taQ'Lut Press presents "Spira Mirabilis: Fantastic Tales from the Marvelous Spiral", a lauded collection of eight thematically linked fantasy, horror, and science fiction short stories and novelettes, written by Ralph Sevush and illustrated by Susan Kaufman.
"Spira Mirabilis", Latin for "miraculous" or "marvelous" spiral, is the name given by mathematician Jakob Bernoulli to the logarithmic curve with a uniquely "miraculous" quality: though the size of the spiral increases, its shape remains unchanged by each successive curve. As a result, the Spira Mirabilis has evolved in nature, appearing in certain forms such as the arms of spiral galaxies.
According to the author, "myths arise in different contexts throughout human history. They expand and evolve, yet, like the Spira Mirabilis, they remain essentially the same. And this is likely so because WE remain essentially the same, give or take a millennium.
Violent, funny, poignant and romantic, in varying proportions, these tales are also about the act of telling the story, and the storyteller, too.
"... Sevush leads readers on an imaginative tour of pulp genres and popular mythology. Overall, these stories are grand, world-building genre pieces condensed into a few pages each, and Sevush displays great facility with the rhythm and lexicon of the various styles he assays. A rollicking, good-spirited ride..." - Kirkus Reviews
"These astonishing stories are as funny, lyrical and literary as they are original, big-hearted and human. It's as if some mad scientist has taken parts of Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman, Mickey Spillane, Ursula Le Guin and Edgar Allan Poe, and sewn them all together to create something magnificent and wholly original." -- David Lindsay-Abaire, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, librettist, lyricist and screenwriter (Rabbit Hole, Shrek the Musical)
"This remarkable collection highlights a voice that will remind you why you fell in love with science fiction in the first place. From the gritty characters to the landscapes they inhabit, Ralph Sevush is a true "world builder," calling on well-known tropes and upending them with his own clever imagination. One of my favorite pieces of genre fiction I've read this year... truly marvelous!" -- Qui Nguyen, Playwright (Vietgone, She Fights Monsters), and Artistic Director of the off-Broadway theater company, Vampire Cowboys
"Masterfully careening from fantasy to horror to science fiction, this memorable collection boasts sly references from Gilgamesh to Superman, but like all great storytellers, his literary prowess is always in service to his ultimate quest: to illuminate the human heart." -- Doug Wright, Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, librettist and screenwriter (I Am My Own Wife, Grey Gardens, Little Mermaid)
"Ralph Sevush's terrifically entertaining tales live somewhere between the classic pulp fiction of SF's Golden Age and the 21st-century cutting edge of Gaiman and Gibson... smart, startling and memorable." -- David Auburn, Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter (Proof, The Columnist)
"9/10 rating... That's some good stuff right there...not a bad story in the bunch [and some of them] still resonate. Recommended." -- David L. Felts, SFReader.Com
About the Author: Ralph Sevush began his career in motion-picture marketing, sales, distribution, and script development for New Line Cinema and other NY-based film companies. Later, as an entertainment attorney, he worked on the Broadway productions of BIG- the Musical, Fool Moon, and God Said, "HA!", before coming to the Dramatists Guild in 1997. He has been the Guild's co-Executive Director and General Counsel since 2005. As a writer, in addition to the stories in Spira Mirablis, his credits include: Savage Cinema, a film review column for Worlds of If...magazine (1983), and Little One, Goodbye, an award-winning play produced by the Tada! Theater, the Enchanted Players of New Jersey, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and the Innovative Stages Company (1994-1996). The play later earned him acceptance into the BMI/Lehman-Engel Musical Theater Librettists Workshop. He has also authored countless essays for The Dramatist Magazine over the past 20 years, primarily about copyright, free speech, and the theater industry.
Susan Kaufman, a New York-based artist, created the pen and ink drawings in "Spira Mirablis." Her preferred atmosphere is the fog and mist of Victorian London. She uses ink and brush, cut paper and old photographs to create layered works with an old fashioned and haunted aesthetic. You can see more of her work at www.srkaufman.com.
taQ'Lut Press (Publisher) is a New York-based publisher specializing in genre fiction. The name taQ lut (pronounced Tok-loot) is a Klingon phrase that means "weird stories."
