PECULIAR PARABLES... | Judy Cole
PECULIAR PARABLES FOR A NEW MILLENNIUM
A long time ago, in a galaxy that now seems quite far away, Ms. Cole was one in a long line of Editors-in-Chief of Playgirl magazine—a job title, that in retrospect, she reports turned out to be “a lot like marrying Henry the Eighth”.
After being “axed” to leave for refusing to print unauthorized nude photos of a certain celebrity who shall remain nameless (although these days he spends much of his time with Angelina Jolie), Ms. Cole authored a book on sex and relationships, Playing For Keeps: Dating, Seducing and [Maybe] Marrying the Modern Man (Adams Media) and earned a living as a freelance writer/editor.
Several winters ago, while scurrying to catch a Metro North commuter train, Ms. Cole took a bad spill on a patch of black ice, vaulted bum-over-tea kettle, and in a less-than-stellar landing, fractured her ankle, but good. As a result, she was subsequently afforded the “luxury” of spending several months flat on her derrière.
During this forced hiatus, Ms. Cole did a lot of soul searching. Cold weather, rising property taxes, and 9/11 had exacted their toll. She decided that it was time to get out of New York, and so, sold the house, packed up cats, dogs and kin, and made the move South...where, thanks to the combination of one “forty-thousand-dollar troll” in her basement and several arcane, archaic laws regarding Contributory Negligence, she will most likely remain, at least for the foreseeable future, pondering life’s ironies and plotting her strategy for world domination.
Cole sees Peculiar Parables for a Dubious Millennium as a kind of “Chicken Soup for the Sardonic Soul” (or James Thurber and Jules Pfeiffer in a smack-down grudge match versus Edward Gorey and Oscar Wilde...with Lemony Snicket as referee). The tales are set both in the “once upon a time” and the here and now. Although they are slightly odd ducks, Cole hopes her stories will resonate with an adult audience fed up with the “having-it-all-itis” and “sense-of-entitlement-osis” (which she credits as being the big, bad baby daddies of everything from road rage to reality TV), as well as sophisticated kids who would have perhaps enjoyed High School Musical more had it been penned by Stephen King.
PDF | 110 Pages | 8.5 x 11 | US$4.95
ISBN 9781933688121
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