This Ragged Wastrel Thing

BOOK ONE OF THE SONAYA NIGHTS TRILOGY After serving eleven years in The Heights for the murder of his childhood sweetheart, one-eared vagabond Daganae Kawasaki is finally free. But beneath the neon glare of a sprawling Sonaya, he soon discovers the backstreets are bursting with strange new shadows. Confronting plucky street orphans, bitter biker girls and down-and-out expats, Dag is swiftly embroiled in a fresh homicide case – and finds his murky past isn't done with him yet. “I really enjoyed This Ragged, Wastrel Thing – a dystopian noir set in gloomy, booze-drenched streets crawling with scoundrels. Tomas Marcantonio’s writing is slick and intoxicating.” Adrian J Walker - Author of The End Of The World Running Club “This Ragged, Wastrel Thing is alive with colour, energy and vibrant language. Marcantonio possesses the rare ability of enticing the reader to turn the page, not only to discover what happens next, but to experience yet another visceral and original turn of phrase. A beautifully vicious read.” Adam Lock - Author of Dinosaur “This Ragged, Wastrel Thing is a neon distorted, gritty reflection of humanity and its quest to find belonging – dystopian novels haven’t had it this good since Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale.” Ross Jeffery - Author of Juniper and Tethered “A cinematic and theatrical neo-noir painting dripping old-school masters of the genre on to a new canvas using rare concentrated pigments. With beautifully rich backdrops, scenes and characters – it’s a real treat for the imagined senses.” John Bowie - Author of Untethered “A beautiful mash up of grim noir and Japanese flare with a beating heart of motorhead vigilantes. Sons of Anarchy meets Sin City.” Dan Stubbings - The Dimension Between Worlds

With great thanks to contributing authors, artists, and designers, STORGY Books is proud to present You Are Not Alone; An Anthology of Hope and Isolation. Working in close partnership with UK charities The Big Issue Foundation (registered charity number 1049077), Centrepoint (292411), Shelter (263710), and The Bristol Methodist Centre (1150295), STORGY Books is publishing an exclusive anthology to help raise funds and provide support for people affected by homelessness following the devastating outbreak of Coronavirus. For far too long the most vulnerable within our communities have suffered in isolation, abandoned and ignored, voiceless. But we hear our hurting kin; and this is our reply...You Are Not Alone. All proceeds from purchases of You Are Not Alone will be equally distributed between our partner charities to provide ongoing support for people experiencing homelessness during – and after – the Covid-19 crisis. You Are Not Alone is dedicated to lost loved ones. You will never be forgotten.

“Parade is a pop lit gem. With neon prose, Graves weaves a tale of two heroes, Reggie and Elmer, who are trying to sort out the mess that is America. Government, religion, civic responsibility, general kindness. The lessons in Parade might just be the answer.” – James Frey – Author of A Million Little Pieces, Bright Shiny Morning and The Last Testament Reggie Lauderdale suffers from a crisis of faith. His cousin, Elmer Mott, dreams of becoming their hometown mayor. Both boys are stuck in suburbia trying to be adults ... but they aren’t sure how to be themselves yet. When a twist of fate sends them fleeing in a stolen limousine, the cousins escape to Florida where they meet a retired televangelist, who inspires them on a path of glitzy sermons and late-night parties. But are the celebrations sincere or deceptive? And who is keeping tabs? Who is watching? Parade is a tour-de-force, comic tale of faith and friendship. “Michael Graves is one of those super rare storytellers who is magically able to write with wisdom, poignancy, and dark wit. Paradeis a joy to read – it plums the troubles, foibles, and disconnects of our world in an incredibly timely and wonderfully timeless way that’s hilarious, steely-eyed, and hopeful.” – John Jodzio – Author of Knockout and If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home “Michael Graves’ Parade is a tipsy Southern gothic with a Northern accent, featuring a classic array of characters. Graves has a knack for captivating dialogue, and his ease with comedy and drama, sometimes in the same scene, earns this literary road-movie-in-a-limo-spectacle a well-deserved confetti and ticker tape shower.” – Gregg Shapiro – Author of How to Whistle: Stories – Expanded Edition “Parade is a madcap blasphemous Bildungsroman that is equal parts zany and profane. And ultimately, profound. Say your prayers before climbing into this stolen limo because everything is about to change.” – Josh Denslow – Author of Not Everyone is Special “Michael Graves has written a comic yarn that will both make you laugh and move you to tears. Reggie and Elmer are the queer Thelma and Louise I never knew I needed, complete with sexy Jesus-dreams, grand theft auto, and a retired televangelist. Y’all don’t want to miss this wild yarn – a true triumph!” – Nick White – Author of How to Survive a Summer and Sweet and Low Michael Graves is the author of Parade and Dirty One, a collection of short stories which was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and an American Literary Association Honouree. Michael’s fiction has been published in numerous literary publications. He can be found online at www.michaelgravesauthor.com @MGravesauthor

