I've been waiting a long time to announce this. Years, I think. The
Midnight Diner 4: Wastelands Under the Sun is finally available to the reading world. It contains my short story
“Morphine and Chocolate,” which is also one of the three Chef's Picks in the collection. "Morphine and Chocolate" draws for inspiration from the medieval poem
Pearl (which you can read all about
here). Bob Marley's “Mr. Brown” also contributed some ideas. Like
Pearl, my story concerns a father mourning the loss of his daughter but places events in contemporary and psychedelic settings.
“Morphine and Chocolate,” possibly our most eccentric Editor’s Choice to date, virtually bursts at the seams as its protagonist, neither an angel nor a demon, tries to come to grips with a horror as quotidian as it is unfathomable.
—Robert Scott Garbacz, in his introductory essay “From the Counter”
I remember this story vividly, Jeff -- so glad it can finally greet the masses. Patience pays off.
ReplyDeleteI thought you might have been a beta reader. It's been so long that I can't remember. Yes, publishing is an exercise (torture?) in patience.
DeleteGreat stuff, Jeff. Don't think I've read this story - by the sound of it I would have remembered - so I'll have to check it out. And I very much applaud your eclectic range of influences...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Simon. If you mix strange ingredients, you get a strange story.
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