100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories [Paperback]

Michael A. Arnzen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2004

100 Jolts actually features one hundred short shots of fiction guaranteed to stun. Arnzen has honed his craft to deliver the highest voltage using the fewest words.

According to the author "Horror is the genre of the jolt, the shock, the spark. The horror story's conflict is always a matter of life and death, but death...almost always comes too soon—that's why we fear it."

And now readers have a new reason to be afraid. One hundred new reasons!

From the grotesque to the hilarious these bits of micro-fiction will keep you entertained long after you put the book down.

Editorial Reviews

Review

100 JOLTS is the creation of a very talented writer at the top of his game...Highly recommended. -- ChiZine

If you're a reader you should have this, if you're a writer you need this. -- Kelli Dunlap, Horror-Web

Jaded horror veterans would certainly welcome this book as a refreshing change of pace from mass market factory schlock. -- Randy Schaub, Creature Corner

From the Inside Flap

"Simply stated, there's nothing like this collection of ultra-short fiction. Arnzen continually impressed me with his punchy narrative style and endless images of grue, gore, and gristle. An evening with this book will leave you feeling like you've been gutted like a dead fish and hung out to dry." —Tom Monteleone, author of The Blood of the Lamb

"Avant-horror is all about trespass (of narrative limits, of readerly expectations, of social decorum) and all about the disruption of what our culture thinks it needs to repress in order to remain whole and functioning. In these 100 wild-eyed fictive concentrates, Michael A. Arnzen, the wizard of outré, asks our culture to think again. And again." —Lance Olsen, author of Hideous Beauties

"100 Jolts delivers far more than is promised by its title; with this magnificent collection of literate and disturbing short-shorts, some which are among the darkly funniest I've ever read, Arnzen can rightfully claim his place as the Donald Barthelme of horror. This book is a remarkable achievement." —Gary A. Braunbeck, author of In Silent Graves and Graveyard People

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Raw Dog Screaming Press (April 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974503126
• ISBN-13: 978-0974503127
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,070,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Arnzen (http://gorelets.com) is an award-winning author of horror and dark suspense fiction, a poet, and an English professor. His trophy case includes four Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award for his often funny, always disturbing stories. The best of these appear in the Bram Stoker Award-winning career-length retrospective, Proverbs for Monsters, which Dread Central called "a guided tour of insanity and the macabre, with a few moments of touching grace combined with repulsive terror...[which] serves to document the evolution of a great writer."

Arnzen holds a PhD in English from the University of Oregon (where he researched his non-fiction book, The Popular Uncanny) and he is presently a Professor at Seton Hill University, where he teaches horror and suspense fiction in the country's only graduate program in Writing Popular Fiction (http://fiction.setonhill.edu).

Arnzen resides near Pittsburgh, PA, with his wife of many years, Renate, and a brood of deranged cats.

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"In a little over a decade, Michael A. Arnzen has achieved what few writers manage in a lifetime. He has become the master of a brand of literature that is uniquely his own, and I do not doubt that his approach to horror will soon (if it has not already) be referred to as 'Arnzenian.' When you begin an Arnzen story, you embark on a journey where the old maps do not apply. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory, barreling through landscapes more fascinating and twisted than any previously encountered. Be assured, you will be amazed, startled, amused, and creeped out along the way, but whatever the road has in store, you will not be able to stop reading until the story ends. Horrifying, captivating, ironic -- Arnzenian! -- the works of Michael A. Arnzen are in a class all their own. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride!" -- Lawrence C. Connolly, author of Veins

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flash in the pan sizzles with flavor, July 6, 2004

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories (Paperback)

100 Jolts is a book comprised of what is called "Flash Fiction", a type of very brief fiction pieces that has gained a lot of popularity in the computerized publishing age. When reading online magazines, one does not want to scroll forever, and the eyes will tire; which is where flash fiction lights up to its best advantage.

Whether calling it Flash Fiction or Minimalist Horror, 100 Jolts is a shockingly delightful romp through some very sticky, and very slimy, situations. Michael Arnzen clearly demonstrates that he has been working with Flash for some time, showing off these bereft-poetry-haiku type of "smack you in the face" stories with style and substance.

We have all occasionally read those droll books where an author takes a 50 page story and pads it into 500 pages of tedious reading, and 100 Jolts is the exact opposite of those snooze fests. In this book, there is the sense that a 50 page story has been pared down past the meat into the skeletal frame and left us quivering with the ringing of steel on bone, as Arnzen slices off the juiciest of the story just for us, handing it out to us on a tiny platter, a toothy grin gracing his face.

Well, eat up, boys and girls! 100 Jolts is one of the best collections of this new type of fiction I have seen yet. There were a few pieces that left me disappointed, having the feeling of a muse or a simply jotted idea, but the rest of this thin volume left my hunger satisfied and my mind whirling with the impact, exactly how the author intended.

And for those of us with a warped or twisted sense of humor, you will find a chuckle or two lurking here also.
Some of my favorites include: Skull Fragments, Take Out, Stabbing For Dummies, White Out, The Seven Headed Beast, Psycho Hunter, Inside The Man With No Eyelids, Burning Bridges, Next Door, Nightmare Job #3, Five Mean Machines, The Eight Ball In Big Mouth's Pocket, An Evil Eye, The Blood Ran Out, How To Grow A Man Eating Plant, and Domestic Fowl.

Those are just a tiny sampling of the works collected here. With stories ranging from two or three sentences to two or three pages, this book is perfect for a beach afternoon, a late night flight, or a nice little story before bedtime.

Enjoy!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You'll crave more, April 5, 2005

By 

Henry W. Wagner (Rockaway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories (Paperback)

In his introduction, author Michael Arnzen states that "Horror is the genre of the jolt, the shock, the spark." To prove his point, he then offers up one hundred short stories to his audience, the longest, "Five Mean Machines," only nine pages in length (many are only one paragraph long), each designed with the idea of creating an immediate, visceral reaction in readers. It's a measure of Arnzen's talent that he more often than not achieves this goal, all without losing sight of a couple basic tenets of storytelling, those being to grab and hold your reader, and maybe make him think in the bargain. Despite the limits he's imposed on himself, Arnzen still proves capable of doing just that in little gems like "Nightmare Job #1" through "Nightmare Job #5" (think of it as a mini miniseries), "The Curse of Fat Face," and "Her Daily Bread." One warning before you begin 100 Jolts, though--like the candy in a Whitman sampler, you'll find yourself gobbling up one tale after another. Not a big problem, until you abruptly come to the end, still craving more. You might consider exerting some willpower, and force yourself to sample these varied delights over several days, thus maximizing their impact.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scarier than a self-destructing Olsen Twin, July 14, 2004

By 

Booster Beetle "Booster Beetle" (Herkimer, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories (Paperback)

This book is fantastic. Arnzen takes ideas that lesser authors would stretch out over 500 pages and slams them down in remarkably short, yet complete, stories. Arnzen succeeds in doing what I have been attempting to do my entire life. He scares the hell out of people.