Paul G. Bens, Jr.
Original Fiction That's Just Slightly Bent
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UPCOMING
   

Kelland on sale now!
Kelland has indeed arrived! Available now from Casperian Books, Amazon.com or your local independent bookstore.

Kelland
When the Truth Is All That Matters

The truth begins with a family evacuated from Saigon during the final days of the Viet Nam War. Or perhaps it begins later, with a devoutly Catholic child with the voice of an angel who is troubled by visions both sacred and profane. Or perhaps later still, with a couple drifting apart following a tragedy.

Kelland appears to them all in the guise of a small boy, a lover, a priest...Kelland is an enigma, a puzzle, and an almost imperceptible presence. Kelland is violence, sorrow and joy. Kelland is the common thread tying five disparate strangers together.

Check out some of the advance reviews right here.

 
Kelland Cover


Book Signing in San Francisco
Friday, October 30, 2009
A Different Light Bookstore
489 Castro Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
Details here.

Excerpt:

    The gun at her side, Melanie slowly moved forward, trying to keep her eye on the target through the wind-whipped reeds.  The pace of her heart took off as she moved closer, her legs felt leaden and her knuckles grew white from the strangling grip on the gun.  It had all been talk and conspiracy up to this point, but now the reality of it all was setting in on her.  What she was training to do would end a human life if she did it right.  Her hand began shaking as she raised the gun.  She squinted down the barrel through the tears forming in her eyes.  It was only a two ninety-five melon atop some pole in a deserted part of the countryside, she told herself, willing herself to do it.  Do it.  Pull the trigger.

    "I can't do this,"  she said, her hand barely able to keep the gun level.  "I can't."

    Kelland was at her side, his whispers invading her ear.  "It's easy."

    "I can't." Melanie shook her head.

    His voice was seductive, loving as he coaxed her.  "What was he thinking," he said, "as he stood on that bridge?  Was he crying as he climbed over the rail?  How empty did his heart feel?  How alone was he?  How little did his love mean?  He meant nothing."

Melanie didn't even hear the shot, didn't connect the jerk of her arm with the recoil from the gun, let alone remember pulling the trigger.  A cloud of white smoke hovered around her face, and she stared straight through the melon, all tan and flat in the noonday sun.

     "Good," Kelland whispered as he massaged her shoulders. "The hard part is over."

    Melanie looked over at him and then back at the target. It was whole, untouched by the errant slug. She'd missed, but now she knew not only that she could kill another human being, but that she wanted to.

Read more at Who is Kelland?

Pre-order through Barnes and Noble or ask your local independent bookstore to order a copy.


  PREVIOUSLY  
     

Mahape a ale Wala'au

Mahape a ale Wala‘au

Out of Print.

Blurb: On the Island of O‘ahu, vacationing Toshi meets the Speedo-clad Kristopher, a stunning Hawaiian student who sometimes needs “to be a little less” than his serious life affords him to be.  As the two embark upon a sensual game throughout the streets of Waikiki, Toshi learns that sometimes he needs to be “something more” than he has let himself be.

Excerpt: Nothing, I had heard, compares to the men of Waikiki.  It was told me by a friend who had visited there once that half-naked natives run the streets at night and I found this was true.  At sunset, three impossibly beautiful boys with bronzed, oiled skin run barefoot down Kalakaua Avenue, setting torches that line the street alight with licks of flame as they dodge tourists burdened with bags of Laurent or DKNY.  The modern malo -- colorful strips of cloth that cover their most tender, private parts -- flutter as they run, exposing chiseled legs and firm, untanned backsides.  They stop at a place called The Wall -- a little gazebo at the end of a breakwater -- and offer thanks to the gods through prayer and beautiful music created as their lips press against the hardness of vacated conch shells.  And as the sun melts into the horizon beyond them, they are wrapped in a warm crimson aura that lets you know that the gods are pleased.  They are breathtaking.

Looking for Kristopher's Tour of
the Hawaiian Islands?
Just click
on the image above and he'll
show you round!

______________________

So, what the heck does
Mahape a ale Wala‘au
mean anyhow?
______________________


Read the Reviews

 
cemetery dance That Lovely Land of Might-Have-Been


Originally published in 2007 in issue 57 of the ground- breaking horror magazine, Cemetery Dance, this ditty was inspired by the title of the Ivor Novello song.  Regretfully the issue is apparently sold out.  But you can read the story for free right here

Warnings:  Violence, Adult Themes. Link opens the Cemetery Dance website in a new window.

"...this disquieting short story ravages the heart with its themes of lost hope and broken trust. We’re enveloped in a warm blanket of false security - betrayed by an illusion - the author viciously shattering our innocent perceptions." -- AngusDevotee at AngusDevotee.net

 
Heavyglow
You're Gonna Love This


A nightmare that isn’t over, this flash fiction first appeared in 2006 in issue 4 of HeavyGlow and republished in the anthology HeavyGlow Flash Fiction: Two Years Burning Brightly.

Warnings: Adult Themes. Link opens HeavyGlow’s Lulu website in a new window.

"...heartrending, disturbing and absolutely brilliant. I was literally moved to tears with this brief glimpse into a shattered innocence."    -- AngusDevotee at AngusDevotee.net

Inside Out

A twisted piece of flash fiction about the limits of love. Originally published in issue 8 of HeavyGlow in 2007 and republished in the anthology HeavyGlow Flash Fiction: Two Years Burning Brightly.

Warnings:  Explicit sex and gore. Link opens HeavyGlow’s Lulu website in a new window.

"...perceptively written and insightfully profound, illustrating why we must keep those barriers tightly fastened around our hearts."   -- AngusDevotee at AngusDevotee.net


 

For additional previously published works, please click on the Free Fiction link.

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