Mario Milosevic: 53 books

Crime knows no bounds. Past, future, present, all host wrongdoers of every stripe. Mario Milosevic spins 15 yarns of crimes dire and humorous, cosmic and ordinary. Imagine the moon stolen—in three different ways. Consider the nice old man in the assisted living facility who harbors a cruel secret....

Barbie’s retirement. Gambling fairies. Love sick giants. All this and more in a book of poems exploring the fantastic side of life. Unhindered by conventional notions of reality, Milosevic writes poems about monogamous house keys, the moon in his living room, the secret lives of telephones. Also: ghosts, angels, cosmic gluttons, Pegasus, Albert Einstein and Ray Harryhausen. Really.

Lowell never thought a library could be the most dangerous place in the universe. Then he gets an assignment to retrieve a book from the Universal Library. He soon encounters marauding bands of library patrons crazed with blood lust. Before long Lowell is in a battle to the death that will test his courage, and his dedication to the beneficial effects of books and literature. (short story)

Alien races clash on a remote planet laden with mineral riches. Earth successfully intervenes to save the peace, quell the fighting, and protect the valuable resources. Now human soldiers must deploy to the battlefield planet and make friends with the locals. No one will be safe.

A collection of poems by a noted Canadian/American poet on the subject of the creatures we nurture, kill, admire, eat, hate, abandon, fear, cage, breed, protect, slaughter, love, envy, emulate, domesticate, curse, and ignore: animals of all shapes, sizes, and dispositions. Some of these poems have appeared previously in various magazines. The remainder are original to this volume.

A lonely old tattoo artist gets a mysterious call in the middle of the night. A customer needs a tattoo urgently. The tattooist agrees, but when the customer arrives, he brings a strange aura with him, a mixture of danger and mystery. The tattoo artist recognizes death when he sees it, and before he finishes with this client, he will see a lot more of death than he ever thought possible.

What happens when a know-it-all has to walk her talk? A charming tale of a gentle comeuppance. (short story)

Bart’s ghost writing job finds him penning letters from a deceased man to send to his widow. It’s a weird job, sure, but it’s a living. Then one day Bart gets a call. “Is this the place that sends letters from my Max?” and fear strikes at Bart’s soul. What does he do if no one wants his ghost written letters? What is his responsibility to those who have passed on? (short story)

Time is supposed to be something you can count on. But not if you’re a physicist’s spouse. Then time is as elastic as love. You never know what will stop it and you never know what will get it started again.

The old gargoyle hangs by the courtyard, cold and silent, but not dead. The spark of life burns inside him. When an old man approaches the gargoyle looking for wisdom, the gargoyle must decide how much of the truth to reveal. His answer will change the old man’s life forever.

A man in the winter of his life carries on his family’s tradition of making brooms. Making the world safe for witches, is the way his wife used to put it. One day a stranger comes to his workshop with an urgent request. (short story)

First she was born a doll. Then her parents abandoned her. Then she became a puppet. It’s all a little too much for an ordinary toy, but no one said survival was going to be easy, even for a puppet.

Put enough monkeys in a room, randomly punching keyboards, and eventually, with enough time, one of them will type out a classic work of literature. Only problem, if you’re the monkey who types Hamlet, is what to do for an encore. (short story)

Liz runs a greasy spoon near a prison where death row inmates wait to be executed. One night she takes an order for a last meal from a guy who is most likely innocent of the crime he is going to die for. Liz wants to make the meal as good as she possibly can, as a gift for his passing. But then she...