Release date: May 15, 2018
Subgenre: Short fiction collection
About Hyperspace Radio:
A young boy comes to terms with his father's undead lifestyle. A caveman
faces failure at the world's first art show. A thief runs afoul of a
pusher who sells death. God goes to therapy and receives a diagnosis. A
tech entrepreneur creates an Internet startup based on a genie's lamp. A
secret worldwide society of dudebros meets to consider an entirely new
kind of bro.
These tales and more brought to you from dimensions both strange and familiar, at the speed of imagination.
These tales and more brought to you from dimensions both strange and familiar, at the speed of imagination.
Excerpt:
My Undead Dad
My Dad's undead. But he's still a great Dad.
We play around in the living room when he comes home from work. Or
we'll go out in the yard and play tag. Every now and then, one of
his hands starts to fall off. Mom or me’ll pick it up and put it
back on with a bit of rubber cement. He’ll smile. He probably
thinks we fuss too much.
He died a while ago, right after my sixth birthday. He was a sales
consultant for some Internet company. He went out to their
Christmas party. He didn’t return that night, or the next. Mom got
real mad. She called Grandma and even got out her suitcase.
Three days after the party, a big package showed up on the porch.
It was from the Internet company. It was Christmas morning, too. I
was real psyched. We dragged it into the living room, and opened it
up.
He was in it.
“Dad!” I said.
“Just where do you think you’ve been, worrying us half to death?”
said my mom.
“Mmmmmmrrrruhhhhhh,” my dad responded.
Mom looked at him kind of funny, and told me to go to my room. I
went up the stairs and tried to listen. I couldn’t hear too much.
First she screamed. Then I heard her call Grandma. A couple hours
later, she called me back downstairs.
“Why’s Dad smell so funny?” I asked.
She sighed. “He’s a zombie now.”
“What’s a zombie, mom?”
“Someone with a dead body and mind, that has enough soul left
inside them that they can still follow simple commands…”
“Are you guys gonna get a divorce?”
She paused for a bit. “I don’t know,” she said. “It’s supposed to
be ‘’til death do us part’. But I don’t know if that applies here.”
She looked over at the box my dad was still in, and he looked back
up at her. She shivered. “ ‘For better or for worse’, though…we’ll
just have to make the best of it.”
Later on, Grandma told me what happened. The Internet company
was going under, and they needed more funding. So they traded Dad’s
soul to the devil. They scotch-taped him to a boardroom table, and
sacrificed him, and everything. But just when they were about to
trade his soul, Satan found out my dad was really just temping for
them. So Dad wasn't really owned by them; it was more like he was
rented. So the devil had to return his soul to his now-dead body.
Dad works in advertising now.
It was bad for me, at first. He was all weird. None of the other
kids had undead zombie Dads; why did I have to have one? He was so
different.
I told Mom I didn't want Dad to be undead. Mom said I'd just have
to get used to it. I hated it.
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About James Beach:
James Beach is a writer, photographer and recovering musician. He
was born and raised in New Jersey, and was once told he was a bad
Photoshop superimposition on the East Coast. He successfully
escaped and now lives in San Francisco, a perfect locale for
exploring his emerging super powers.
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