“Rejected Spaghetti Western Movie Titles”

originally published at McSweeneys Lists

BY

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You Raped My Sister and Killed My Family When I Was Just a Small Boy Hiding Behind a Table—And I Will Not Rest Until I Have My Revenge

That Prostitute Would Never Have Been a Prostitute If Bandits Hadn’t Burned Her Family’s Barn to the Ground and Stolen All Their Live Stock While She Was Forced to Watch

You Saved My Life From Those Bounty Hunters And Now I’m Indebted to You Except That You Bear the Same Scar Over Your Eyebrow as the Murderer of My Slain Family Whom I Have Sworn to Avenge, Which Puts Me In a Real Conundrum

That Stranger Who Showed Up In Town Sure Looks a Lot Like My Dead Father Who Was Murdered Years Ago When I Was Just a Kid But It Couldn’t Be Because I Saw Pa Killed With My Own Eyes Though Looks Can Be Deceiving, Especially Since I Lost My Eyesight In That Horrible Fire Last June

You Might Be a Prostitute But Beneath That Corset and Your Hardened Ways I Know You Are a Woman With a Pure Heart and I’m Not Just Saying This Because I Want a Freebie

You Cheated When You Dealt That Last Hand of Cards and I Flipped the Table Onto Your Lap But You Took My Sister, Who Is Also a Prostitute, Hostage in Your Hideout in the Italian Hills That Are Supposed to Look Like Texas, Where Everyone Speaks to Me in Italian But I Speak English Back to Then and They Seem to Understand Just Fine

The Mysterious Stranger Is Incredibly Good Looking and His Blue Blue Eyes Really Stand Out Against All the Grime On His Face, But He Is Dragging A Coffin Through the Mud of Our Main Street and Folks Say He’s Been Dragging It for the Last 60 Miles Since Amarillo and I Just Don’t Have A Good Feeling About That, Son

How Dare You Insult That Kind-Hearted Prostitute—Even Though There Is A Bounty On My Head I Will Break This Bottle of Whiskey Over Your Head and Kill You In Front of All These Witnesses In Defense of Her Honor (You Would Do All That For Me, Kind Stranger? Yes, Ma’am. I Might Even Want to Make You My Bride)

Releases this November!

Vixen coverThe Vixen Scream and other Bible Stories

by Nancy Stohlman

116 pages – to be published November 2014

soft full-colour cover: 62 flash fiction stories

ISBN:  978-1-925101-11-9

US $10.00, plus shipping

Pure Slush Press: Online Store

 What  people are saying about The Vixen Scream and other Bible Stories
“Hilarious, irreverent, twisted, bawdy, brilliant – these short shorts by Nancy Stohlman feel like a series of off-kilter encounters with the strangest characters you swear you’ve met before in a previous, more interesting lifetime. With sly humor and daring, Stohlman weaves tiny tales reminiscent of Etgar Keret, but with her own inimitable stamp. The Vixen Scream and Other Bible Stories is an amazing collection. Do not deny yourself the pleasure of reading it.”

Kathy Fish, author of Together We Can Bury It 

*

“Nancy Stohlman’s The Vixen Scream is warped and wonderful, a sometimes poignant, sometimes hilarious flash fiction romp. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, never sure what I’d encounter on the next page but knowing I’d always be entertained – and more often than not, delighted.”

Tom Hazuka, author of Flash Fiction, Flash Fiction Funny, Sudden Flash Youth, and You Have Time For This

*

“Blasphemously funny and potent. Sudden fiction doesn’t get any foxier than this.”

Christopher Allen, author of Conversations with S. Teri O’Type (a Satire) 

*

“Nancy Stohlman wrings epiphanies and hallelujahs from the flash fiction miracles in The Vixen Scream and other Bible Stories. Stohlman is the Patron Saint of Flash Fiction and the Pirate Queen of Inventiveness. She infuses her stories with a richness of language; a depth of the surreal, and a healthy infusion of sanguine wit, guaranteeing readers fall at her feet in worship.”

James Claffey, author of Blood A Cold Blue

*

“The Vixen Scream is a collection of compelling and strikingly original stories – an imagination functioning at full throttle. Nancy Stohlman is a word-alchemist, and here is her book of wonders!”

Robert Scotellaro, author of Measuring the Distance

*

“Stohlman conjures up haunting blasts of wild-skewered, hilarious, subversive worlds within her masterful hands. The Vixen Scream and other Bible Stories is an original collection of flash beauties, peopled by ‘still-warm keys, propping the lid, listening to her heart.’ Stohlman is inimitable and unforgettable! Get a copy!”

Meg Tuite, author of Bound By Blue

 

$20 Quick Edit

Need a short, fast edit from a professional editor?


article-new-thumbnail-ehow-images-a06-va-fh-fold-bill-twin-towers-burning-800x800The $20 Quick Edit
is perfect for flash fiction,short stories, query letters, articles or the opening pages of a longer work. It’s also a great way to test out the services of a professional editor before submitting an entire manuscript.

Send up to 1000 words in a word doc attachment to nancystohlman@gmail.com

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