Show Me Where It Hurts

"I'd compare the stories in this collection to the works of Chuck Palahniuk, with a heavy dose of Grady Hendrix, and a righteous helping of Clive Barker. Zombies and cannibalism, witches and ghosts, Bigfoot and fairies, Halloween and the mundanity of a job that grinds you into dust-there is something here for everyone. So buckle up, dig in, and follow these stories into the shadows. There is sure to be something awful waiting for you there-monstrous, full of awe, and shimmering with hope." - Richard Thomas, author of Incarnate and Spontaneous Human Combustion

With his debut collection, Show Me Where It Hurts, Robert E. Stahl lures us into his dark world with examinations of loss, trauma, and transformation. In the thirty works of prose and poetry presented here, broken characters confront their inner darkness when unexpected events further upset their worlds-often with horrifying results.

In "The Weeds and the Wildness Yet," a widower discovers a strange plant growing in his garden that bears an eerie resemblance to his recently departed wife. In "Ghosts on Drugs," a down on his luck salesman is haunted by some very unusual ghosts. A boy's first trick-or-treating experience takes a dangerous turn when a mysterious stranger tags along in "In the Night, A Whisper." In "Evil Inc. (or How to Succeed at Business without Really Dying)," a businessman is harassed by malevolent new bosses when the company goes under new management. "A Woman's Place" pits housewives against each other as contestants on a cruel game show in an apocalyptical future. In "The Aftermath," an outcast schoolgirl gains a deadly new superpower after being cruelly taunted by her peers. And a directionless young barback is seduced by dark forces when the bar he works at hires an enigmatic new bartender in "The Last Night at the Black Boar Tavern."

Ranging in genre from supernatural to psychological, the pieces collected in Show Me Where It Hurts all share fundamental qualities-somber themes, an emphasis on voice, misfit characters, and occasional bursts of optimism.