BACKWATERS: 12 MURKY TALES
STORY NO. 1
“LYLE AND THE SPACE MAN”
A spaced-out bald man gets a haircut at Lyle’s barber shop. A medium from the past uses false teeth to communicate with the dead. When Lyle takes the Space Man fishing, what will they pull from Tallapoochee Creek?
BACKWATERS: 12 MURKY TALES
STORY NO. 2
“MANDIBULAR FIXATION”
Little Ally’s teeth are growing out of control. Her father fixates on Luchador masks and mission trips to Guatemala. Their home becomes a site of ritualistic violence when a woman’s epidermis is found at the bottom of the Tallapoochee River.
BACKWATERS: 12 MURKY TALES
STORY NO. 3
“CATFISH”
A young would-be stalker’s brain is scrambled with a 3D bioprinter.
BACKWATERS: 12 MURKY TALES
STORY NO. 4
“LORD OF THE FISHES”
Church leaders in Tallapoochee County are dying off in disturbing numbers. New yoga instructor Leila and her blue blazer clad assistant use pernicious aromatherapy oils and beastly asanas to purge the flock.
BACKWATERS: 12 MURKY TALES
STORY NO. 5
“A DEAD CAT CHRISTMAS”
A geriatric cat named Bubbles lies stiff under the Christmas tree after drinking water from a nearby stream. When Bubbles returns from the dead, Lance must go into the “special closet” to face traumatic memories of his sadistic wife and take on the revenant cat.
BACKWATERS: 12 MURKY TALES
STORY NO. 6
“CAKE WALK”
When Ronnie Weeks is thrown from a moving ambulance during an emergency call, attorney Lionel Fredericks is pulled into a puzzling legal suit involving trauma shears, augmented lips, cellular regeneration, and ragtime dancing.
BACKWATERS: 12 MURKY TALES
STORY NO. 7
“TRANSPLANT”
The Boy in the Blue Blazer stalks Hannah’s apartment complex at midnight, his stomach bulging obscenely as he moans, “take it back.” Hannah’s new roommate Leila, who has a penchant for fish, baits frat boy Austin for a disquieting sexual encounter. Austin finds an empty penis outside Hannah’s window.
BACKWATERS: 12 MURKY TALES
STORY NO. 8
“SLAPJACK: A CASE STUDY”
Hannah interviews Lyle the Barber and Russell “Slapjack” Fredericks about the psychological effects of fecal transplantation.
BACKWATERS: 12 MURKY TALES
STORY NO. 9
“BABY FACE”
After husband Dewayne Woods (aka Peckerwood) disappears out by Tallapoochee Creek, Clara hallucinates about mutilated hounds, psychotropic casinos, and an eerily familiar monster child who hides in the boughs of dark trees. With the help of Ronnie Weeks, Clara struggles through wetlands and blackouts to seek her missing husband.
BACKWATERS: 12 MURKY TALES
STORY NO. 10
“THE PECKERWOOD CASE”
Lionel Fredericks and Dr. Gomez Villaponteaux hire sleazy paralegal Kelly Keith to track down Dewayne “Peckerwood” Woods and determine the true identity of Leila, the elusive cult leader who does data-driven rituals deep in the Tallapoochee National Forest.
BACKWATERS: 12 MURKY TALES
STORY NO. 11
“FOUNDLING”
A college professor’s lab is attacked and her mutant fish decapitated. The EPA intervenes.
BACKWATERS: 12 MURKY TALES
STORY NO. 12
“HYDROMANIACS: A NOVELETTE”