EXISTENCE COSTS

Landscapes of the future, the past and the present blend into a realistic vision of our world where violence, shame and paralysis combine to remind us that our Existence Costs. In his first collection of short fiction, Brad Simkulet brings together screenplays, short stories, fragments and drama to explore the infanticidal logic of our society. This is a world where violence is not just an element of our animal natures, but the ineluctable truth of our lives. As sensual as it is deeply personal, Existence Costs contains sights, sounds, tastes, smells and touches that will be immediately recognizable-regardless of their places in space or time. Brad Simkulet takes plenty of intriguing risks, particularly with structure. And he successfully manages to create the right amounts of tension, drama and conflict-the juice of fiction-by providing measured portions of different genres and getting the reader emotionally involved. [Existence Costs] is an energetic, literary knuckleball! -Ken Rivard, author of Whiskey Eyes_,