Momentary Pleasures: Short Stories (2014-22)

Whatever your view of life - spiritual, ornery, laid-back, reactionary, woke or wacky - you will welcome this debut collection of short stories by Sydney-born, Sydney-bred, peripatetic author, Phillip Derone.

Tales born of experience and imagination.

Share in relationships, intimacies, romantic interludes, self-satisfied contentment; sly sex, sex on the side, sex on the slide.

Consider contentious contemporary issues heavily cloaked in fictional drapes. Recoil from - or cheer on - confronting opinionated mindsets. Despair at poor judgment and inevitable disaster.

Take fantastical trips - into space, into time, into re-imagined Biblical narrative, into childhood, into dreams - or stay grounded in the murky world of internet dating.

Discover another angle to Shakespeare; eavesdrop on brief conversations with other long-dead writers.

Laugh out loud at mayonnaise madness in Majorca; view vignettes of inner Sydney, including Audrey Hepburn's innocent contribution to its social fabric; contemplate the end of humanity, albeit a highly benign one.

Delight in stumbling upon buried treasure of wordplay, cultural allusions and cliches.

And always be prepared for an ending that you had not expected.

So, travel to various destinations, experience novel philosophical itineraries and gain insight into other worlds by way of stories laced with intrigue and tinged with an ever-circling cynicism. You may find yourself examining common assumptions, questioning the mundanity of the quotidian, wondering whether coincidence can be life changing, and enjoying some momentary pleasures.