Modicum
Coming Soon!
This collection of short stories, musings, and cartoons by writer / cartoonist Scott Semegran explores such themes as suicide, parenting, religion, masculinity, the apocalypse, and, most importantly, erections. It’s guaranteed to make you laugh, cry, and pee your pants (hopefully, not at the same time).
Praise for Modicum:
"Funny, sweet, dark, and sad, Scott Semegran's comics and short stories create a wholly convincing world of love, loss, and fear. His light touch with heavy subjects is a gift, and his forays into silliness are a delight. I can't tell if his kids should read it as soon as possible, or never." - Emily Flake, cartoonist and author of LuLu Eightball
"Hilarious, poignant, twisted... and those are just the stories. Scott Semegran's cartoons bring an added one-two visceral punch to a powerful collection of work." - Davy Rothbart, author of The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas and publisher of FOUND Magazine
Purchase paperback versions here:
Or download eBook versions here:
Reviews for Modicum:
Mr. Grieves
Mr. Grieves started as a poke at human nature through the use of talking, narcissistic animals. It has evolved into a full-on assault to your funny bone. Where else will you find rats fighting over cubicles, camels worrying about aging, a parrot talking to aliens, and a lonely water snail longing for a friend? Welcome to the world of Mr. Grieves!
Purchase paperback versions here:
Or download eBook versions here:
Reviews for Mr. Grieves:
The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood
On his way to New York to celebrate his impending literary success, Simon Burchwood is the prototypical American careerist: arrogant, egotistical, narcissistic. But a quick detour to Montgomery, Alabama to visit a childhood friend sends Simon on a bizarre journey, challenging his hopes and dreams of becoming a famous writer. The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood is a character study that delves into the psyche of a man who desperately tries to redefine himself.
Purchase paperback versions here:
Or download eBook versions here:
Reviews for The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood:
MIA RYAN AND HER FEARLESS CAT, ANGEL-BOY in: Tea, Cupcakes, and the Great Ant Famine
Mia Ryan and her cat Angel-Boy were enjoying their tea party when all of a sudden one of the cupcakes sprouted legs and ran out of the house. After chasing the cupcake, Mia Ryan learns about the Great Ant Famine from her newest little friend Anthony the Ant. Read about the choices Mia Ryan makes to help Anthony and the rest of his friends.
A Perfect Moment
A Perfect Moment is indeed an interesting and adventurous journey through the sometimes sordid, and often awesome moments of its protagonists. From the charming fantasies of an elusive dream world to the gruesome and often nightmarish experiences of those not so enchanting moments where we come to understand that, "Good comes from the bad. It always does. You just need the patience to wait and ride it out." Without a doubt, A Perfect Moment is insightful and imaginative in the way it develops a divergent and non-linear path through time, while deflecting conscious memory in its very moments of becoming. - BOOKS IN REVIEW by Janet Koch, Arena Magazine
Purchase paperback version here:
Or download eBook versions here:
Reviews for A Perfect Moment:
A Perfect Moment, Austin writer Scott E. Semegran's latest novel, is well worth the read, especially for those of us who have our own special and unique memories of the Austin experience, and who rather enjoy pulling out bits and pieces of those moments dusting them off and reliving or reinventing them, if you please. In any case, you shouldn't miss this momentous opportunity to experience Semegran's take on A Perfect Moment, which challenges the reader to take a step outside of and beyond our own isolated experiential moments in time, or our "virtual" lives as we know them. From the beginning to end, this novel depicts the unfolding of personal experience, specific moments, singular lives acting independently, yet unknowingly in tandem, wherein a series of separate events and individual life circumstances bring these personal and isolated moments to a point of intersection, a juncture in time. The novel's form achieves power and momentum by the way in which it reflects its content. While each chapter represents a singular and isolated moment, a vignette, each builds upon the previous, like so many past remembrances coming together to form A Perfect Moment, which then assimilates itself into the presumptuous context of a whole before once again detaching, disconnecting, and deflecting, but not before reminding us that, "We're all linked through a chain of events. Everything happens for a reason."
A Perfect Moment is indeed an interesting and adventurous journey through the sometimes sordid, and often awesome moments of its protagonists. From the charming fantasies of an elusive dream world to the gruesome and often nightmarish experiences of those not so enchanting moments where we come to understand that, "Good comes from the bad. It always does. You just need the patience to wait and ride it out." Without a doubt, A Perfect Moment is insightful and imaginative in the way it develops a divergent and non-linear path through time, while deflecting conscious memory in its very moments of becoming.
BOOKS IN REVIEW by Janet Koch
Copyright © Arena Magazine
