Psycho Babble and the Consternations of Life (North Shore)

What is this book about: This collection of short stories is sometimes a bit dark in nature. Unlike Grove's previous collection of light and fun short stories under the title of "The Family Reunion" these are more about the consternations of life; the troubles of a life long dream burning to the ground, a boyhood character coming to terms with forgiveness and the psycho babble of Will Farnaby and his aquarium life. These stories are bout the cycles of life, challenges and growth. Psycho Babble and the Consternations of Life was born, primarily, out of three stories; The Consternations of Will Farnaby, The Inner Voice, and H-E-Double Hockey Sticks. Other stories and poems lent themselves to the theme of inner struggle and the cycles of life so were included, not just to make the book longer but to flesh out the theses and help round out this collection. "The Consternations of Will Farnaby" started off as a collection of unlinked short stories about different characters - some closer to life than others. Eventually they were put into an order with Bob as the main character linking them all together and then, for fun, I turned Bob into Will Farnaby after reading Huxley's "Island" - See author notes at the end of the book. These stories are purposefully dry and sometimes mundane in the depth of difficulties that Will Farnaby faces. These stories, like others are undoubtedly biographical on some level; how can they not be? "The Inner Voice" was a struggle for me to write until I found the vehicle to carry the thesis of spiritual growth - the journey. After studying metaphysics, meditation, Tai Che and very specifically Christian Science for most of my life this short story came to life. Much had to be edited out and rewritten before my biggest fear with this story, the fear of proselytizing, was overcome. My journey need not be the same for anyone else. I am still on my journey as you are still on yours, no matter how slow, fast, crooked or straight our paths might be. Am I the truck driver or Andy or a combination of both? It was only with the scrupulous editing from my friend, my editor and now my publisher, R. D. Roy, that this story is seeing the light of day. You will never see the editing notes that I ignored from him. You will never know if this story could have been better if I had followed all of his advice. I have been on the spiritual road of learning about my true spiritual nature for many years. Writing this story was part of that journey. Finally "H-E-Double Hockey Sticks" is, for me, the other keystone to this book. First, do you know what the title means? It is an acronym for the word "Hell" - H-E-LL. The double hockey sticks being the double LL. "H-E-Double Hockey Sticks" was a slick way that a childhood friend's mother used to say the word - hell. I have heard it many times since and did not realize that everyone did not understand, its not-so-subtle, meaning. Follow the journey with this young lad and see if he thinks he will go to hell for stealing matches or not. In the end this short story has become the foundation for a short novel still in progress but still works fine in this original form. All of the other stories and poems in this book including one of my favorites "The Glen Manor Inn" are about cycles of life, challenges and growth in some way or another. They are all fiction and simply part of my journey. I hope you enjoy them.