Curious Tales

Publisher Marketing: In this intense collection of short stories by Harvey Stanbrough, a janitor is cleaning a fiction mill in the wee morning hours. Surrounded by IBM Selectric typewriters, he decides that he could do as well as those who work here. He sits down, turns on a typewriter, and writes. But he's waiting for something... or someone. Explore the inner workings of a rather odd mind. For a while the unnamed professor wasn't sure. Did he slip and fall on the ice-slicked asphalt running trail? Or did he continue to run and see a vision? Or did he slip and fall and see a vision? A state police officer is called to investigate an eerie, heinous crime at a rest area. It has to do with an infant, a strange crowd of onlookers, and a key witness, all in a maddening, constantly thrumming rain. What if an elderly woman gets it in her head that fish really is brain food? And what if she decides if a little of something is good, a lot more would be better? Finally, a pretentious, abusive director is shooting a horror film outside a small town. To save money, he buys the talents of a Patrick Campbell lookalike. In the lead role, he really is just being himself but takes great offense at the director's presumption that the director has cornered the market on what's real and what isn't. You decide. Contributor Bio:  Stanbrough, Harvey Harvey Stanbrough is an award-winning writer and poet. He's fond of saying he was born in New Mexico, seasoned in Texas, and baked in Arizona. After 21 years in the US Marine Corps, he managed to sneak up on a BA degree at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales in 1996. Because he is unable to do otherwise, he splits his writing personality among four personas: Gervasio Arrancado writes magic realism; Nicolas Z "Nick" Porter writes spare, descriptive, Hemingway-style fiction; and Eric Stringer writes the fiction of an unapologetic neurotic. Harvey writes whatever they leave to him. You can see their full bios at HEStanbrough.com.