Book Review: A Baker’s Dozen

A BAKER’S DOZEN

She makes murder fun!

Almost makes me want to try my hand at it, but I’d end up the corpse. An entertaining romp exposing the fun side of the dark side of human (and other more-enlightened animal) existence. Replete with love triangles, Shakespearean situations, and a killer chicken salad recipe, Jones covers all the bases from out of left field and knocks it out of the park with aplomb–if not a bomb. Her clever cast of characters includes dogs, cats, and chickens, proving that no one knows what darkness lurks within the heart of our pets.

Highly recommend.

Becomes One Hundred Stories #49: Remembers the Before Man

This is a piece of short fiction in the style and universe of three of my novels: Becomes the Happy Man, Becomes God’s Silent Prophet, and Becomes the Meaning Blossom.

Remembers the Before Man

The old man who lived in the ancient village on the edge of the hot, barren desert, across the way from the old woman who kept rooms, watched the man pass down the way. The old man had recognized the man, but the man was much younger than the man had been when the old man had known the man before. This impossibility did not trouble the old man. The old man just watched the man disappear into the place where the old woman kept rooms across the way, and he thought back many years to when he had known the man before. When the man had been older than he was now.

The old man thought back many years, but his reveries were interrupted by a sound from inside the place where he lived. The old man tried to continue thinking about the past, but the noise within grew louder. The old man could not concentrate like he had when he was younger—even a few years younger.

The old man went into the place where he lived and found his wife banging on empty pots with a hammer.

The old man told his wife to hush. He said it was not New Year’s Eve.

The old man’s wife said she had seen the man and she (more…)

Becomes One Hundred Stories #48: Wakes to a Strange Voice

This is a piece of short fiction in the style and universe of three of my novels: Becomes the Happy Man, Becomes God’s Silent Prophet, and Becomes the Meaning Blossom.

Wakes to a Strange Voice

The voice woke the man from his sleep. The voice woke the man from the middle of his sleep in the middle of the night.

The man woke up when the voice woke him from the middle of his sleep in the middle of the night. The man woke up and asked what the voice wanted.

The voice said it was the voice of the supreme being.

The man said he did not believe it.

The voice said it didn’t matter what the man believed or didn’t believe.

The man told the voice to say (more…)

Becomes One Hundred Stories #47: Enters a Place by the Lake

This is a piece of short fiction in the style and universe of three of my novels: Becomes the Happy Man, Becomes God’s Silent Prophet, and Becomes the Meaning Blossom.

Enters a Place by the Lake

The young man entered a place by the lake. The young man entered the place and said hello. The place was empty. No one replied to his greeting. The young man entered the empty place and he looked around.

The young man entered the empty place and looked around and saw nothing. He saw nothing because the place was empty. He saw walls and a floor and a ceiling but nothing else because the place was empty.

The young man looked for another door. Perhaps a door to another room. But the place was a one-room place, and it had no other door. No other entrances and no other exits except the door that (more…)

Becomes One Hundred Stories #46: Uses His Imagination

This is a piece of short fiction in the style and universe of three of my novels: Becomes the Happy Man, Becomes God’s Silent Prophet, and Becomes the Meaning Blossom.

Uses His Imagination

The old woman sat at her table. The boy sat across the table from the old woman. The boy sat at the old woman’s table across from the old woman before the old woman died. Before the old woman was murdered and before the many girls came to live and work in the place where the old woman had lived before she was murdered.

The old woman sat at her table across from the boy and told him to watch the spoon.

The boy asked which one.

The old woman said the one in the middle.

The boy watched the middle of the three spoons, and as he watched it, it rose (more…)