“Reading one of his stories is a trip through different seasons, different doors…”

Neal Barrett, Jr. answers (sometimes) to a number of names: Odd, Weird, Gonzo, and, as a former collection points out: Slightly Off Center. Barrett is all of the above, and more. From readers who have followed his career come accolades such as brilliant, unique, sheer genius. Other writers respect his status as a master of words, his ability to weave rhythm and poetry into his tales.

Barrett jumps in and out of genres at will, or simply invents one of his own. He likes to bring his favorite characters together, and see what they’ll do. In “Sallie C.” he puts The Wright Brothers, young Erwin Rommel and Sheriff Pat Garrett in a shabby hotel out west.“Highbrow” finds generations of devoted workers building a half-mile high statue of Richard Nixon.“Tony Red Dog” describes the trials and tribulations of the only Apache in the New York mob.

Neal Barrett, Jr. has made a special effort to give us a number of dark, funny, and hopefully impossible views of the future. Present in this collection are “Under Old New York,” “Radio Station St. Jack,” and the much heralded “Ginny Sweethips’ Flying Circus.”

Clearly, Nostrodamus missed the boat. Read and enjoy…

Limited: 750 numbered copies, fully bound in cloth, signed by author

Table of Contents

Love in the Shadow of the Worm
To Plant a Seed
The Stentorii Luggage
A Walk on Toy
The Flying Stutzman
Nightbeat
Hero
Survival Course
The Grandfather Pelts
Diner
Sallie C.
Winter on the Belle Fourche
Stairs
Ginny Sweethips’ Flying Circus
Highbrow
Perpetuity Blues
Tony Red Dog
The Last Cardinal Bird in Tennessee
Hit
Cush
The Lizard Shoppe
Under Old New York
Four Times One
Rhido Wars
Slidin’
Radio Station St. Jack
Tourists
Getting Dark
The Heart
Limo
At the Store

From Locus:
"Much of the best of those stories are collected in the well-named Other Seasons: the Best of Neal Barrett, Jr., which will certainly make shortlist of the best collections of the year… Barrett's work won't be to everyone's taste, but if you like vivid, unique, quirky, strongly-flavored stuff that's unlike anything that anybody has ever written before or ever will write again, then this collection belongs in your library."

From Publishers Weekly:
"This retrospective collection from Barrett, who was recently named author emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, includes 28 short stories with original publication dates that span almost half a century, both following the development of a master wordsmith and chronicling the evolution of speculative fiction as it blurs into the mainstream… Readers who enjoy insightful and visionary fiction will cherish Barrett’s oblique writing style, as will anyone who has an interest in the history of the genre."