Coming in March: The Gates of Polished Horn
What happens when you’re face-to-face with a truth that shakes you?
Do you accept it, or pretend it was never there?
Award-winning author Mark A. Rayner smudges the lines between realist and fabulist, literary and speculative in this collection of stories that examines this question—what Homer called passing through The Gates of Polished Horn.
We discover the cruelty of creating synthetic consciousness. A woman is worried that her husband is having an affair but discovers it’s much, much worse. A time traveler uncovers a reality-bending fact while observing the death of Socrates. Waldo, of Where’s Waldo fame, has an existential crisis. A traveling salesperson is killed on the highway, and this is just the start of his journey through the gates.
Infused with comic insight and tragic vision, this collection invites readers into new realities that touch on our shared humanity.
“Mark A. Rayner’s formidable storytelling is on full display in this thoughtful and diverse collection. He’s a fine and creative writer whose characters and storylines are quirky, inventive, and often very funny. Bravo!”
~Terry Fallis, author of The Best Laid Plans & two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour
Don’t want to wait? I’ll send you a free book now!
For a short time, you can choose between Marvellous Hairy and The Fridgularity. (They’re both great in their own ways.) Just join my newsletter to get started!
About Mark
Don’t panic,it’s only Mark A. Rayner, award-winning author of SF, absurd fiction and the occasional screed on the problems with time travel novels. When not writing about the multiverse and manic pixies, Mark teaches at Western University, in Canada, which definitely doesn’t have a beaver problem.
His most recent novel, Alpha Max, is a dark comedy with absurd undertones.
He writes in the genres of science fiction, humorous science fiction and dark comedy. When not working on the next novel, he pens short stories, squibs and other drivel. (Some pure, and some quite tainted with meaning.)
He does all of these thing while being Canadian and owning cats.
You can learn more about Mark and his writings at this very website. Imagine! Check out his blog filled with nonsense, and a more in-depth bio.
After he stops writing about himself in the third person, there will be cake…
