Introduction for Buxton and Other Stories

 The Introduction for my new short story collection Buxton and Other Stories:

One of the definitions Merriam-Webster gives for fantastic is ‘conceived or seemingly conceived by unrestrained fancy.’ Another is ‘so extreme as to challenge belief.’ Since all the stories in this collection fit either of those definitions, or at least graze them, I considered calling this collection The Fantastics. But there's a double problem with that: First, there’s the 1960 play The Fantasticks, which could cause some confusion, and second, Merriam-Webster also gives a third possible definition of ‘excellent, superlative’, and that might convey more than a whiff of conceit.

Since my first short story collection was titled 21 Tales, and there are twenty stories in this collection, I briefly considered the title Almost 21 More Tales. But the stories in this collection are very different from my earlier noir stories in that first collection.

While these stories run the gamut from science fiction to horror to mystery, relationships are at the core of most of them—whether it’s the relationship between a husband and wife, a couple which have just started dating, two partners, a baseball player on his last legs and his parents, or a reporter and the truth.