The Whole Mess

What does it mean to be human in a universe of shifting, sometimes terrifying realities? Eighteen stories from Jack Skillingstead’s second decade of publishing feature intense and surprising explorations of who we are, who we wish to be, and who we can’t be.

In The Whole Mess a genius math professor solves a multiverse equation only to find himself pursued by ancient Masters across the many iterations of his could-have-been lives. “Straconia” gives us a Kafkaesque world where all the lost things go, including people who must first find themselves before they can find a way back home. “Tribute” looks at a post-NASA space race that goes nowhere—until an unlikely pair of marooned astronauts find each other and the future.

Also included in this collection is “The Writing Life,” a self-reflection on memory, ambition, and imagination in the formation of one writer’s journey.

Cover Art by Vincent Chong

Paperback

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, 2023

Distributed by Fairwood Press
21528 104th Street Court East
Bonney Lake, WA 98391
http://www.fairwoodpress.com

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-1-958880-12-8

Fairwood Press
21528 104th Street Court East
Bonney Lake, WA 98391
http://www.fairwoodpress.com

Electronic version by Baen Books
http://www.baen.com