Welcome to Ford

In this collection of 14 speculative short stories, author A.A. Garrison takes us to Ford, North Carolina, a sleepy little mountain town named after a Civil War deserter. Though out of the way, the town seems to attract an immoderate share of the fantastic and the macabre.

Amongst Ford’s citizens are:

• Blake (“The Fifty”), who purchases revenge with a fifty-dollar bill
• Candy Patrice (“Cloyed”), a young woman who adopts a most unorthodox diet-plan
• Mara Dees (“Additive Free”), the unlikely star in a grisly scheme to appease visitors from outer space
• Johannes Bitter (“Half Dead”), an undertaker with an exceptional case of lady trouble
• Kay Barry (“The Minutes”), a woman on her way to a fateful real-estate closing
• The Doctor (“See Sick”), a roving voyeur who sees more than he bargains for
• Roy Mitchell (“The Imaginal”), a professional shipper who spends an enlightening night with himself
• Frank Belmont (“Dead End”), who goes hunting for nostalgia and finds trouble
• Patrick Timothy (“Hoodoo”), a Charlotte reporter investigating the mysterious Bailer cult headquartered in Ford
• Brian (“Brian, Destroyer of Worlds”), who becomes the first man to commit murder by coffee
• Zedok Crane (“The Package”), amnesic serial killer extraordinaire
• Don Frangipani (“The Gardener”), Ford’s only retired cookbook author, and the victim of a subterranean horror’s malefic horticulture
• And The Narrator (“The Center”), a man who saw the face of God and forgot his own name

But don’t let them scare you off. The town isn’t all bad. We’ll grab a bite at the Burger Boy and then see the Cado Kid show tonight. It’s really a fine little burg, a place you could settle down. Welcome to Ford.