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Ragged Edge" by Harold MacGrath. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

EBOOK PUBLICATION DATE: 9th August 2019 PAPERBACK PUBLICATION DATE: 30th August 2019 “Roger McKnight is a very slick writer with an incredibly quirky sensibility. Miss him at your own peril.” – Mark SaFranko – "‘Hopeful Monsters’ is one of the best collections of linked stories I’ve ever read.” – Donald Ray Pollock – “These are stories full of compassion and humanity that beautifully evoke the plains of Minnesota from an exciting and authentic new voice in American letters.” – James Miller – “Hopeful Monsters features an array of intriguing characters brought to life through elegant, often gritty specificity that illuminates what it is to be human.” – Adam Lock – "In the carefully rendered world of this collection, chance and circumstance bring disappointment and struggle, but also moments of precious hope.” – Wendy Erskine – “This collection shows me why I read stories – to see beneath the surface of real lives and remember that I am not alone.” – Jason Brown – "Roger McKnight's prose tip toes across a vast landscape of sentiment, leaving the reader curious to learn more and hopeful like his monsters.” – Michelle Blair Wilker – “This is what we talk about when we talk about hope. The prose is incandescent, the characters riveting, the themes complex. Roger McKnight is one savvy, lyrical, and fearless writer.” – John Dufresne – HOPEFUL MONSTERS Roger McKnight’s debut collection depicts individuals hampered by hardship, self-doubt, and societal indifference, who thanks to circumstance or chance, find glimmers of hope in life’s more inauspicious moments. Hopeful Monsters is a fictional reflection on Minnesota’s people that explores the state’s transformation from a homogeneous northern European ethnic enclave to a multi-national American state. Love, loss, and longing cross the globe from Somalia and Sweden to Maine and Minnesota as everyday folk struggle for self-realization. Idyllic lake sides and scorching city streets provide authentic backdrops for a collection that shines a flickering light on vital global social issues. Read and expect howling winds, both literal and figurative, directed your way by a writer of immense talent. ROGER MCKNIGHT Roger McKnight hails from Little Egypt, a traditional farming and coal-mining region in downstate Illinois. He studied and taught English in Chicago, Sweden, and Puerto Rico. Roger relocated to Minnesota and taught Swedish and Scandinavian Studies. He now lives in the North Star State. “There’s an interesting fusion within the stories. Larger, universal and global issues such as poverty, race and injustice are picked apart, but from a Minnesotan point of view. Wherever you are in the world, this pedestal will provide a fresh take on opinion and assumption, and definitely leave readers understanding themselves and the world that little bit better. Ultimately we learn that all humans, wherever they live and whatever their circumstance, exist according to a series of common threads. It’s a sobering read and is ideal for large group discussion settings such as book clubs and universities. There really is something here for everyone.” – PR for Books – “What I adored most about Hopeful Monsters was the fact that Roger highlighted the plight of several vulnerable groups within his stories. He wasn’t afraid to discuss sensitive topics such as suicide, homelessness, addiction, and mental health, creating an array of intriguing characters and scenarios to give a voice to the forgotten in our society.” – Dan Stubbings – The Dimensions Between Worlds

