SHE SLAYS
Kill three demons.
Eat their hearts.
Rule the world.
A crackpot professor watches a hiker leap into a volcano.
A religious fanatic hears a voice in a sacred well.
A scientist smells smoke in a nuclear reactor.
They're all about to become victims of the same unstoppable force.
SHE SLAYS
Hungry? Amelia is. An insatiable appetite for power leads her to a deadly confrontation with a trio of primordial demons who hide fragments of apocalyptic power in their beating hearts. From the center of the earth to the heart of a cult to the depths of deep space, Amelia will find that true power doesn't just corrupt--it consumes.
Sextet
“One of the weirdest, wildest, most explosive young voices in fiction... a strange marvel.”
“Spontaneous, fun... Pure jazz. Petrus pens ecstatic triumph over suffering.”
“Petrus has a knack for making you fall in love with unlovable things.”
A grandmother finds the spectre of death lurking in her kitchen.
She does what comes natural. She offers to make it a snack.
Things go downhill from there.
Sometimes sophisticated. Sometimes sophomoric. Sometimes sweet and salient. The six stories of “Sextet” ooze, among other things, empathy and humor and a deep appreciation of life’s stranger side.
In Amateur Expert, a young woman learns the joys of painting, whether she likes it or not. In Crooked House, a mad scientist realizes his dream to create a tesseract, with horrifying results. In For Lack of Camouflage, two work colleagues go on a dangerous hunt for dragon eggs. In Luck and Love, a young woman finds an unlikely connection to her estranged prepper parents. In The Next Lesson, a soul soars through multiple lives in an effort to learn one of the universe’s most important lessons. And in So Much for Strangers, a hostage negotiator grapples with the consequences of factory farms and generational trauma as he ventures into the woods to meet a three-eyed cowgirl who blew up her family farm.
Pastorality
In these thirteen boldly original stories, Pat Petrus holds a mirror to human nature and dares us to see ourselves as we really are.
In “Pastorality,” an aging mother grapples with the inescapable memory of growing up in a cult. In “Waters of March,” the gift of flight prompts an existential panic in a young millennial woman. In “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Car,” the ancient deserts of the American southwest swallow a strung-out country music singer. In “Meteor,” a young child's life is changed forever when a space rock vaporizes his house. In “Mechanique,” a blue-collar American discovers a passion for dance after a work accident leaves him crippled.
Blending prose, poetry, and songwriting, author Pat Petrus captures the embattled essence of modern life and transforms it into one serene and hopeful whole.
Three Out of Ten
Complete at 3,500 words, “Three Out of Ten” tells the story of a couple finding love in bleak circumstances. As Natasha’s carefully-constructed professional life crumbles under the weight of a mental illness, her girlfriend Millie tries to help the only way she knows how: cooking.
Click the link below to read, “Three Out of Ten.”