INDEPENDENCE, Mo., April 2, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Man-eating carpet, a mysterious human-devouring monster and a boardroom of androids are just some of the predators lurking behind and in the stories of Carlos Perez. His new collection of stories, entitled Tales From a Disturbed Mind: Stories of Predators and Survivors in a Hostile World (now available through 1stBooks Library) is filled with reality mixed with the scarier things that haunt imaginations.
Perez offers a collection of unique short stories, many only two or three pages in length, focusing on the predators of today's world. Many of the predators are real like the dangerous urban streets that threaten an imaginative child's safety in "The Importance of Superheroes" or spiders and a sexually abusive aunt in "Aunt Josephine." Other predators are more imagined like the man eating carpet that helps Enid get her revenge on the thin people who mercilessly mocked her in "Enid's Pet."
Many of Perez's stories are quite disturbing as he explores and reflects the darkest aspects of society and the human soul as in "Michael" or "The Baby." Other stories have a softness that demonstrates that even in a modern hostile world, there are those who will survive as in "Like a Family."
With genres ranging from fantasy to intense on the edge reality, Tales From a Disturbed Mind showcases one of a kind stories from a new talent in literature. Perez twists the cynicism of Sedaris within Kafkaesque situations creating a distinctive voice.
Perez has a master's degree in English from the University of Missouri Kansas City. His fiction has been published in a number of journals such as Midwest Medical Ethics, Potpourri, The Ecphorizer and Prism. Pioneer Drama Service recently published his play, Folktales for Fun: Multicultural Plays for Young People. He has also been commissioned a number of times to write plays for other organizations. His play, Visions in Amber, placed in the Stage Category of the 1996 Writer's Digest writing competition and in the Latino Division of the 2000 Southwest Festival of New Plays. Perez's screenplay, Strays, helped to make him a finalist in the 1998 Chesterfield Writer's Film Project competition and a quarter finalist in the 1998 Maui Screenwriters competition. He currently is a tenured instructor at Maple Woods Community College in Kansas City, Mo., where he teaches creative writing, theater and speech.
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