Tides: A Short Story Collection

Editorial Reviews:

“From the first to the last page, Bill Mesce, Jr.’s Tides is compelling, polished, and highly readable. the characters are genuine – real people doing real things: a young white guy whose mother is dating a black man; cops in a squad car out on a dog call and the dogs are starving and fierce; an apostate ghost-writing a paranormal book for the wealthy parents of a young suicide. Tides is a brilliant collection of short fiction and personal essays, but the essays are stories as well, with living characters and natural dialogue and fascinating storylines, even the very short ones. You will regret that it’s over; you want to keep on reading.” – Thomas E Kennedy, author of Copenhagen Quartet

“The voices telling the stories in Tides, whether first-person or third, offer immediate insights into the characters, their worlds, and their dilemmas. Bill Mesce, Jr. is a master of economy, conveying complexities through prose style alone without the need to explain in detail.” – Walter Cummins, Writer and editor

“Not one syllable too many, not one syllable too few, simply what precision and story demand – Mesce’s is a muscular prose that flows so naturally I forgot I was reading. He blends story, style, and substance flawlessly, conjuring a surprising nexus of both passion and power. Remember Keats’ negative capability? Well, he’s got that too. He makes his reader work, makes her live with the questions a story raises rather than handing her an easy answer. And on top of all that, he’s got the balls of a brass monkey, as my mother used to say. Kind of cheeky. Fresh and marvelous.” – Renee Ashley, author of Minglements: Prose on Poetry and Life