Outsider Monsters: A Flash Anthology — Where Monsters Refuse to Play by the RulesWhat if monsters weren't what you expected?In Outsider Monsters: A Flash Anthology, the world's rules are turned upside down. These aren't your typical villains lurking in shadows. They are outsiders—predators, dreamers, and defiant creatures who refuse the paths destiny set for them. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes heartbreakingly human, these monsters defy labels, challenge expectations, and ...

His work has been called demented, hilarious, quirky and well outside the mainstream and with his sixth collection of short stories Manion unapologetically stays with that formula. Big sloshing mixes of poignancy and offensiveness, hope and callousness.He understands that we are all kind and bigoted. Wonderful and pathetic. The human experience is wildly erratic.And he won't pretend otherwise.

An interesting short story has to be equal parts confession, exultation and suicide note. The writer has to be arrogant and insecure, brimming with joy and despair, able to see hope and hopelessness in everything and, before he can claim to be honest, has to be comfortable lying his ass off.This newest collection of Lance Manion short stories strives for all of the above and is sure to include something to entertain, inspire and offend everyone. His writing has been called demented...

With this newest collection of irreverent short stories Manion once again asks the reader to get off the bench and into the game as he dishes out laughs, offense and even a few poignant moments. There is no point to be made here. Only the hope that somewhere amidst all the run-on sentences, unnecessary profanity and poor grammar, readers will come away with some unique thoughts of their own. Perfect reading for artists, commuters and people who spend an inordinate amount of time on the toi...

A collection of short stories isn't really a book. It's more like dozens of ideas that could have been books if they were thought of by someone with a better attention span. To put it another way; if you took an infinite number of Shakespeares and put them in front of an infinite number of typewriters with an infinite amount of time they still wouldn't come up with the complete works of Lance Manion.

Finally! All of the stories under one cover. Nap Lapkin, America's top agent, respected and feared by every agency in Washington, is both a lover and fighter and so much more. And less. But mostly more. There can be no argument that this is the funniest book ever written. No argument whatsoever.

Lance spends too much time thinking about all the ways life would be different if our eyes were on the top of our feet as opposed to perched over our noses.Shoes for instance…Or karate.He doesn't enjoy thinking thoughts like these, but grow them as he might, the beards never help. So off they come. Hairy reminders clogging up the sink, if hairs were thoughts and plumbing was being normal. Lance should know. Lance is a plumber.Well, a plumber in the sense that yo...

They say that good writing comes as a result of introspection. Events unfold in such a way that you are required to unflinchingly stand in front of a mirror, look yourself square in the eye and take stock of who you are and where you're going. When those moments happen a funhouse mirror will do nicely. Look at how big my head is.

Charles Bukowski, in his poem so you want to be a writer?, gave a laundry list of things to consider if you want to be a writer.Perhaps there should be such a list for readers.Not your casual reader of course. Not someone who is perusing a newspaper or diving into a typical 'best seller' to kill a few hours. More along the lines of a Lance Manion short story collection.There are some prerequisites for such an endeavor. A rather impressive imagination and some moral fle...

His work has been called demented, hilarious, quirky and well outside the mainstream, and with his twelfth collection of short stories Manion unapologetically stays with that formula.With this newest collection Manion once again asks the reader to get off the bench and into the game as he dishes out laughs, offense and even a few poignant moments. There is no point to be made here. Only the hope that somewhere amidst all the run-on sentences, unnecessary profanity and poor grammar, ...

Paige Madison returns from World War II ready to get on with life and start a career to support his aging parents, but his new boss has him foreclosing on homes in ways Paige starts to believe are unscrupulous. But distancing himself from the boss is hard when the boss’s daughter, Reva, has set her cap for him and won’t be rejected.When Paige is thrown together with the minister’s daughter, June, to help a family in need, he immediately recognizes how a gentle woman of faith is mor...

Patricia Prentiss grows up in a mansion as the privileged daughter to an old-fashioned father who believes in church and public school, though his more progressive wife challenges him on both traditions. So, Patricia develops both a love of God and for a boy who is beneath her parents’ notice. After school and during college, Patricia loses contact with dear John Worth, but when her parents announce that she should wed the spoiled bully Thornton Bellingham, she begins to desperately pray t...