"Emporia" is a collection of short stories written between 1990 and 1999. As with most short story collections, some are winners, some are weak. I tried to cut out all the complete losers, but I'll be the first to say some here are better than others.

The collection includes the following 10 stories:

"A Letter Found On The Train, Unsent"
Literally that-a letter, written by a very sad-sack character to his sick mother, describing a vision he had after getting hit on the head with a suitcase.

"Bluemouth"
When this story was first out, and getting a big buzz, everyone thought for sure I was a child murderer. It is a very bloody, very adult story of a 10 year-old boy named Martin, who is kidnapped by a fantasy weirdo with blue lips and a blue tongue. I've been told that it's truly horrible and disturbing, but in the nicest way…

"The Driving Bugs"
A rant by a high-speed revenge freak.

"The Wiretrain"
A ghetto drug story that barely made it in the book, mostly because it was the oldest. A young inner-city guy is haunted by a cylindrical ghost-creature after each tragedy in his life. I still think there are moments of strong characterization and plotting, but it's still not the best.

"The Strange Case of Doctor Bomstein"
An absolutely fab story set during a turn-of-the-century carnival. Some consider it a companion piece to my radio drama, "Uncle Ant." It's centered around an uptight, but romantic dentist who tends to a headlining freak with super-strong teeth. Written in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it's an old throwback, but I love it.

"Earth Vs. Mars"
"Iowa Insurance Office Discovers Alien Body In Ceiling." It's basically a group of people saying "What's that smell?" for twenty pages.

"Tomorrow The Green Grass"
A very sad little ditty inspired by a dream. A downtown couple wake up one morning with the secret knowledge that the world will end at 1 o'clock. I love it for many reasons.

"The Toy Drum"
A Christmas story I wrote for my family one year when I didn't have any money. I almost didn't put it in the collection, but a good writer friend of mine told me he'd "slit my throat" if I left it out.

"A Lifetime's Supply Of Fool's Gold"
This one was a direct result of my days at Columbia. It's very Ray Bradbury, and basically a condemnation of the formal teaching of writing. Set in a future society where everyone is involved in writing, publishing, or printing-a world without manual labor or numbers-a young student questions her purpose in life. As one character says, "No, I love writers. Shakespeare, Austen, Hemingway, Bradbury. Them's the real stuff. Writing born out of struggle when the craft was a joy, not an order. Those people were chosen by God, not by man, and they came through. And I thank them. I have not been chosen to write, and I'm wise enough to see that." One day in writing class, something occurred to me: Why would these teachers, all probably frustrated writers, be giving away their secrets? Aren't good young writers their main source of future competition? It made me doubt their motives, and start to question the information.

"Throw The Control Darts"
The longest piece in the collection, and the one with the most to say. Taking place in one night, two men play a futuristic home game of darts, laying bare all their fears, hopes, and frustrations, leading to the most wicked surprise ending. Although everything in the story has merit, it really only has major impact after you know the ending. It could easily be a "Twilight Zone" episode.

So there you have it-ten years of big ideas in small packages. Usually, I use short stories to kind of search around for novel ideas. I can directly link some of the things I learned about writing to these shorter works. Sometimes you don't want to spend months or years on a piece; sometimes you just want to say you finished something. Also, shorter fiction is a good inroad to publishing credits. For instance, four of these have already been in magazines. Some of the longer ones are a tougher sell, but still worthy. Personally, I'd pick a couple of these as my "best stuff ever."