Overview

"In Arizona, where the sun beats down 300 days a year, boys are becoming men. With moments of dry humor, this new story collection by award-winning author Gregory D. Williams provides a glimpse of boyhood and its lingering effects inside the man. The gentle irony and characters' keenly observed dilemmas reflect life in the dry heat of the Sonoran desert. When a Little League player takes direction from the team's star female player, he learns about ""rounding the bases."" Seeking revenge, two boys set up a sting operation to catch a neighborhood bully, only to discover that their plan has deadly consequences. A medical student conducting a breast exam struggles to subdue his teenage fantasies. A man propositioned at a local Starbucks learns that even in middle age, the dry heat of love still burns. And there are more. If you like classic American stories that have the authentic feel of your favorite jeans, then you'll love the nine funny, wise, and humane short stories in this collection. Buy Gregory D. Williams's A Dry Heat today and take a deep dive into the lives of boys and men. *For readers who enjoy the fiction of William Trevor, Alice Munro, Tobias Wolff, Ron Carlson, Margaret Atwood, Raymond Carver, Robert Boswell, and Charles Baxter."

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9781951479985

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Reviews

"Earnest, memorable tales grounded in life's joys, pains, and challenges... -Kirkus Reviews A superbly plotted set of shorts with a strong ""boyhood"" theme. Highly recommended! -The Wishing Shelf Darkly funny, beautifully crafted; an intense collection that plumbs the depths of boys' and men's lives. -The Prairies Book Review ...a multi-layered, deeply human, and emotionally forensic collection of stories that proves hard to put down. Williams was an intrinsically talented author with a gift for nuance and observation, producing stories that veer between harsh reality and poetic magic... -The Book Review Directory Filled with depth and sentiment, each story in this distinguished and captivating collection leaves a lasting impression, as characters exhibit the shenanigans of boyhood, the angst of adolescence, or the wisdom that comes with age. Ranging from provocative to darkly humorous, heartbreaking to moving, and captivating to gripping, the collection makes for an incredibly poignant read. -BookView Review Through stories of childhood, working years, retirement, and even death, this collection is ""the journey that is you""-an everyman's journey. -US Review of Books by Mari Carlson Although these stories do principally have an overarching theme of grief and loss, there is a warmth and positivity within them that shines with love and lust for life. -Readers' Favorite by Grant Leishman Gregory D. Williams crafts these vignettes from his own life experiences, which are steeped in the culture and arid environment of Phoenix, Arizona. A Dry Heat: Collected Stories should be in any literary short story library interested in works that capture a sense of place and purpose; particularly Arizona holdings. -Midwest Book Review by D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer While ""brilliant"" is used all too frequently in comments about works of fiction, the rich and myriad facets of the memorable writing in A Dry Heat well deserve such recognition. -Readers' Favorite by Constance Stadler In matters of the heart, a single lapse of judgment can prove fatal. Greg Williams is a terrific writer! -Ron Carlson, author of Return to Oakpine"

Author Information

Gregory D. Williams, MD, was the winner of Georgia College's 2010 Arts & Letters fiction prize. His fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in Blue Mesa Review, Elysian Fields, American Fiction, Bosque, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. A graduate of Stanford University and the University of Arizona Medical School, he spent his teenage summers following baseball and whitewashing the trunks of citrus trees. When he was actively practicing medicine, Dr. Williams' specialty was anesthesiology, and he was the son of an anesthesiologist. Greg Williams began writing after his father's death. He approached writing with the same dedication that he devoted to his other interests: fly fishing, photography, guitar, and home automation. The father of four and married to his high school sweetheart, Dr. Williams passed away in 2020. Marylee MacDonald grew up in Redwood City, California, married her high school sweetheart, and worked as a carpenter in California and Illinois. When she's not writing, she's hiking in the red rocks of Sedona, walking on a California beach, or plucking snails from her tomatoes. Her memoir, SURRENDER, won a Wishing Shelf Book Award. Her short stories have won the Jeanne Leiby Chapbook Award, the Barry Hannah Prize, the Ron Rash Award, the Matt Clark Prize, and the American Literary Review Fiction Award. Her short story collection, BONDS OF LOVE AND BLOOD, was a Foreword Reviews' INDIEFAB Finalist, and her novel, MONTPELIER TOMORROW, was a Gold Medal winner in the Readers' Favorites annual book awards. Her most recent short story collection, BODY LANGUAGE, contains stories about the resilience of the human spirit. To help writers who haven't been able to find an agent, she wrote THE BIG BOOK OF SMALL PRESSES AND INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS.She currently splits her time between Tempe, Arizona, where her husband is a professor, and California, where she tries to stay out of the way of fires.

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