Books from the Poison Pie Publishing House.

A selection of novels, illustrated books, poetry, musical scores, a volume of collected short stories and technical monographs are available from the Poison Pie Publishing House. A set of one-page promotional flyers for each book is available here.

 

musical scores

 

  • Hebeloma's Lament in a Dozen Denials (2024)
    a post-existential musical score generated through a non-idiomatic creative process;
    full text online; free, anonymous access; serially published on a daily basis in 2024
    heroine: Europe
    occupation: wanderer
    thematic axis: Determination ↔ Indolence

 

  • Hebeloma's Clockwise Cadenza (2023)
    a post-existential musical score generated through a non-idiomatic creative process;
    illustrated by Bus Stop Art Show;
    full text online; free, anonymous access; serially published on a daily basis in 2023
    heroine: Melanippe
    occupation: cartographer
    thematic axis: Dignity ↔ Contempt

 

  • Hebeloma's Abyssal Aria (2022)
    a post-existential musical score generated through a non-idiomatic creative process;
    illustrated by Bus Stop Art Show;
    full text online; free, anonymous access; serially published on a daily basis in 2022
    heroine: Eurymedusa
    occupation: swimmer & sybil
    thematic axis: Integrity ↔ Dishonesty

 

  • Hebeloma's Swamp Fantasy Overture (2021)
    a post-existential musical score generated through a non-idiomatic creative process;
    illustrated by Bus Stop Art Show;
    full text online; free, anonymous access; serially published on a daily basis in 2021
    heroine: Periboea
    occupation: warrior
    thematic axis: Courage ↔ Cowardice

 

novels

 

 

  • A Practicum on Divination via Cleromancy (2019)
    a post-existential fantasy generated through a non-idiomatic improvisational creative process; a practical invitation to a joint exercise in apophenia and introspection;
    Book III of the Tetralogy: How I Survived the Presidency of Douchebag J. Troglodyte: A Daily Account
    full text online; free, anonymous access; serially published on a daily basis in 2019;
    also accessible as horoscopes from the Oracle of Hebeloma

 

 

 

  • 2017: The Year of the Every-Day Magician (2017)
    a second-hand account of the rise and fall of the Renegades of the American Muslim Registry, recorded in real time; a post-existential fantasy generated through a non-idiomatic improvisational creative process;
    Book I of the Tetralogy: How I Survived the Presidency of Douchebag J. Troglodyte: A Daily Account
    full text online; free, anonymous access; serially published on a daily basis in 2017

 

  • The Ornithological Collection of Uwetsiageyv (2016)
    a flight of fancy in two hundred and one parts, in which a girl, orphaned by crows, explores the various islands of the Sea of Birds with the intention of populating a library of her own design entirely with bird-shaped books
    full text online; free, anonymous access

 

  • Wouldn't the Wood Weird (2016)
    a post-existential romantic fantasy or Impractical Prayers from the Spindle of the Void. "Making the world a better place without personal sacrifice is like making breakfast without maple syrup. It can be done, but it's not very sweet."
    full text online; free, anonymous access

 

  • The Portable Library of Hong Samud (2015)
    a novel that grew as a vine grows, guided by an innate, phototactic sensitivity, in which unexpected side-effects of the enlightening power of knowledge are revealed through a narrative following the adventures, real and imagined, of several, disparate librarians
    full text online; free, anonymous access

 

  • The Augur in the Arbor Inn (2015)
    A Tautological Myth of Evolution, in which an augur, archivist and alchemist engage the services of a monk and her apprentice to collect genetic material from eight exotic trees scattered across the realms of existence in order to create a perfect tree that defies Darwin's principles of evolution

 

  • The Implacable Absence (2014)
    A Non-Idiomatic Improvisational Duet, in which a mushroom man, a talking bug and a doppelgänger traverse Faerie, Nirvana, the World of the Dead and other planes of existence in search of the Deadly Galerina
    full text online; free, anonymous access

 

  • The Ruins of My Daughter's Cities (2013)
    An Imaginary Travelogue, in which diverse, imaginary cities are described in an attempt to provide a better understanding between a father and daughter
    Book IV of the Hortie Pentalogy

 

 

  • The Sutra of Reverse Possession (2012)
    A Novel of Non-Idiomatic Improvisation, in which a man invites various spirits inside himself in a series of experiments intended to discover superior approaches to being a husband and father
    Book II of the Hortie Pentalogy

 

  • The Horties (2010)
    A Novel of Invisibility, in which an otherwise ordinary family of four flouts the laws of Darwin as well as the laws of physics in an attempt to better understand the world and their role in it
    Book I of the Hortie Pentalogy

 

