A Door in the Mirror

Collected Short Fiction 2010-2014. These nine short stories explore a wide spectrum of ideas, ranging from religious freedom to economic deprivation to the dark turbulence of masculine sexuality.What is the price of making dreams come true? Can they simply be bought with money, or do they require something different? Greg wants to see his dreams come true -- to furnish his apartment with nice things, to find the perfect girl to share it with, and to ultimately become a bigger success than his father had been -- but life keeps finding ways to alter his plans. Can Greg adapt to life's little wrenches and overcome impoverishing events to bring his dreams to reality? Or will he succumb to the hardships of being twentysomething and accept the life of economic misfortune that hounds him?"Shell Out" is the humorous story of a college student's battle with those pesky opposing forces of nature that plague us all: life and desire, ambition and contentment, dreams and reality. It is the story of any of us who has ever had to fend for ourselves in the real world but weren't sure if we'd ever make it. Greg's farcical journey to tame his wallet and fulfill his dreams takes him through the common struggles of young adulthood, including figuring out how to survive a Friday night on a ten-dollar bill, acquiescing to paying bills in spite of not having a job, taking jobs that only a desperate loon would take, working toward a better life in order to win the heart of a girl, and other crazy situations. The question is, are his efforts worth it, or is he just chasing yesterday's American Dream?For those thirty and older who wish to remember their own crazy experiences as a twentysomething, Greg's strange odyssey of economic survival is a comedy. For those currently living the twentysomething life, or those about to approach it, Greg's journey is a horror story. It's a lot like life: a scary comedy that forces us to question our choices."Shell Out" also comes with previews for some of my upcoming books.