Final First is, as you can surmise from the title, my first published book. It is a short story collection that is intended to initiate my indie author quest— no more false starts or hard resets.
Final First is a purple book. Purple is one of my favorite colors so it had to be first. There is some unnerving stuff in here, including humor.
This book introduces a few recurring characters. Gabe Gomez is a guy who had a lot of ridiculously bad stuff happen to him as a kid and a couple of those tragedies are covered here. Ben Gemmell is a guy who has a lot of bad stuff happen to him as an adult (except his marriage which is awesome), although in this collection his unique struggles are only hinted at. Shricky Kukulski is a neurotic, slightly incellian gamer nerd; he has a close relationship with his bohemian twin sister who gets just a brushstroke here. And of course, if I ever write about some of these other people again, well, yay! They become recurring.
These stories are often violent, physically or psychologically. Even the most lighthearted one, I think, has some darkness to it if you think about it. Then again, I would also say that the darkest ones have light to them, too.
Final First can be bought here.
Here are the titles of the stories:
1. “Shard”
2. “Spread”
3. “Glue for the Goose”
4. “Eggs in Stainless Steel”
5. “Occupied / Vacant”
6. “Atrous Orb”
7. “Hypnopomp”
8. “Actuarial Life Table”
9. “The Q-Word”
10. “Fifteen Minutes Later”