Tales From the Liminal
“It’s a breed of storytelling that encases an entire cosmos within a compact form, with prose that pulses with life, with tableaux that transfix the imagination with glimmers of divine order in an emotionally turbulent landscape…tinted by the surreal.” —Timothy Cech, fiction editor, Reed Magazine
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In this collection of fifteen curious and delightful short stories, you never know who you’re going to meet or where you’re going to end up. You can be certain, however, that you’ll always find yourself smack dab in the middle of some befuddling predicament of existence.
Using humor and horror, satire and allegory, fabulism and realism, Tales From the Liminal takes you for an extraordinary ride, submerging you in spaces where anything is possible, especially transformation.
“What an unexpectedly spell-binding collection of soul-teasers!” John C.
“Consistently powerful examples of the short story form used to its greatest effectiveness.” Diane D.
“Beautifully written, evoking a range of emotions that resonate deeply…an unforgettable read.” Steve H.
Get lost in the liminal.
The Collection
Bigfoot’s Got a Lover
The Birthday Party
Man Posts Picture of Unusual Rock then Gets Call from Concerned Parties
When They Come for Me
Mistakes May Have Been Made
All He Could Do Is Sing
She Saw Gertrude Stein in the Condensation on Her Window
The Ferryman and His Brother
Goodbye, Bonavento
The Stretch Motel
I Followed Schrödinger’s Cat and Here’s What I Found
My Streak of Nobody
The Unexpected Consequence of an Unsolicited Revolution
The Carousel
Summoned by a Star
Listen to a 5-minute sample of Tales From the Liminal
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What is the liminal, anyway?
THE LIMINAL is a time, place, or state of being that’s betwixt and between. Neither here nor there. If it’s a time, it might be a summer of travel, a year of illness, or a period of war. If it’s a place, it might be a staircase, airport, or refugee camp. If it’s a state of being, it might be the experience of not fitting into the world’s tidy categories and feeling like you exist somewhere between them, or the experience of no longer fitting into your own tidy categories but being unable to find a way out of them yet. If this is the case, you didn’t end up there by accident. Something new is emerging in you, and for that to happen, some old things need to fall away. Darkness, confusion, and disorientation are to be expected. Just make sure you let the liminal do its work in you. You’ll be glad you did.
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“Tales From the Liminal Offers Up Weird and Wonderful Stories” by Matt Geiger
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WPR Newsmakers Interview
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Study Edition
now available for Pre-order
Pre-order e-book for only $.99 until April 7th!
Paperback available April 1st.
“If this imaginative world of S. K. Kruse creates more perplexity than certainty, literary sojourners should know that they have arrived in the right place. I know that happened for my students as we read, studied, and discussed this most delightful book.”
— Dr. Timothy Carson, teacher of liminal studies, Honors College, University of Missouri, and author of numerous books on liminality