Midland Tales

Chapter 2

This story started off as a silly little ember of an idea, burning a hole in a notebook but never catching enough air to go full inferno. I nurtured this idea during a global pandemic while writing my previous novel “Mother’s Secret Stomach” and kept it close to my chest so it wouldn’t be snuffed out by the violent political winds of those times. The only reason I wrote this was because I had the support of those closest to me, who dared me to write another book immediately after finishing the last one. It is thanks to these friends and family that I was able to finish this absurd story about a talking tumor. I want to thank Miika Hannila for giving this strange little novel a chance by publishing it, and I want to thank the editors at Next Chapter for fixing all my silly grammatical whoopsie-daisies. You’ve got a great eye, Fading Street, and I appreciate it.

I want to acknowledge my little network of friends who’ve praised my writing enough to convince me to not quit quite yet, or at the very least were there for me when I needed a friend. During a country-wide shut down, sometimes friends is all we got. Kemic, Jason, Matthew, Jacob, Tim, Jesse, Lisa, Lucas, Margot, Johnny, Wendy, Jim, Wade, Scott, Dustin, Goblin and Angry Dan, I appreciate you all and I’m glad you’ve got to see me grow on a petri dish into whatever I’ve become. A big thanks to Sigma and Danger Slater for reading an early copy of this novel and for telling me to not give up. I’d also like to thank Brian Asman, Jeff Burk, Rose O’Keefe, Garrett Cook, Max Booth III, and Matthew Clarke for inspiring me to write this after I crashed a bizarro book reading back in 2021. Go read their books after you’ve finished the last few pages of this one. You’ll probably like them better!

I know it’s been fifteen years since high school, but I will always attribute my love for writing to the teacher who challenged me to take it a tad more serious, without calling the school shrink on me, back when my stories were ultra-violent and worry-worthy, Audrey Nagel-Schoonmaker. I cannot express enough how much you’ve influenced my writing career. Lookie, lookie! I did it!

I want to thank Anton, Klaus, Afro, Yuri, d**k, and every other person who was living at or visiting Anomalia at the time of our trip to Lisbon, Portugal. Thank you for cheering me on with 5,300 miles between us and thank you for reading my novels by candlelight. I’ll be sure to start on the next one as soon as I can for the lot of you.

Oh, and of course, I must acknowledge you, Jeliza Rose, and our cat Sylvie, because I love you and our hilarious life together. I couldn’t have done this without your constant support and love, nor would I want to.

Finally, I want to thank ‘YOU’ for reading this silly story. It really means the world to me, more than you can ever know. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did enjoy this, it will please you to know that this is only the first story in this particular Midland. If you didn’t enjoy it, well, I’m sorry and I will try harder if you just give me one more chance.

Paulie and Parlay will return either way.