“Sian Hughes’ delightful imagination and technical talent makes each story a unique treat.” – Boyd Clack – Creator of High Hopes and Satellite City A teenager performs stripteases in her bedroom window as funeral processions pass by. A grieving mother reunites with her miscarried foetus. A widow takes on the sinister, rapacious treehouse in next door’s garden. Combining pitch-perfect, darkly comic observations with tender touches of humanity, Pain Sluts chronicles the flaws, frailties, and enduring spirit of an eclectic cast of curious characters as they navigate threats to their identity and humanity. A brave and bold literary debut bursting with calamity and compassion, Pain Sluts is an astonishing collection of stories which lays bare our beauty and bizarreness. Laden with love, loss and longing, this book illuminates Sian’s extraordinary ability to create believable characters that brave our brittle world, often in outlandish or unusual ways. Sharp and tender, true and wise, these stories announce the arrival of a uniquely talented new voice in British fiction. “Sian Hughes writes her characters with love and warmth, dissecting their complex inner lives with beautiful and profound prose. The stories are raw, honest, sometimes disturbing, capturing the enormity of tiny moments and the extraordinariness of ordinary people. Written with a dark humour and an exquisite attention to detail, the stories linger, unfolding in the mind, long after the book has been closed. Hughes is clearly a writer to watch.” – Catrin Kean – Author of Salt Winner of Wales Book of the Year 2021 “Sian Hughes is an immaculate stylist, and Pain Sluts is one exquisite and harrowing revelation after another. In this magnificent collection, Hughes claims a darkly radiant fictional territory that is all her own.” – Anthony Trevelyan – Author of The Weightless World Longlisted for the 2016 Desmond Elliott Prize “In this wonderfully visceral collection, with its echoes of AM Homes and the early transgressive short stories of Ian McEwan, Sian Hughes has fashioned her own brand of distinctly South Walian Gothic, full of bodies and their bloody mysteries, people and their hidden perverse selves.” – John Williams – Author of The Cardiff Trilogy “Haunting and hilarious, tender and tumultuous. A bold and original collection that depicts life for women in contemporary south Wales in all its mundanity and quirkiness. Thrills from beginning to end.” – Rachel Trezise – Author of Fresh Apples and Easy Meat Winner of the inaugural 2006 Dylan Thomas Prize “Sian Hughes shares Thomas Morris’ skill of evoking the everyday, the ordinary, and the potentially banal in warm, three-dimensional technicolour. Her characters stand up, speak, and walk off the page to inhabit your mind. The stories in Pain Sluts are not easily forgotten.” – Sonia Hope – Jerwood/Arvon Mentee and Guardian 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize Finalist Sian Hughes is a freelance copywriter, screenwriter, and author whose short stories have been published online and in print and adapted for film and TV, appearing on HTV, BBC Wales, and S4C. An adaptation of her short story ‘Consumed’, starring ‘The Descent’s’ Shauna Macdonald, was premiered in 2021 at the Glasgow Short Film Festival. Having recently completed an MA in Creative Writing, for which she gained a Distinction, Sian also works as a creative practitioner for the Arts Council of Wales. Sian lives in Cardiff with her husband, three children, and a menagerie of wayward animals. sianhughes.me.co.uk @flossingthecat

Talking to Ghosts at Parties is Rick White’s debut collection of thirty short (and very short) stories woven together across time, space and astral planes. An orphaned girl becomes a cat, a werewolf battles a distaste for his bistro’s clientele, a man lives in a tower made of memories. Dark, poignant and funny — these are stories of how absurd it is to be human, how brave it is to be alive. A breakout collection of stories full of unforgettable outcasts, underdogs, losers and oddballs by an author uniquely attuned to the restless rhythms of the offbeat. Talking to Ghosts at Parties dives deep and deftly examines the daily foibles of those on the fringes of modern life. A pitch-perfect portrait of an absurd world that demands revisiting and reliving and confirms Rick White as a spectacularly original, iconic and important voice in contemporary culture.