The Other

Poetically frightening, filled with nebbishy gods and endearing demons, set everywhere from Beldonooza to the back porch, here are short fictions from James David Audlin. A boy turns into an orange to escape his tormentors. A planet with a million gods and only one human. A little deal with the Devil. Shadows haunt a traveller's night. A young girl whose dolls are alive. The room that shouldn't be there, beyond the bedroom wall. A living boy rides with the Caravan of the Dead. Someone who remembers only the future, not the past. A battle of wills between character and author. In the most ancient times, someone invents hills, but forgets to invent "down the other side". The City of Mists, from which no one ever returns. A freak who is a little too real, even for the travelling circus. The letter "W" is banned from ever being spoken or written. A struggling author meets his own unfinished story. Some kind of kid named Weisenheimer brings a god to life in the barn. The author of Rats Live on no Evil Star and The Circle of Life arranges a bizarre bouquet of strange blooms, most of them based on his own dreams and nightmares.