By Richard Peabody
The suburbs seemed like a good idea at one time. What happened?
Here are stories that like to stretch the rubber bands of the heart until they break. Stories with a pop sensibility that eat out of your hand, lick your fingers, and then bite you. Peabody pokes fun at suburban dreams, suburban people, and suburban trials and tribulations. But he does it with a smile. Escaping the suburbs is a goal for some, others remain trapped, or must return to consequences. If time doesn't grind you down, if paranoia doesn't make you crazy, if love doesn't crush your spirit, then maybe you have a chance. The same chance whether you're in New York, the Carolinas, New Mexico, the DC area, or someplace more exotic.
Richard Peabody is a French Toast addict and Native Washingtonian who edits Gargoyle Magazine and has published a novella, two books of short stories, six books of poems, plus an e-book, and edited (or co-edited) twenty-one anthologies. He teaches fiction writing for the Johns Hopkins Advanced Studies Program where he won the "Award for Teaching Excellence" for 2010-2011. A new collection of poems, Speed Enforced by Aircraft, is due from Broadkill River Press by year's end.
