Lorin Lee Cary
Quick and Quirky Stories and Photos is a collection of twenty-nine unique flash fiction pieces, none over 1000 words. The shortest is only 128 words long. So these are fast reads. Some short short stories are humorous, others thoughtful, but all are designed to illuminate various characters. Included are a con man who plans to entice writers, a superhero who suffers from an embarrassing emission, a man diagnosed as bland, a waitress who listens to her customers and at night writes best sellers, a person who collects phrases, the interior life of a man raised to be serious, a policewoman who is herself, well, that’s getting ahead of the story. Then there’s the family history buff who discovers insertions in his private notes, ones he didn’t enter, an innocent moviegoer analyzed by a couple sitting on either side of him, and a woman who thought the gun had blanks in it when she told her husband to shut up. Included are thirty or so photographs taken in various places. I always look for the odd or funny juxtaposition, which these pictures reflect. There are signs advertising fake watches, no-fishing on a dock filled with fishermen, and one cautioning 'No Passing' next to a cemetery. The pictures don’t illustrate the stories themselves. They fit the quirky theme and may promote a laugh.
