New short fiction from Ryan R Campbell

 

And Ampersand: Short Stories on Endings and Beginnings (of a Sort)
Contemporary Fiction
Length: 27 pages
Date published: April 12, 2021
Cedarbrook Books
 
Ebook: $3.99
Print: $6.99
 
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About the Book:

Your death comes on slowly, while elsewhere, a nameless man fakes his own. Encased in glass, a young man navigates a world meant for those beyond. A mudslide washes away a once romantic weekend, and a childhood swim drowns all illusion of innocence.

These are but some of the tales in And Ampersand: Short Stories on Endings and Beginnings (of a Sort). In this collection of flash fiction, short stories, and freeform prose, International Book Awards finalist R.R. Campbell returns as Ryan R. Campbell to juxtapose genesis and resolution, to bask in the beauty of rebirth in the most unexpected of places and at the most unexpected of times.

Born of the author’s own reinvention and oft-inspired by true events, And Ampersand is the perfect pocket companion for any reader who’s ever tussled with the tie between inception and end. 

 

My Review

Ryan R. Campbell’s collection of eight very short pieces delivers on the promise of “Here, together, we’ll endure the shifting of the earth.”

Between one and three pages each, the stories explore the precipice that divides life from death, experience from naïveté, grief from joy. Campbell celebrates lyricism when he explains, “It’s sunrise coffee and footsteps on pavement, birdsong and blunder, woe at the hands of and triumph over oneself.”

The title piece, And Ampersand, imagines an ageless death that’s simply another beginning, perhaps a crossing from one age to another, a metamorphosis of responsibility or perception of maturity. “Your final breath escapes when the last of the magic leaves the world.”

Campbell’s tales imagine getting a redo at life with uncanny and sometimes disturbing fantasizing the moments of demise, and are rich with description: adrenaline tingling, seconds bleeding into eternity, treetops cowering and snow kissing roads. There are stories of introspection, mostly anonymous, some with named characters, but representative of anyone, everyone. Who doesn’t want to escape from natural disaster, or manmade disaster that comes with heart aching and heart breaking choices and regret?

The stories erupt from all walks of life and ages and stages of the participants. A single parent is dreadfully injured and needs to leave a message; a young husband wants to forgive; a youngster faces the reality of his fear; and a loss triggers a cycle of memories that immortalizes the one who’s passed on.

Beautifully expressed in controlled, tightly woven and sharply focused language, And Ampersand is sure to captivate readers of short literary fiction. Thoughtful and provocative.

About the Author

Ryan R. Campbell lives in Stoughton, Wisconsin, with his wife, Lacey, and their cats, Hashtag and Rhaegar. Together, they own and operate Kill Your Darlings Candle Company, which sustainably illuminates the lives of readers, writers, and their communities with their candles for the wordsmiths of the world.

The author’s work as R.R. Campbell has earned him accolades including finalist placement in the International Book Awards and acclaim from New York Times bestselling authors.

He is also the founder of the Writescast Network and a member of the board of directors for the Wisconsin Writers Association. http://www.ryanrcampbell.com