Dark Tales to Light the Way
Publisher: PublishAmerica
Published: February 6, 2006
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 282
ISBN-13: 9781424125692
Subjects: General & Literary Fiction; Suspense; Fiction / Suspense; Fiction; Fiction - Espionage / Thriller; Mystery/Suspense
Genres: fiction; suspense; mystery; drama; novelette; short story; fantastic journeys; science fiction
First sentence: From  Another Bad Seed?:  "It was the summer of 1966, and in session was the usual gathering of Guardian Angels (GAs)  at 3:30 a.m., PW (that is, Physical World) time, in one of the 24 earthly time zones."  From  Schizophrenia:  "The stout young man lying on the bus stop bench in the predawn hours just assumed that one of the two voices accompanying him almost constantly was that of the Devil or at least one of the Evil One's representatives."
Description: Dark Tales to Light the Way features two stories of supernatural suspense.  The first is titled  "Another Bad Seed?" Loosely adapted from the novel by late author William March, from the 1950s, it too features a child whose thinking and behavior touch on the sociopathic. In the 1956 film  The Bad Seed  based on March's book, producer Mervyn LeRoy presided over a true masterpiece. The second tale, "Schizophrenia," takes the reader along a journey, an odyssey, wherein the frailties of human motivation and desire are illuminated. In order to lighten the intensity of the tales, occasions of a tongue-in-cheek attitude are injected.
Notes: Starting with the first novel-like tale by this author, attention to ease-of-reading is increasingly attended to, as the pages  "turn."  Dark Tales, from its initial point, was written in an almost  academic style. Later, the author determined that such a format did not optimize the reading experience. Following that first book, the author took ease-of-absorption of the ideas expressed with ever increasing seriousness. The result is spellbinding tales that are followed facilely and (according to report) with rapt interest.
Table of contents: label: Two Tales
title: "Another Bad Seed?" and "Schizophrenia"
pagenum: p.9 & p.89