Gateway to Paradise: Stories — Matthew Vollmer

A bold, vibrant, and surprising collection. Men and women looking for escape from the excess and sham culture in which they live -- junk food, souvenirs, and hype (whether for religion or sex) -- are led by the power of their own imaginations to places of danger and self-reckoning.  

In these gritty, imaginative stories set in the mountains and small towns of the South -- often in motels, theme parks, or resorts -- men and women find themselves at the mercy of an inspiration gone wrong: a man on a tryst is seduced by a ghost; a woman conducts a test to discover who is her true best friend -- her husband or her dog; a beleaguered young writing professor goes one step too far while chaperoning the famous writer he finds darkly alluring.  In the title story, an ex-high-school basketball player living an uneventful life in her small hometown as a cashier helps her boyfriend rob a lottery winner, and finds herself on an epic journey of fear, deceit, and betrayal.