A discrete set

Abstract

This collection of stories explores my deep love of genre, refracting pulp tropes through the lens of literary fiction. Inspired by an assortment of random ephemera pulled from the pages of used books, the pieces began as unplanned improvisations. These sketches were fleshed out, refined, and in some cases entirely rewritten over the course of a year plus. During revisions, I sought to distill the chaotic first drafts into something leaner, tighter, and stranger, twisting conventions so the familiar would become distorted. These darkly comic fictions are my version of contemporary “weird tales,” blending humor and horror in equal measure. Each interconnected story seeks to find sincerity in obscenity, to bring earnestness to perversion, to humanize the grotesque. The characters range from struggling artists to flesh eating monsters, but they all share the same earthly concerns—love, death, and dreams.