The Arcane Arcade by Leonard Streitfeld and Jay Dubya.
Introduction: The Arcane Arcade is a collection of sixteen short fiction stories. The general theme of the book is paranormal experience and the tales are presented as short stories, novellas and novelettes. The stories have been rewritten and edited many times until they have evolved into their finished form.
The characters and events depicted in The Arcane Arcade are strictly the products of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to any real person or persons is absolutely coincidental, and it is the hope of the authors that readers will appreciate the pure fantasy identities, personalities and plots presented in the sixteen-fictional works.
Awarded 5 Stars by the Editor at Book Marketing Global Network. It takes advanced and gifted writing skills to successfully write a short story collection that will capture the imagination of the readers and hold their interest to the end. Two authors skilled at their craft have teamed up to bring you ‘The Arcane Arcade’.
Dr. Leonard Streitfeld had been John Wiessner’s eye doctor for many years. Len Streitfeld and Jay Dubya have written and rewritten the stories “The Chess Set,” “The Cups,” “The Incense Burner,” “Reflections,” “Stained Glass” and “The Black Magic Pen” many times until all sixteen tales appearing in The Arcane Arcade have evolved into their present quality literature form.
The Arcane Arcade collection is book crafted in the paranormal experience and have evolved into this great example of short story literature.
Here are my short descriptions, of each story in ‘The Arcane Arcade’.
- In “The Chess Set” the wealthy chess master is confronted by the Black Knight.
- In “The Cups “a snow globe scene pales in comparison to this coffee mug collection.
- In “A Christmas Doll “it is the gift of a ballerina doll that changes everything.
- In “Reflections “we are reminded that charity begins in the heart.
- In “The Dark Side “we witness “One perpetual nightmare that’s been moving in perpetual motion.”
- In “Photographs “we are reminded that a picture is worth a thousand words.
- In “Premonitions “is it a chance encounter, coincidence or something much more.
- In “The Combat Mission That Never Was” we learn “Heaven Can Wait but Hell Cannot”.
- In “The Skull “we read what happens to an unclaimed corpse that might surprise you.
- In “Stained Glass “it is the mystery surrounding the broken heavenly stained-glass window.
- In “The Image “conjures up the question is it “animal, vegetable, mineral, or strange thing”.
- In “An Incense Burner “New Orleans Mardi Gras turns into a veritable nightmare.
- In “The Dye Is Cast “as the song titled “16 men on a dead man’s chest, yo-ho, ho and a bottle of rum” pierces through the Bermuda Triangle fog.
- In “The Talismans “we examine the actions of one persistent seeker of wisdom.
- In “The Tattoo “finds Dennis in the throws of an inebriated ink nightmare.
- In “The Black Magic Pen “a writer’s dream of literary perfection and international fame makes the tools of his trade a necessary phenomenon.
I would have to say that the short story titled “An Incense Burner” is my favorite out of this well written collection. Let me bring you into the story here:
…..At 11:55 p.m., the New Age black magic medium prepared the ‘spiritual laboratory operational card table’, the very essential incense burner, the vital red votive candles, and the male voodoo doll was then dressed in similar white shirt and black pants, just as Jason’s principal adversary had been wearing at the coin club meeting. Newman then spread Rosco Scola’s former note scraps over the male doll’s body. The obnoxious, loudmouthed Coin Organization President had never conceived or realized that he had made an immense blunder by inadvertently leaving behind the hand-shredded documentation with his indecipherable, crude handwriting scribbled upon it.
…..As the den’s grandfather clock pendulum signaled the stroke of midnight, Jason snickered as the black arts’ prestidigitator began performing his ‘other world methodology’. The devil’s new metaphysical priest then roughly thrust the red-hot pin into the doll’s throat and next, the hex practitioner meanly and spitefully twisted the pin back and forth several times to dramatically emphasize his great enmity for his avowed enemy. Four more pins were soon viciously inserted, a separate representative one shoved into each of the doll’s arms and legs.
…..The incense burner was then wildly smoking-out dense fumes and billows, and a moment later a ghost-like cloud rose and wafted, and then the dark gaseous mass hovered above the voodoo operating card table. The fog formation slowly drifted towards the targeted doll, and when the fumes encountered the lying figure’s throat, the thick, hazy mass mystically swished into the doll’s voice box, and then the visible gas phenomenon suddenly disappeared from visual existence.
…..The unearthly ceremony was over at precisely 1:00 a.m. and the vital items that had been used for the “spiritual retribution communication” were again stealthily placed and concealed inside their respective storage hiding compartments. However, the five malignant pins still remained implanted in the doll’s anatomy.
…..“Languish in your anguish,” laughed the contemporary warlock to the tiny representation of corpulent Rosco Scola. “Your pain is my gain!” Jason Newman humorously rhymed. “Let’s see what happens to your throat and to your four doomed appendages. Ha, ha, ha!”
Did this voodoo from this self-learned witch-doctor work? I will let you discover for yourself.
Product Details:
Paperback: 358 Pages
Publisher: Bookstand Publishing (February 11, 2020)
Language: English
Short Story Collection
Amazon Hard-Cover Print:
https://www.amazon.com/Arcane-Arcade-Leonard-Streitfeld/dp/163498899X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1575562593&sr=8-1
Amazon Soft-Cover Print:
https://www.amazon.com/Arcane-Arcade-Leonard-Streitfeld/dp/1634988981/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1575562593&sr=8-1
Author’s Page At Book Marketing Global Network:
https://bookmarketingglobalnetwork.com/book-marketing-global-network/jay-dubya
