Author Description

"The scariest moments are the ones that lurk within our souls": Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).Fear manifests itself within the human psyche in a variety of ways. Normally, the outward signs of fear are calculated based on specific conditions where apprehension becomes, if given the means to fester, rather acute and at times unbearable. Fear of the dark. Fear of confinement. Fear of insects or snakes. Fear of heights or fear of water. Those types of things. All aversions that are manifested by an underlying aspect of fear. Fear is primordial. It is as much a part of the human condition as any other instinct. It is conveyed from within as is any other humanistic quality or trait.As a child I learned not to fear lightning, but to respect it. I was taught not to fear the monster hiding beneath my bed or lurking in the basement but to understand that monsters, for all practical purposes, don't exist. They don't exist with the exception of monsters we tend to create ourselves, fashioning them often from our own misunderstandings and misperceptions of things presenting themselves fearfully. We fashion these hideous creatures of lore based on our own ignorance of things we should, as conscientious and intelligent beings, understand in the first place. We breed our own monsters and nourish them wholesomely, all of them remaining in the deepest recesses of our mind, sinisterly awaiting a chance to consume us.Ghosts, Goblins, and Little Green Men, a collection of short stories, examines just what it is that we all fear... things we create or what things are created by others which cause us far more trepidation than those things fabricated by the most imaginative minds. And what can be more frightening than the life we live? A short novella, 189 Days--A Pandemic Story, is included as a Grand Finale of sorts.