Troubling Tales

E W Farnsworth's long and short literary tales are designed for the thinking reader who is not satisfied with stock plots and themes. ‘River Tale’, a Novella, combines three stories about romance growing in spite of an outbreak of radical Islamism in the Virginia Piedmont. Three other tales, about a ghostbuster called Mr. Geister, take varying perspectives on extinguishing vengeful spirits in North Carolina, Arizona and Massachusetts. Jewel-like shorts include the micro-vignette of a biker girl’s placing flowers at the place where her biker friend’s electrocuted body was found under a power-line derrick. Most troubling in the collection is ‘The Blood Closet’, the tragic story about the anguish of abiding by external requirements for UNISEX bathrooms in a middle school. Two disturbing, factual episodes from Virginia and California are blended in this fictional work wherein complex issues are presented, but not resolved. E. W. Farnsworth lives and writes in Gilbert, Arizona, USA.