ADVANCE PRAISE AND REVIEWS
FOR WHATEVER HAPPENS, PROBABLY WILL:
"Whatever Happens, Probably Will is a splendidly varied
collection of stories, all of which deserve to be read at least
twice. Bravo..." - John Engell, Professor Emeritus of American
Literature, Film and Creative Writing at San Jose State University
"These are remarkable and full-bodied stories with end notes as
satisfying as a fine wine. With an eye for poignancy, and often
absurdity, in the everyday, John W. MacIlroy deftly inserts the
ominous within the commonplace." -
Elizabeth Robin, winner of the Carry McCray Nickens Fellowship
"In this startling collection, John W. MacIlroy sprinkles his
tales with wonder, and a hint of wistfulness. His stories call us to
find hope in the everyday, meaning in the bittersweet, and strength
in the punch to the gut..." - Andrew K. Clark, author of Jesus in
the Trailer
"John MacIlroy's stories creep up like a fog on a page, waving a
seductive spell around his readers, illuminating the fortunate, the
forgotten, the sinners, the has-beens, and the broken with equally
deft strokes. You feel the fingers of Spanish Moss on a Mississippi
bluff, stare into the dark along a rural Georgia railroad
right-of-way, taste the sweet wine of a long shared life as the sun
slips toward the horizon. The best way to read a MacIlroy story is
to relax, surrender, and fasten your seatbelt." - Jayne Adams,
author of All the Right Reasons
"Whoever you are, you will find yourself in these stories... the
bemusements, the sadness, the happiness, the longings, the joy." -
Barry Dickson, author of Maybe Today
"Written with warmth and sensitivity, these stories delight in
the mischievous turn of phrase, powering on to endings that bring
both heartbreak and joy, often wrapped in a wicked twist. We feel
the long and heavy shadow of the past, and the pain of the ordinary
life. And in the end, John W. MacIlroy's writing simply leaves us
wanting more." - Midge Pierce, former publicity assistant at
Simon & Shuster
"John W. MacIlroy is a master of the moment - the moment when
everything turns, and the reader suddenly and deeply knows the heart
of the character who is, all at once, not so different from the
reader herself." - Beverly Jean Harris, runner-up for the Short
Story America Prize for fiction
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REVIEWS FOR NOT EXACTLY ROCKET SCIENTISTS AND OTHER STORIES:
Good
kids at heart, we didn't try to screw up. It's just that we were Not
Exactly Rocket Scientists.
Called "A
great book about friendship..." —
Pat Conroy, New York Times Bestseller author
Not Exactly Rocket Scientists and Other Stories is a collection of "mostly, mostly true" short
stories of life "writ small" in a suburban town in the 1950s and
1960s. Tied together by a certain sense of time and place, each
story nevertheless stands well on its own, a nod to those with
attention spans about as short as ours. In school, in sports, in the
summer season of peak boyhood idiocy and even in church, we engaged
the world in happy abandon, our band of buddies quick to find chaos
and stupid just about anywhere. In the tradition of writers like
Jean Shepherd and Garrison Keillor, our stories enjoy few triumphs,
and even these were scarcely noted. Our failures, however, were
many, although rarely the stuff of tragedy.
Like almost everybody who has stumbled through their own zany
childhood, we mostly tried, and failed, then tried again.
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REVIEWS FOR NOT EXACTLY
ROCKET SCIENTISTS II: THE TOTALLY UNNECESSARY
SEQUEL:
Kids
grow up. We tried, but it didn't take.
And as we left our
readers in Rocket Scientists, the good folks in our hometown
had enjoyed our zany antics just about enough, ready to push us out
the exit - any exit
- as long as it was far away. But that didn't happen: we mostly
hovered fairly close to home for college, everyone hoping things
might settle down a bit.
That didn't happen either, and NOT EXACTLY ROCKET SCIENTISTS II:
The Totally Unnecessary Sequel tees up some twenty-four new
stories as we bounced along the Aquarian nonsense of the late 1960's
and 1970's. With headwinds both fickle and strong, we nontheless
continued to find chaos and stupid everywhere, along with many
laughs. Our readers will learn a bit more about some old friends, as
well as meet new ones: guys like Squeak and Snatcher from a House
called Delta; a curious sort named Rasputin from a University called
Virginia; a dog named Mortimer Snerd; and even a curse called
McFarland. We ask our readers to join us at a chili joint in New
Mexico, a naked beach in Denmark, a run-down ski resort in
Connecticut - and (almost) to the grave of Lenny Bruce. And that's
just for starters. Funny stuff, we promise our readers, doesn't stop
happening just because we made it through our zany early years.
For more info and to purchase the book
click here.