The thirteen stories collected here have the poignancy of dreams and nightmares, often haunting the backrooms that exist in between. Seven never-before-published tales span from the surreal, underground cruising landscapes of Manhattan to both modern and Edo-period Japan. Imperial Rome and Victorian England provide the background for unsettling and intense gay erotic horror and historical fantasy. This is Cardamone’s third collection of short fiction, and this time the visions are darker, the escalating narratives more provocative.
“The time between Cardamone collections is woefully too long so when the speculative gay goddess conspires to gift us with a new one, you read...you consume...you devour. On Cardamone’s literary plate, generous servings of horror and longing congeal in titillating and uncomfortable ways to help us see, clearly, that dangerous intersection between desire and deviancy, the vulnerability in venture. These tales will satiate even the most voracious of speculative fiction appetites.” —Vince A. Liaguno, Bram Stoker Award®-winning editor of Unspeakable From the Shadows of the Closet and Other Terrors
“Eros and Thanatos dance in Tom Cardamone’s lurid and grisly tales of aberrant desire.” —Dale Corvino, author of Bonds and Boundaries and Afterlife of a Kept Boy
“Momentary Aberrations is a twilight-colored ride into a queer nightscape. The variety of stories showcases not only Cardamone’s writing prowess, but his ability to blend and bend speculative genres. Pick this collection up.” —J. Daniel Stone, author of Daubed in Darkness
Tom Cardamone is the editor of Crashing Edmund White by the Book and is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning speculative novella Green Thumb as well as the erotic fantasy The Lurid Sea and other works of fiction. Additionally, he has edited The Lost Gay Fiction Rediscovered and co-edited Fever The Queer Reclamation of William S. Burroughs.
He co-curates The Library of Homosexual Congress, an imprint of Rebel Satori Press, which preserves and promotes classic and provocative works of gay literature and nonfiction, with a focus on the AIDS crisis, the nascent gay rights movement, as well as irreverent works of sexual culture and groundbreaking titles that deserve renewed attention.
Tom Cardamone’s speculative short fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Spectrum award. His work has appeared in various magazines and anthologies like So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction, Best Gay Fiction, Best Gay Erotica, Best Gay Romance, and Madder Love: Queer Men and the Precincts of Surrealism. He is the author of the erotic fantasy novel, The Werewolves of Central Park and editor of The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered.