipment was bulky and worn; black paint was chipped in places, and there was a dent in one leg of the tripod. A frayed area rug hid part of the linoleum, which had started to peel at the corners. Everything looked cheap, including the junk jewelry they adorned her with and the splintering wicker furniture they propped her up on. Despite the extreme low-budget look of the place, it lacked the sticky ambience of honest-to-goodness sleaze, so I sat down and waited. Two other people were there: the photographer, and another so-called model who did Desi’s makeup. The guy played the part of professional photographer well enough, and the girl did race around the entire time assisting him. When they were done shooting, the girl handed Desi a roll of bills, put on a wig while the photographer repositioned the furniture, and then got out of her own clothes...
from "Thieves in the Temple"
“My God,” an old man moaned behind me, “my God, my God…”
A female voice, distorted by distance and unnaturally calm, crackling with static like an ancient analogue broadcast from a thousand miles away spoke from the screen.
“At 6:41a.m. Eastern Standard Time, the U.S. Joint Strategic
Defense Command issued an alert to the National Security Agency,
indicating an attack underway against the Chinese homeland—”
I turned away from the set and leaned against the door, chips of ice running up and down in my veins. I could not feel my legs, but neither could I withstand the compulsion to see with my own eyes whatever was out there.
I pushed the metal bar and felt warm air on my face and arms. My legs carried me out onto the balcony, out to the bronze railing that felt as warm as a stove when my hands clutched it. In the distance, a flock of white birds lifted skyward like an explosion of sea spray. I watched them rise and saw that high above, the cool blue of the troposphere was streaked and scored with violent orange and angry red clouds—a roiling field of molten lava spreading out to smother the sky. The sun was high above the trees, and the world shimmered in an eerie, golden, undulating light. The great clock, high in the bell tower across campus, had stopped at one minute past midnight…
High above the eastern horizon, I saw again the triad of red stars glittering with nightmarish beauty, even against the morning sky. A panicked voice called from the doorway, begging me to come back inside, but I could not go. I could not turn back.
I had to see…
from "The End"
A disgruntled General in the Ukrainian army made an entire regiment of cold-war era, Soviet
T-62 tanks and other vehicles available along with a detachment of helicopter gunships at what he thought was a very fair price. For a few dollars more, he would throw in the crews to operate them. For a mere fifteen million additional U.S. dollars, he tapped his contacts in Moscow and came up with a bona fide, honest-to-goodness, 1-kiloton battlefield nuclear weapon and an out-of-work defense ministry engineer who wired the device so that it could be armed and detonated with a simple, universal television remote control. At first, no one believed this could be done. The engineer explained four simple modifications to the electronic detonator within the bomb and explained that...if...precise timing was what they wanted, this would give it to them, and if they still doubted it would work, just give him a thirty-minute head start and then push the button...
from "The Big Finish"
…In the gloom of daybreak, I reached for the bedside table, stretched out my hand to touch something—anything—solid. Anything that would tell me I was awake, and that the world around me was real. Searching for words in the half-light, I could only say over and over again, “what?” until I sounded, even to myself, like the scratched recording of a dunce’s voice…
from "For Adele"
She growled again, much louder this time, and took a swipe at something Kendrick could not see. Her growl was answered by a louder, deeper, fiercer retort. The lioness took another swipe at whatever it was then leaped straight across the hole. Kendrick’s stomach knotted and he felt his bowels try to surge into his shorts. The cat cleared the hole, and for a moment he saw nothing but blue sky. Then a new female leaned over the opening. Directly across from her, the maned head of a third lion—a very large, male lion—appeared and looked down at him…
from "Back Country"
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About Preston Ford
Preston Ford is an aspiring screenwriter. He loves music, Renaissance art, astronomy, and the outdoors. He lives in southern Maryland.
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