This is my second book of short stories, which I place in the genre of literary fiction. I published a book in 2005 entitled 12, then reworked the stories, polished and honed them into a book that is more of a novel than disconnected stories. I titled that book Sketches Of A Young Man's Life - A Novel In 12 Parts.

It is a novel because of its interwoven themes, metaphors, and symbols, which appear, sometimes ghostly, in every story. It was a novel, not in the sense that it told one long story, but that it was all viewed from the standpoint of one young man's life. It is an experimental work of fiction. This second book of short stories shares many of the characteristics of the first book. However I will not refer to this one as a novel as I did with my first book, though I easily could.

Writing is the highest form of communication and literary fiction is the most challenging, complex and difficult, the summit of all writing genres. Some may conclude that audio and visual communication are superior to the written word. They may be more effective and powerful, but they are not the purest, most truthful forms of communication.

The purest form of communication is still the written word. There is a debate as to how many types of fiction there are. Some say there are over 144 genres and subgenres of fiction, romance fiction being the world's most popular and widely sold. I'm not exactly sure which is the least popular, but I would certainly place among them literary fiction. Some have concluded that the difference between literary fiction and all its other genres is meaning over entertainment.

Literary fiction has meaning, and as Ernest Hemingway once said, it is like an iceberg in that 10% of the work's meaning is above the surface of the water, while the remaining 90% is below the surface. I write literary fiction because of my love for it. I want it to be discussed in university classrooms and literary circles. It is the most difficult type of fiction to write.