The Composted Mind: Expanded Edition

By Harry Neil

This "Expanded Edition" includes all the tales from the original, plus five new offerings: "Mama Was a Marple," "Another Way It Could o' 'Appened," "Song Cycle for Street Corner and Continuo - As Directed by The Marquis de Sade," "Ghost Story" and "Love." I've reorganized the material into separate fiction and non-fiction parts, and moved Old American Customs out of the first position. Readers almost universally told me that that tale is way too dark to be the introduction to the collection. I agree. This is a very eclectic collection; every tale is unlike any other. I can't say that they follow any genre; rather they follow my times, my places, and my moods. I hope that there's something here for everyone, but that means that you may find a tale or two that's for someone else. If you are uncomfortable with any one, well, you probably won't find another like it, so just drop it and move to the next one. It'll surely be more to your liking. Among the fiction pieces, you'll find some tales that are erotically oriented ("Rock", "She Knew"), but you'll find others as pure as snow ("A Parable"). You'll find tales from the past ("A Fondness for Murder"), and from the future ("In St. Peter's Square"). You'll read science fiction ("The Momentous Occasions of Professor Ted Miller"), mystery ("Ruby, You're Like a Song"), and plain old spookiness ("Miss Julia"). You'll look at madness ("She Knew"), stupidity ("The Salamander Scripts"), and na vet ("Cherry is Awesome"). You'll find a Greek Tragedy transported to the present ("Old American Customs"). You'll find one tale ("Another Way It Could o' 'Appened") told in almost unreadable Cockney dialect, and one ("Rock") that carries irreverence to the point of blasphemy. One of the new pieces, "Song Cycle for Street Corner and Continuo - As Directed by The Marquis de Sade," is a dark prose poem, and can only be described as experimental. And there's much more. There are four non-fiction tales drawn from my own life. Some you may find amusing, and some are just things I needed to say. I've found that even ordinary lives must include some remarkable happenings, and the more I think about it, the more of those I find. I've decorated up some of them with my flair for melodrama and farce, but not with any untruths, because they are strange enough as they are. I hope you agree.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0578566346
• ISBN13: 9780578566344
• Release Date: September 2019
• Publisher: R. R. Bowker
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"