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Amazon:General
Books: Dreamtime
Books: Dreamtime
I am presenting a collection of short stories culled from previous books. Many of these have been independently published in literary magazines since their original appearance.* I have taken my title from the Australian aborigine term for the magical period of the creation of the world. It reflects the fact that all the stories lie on the borderline of the supernatural, and many involve dreams. This is least pronounced in the first two stories, both of which are strongly influenced by personal experiences.
"The Decoy" stems from an unpleasant occurrence during a trip to Italy in 1995. The story describes the adventures of an unusually ugly young American, who finds that his appearance is an asset in solving a persistent problem of Italian tourism. In the process he also solves his primary personal problems.
The "Hiker's Tale" was inspired by many years of hiking on the beautiful Chesapeake and Ohio tow path, which parallels the Potomac for over a hundred miles. The narrator is trapped in an unpredicted blizzard. The vision experienced by the narrator can be interpreted either literally, or as a product of the delirium of a man perishing from hypothermia.
"The Student Pilot" deals with the reincarnation in a contemporary situation of a famous Renaissance artist with an ancillary interest in science and aviation. The flight school parts are as realistic as I can make them. "Canine Fantasies" describes the insertion of a magnificent imaginary dog into the narrator's consciousness as a result of a hypnosis session gone astray. The dog, unperceived by anyone else, comes to dominate the life of the narrator more and more.
Like "The Student Pilot," "The Returning Student" deals with the return of a great man to terrestrial life, in this case as a part-time student in a second-rate university. The student is a famous poet with a latent fascination for science, which was frustrated in his life and which he longs to gratify, even briefly. "The Disappearance" describes a possible example of the Rapture, in which a deserving mortal is snatched away prematurely to the next world. In this case, the man seems to disappear from a tour boat visiting the Great Australian Barrier Reef off Cairns. He seems to reappear and disappear again much later under puzzling circumstances.
"Phoenix Street," in which dream and reality overlap, tells of the borderline supernatural experience of a Harvard graduate student, although it can also be interpreted as a purely psychological overreaction. "The Seaside Witch" draws on a personal experience of the author during a trip to the Maryland seashore in 1960. The "witch"really existed and is accurately described. Her cottage was carried out to sea in the great storm of 1967. The rescue from the quicksand is also true to life (although I have trouble getting people believe it). The supernatural part can be explained naturally, with difficulty.
"The Pilgrim" describes the visions of a dying man, who seems to travel through his life in reverse, beginning at the hospital acute care unit, passing through the places he has worked and lived, growing ever younger, and ending at his birth. At the end he is guided into the next world by a famous English evangelical writer. Meanwhile, in real time, his daughter is waiting by his bedside in the hospital.
"The Uninvited Guest" tells of a young Johns Hopkins graduate student, who gets lost in1980 on a dark night while returning to Baltimore from Pennsylvania. He stumbles upon an ornate mansion, where he hopes to get directions. He follows a group inside, where a very upscale party is going on, which is celebrating the election of Ronald Reagan. The guests seem unaware of his presence, and he cannot draw their attention. Their conversation is very bizarre and expresses sentiments of extreme reaction. At midnight, they change back to rats.
"Round Trip" deals with an unsuccessful space voyage, in which the crew is forced to return to Earth after a time lapse of forty years. During this time, America has changed drastically. Among other things, mutations have created new and dangerous forms of microorganisms, for which the returnees' immunity has faded. This is a story where I cannot draw on personal experience. I have therefore chosen to narrate it in the third person.
*"The Decoy" and "The Returning Student" have been presented in Words of Wisdom; "The Hiker's Tale" in Potomac Review; "Phoenix Street" in Dream Fantasy International; "The Pilgrim," and "The Student Pilot" in Dandelion Arts Magazine.
An unusually thoughtful and thorough review of my book Dreamtime has just appeared. It may be found at Dreamtime Reviews.
An interview with the author and a review of the book has been presented in January Magazine
A newspaper account of the book and its author may be found at Article
Other Books
Four other books: A Pilot's Tale and Other Stories, The Decoy and Other Stories, The Student Pilot and Other Stories, and The Beauty Contest and Other Stories have also been published by iUniverse
SampleStories
Several of the following stories were originally in A Pilots Tale and Other Stories, published by iUniverse,inc.
. The Pilot's Tale and The Codger's Tale are true stories. The others are fictional, although often based loosely on real events. No real persons are portrayed and no disparagement is intended of any persons or institutions. Because of technical problems, The Professor's Tale is presented in three parts.
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fantasy/science fiction, dealing with purely imaginary events, which might have
occurred if a certain critical event had gone differently.
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contemporary relevance.
rumors current at the time.