Life's Stories

This exciting collection of short stories, by W. E. SELF, is provocative, nuanced, and diverse in theme. The stories are layered snapshots of life. The strong style favors ironies and symbolism, with flashes of offbeat wit. The situations are easily relatable, the experiences sometimes nostalgic, sometimes enlightening. There are sometimes lessons to be learned or revisited. Occasionally the writer narrates, allowing him to bring forth the thought provoking ironies without fanfare. The writer holds that in life fear is the only thing holding you back. “You have to understand that specific limitation. Fear is the only thing that is real. All else is perspective.” Life Stories offers a moral to every story, a caveat of hope or a warning to the wise. Mr. Self’s stories are a jewel box full of ideas like a shiny lure. He’s discovered wonderful tales stolen from a thousand dreams with promises of a happy ending. The reader can almost hear the chorus of “follow the yellow brick road.” The stories are part and parcel of a journey that he had to navigate alone, endure and find his way, while missing a corner of the map. Of course everyone experiences each story from their own point of view, which is sometimes confusing because that which makes us feel good is too often that which should make us feel bad. Perhaps the reader has never been to the steamy jungles of VietNam, known the loneliness of a prison bed, or experienced the desperation waiting at the edge 26 stories up, and the things we do for love. But W. E. pours the reader into the matrix without wasting an emotional drop, and we are reminded that love and life are simply equal.

What are we to be if not like you? What are we to think if not like you? What can we possibly attain or hope to achieve if we are not like you? The technologically advanced have conquered much of the world. It follows, perhaps, that histories are and will be written by the winners, and that very few will tell the stories of the lost. After all, histories are not told because the events are true, are they? Life Stories — a collection of short stories by author W. E. Self — is an extraordinary interpretation of life and breath. A true storybook, filled with the right words. It is the dream America, where people can speak, think and write what they believe while boiling in the juices of justice for all — cooked in morality, served with color-blindness and bull. However, the most damaging of these are the ones we tell and believe…to deceive ourselves. Excerpt from Life Stories: The 7th Tee Even for the obedient, life is a series of deceits, frauds, and knowing how to avoid the social minefields camouflaged with smiling faces. I didn’t have a clue at first. I thought that wiles and deceit were purely evil qualities. However, I would soon learn that to survive in this world you had to cheat yourself first. "I believe the doors that lead to any truth are opened by those who believe the posted sign that reads: wet paint.” - W. E. Self