Yes Trespassing

by Erik T. Johnson, John F.D. Taff (Introduction)

Yes Trespassing collects twenty-five, or maybe twenty-six or -seven or perhaps twenty-eight (let’s say it’s twenty-eight) individual works by Erik T. Johnson, some previously-published, some appearing in this book for the first time, stories like “The Leaf” and “Krug’s Pen,” “The Depopulation Syndrome,” “The Invention of the Mask” (which you can find on the front cover), “The Depopulation Syndrome” and the novella Scissors Seldom Come. Trespass. Read the horror, the wonder, the mindscrewing. This book will change you.

320 pages, Paperback

Published April 11, 2017

About the author

BIOGRAPHY, 1st Draft
(or YES TRESSPASSING)
An entertainment by Erik T. Johnson

BIOGRAPHY is comprised of three general components:

1) BIO, encompassing the simultaneous coming-and-going of "Bye" and "Hello" (Note how the"Bye" sound is spelled with the letters "BI", to better emphasize the the dual nature of this phenomenon);

2) GRAPH, an indecipherable acronym implying the sound of wooden alphabet blocks pumble-tumping through brass bison hearts; and

3) Y,a common glyph representing the road that diverges in two directions, as well as the oversized, up-ended trumpet devoid of stops and valves often used as a divining rod to help choose which way to go.

It is often easier to speak of less ambiguous matters. Lists are helpful in this regard. One can preface such a list, for example, by stating that Erik T. Johnson's works have appeared in over 40 national and international publications. The list would then follow, like this: These include anthologies such as Chiral Mad, Dead But Dreaming 2, and Shadows of the Unknown; and periodicals including Electric Velocipede, Space & Time Magazine, Shimmer, Sein und Werden, Tales of the Unanticipated, Morpheus Tales, Crossed Genres, Structo, and others, many of which are available on Amazon.

Biography 2nd Draft:
I am an author of Sorely Mistaken fiction. Sometimes known as the literature of Permissive Trespassing or Middle-Finger Metaphysics. I deny the existence of infinity. However, I do postulate Far-too-Longness as one of the essential qualities of whatever, &c. I write against a living, and prefer the glorious failure of a run-on sentence to the shortsighted safety of a proper one that wouldn't dare make a break for it. I am responsible for the etcetracaine problem, and the war on it. At the end of the day I have no idea what I'm saying or doing, but I can't quit.

Reviews

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hadn't heard of Erik T. Johnson before reading Yes Trespassing, but after reading the glowing endorsement from horror writer John F.D. Taff, whose work I do respect and admire, it set up the short story collection for me in a good way. Rather than give a story-by-story breakdown, what I will say is that Johnson is a writer who knows how to play with the reader's expectations. One story, "The Black Tree's Box," in particular, was well done. It used various elements, including a possibly unreliable narrator, to spin a pretty good yarn. It also plays with chronology of the characters and of events in a very interesting way.

Rather than suffering from the fate of some short story collections that have stories that are all too similar or thematically not very different or make the reader question whether they've just read something very similar recently, Johnson's collection offers a wide variety of stories on different themes and keeps the reader guessing as they make their way through the collection. In addition, the use of hand-drawn illustrations made this book reminiscent of House of Leaves or other books that have creatively incorporated hand-drawn notes and marks to give the overall design a feel as though it has been written down on lined paper, similar to a student's notebook.

It is fitting that Michael Bailey and his press, Written Backwards, is the publisher of this superb collection. Johnson's work has appeared in other Bailey anthologies, including Qualia Nous and the recently launched You Human as well as Chiral Mad 2. From a print culture perspective, this collection makes an interesting use of marginalia or readers' commentary and annotations as part of the text, not necessarily on the main pages of the stories, but in the front matter and the end matter as well as for the story and chapter titles, which uniquely uses typographical elements and creates a dynamic overall aesthetic element that runs as an undercurrent throughout the book.

If you prefer the type of slipstream or Weird horror, you will thoroughly enjoy Johnson's short story collection. If you're looking for a horror collection that features the standard tropes of vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts and so on, then you should likely look elsewhere because you're not going to find anything cliched or overdone, or "been there done that" about these stories. Instead, you will find originality, good storytelling, and a compelling collection of tales.

[J. Travis Grundon · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the presentation, the introduction by John FD Taff, and every story within, everything hooked me about this book. Yes Trespassing is more than a good read. It's a unique experience.

[J. Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my blurb inside the book.