“Unemployed and Dangerous: A Trilogy of Transgressive Novellas”

I’ve just put up my latest collection onto Lulu.com

These stories are much darker than any piece of crime fiction I’ve ever written.  That said, I’m not making excuses or justifying anything.  They were written at a time of turmoil and change in my life.  Thank goodness for a creative outlet otherwise I don’t know what my mood may have become.

The three tales tell separate stories of men undergoing their own changes during a job loss.  They deal with the situations in their own unique manner.

A stockbroker actually fired for sleeping with the CEO’s mistress winds up getting a job on the maintenance crew that services his old building.  From that vantage point he is able to exact a deep measure of revenge.

A laid-off television sales executive starts day trading to bring in income while contemplating his next move.  But boredom sets in and sends him on a path toward serial rape and murder.

A man with a strange and funny name can no longer be the brunt of insensitive humor.  He uses his termination as a stepping stone toward violent revenge.

It would be easy to pass these off as the ravings of an emotional strain on the part of the author.  But these were always serious writing efforts.  First of all, each piece is written in a different voice (first, second, and third person).  I had done quite a bit of first person writing in my crime fiction and done a few pieces in third person.  But second person narrative was a real challenge and required extra attention.  It succeeded in so far as second person narrative can succeed.  Second, there was a conscious effort to have a different style, different motivations, and a different outcome for each.  I did not want anyone to say that all three were the same.  It would have made the entire collection boring.

My wife was my editor once again and she confessed to me that she was disturbed at some of the writing.  She had not seen the style nor the content from me before.  But she knows me well as a person and as a writer and understood the depths that I had to reach in order to create these works.  My personal situation has taken a turn for the better; I have released the pent-up aggressions that were created; I know I can write like this.  I hope I never have to again.

I was more conscientious about formatting and cover art than in my previous efforts.  I am pleased with the results.  I was desperately wanting to finish this project so I could proceed with the YA novella I am working on in honor of my niece.  After all, the 10-year old needs SOMETHING she can read by her uncle.