Please be aware, this anthology contains stories, poems, and essays that you may find disquieting. Some of the selections delve into our souls’ deepest fears and needs.

We all love to be entertained. But what if that entertainment has other ideas? What if this world we live in is set up as a diabolical trap meant to prevent us from seeing that which is truly necessary?

We asked our pseudonymous authors to write about situations that seem to them tragic, fill them with wonder, or, combined in some way, both.

You’ll meet a serial killer, alien escargot, a petulant eleven–year–old, a beloved astronaut, a laid–off worker, two out–of–place men sharing an umbrella, and many others. We start with scenes from the backstory of Mandated Memoranda Publishing’s first book: Tiānmìng – Mandate of Heaven.

Two poems provide a transition from fiction to opinion. The short essays rail over, decry, praise, and skewer our personal, local, national, world, and cosmic conditions. 

These stories, poems, and essays are meant to engage readers in a reality that we all deny daily, whether we profess faith in Christ, are ambivalent, or are hostilely opposed to religion. We hope you’ll suspend your disbelief and consider the possibility that there is a way out of the trap in which we find ourselves. And that way doesn’t involve choosing between two different color pills.

Review

This isn’t an easy read, but it is a rewarding one, as the stories are crafted with great care. All in all, if you are the kind of reader who likes to have their own assumptions on how reality truly exists questioned by the written word, then this is sure to be an enjoyable book for you. –Red City Review, November 23, 2013

Published: December 15, 2013

Anthology: realism, thriller, science fiction

150 pages estimated

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