Overview

King Size Peggy: And 8 More Tall Tales is simultaneously laugh-out-loud hilarious and scream-in-horror terrifying, sometimes within the same story. The unifying theme in this ""American Grotesk"" collection of nine tales is jobs-a good one you can't keep, a lousy one you can't seem to leave, or a complete lack of one altogether. These stories feature ordinary people, sometimes culturally, physically, or emotionally vulnerable, who encounter unseen and occasionally malevolent influences. Then, in the presence of sometimes irrational, horrific, and transgressive thoughts, desires, and impulses, they are forced to claw their way out or die trying. From a transplanted country preacher trying to lead a freakish parish in 1920s Richmond, to a door-to-door salesman too scared to go door-to-door, to two unemployed schlubs who encounter a mysterious stranger who breaks into their apartment and goes to bed, these mostly Richmond, Virginia-based stories embrace absurd incongruity, flawed characters, and far-fetched bizarreness in a marked departure from the expected.

Full Product Details

9798218935870

Table of Contents

Reviews

Dale Brumfield's new collection is a literary gem filled with the rare ""I can't go to bed; I have to read one more story first!"" quality. Ordinary characters? Sometimes. Ordinary circumstances? Au contraire. From a hapless out of work character who encounters more than a bit of uninvited trouble in ""This Looks Really Bad"" to the desperate humanity of ""The Doomsday Broadcast"" to the mind-twisting intrigue of the title yarn, ""King-Sized Peggy,"" (which has probably the catchiest opening paragraph I've ever read), Brumfield has knocked the ball out of the park with every tale in the book. Elizabeth Massie, Bram Stoker and Scribe Award-winning author of Sineater, Hell Gate, Desper Hollow, Versailless

Author Information

Virginia native Dale M. Brumfield is not only King Size Peggy but a criminal justice journalist, TEDx speaker, and author of 13 books, including his last work, ""Closing the Slaughterhouse: The Inside Story of Death Penalty Abolition in Virginia,"" released in May 2022. Dale held leadership roles as both Field Director and Executive Director at Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a Richmond-based nonprofit instrumental in ending capital punishment in Virginia. In 2015, he was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Mary Washington University for his short story ""Death Row Report,"" and the Library of Virginia has twice recognized him as a best non-fiction book author nominee. From 2014 to 2020, Dale contributed historical articles to the Staunton News-Leader and has received several honors from the Virginia Press Association, including a first-place award for feature writing in 2022 for his Richmond Magazine story ""The Unbroken."" In 2021, he was a co-recipient of the Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award from Atlanta's Southern Center for Human Rights for his advocacy against the death penalty. He currently lives in Richmond.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available