A Time for Poncey - And other Stories out of Skullbone

Southern Gothic writing in the classic tradition of William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, these stories take a scalpel to life and what we expect of it, with a generous dose of metaphysical themes and seasoned with wit. “Fears and ambitions tangled together in his mind until he no longer knew what to desire, what there was in the world – good or ill, or that born of whatever twisted conspiracy is struck between the two – worth the price of his heart.” Life follows a mysterious path for Poncey S. Muldoon, as he finds a treasure buried since the Civil War … as his dog Judas helps teach town bully Bobby Roach a lesson … as his best friend Marlin MacLenoly adopts a stray peacock that barely escaped becoming an entrée at a failing restaurant. For residents of the small Southern town of Skullbone, the days unfold in always fascinating and always pointless ways through these entertaining and insightful stories.“A Time for Poncey, And other Stories out of Skullbone” is an episodic collection of short stories in the Southern Gothic style. Here the reader will find hints of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” and James Thurber’s “Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” but even more so Solomon's writings in Ecclesiastes. The stories treat the questions of vanity and suffering, life and death, love and passion with empathetic humor, and will leave the reader thinking for days after the reading is done.