Product Description

Exploding from the pages of Horror, Humor, and Heroes Volume One - it's the full length adventures of the one and only Mechani-Cal! So grab your battlesuit and prepare to get a little nasty. "Being a supervillain means never having to say you're sorry ... Unless it's to the judge or the parole board. Even then, you don't really have to. It's not like it's going to change the outcome or anything." Those are the words of Calvin Matthew Stringel, better known as Mechani-Cal. He's a down on his luck armored villain. Follow his exploits as he gets swept up in a world domination scheme gone wrong and ends up working for these weak willed, mercy loving heroes. Immerse yourself in epic battles and see what it's like to be an outsider looking in at a world that few have ever experienced. Climb into Cal's battlesuit and join him on his journey. Will he avoid selling out his principles for a paycheck and a pardon? Can he resist the camaraderie of being on a super team? Does he fall prey to the ample charms of the beautiful Olympian Aphrodite? How will he survive the jealous schemes of Ultraweapon, who wears armor so powerful it makes Cal's look like a museum piece? See the world of "righteous do-gooders" through the eyes of someone who doesn't particularly care for them ... Revel in his sarcasm and hang on for one wild ride! Just remember - Losing an argument with a group of rioters isn't a good excuse to start lobbing tear gas indiscriminately at them. You've only got so many rounds and it's going to be a long day, so make sure you get as many as possible with each one.

About the Author

Jim Bernheimer lives in Chesapeake, Virginia with his wife and two daughters. He is the author of Dead Eye: Pennies for the Ferryman, Spirals of Destiny Book One: Rider, and the forthcoming Dead Eye 2: The Skinwalker Conspiracies. All of these titles are available from Gryphonwood Press. Under his EJB imprint, he is the author and publisher of Confessions of a D-List Supervillain and Horror, Humor, and Heroes Volume One. For the anthology Horror, Humor, and Heroes Volume Two he was a contributing author, editor and publisher.

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Review

"Spooky, shocking, and surreal narrative tricks and treats [in] forty spanking- new stories inspired by classic folktales from around the world are showcased in [this] lavish anthology."
-Elle

"The shiveringly titled My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me proves that the fairy tale can still mutate into new, chilling, often humorous forms... There are many surprising plums in this pie... A fine example...is Aimee Bender's 'The Color Master.'...Kevin Brockmeier's 'A Day in the Life of Half of Rumpelstiltskin'' is a grotesque, witty, and melancholy guess into what life must be like for the Rumpelstiltskin... The best story here is an old one by John Updike... Another triumph of realism is Francine Prose's 'Hansel and Gretel.'... Chris Adrian's retelling of the Irish story 'Teague O'Kane and the Corpse' is a gruesome romp. Karen Joy Fowler's 'Halfway People' is eerie and stirring. Jim Shepard's 'Pleasure Boating in Lituya Bay' is challengingly complex. And the haunting 'First Day of Snow' by Naoko Awa is a fairy tale that makes you feel like a child again."
-The Boston Globe

"The fairy tale is not dead. This wonderful collection brings together some of our best contemporary writers and some of our most beloved (and even feared) old stories. Rumplestiltskin, Bluebeard, the Earl-King, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White-all come alive again in vivid and colloquial prose. This is a book of brilliant dreams and dazzling nightmares: perfect fare for imaginative readers of any age."
-Seth Lerer, author of Children's Literature: A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter and dean of arts and humanities at the University of California, San Diego

"I cannot remember a time I had more fun reading a book! Many of these contemporary tales rival the originals in creepiness, joy, and impact."
-Darcey Steinke, author of Easter Everywhere

"Let's open the door to the green room and peek to see who is waiting. A bevy of beauties . . . an evanescence of sprites . . . an abundance of adversaries . . . a passel of princes . . . Maybe we should have brought that bubbly; but there's something being served here more deeply inebriating than champagne. Hush."
-Gregory Maguire, from the Foreword

Product Description

The fairy tale lives again in these forty new stories by some of the biggest names in contemporary fiction

Neil Gaiman, Michael Cunningham, Aimee Bender, Kelly Link, Lydia Millet, and more than thirty other extraordinary writers celebrate fairy tales in this thrilling volume-the ultimate literary costume party.

Spinning houses and talking birds. Whispered secrets and borrowed hope. Here are new stories sewn from old skins, gathered from around the world by visionary editor Kate Bernheimer and inspired by everything from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" and "The Little Match Girl" to Charles Perrault's "Bluebeard" and "Cinderella" to the Brothers Grimm's "Hansel and Gretel" and "Rumpelstiltskin" to fairy tales by Goethe and Calvino.

Fairy tales are our oldest literary tradition, and yet they chart the imaginative frontiers of the twenty-first century as powerfully as they evoke our earliest encounters with literature. This exhilarating collection restores their place in the literary canon.