Author Patrick Anderson Jr.’s Short Story Collection “Boiling Point” Explores the Side Effects of Emotion Repression
Miami
author and resident, Patrick Anderson Jr., recently released "Boiling
Point," a 155-page short story collection that explores the actions of
some extremely angry individuals. From a psychotic hit-man questioning a
priest/mark on the meaning of life, to an abandoned astronaut staring
at his lifeless planet, to an Iraq War veteran returning home to find
everything he ever knew has changed, the characters in Boiling Point are
all teetering on the edge.
“The
overarching theme of the collection is something I didn’t really notice
I was exploring until I saw the stories together,” says Anderson Jr.
“It concerns this human divide between barbaric and civilized behavior
in modern society. Like, we try so hard to stay refined, especially
those among us who consider ourselves educated. We debate, pontificate,
and try to use logic as much as possible throughout everyday situations,
straining to control what’s going on inside of us, pushing our emotions
away until they’re stacked in the garage of our minds like hostages.
But eventually, given enough pressure, people always crack. Boiling Point explores
those breaking points in the context of the characters within each
story and the … unusual situations they find themselves in.”
Originally
published in various magazines, including Prick of the Spindle, Sex and
Murder Magazine, Ghostlight Magazine, Existere Journal of the Arts, The
Washington Pastime, Writes for All Magazine, The Medulla Review, The
Washington Pastime, and The Worcester Review (in which one of the
stories in the collection—“Deserted”—was nominated for a Pushcart
prize), each of the 10 darkly humorous stories in Boiling Point
illuminate the human divide between civilized and barbaric behavior, and
prove that—no matter the person—there’s only so much we can take before
we break.
“Boiling Point” is available in print at Lulu.com, and in eBook format at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.com.
About Patrick Anderson Jr.
Patrick
Anderson Jr. received his BA in English from Florida State University
and his MFA in Creative Writing from University of Central Florida.
Aside from the stories in “Boiling Point”, he has also pieces published
in Silverthought, Miambiance, Midwest Literary Magazine, Bacopa Literary
Review, and The Florida Review. A native of Miami, Patrick currently
teaches English courses at Miami Dade College. Visit his website at www.PatrickAndersonJr.com
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