The Magical Publishing Pen is published by Mary Celeste Press. The collected stories of M. Stefan Strozier vary widely in theme and yet the protagonist is always a male of a certain age. As arranged here, the stories represent a chronological arc of a man's life from boyhood to adulthood. Stylistically, the stories show an arc too, as a story about a young man was written when the author was a young man, and a story about an older man was written when the author was older, for example. Magical Realism, framed stories, humor, satire, action, different points-of-view, and crisp dialog pervade the stories. This collection is a portrait of an artist as a young to mid-aged man.
The Magical Publishing Pen - collected short stories
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
M. Stefan Strozier lives in New York City. He is the founder and artistic director of La Muse Venale Acting Troupe. His plays, Guns, Shackles & Winter Coats, The Whales, The Tragedy of Abraham Lincoln, and The Green Game, were performed in lengthy runs, off-off and Off-Broadway, and in the Midtown International Theatre Festival. Additionally, he has written Belzac December Night (a one-act play; the first of 8 plays about America), and Villa y Zapata La Revolucion (the first of 4 5-act plays about Mexican history; he is working on the first play in the series now, called The Moctezuma!). He has directed seven plays and a two staged reading of a musical, and produced twenty-one plays. His novels, short stories, poems, essays, plays, etc... are on his website: http://www.mstefanstrozier.org. He has been published in literary journals (online and in print), magazines, and newspapers. He is the founder, CEO, and publisher of World Audience Publishers, and the editor-in-chief of audience Magazine.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Crazy Laced With String Currents of Feeling,
This review is from: The Magical Publishing Pen - collected short stories (Paperback)
Tired of the anemic, navel-gazing, midlife crises stories that dominate so many literary journals these days? Well, then you should read some of the crazy-laced, fevered, and volatile stories that make up M. Stefan Strozier's first collection - The Magical Publishing Pen. The stories have strong currents of feeling through them and some contain a bitterness that is hard to chew upon. But a few are hard to forget: A man remembers his father's advice - "Always remember that you've had Hollywood all of your life" -- and ends up briefly involved with an exotic wrestler, Hugh Hefner, and a locker room scene that teeters on the brink of surrealism: in "The Tigress" the narrator, who had been diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic, restores an old tractor engine and in the process restores himself; in "The Man and His Wife" a beleaguered husband watches his wife transform into a giant spider." No, these are not stories for the squeamish; these are not stories for puritans. But they are alive, and that's what good readers deserve. Louis Phillips
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great book!,
A Kid's Review
This review is from: The Magical Publishing Pen - collected short stories (Paperback)
This book of short stories is short and reads fast. I think it would be better read in as close to one sitting as possible in order to keep the feel of the whole experience. The feel of the stories ties them together. The author of these stories wrote a book of poems called "Schizophrenia Poems" - this gives an indication of the nature of some of the stories, though not all. And it's best exemplified I thought in the first story, "The Farm". (Also by the way in "The Temptress" - about a young man, recently out of a mental hospital, making his own identity, and "Happiness in New York City" - an ironically titled story about a homeless man who hallucinates a visit from god.) "The Farm" is a wonderfully written piece on the life and mental aberrations (including vivid hallucinations) of a young boy, who in a later story is diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic. I believe the book is autobiographical-ish, though the main character in each story usually has a different name. The author is also a playwright, and I thought the dialog flowed smoothly - clean and natural. It was certainly interesting. I won't reveal anything further about the plots of the stories. Except to mention that one, "Seashore of Lake Michigan", is I believe about an adolescent boy with mental problems testing a friendship. "The Man and His Wife" is right out of Kafka, succinctly and effectively written. There is a long story about a sensitive man's reactions to the Gulf War (before, during and after his going there). The grandfather of this man was himself in a war, had shot an enemy soldier in half, and never stopped feeling remorse and regret for it. At one point, in a car with his grandson, he cries and cannot stop for 10 minutes, then recovers and drives on. A story about rejection struck me as pure feeling - the whole thing, emotion inhabited every sentence. I felt it. Though there was nothing maudlin or melodramatic about it. There is a story about a shipwreck, excitingly told, leaving two men alone, adrift on a raft - an Irishman and an Englishman. The title story (probably not autobiographical!) has a great ending. The story called "Hollywood's Last Hurrah!" (ostensibly true) started out reminding me of Capote's collection of essays on people he'd known, then turned into Dostoyevsky's "Notes From The Underground"! I've mentioned something that struck me about several of the stories. I liked this book very much, and recommend it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book!,
A Kid's Review
This review is from: The Magical Publishing Pen - collected short stories (Paperback)
This book of short stories is short and reads fast. I think it would be better read in as close to one sitting as possible in order to keep the feel of the whole experience. The feel of the stories ties them together. The author of these stories wrote a book of poems called "Schizophrenia Poems" - this gives an indication of the nature of some of the stories, though not all. And it's best exemplified I thought in the first story, "The Farm". (Also by the way in "The Temptress" - about a young man, recently out of a mental hospital, making his own identity, and "Happiness in New York City" - an ironically titled story about a homeless man who hallucinates a visit from god.) "The Farm" is a wonderfully written piece on the life and mental aberrations (including vivid hallucinations) of a young boy, who in a later story is diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic. I believe the book is autobiographical-ish, though the main character in each story usually has a different name. The author is also a playwright, and I thought the dialog flowed smoothly - clean and natural. It was certainly interesting. I won't reveal anything further about the plots of the stories. Except to mention that one, "Seashore of Lake Michigan", is I believe about an adolescent boy with mental problems testing a friendship. "The Man and His Wife" is right out of Kafka, succinctly and effectively written. There is a long story about a sensitive man's reactions to the Gulf War (before, during and after his going there). The grandfather of this man was himself in a war, had shot an enemy soldier in half, and never stopped feeling remorse and regret for it. At one point, in a car with his grandson, he cries and cannot stop for 10 minutes, then recovers and drives on. A story about rejection struck me as pure feeling - the whole thing, emotion inhabited every sentence. I felt it. Though there was nothing maudlin or melodramatic about it. There is a story about a shipwreck, excitingly told, leaving two men alone, adrift on a raft - an Irishman and an Englishman. The title story (probably not autobiographical!) has a great ending. The story called "Hollywood's Last Hurrah!" (ostensibly true) started out reminding me of Capote's collection of essays on people he'd known, then turned into Dostoyevsky's "Notes From The Underground"! I've mentioned something that struck me about several of the stories. I liked this book very much, and recommend it.
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