Heat Deflectors — Darryl Ponicsan

Darryl Ponicsán, author/screenwriter/artist, breaks new ground with this collection of 100 short-short stories. These captured moments-many deeply personal-are not vignettes or slices of life but fully realized short stories. The character perspectives range from an 11-year-old boy to an 111-year-old woman, from Black women to Hispanic men, from straight to gay to transgender, from poor to rich.Jackson Pollock appears in a few, as does Carlos Castaneda and Hallie Berry. The stories cover a period from 1900 to the present. The locales include Paris, New York, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, Seattle, Havana, Reno, Mexico, Ithaca, Milan, and Malta, among others. Several characters reappear in multiple stories, revealing life stories both tough and tender, heart-breaking and humorous. Known for his mastery of brevity and authentic dialog, Ponicsán brings to his stories hard-earned wisdom and insight into the human condition.