  • Owen & Dolores (2000)
    a sketch, containing only the most superficial elements of the story, a skeletal narrative, and completely lacking the essential, motivating elements that drove the author to write it in the first place

 

  • Perhaps (2000)
    The Continuing Exploits of Alton & Eugenia, volume two of the partnership between the sorceress, Eugenia, and her reluctant zombie, Alton, obliquely maneuvering in their quest to reduce the sum total of misery on planet Earth

 

  • Alton and Eugenia (1999)
    Twelve Stories, volume one of the partnership between the sorceress, Eugenia, and her reluctant zombie, Alton, obliquely maneuvering in their quest to reduce the sum total of misery on planet Earth

 

  • Slow Ecclesiastes (1998)
    An American Novel of the Late Twentieth Century, a monstrous and unapologetic psychological drama in the grand tradition of Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

  • A Memory of Fire (1997)
    A Novel of Indeterminate Conflagrations, a cross-country road trip in which Poison Pie, Man of the Mushroom People, makes his literary debut

 

 

  • The Wooing of Eva (1996)
    An Empty Journal. Despite the warning of Kobo Abé to the contrary, the protagonist of "The Wooing of Eva" embarks on an endeavor to woo Eva by theory alone.

 

  • Hysteresis (1995)
    An Asymmetric Account of an Individual Apocalypse, or Tragicomedic Juvenilia of a Melodramatic Amanuensis

 

  • novelwise (1995)
    a treatise on wisdom by process of elimination

 

  • june and jitter (the bugs) (1993)
    the bastard child produced from the unholy union of Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" and an unrelenting dose of the clinical absurdism of Kobo Abé

 

  • insect (1993)
    An Entomological Fairy Tale, a bug-sized, post-apocalyptic comedy containing poetic transgressions of the lowest form

 

  • These Stars Are All The Same (1993)
    A Survey of the Constellations, in which it is demonstrated that not even stars are impervious to the powers of absurdity that pervade the cosmos

 

  • I Saw Blood and then Everything Went Black (1993)
    Sixteen Dark Fables from the Future, in which characters identified only by symbolic names and described only by their actions, traipse and stumble about in amoral if not obscene allegories, from which lessons can be drawn that, as likely as not, abuse rather than enlighten the intellect of the sensitive reader

 

  • this is how we are (1992)
    A daemonic debut, in which it falls upon the protagonist to condemn the universe for its insufferable shortcomings and to rise to the moral challenge required to reject it on such terms, though doing so results in self-destruction.

 

 

illustrated books

 

  • An Ornithological Grimoire of East Tennessee (2017)
    H. Crustuliniforme presents a book of spells derived from birds dwelling in East Tennessee, illustrated in felt, featuring bird-themed finger puppets designed by Ms. Ruth Marie Keffer

 

  • A Bestiary of East Tennessee (2015)
    M. Anxo presents a bestiary of the creatures, mundane and exotic, dwelling in East Tennessee, illustrated in felt by the Keffer family

 

  • Jacob's Dream (2015)
    An eclectic collection of illustrations, imaginative descriptions and prayers associated with the angels observed ascending and descending the ladder in Jacob's vision from Genesis 28:12

 

  • The Faerienomicon (2014)
    An Account of Faerie: Its Substance and Curiosities, Its Architectures and Landscapes, Its Hitherto Unsubstantiated Histories, And the Habits of Living Of the Diverse Creatures Dwelling Therein

 

  • The Mushroomnomicon (2013)
    A party of brave adventures set out to retrieve The Mushroomnomicon, a tome of eldritch lore, from agents of the ancient Dragon of the White Wasteland

 

 

  • Tales of the Mushroom People (2011)
    Set in Korea, heroes of the Mushroom People strive to rescue Princess Pie from the clutches of the dreaded Zombieshroom and the Stone Grandfathers known as Dolharubang

 

  • Eugenia and the Forest (2000)
    A pictorial account of one version of the initial meeting of Poison Pie and Eugenia and her first great magic to reduce the sum total of misery on planet Earth

 

poetry

 

  • Morning Commute (2021)
    Twenty-four selected poems by Hippolyta Apesbury. The initial printing was a limited edition of fifty copies issued in celebration of Hippolyta's fiftieth birthday, October 25, 2021.

 

  • A Prayer Book for the Damned (2014)
    A prayer book containing twenty-seven prayers, which deviate from tradition primarily in that they are more open in acknowledging the uncertainties, reservations and short-comings of the one making the prayer

 

short stories

 

  • The Leg & Other Stories (1991-2013)
    Thirteen selected short stories written from 1991 to 2013, in which one finds a type of carnage generally avoided in polite company; one also observes themes constant to the writer over this twenty-three year span as well as the evolution of both writing technique and philosophical outlook; not recommended for the faint of heart

 

technical monographs