In “Riding the Softland Express,” a family of luck poachers receives a phone call for an order of good luck that sets two brothers off on a road trip in the hopes of reversing their bad fortune. A luminous-yet-jaded Neon looks for love, or at least a one-night exothermic reaction, while attending the “Periodic Table of the Elements Weekly Singles Mixer.” A young woman’s obsession nurtured by her grandmother’s tales of strange and mythological creatures leads her to discover that magic does exist and childhood dreams can come true in “When the Giant Koi Returned to San Francisco.” And in “Remedial English for Reanimated Corpses,” zombies, vampires, werewolves, ogres, ghouls, and other creatures of the night attend Bela Lugosi University to learn how to become better, well-rounded monsters. But at BLU, vampires and werewolves rule while zombies most definitely drool.
Downtrodden luck poachers, lovelorn chemical elements, victimized zombies, obsolete villains, trademarked teenagers, disillusioned children, underachieving adults, domesticated centaurs, outcast reindeer, giant koi, and time-jumping alcoholics are just some of the LOST CREATURES you'll encounter in this collection of short stories that blends fantasy, science fiction, dark comedy, and magical realism.