The Outliers

An outlier is something or someone that lies outside of the main group that it’s a part of. In this collection of short stories, the outliers are people who don’t fit into our consensus reality. They’re anomalies, weirdos, individuals whose experiences are vastly different from the rest of us. And yet, they are us in their humanity, their emotions, and in their curiosity that asks, What if? The stories begin with a novella in which a paranormal investigator looks into a bizarre story about a secret federal law enforcement team that pursues their cases while out-of-body. It ends with the story of a First Lady who hold seances in the White House. In between are more tales of outliers, more strangeness.

Rob and I haven’t collaborated on fiction before. But we realized we had some short stories and novellas that could be combined into a collection that would fit the idea of outliers.  These people aren’t quite like those in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success. They’re a a different breed  – psychic misfits, weirdos, people with a lot to lose or gain. Do they succeed in their quests?

Some of the short stories are reprints that appeared first in other anthologies, but there’s plenty of original material in here, too. The writing and organization were fun and now we have our end of 2018 book. Onward into 2019!