Madstones

"Madstones" is a new collection including six works of fantasy and science fiction, representing several different constructs - short stories, a stage play, a screenplay, and a prose poem.

"Rama with the Ax," a short story, opens the collection, pitting a sinister stage magician, his undead assistant, and an alien god-beast from beyond time against a black man with a horn and his blues brothers. Who will win this bizarre battle of the bands?

"Doom of the Autochthon" is a fantastic short story, set in another world, another time. If you've ever been inclined to be angry at the sun, this one is for you. Corruption and Empire were never like this before!

"Retro Beach Party" is a screenplay. Check out what happens to these otherwise perfectly normal college students when a bale of contraband washes ashore during spring break. And when extraterrestrials crash this shindig, things get really wild. Remember, it all comes from the sixties, kids. This one is a trip in time back to those halcyon days of yore, and a reminder of how hard it is to laugh in these times.

"Hurdy-Gurdy Rondo" is a play in one act for the theater of the absurd. What do we really know about the past? We may know more as science marches onward. But not everybody sees these things the same way. Can't we all just...get along?

"The Eidolon of Clay" is a prose poem with a historical setting, passing fleetingly into the realm of fantasy upon the finding of a forgotten piece of statuary. Times change, cherished ideas change, but the human heart?

"The Hilbert Hotel," a short story, closes the collection. In it we learn along with our heroine that there are many infinities and that some are bigger than others, and what it actually takes to change the world. The answer may surprise you!

"Madstones" will appeal to readers from eighteen to eighty who like imaginative fiction with wit as well as a sense of wonder. "Madstones" is six zircons in the rough, hair of the dog that bit you for the psyche.