Win a $25 GC: On the Threshold by M. Laszlo

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If you could apologize to someone in your past, who would it be?

When we’re young and insecure, we often cope with that insecurity by insulting and/or ridiculing other students in the schoolyard. It would be spiritually redemptive to be able to apologize to schoolmates for the little things that I might’ve said in a moment of weakness or insecurity.

If you could keep a mythical/paranormal creature as a pet, what would you have?

The creature would have to get along well with cats, so perhaps it would be best to go with a magical cat or a magical ferret or a magical weasel. Another possibility would be a magical rabbit.

How do you keep your writing different from all the others that write in this particular genre?

Objective correlative and/or thing theory. By filling my writing with significant details and/or symbols that mirror and/or evoke emotion, it is possible to give my writing a touch of the artistic. The down side is that many readers despise artistry. They prefer a less adorned narrative voice.

What are the best and worst pieces of writing advice you ever received?

The best: Work with a published novelist and let him or her tell you what you’re doing right and doing wrong.
The worst: Go get an over-priced M.F.A degree.

Are the experiences in this book based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

Absolutely. The best characters and stories come from life itself. It’s just that the characters end up being composites of various people that one has met. Similarly, the story becomes a composite of different, real, heartfelt experiences. In addition, both characters and stories come to include a great deal of fictional material. That fictional element tends to be significant, however. This is because the fictional element follows not from some mystical muse but rather follows from a person’s unconscious thoughts and obsessions.

Obsessed with learning the origins of the cosmos, the actual meaning of life, and the true purpose of civilization, a fine Scotsman named Fingal T. Smyth dedicates himself to the study of Plato’s most extraordinary ideas. Convinced of Plato’s belief that humankind possesses any and all innate knowledge deep within the collective unconscious mind, Fingal soon conducts a series of bold, pioneering occult-science experiments by which to resolve the riddle of the universe once and for all. However, Fingal forgets how violent and perilous the animal impulses that reside in the deepest recesses of the unconscious mind. And when Fingal unleashes a mysterious avatar of his innate knowledge, the entity appears as a burning man and immediately seeks to manipulate innocent and unsuspecting people everywhere into immolating themselves. Now, with little hope of returning the fiery figure into his being, Fingal must capture his nemesis before it destroys the world.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Autumn, 1907: late one morning, some kind of torrid, invisible beast seemed to wrap itself all around Fingal T. Smyth’s body. Each one of his toes twitching fiercely, he exited the castle and scanned the distant, Scottish Highlands. Go back where you came from. As the entity wrapped itself tighter all about his person, Fingal blinked back his tears. I’m melting, I am. Aye, it’s the heat of fusion.

Gradually, the beast’s heartbeat became audible—each pulsation. At the same time, too, the illusory heat of transformation emitted an odor as of oven-roasted peppercorns dissolving in a cup of burnt coffee.

Over by the gatehouse, Fräulein Wunderwaffe appeared—the little German girl wearing a plain-sewn robe and square-crown bowler. In that moment, she no longer seemed to be a sickly child of seven years: her inscrutable expression resembled that of a wise, indifferent cat.

Perhaps even some kind of lioness. Fingal cringed, and he recalled a fragment of conversation from three weeks earlier.

“She suffers from a most unnatural pathology, an anguished, maniacal obsession with cats,” Doktor Hubertus Pflug had explained. “Ever since the poor girl was a baby, she has always regarded it her fate to one day metamorphose into a glorious panther, for she believes herself to be ein Gestaltwandler. Do you know this word? It means shapeshifter and refers to someone who possesses the power to take the form of anything in nature.”

The heat radiated up and down Fingal’s spine now, and his thoughts turned back to the present. Aye, it’s a change of phase. I’m melting into a chemical compound. Despite all, he greeted the girl and willed himself to flash a grin.

About the Author:

M. Laszlo is an aging recluse who lives in Bath, Ohio. Rumor holds that his pseudonym is a reference to Victor Laszlo, a character in the classic film Casablanca. On the Threshold is his first release with the acclaimed, Australian hybrid house AIA Publishing. Oddly, M. Laszlo insists that his latest work, On the Threshold, does in fact provide the correct answer to the riddle of the universe.

Buy the book at the publisher.

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