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PAY THIS AMOUNT
Excerpt » Retail Price: $16.95 |
PAY THIS AMOUNT By Daniel Scott |
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Laughing
Fire Press is proud to announce the forthcoming publication of
PAY THIS AMOUNT by Daniel Scott, the follow-up
collection to his critically acclaimed short-fiction collection, Some
of Us Have to Get Up in the Morning.
Scott’s haunting and hilarious second collection is set in disparate spots across the American map -- from Kansas to Cape Cod to New York City -- and yet they are written with such piercing universality that you sense they could be happening right now in your town, on your street, maybe even in your own home. The stories delve deep into the lives and psyches of a stunning array of ordinary American misfits.
“A psychologically complex compendium of crisply rendered sad sacks, of curdled psyches ... irresistible appeal.” -- Bay Area Reporter
“Remarkable storytelling ... Scott kicks the doors open on his subjects’ lives and lets us burst into their world ... Scott peels back their defenses and shows us their hearts, which like all of us are simply looking for love.” -- North Shore News
"Scott's writing is raw. He strips away the veneer of living and shows us life with all of its bruises and beatings. His language is pared down to the essentials and he lets the poetry exist in the silence. The mark of each story is human longing." — Memphis Flyer
"[Scott's stories are] peopled by men and women with the kind of good intentions bound to get them in trouble . . . buoyed by sharp, insightful dialogue and clever storytelling . . . [the stories show] skill in capturing human interaction in disturbing and awkward circumstances." --Publishers Weekly
"Scott's stories are eerily engaging. They veer into David Sedaris territory with the pathos played for poignancy, not laughs. Or perhaps the realm of Patricia Highsmith's caustic existentialism, with a bit more levity. These are characters we feel sorry for even as we see them embody our own worst fears of falling down . . . a carnival of lost souls that's well worth attending." -- Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco)
"With crisp, sober prose, Scott insists on a character's emotional lucidity. For his intimate understanding of human 'brokenness,' Scott should be prized by readers . . . His characters represent an impressive range of voice." -- Lambda Book Report
"With spare sentences, Scott illustrates the disconnections between husbands and wives, siblings, parents and children, and lovers. He cuts through pretense to his characters' real feelings." -- Des Moines Sunday Register
To schedule an interview with Daniel Scott, contact Gary Heidt, FinePrint Literary Management, 240 West 35th St., Suite 500, New York, NY 10001. Tel: 212-279-1412. Email: garyheidt@gmail.com.
Daniel Scott is the author of the collection Some of Us Have to Get Up in the Morning. He is the recipient of various awards including an Artists' Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts as well grants from the MacDowell Colony and the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation. He lives in New York City. Visit him at www.danielscottonline.com.
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Deliberate Indifference Excerpts »
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 A Novel by Jed Lewis |
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Imagine that you are a person who cares about your work. You want to do your job well and value your skills and experience. Imagine further that you work for an organization where rules and protocols come first and your bosses pay more attention to the rules than to the quality of service. Maybe you do not need to imagine this situation at all. Maybe you live it every day as a worker in a factory, corporation, school, or government office.
This is the situation faced by Dr. Nate Jillian, a middle-aged and still idealistic psychologist working in a state prison. Anonymously told about the death of a prisoner, he is ordered to conduct a routine investigation to determine the truth of the allegation. What he finds, in the course of his investigation, is a labyrinth of regulations, excuses, and indifference that has resulted in a needless death, a death that awakens Jillian to all the other forms of “deliberate indifference” going on around him. Jillian’s discoveries impact on him emotionally and physically and he must find a way to keep his job and survive within the system.
Dr. Jillian is not the only employee trying to survive within the system. The reader also meets a prison guard, Jesse Callum, and two of Jillian’s bosses, Dr. Elaine Tims, a supervisor of state prison psychologists, and Marla Hanson, Deputy Warden of Jillian’s prison. Each of these people is also trying to cope with the system regulations and do the best job possible; in the process, each one must confront the moral meaning of his/her actions.
Based upon actual events, part psychological drama and part detective story, Deliberate Indifference makes a bold statement about conditions that prevail on an all-too-often basis in contemporary bureaucracies.
THE LEGAL MEANING OF THE TERM "DELIBERATE INDIFFERENCE"
"Deliberate Indifference" has a specific legal meaning. It refers to the deliberate disregard of the risk of harm, when there is knowledge that such a possibility exists. Allegations of "deliberate indifference" have triggered lawsuits in the past decade in the following states, among others: Utah, Kentucky, Michigan, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
FOR EDUCATORS
Deliberate Indifference’s vivid depiction of the workings of a bureaucracy make it an excellent choice for supplemental reading in a course in the following fields: criminal justice, law, and sociology. Educators in these areas are encouraged to request an examination copy of Deliberate Indifference by sending an e-mail to requests@laughingfire.com.