The characters in my latest collection of stories, In Love with the Dead, have one thing in common: they are involved in relationships with a person who may not exist. In “Words to Flesh,” a writer meets a mysterious man at a book reading who shape shifts into one of her characters with every story she writes. Another woman falls for an aristocrat from another century when she visits the National Portrait Museum of Scotland, who leaps out of a painting and into her bed. A lonely wedding planner applies to adopt a husband from China. And in “Soul Man,” a homeless man trades his soul in for a beer in a hotel bar to a pastel-clad man who claims to be the devil.
From unrequited love, to delusional obsessions, these funny and wistful fairy tales are inspired by the fantastical films of Federico Fellini and uncover the tender and hopeful heart beneath adult facades and disappointments, where magic and happily ever after may still be possible–or not.
I wrote most of these stories while I was also writing The Goodtime Girl, as a distraction, as respite. While I am finishing up the final stories for this collection, I plan to share a few here in installments. Sign up to be notified when new material is posted!
Here’s the first installment: “Your Secret is Safe with Me”
Tess Fragoulis - Writer 