Father Figure

by Ralph Robert Moore

South of Anchorage, Alaska, accessible only from a mud-rutted road off Seward Highway, is the town of Lodgepole. After midnight, after the sun has finally gone down, among the blueberry bushes of White Birch Park overlooking the lime green waters of Little Muncho Lake, a man climbs on top of a woman and begins making love to her. As her orgasm rises he puts his hands around her throat, shutting off her air. She struggles, not to stop him, but to stop herself from trying instinctively to pull his hands off her throat. As the top joints of his thumb meet at the front of her throat she comes, her cry of orgasm ricocheting around inside her forever. Daryl Putnam, handsome, bookish, wakes from a nightmare and decides to do something he hasn't done in years, take a walk outside at night. Down by the lake he comes across the body of the strangled woman.

Father Figure is a gripping word erotic horror novel describing the slow corruption of two innocents, Daryl and Sally, by a man who claims to have existed for all time. The novel contains a large number of creepily effective horror scenes, showcasing creatures never imagined before, including a sofa-sized spider with three women's upper bodies attached atop, a pair of shapely legs made out of the parts of a half dozen women, and a long thing with low intelligence and thousands of side legs that dwells in the bathroom; as well as sexually explicit language (but it is the language of poetry, rather than pornography).

This is the first publication of the complete, unexpurgated text of the underground classic Father Figure, excerpts of which have been showing up on the Internet for years. Father Figure is a combination of Vladimir Nabokov, William S. Burroughs, and The Hardy Boys.

468 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

“Moore's work is consistently fascinating, original and devastating. His characters speak to you from whatever hell they inhabit, with clear, unambiguous voices.” - Trevor Denyer

Ralph Robert Moore is a British Fantasy Society nominee whose dark fiction has been characterized as “morbidly graphic.” He’s been published in America, Canada, England, Ireland, India and Australia in a wide variety of genre and literary magazines and anthologies, including Black Static, Shadows & Tall Trees, Midnight Street, Chizine, and Sein und Werden.

His books include the novels Father Figure, As Dead As Me, and Ghosters; and the short story collections Remove the Eyes and I Smell Blood.

His second collection, I Smell Blood, tied with Justin Isis' I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like for Peter Tennant's award of Best Short Story Collection of 2011. "...If I were to do a 'Top Thirty Short Stories of 2011' list, they would dominate it... Each is a superb stylist and each has a unique voice...Moore crafts tales that bristle with attitude and energy..."

“I Smell Blood, Ralph Robert Moore's second short fiction collection, reinforces his reputation, amongst those in the know, that here we have a genre-storytelling giant in our midst.” - AJ Kirby

"Tired of the usual suspects? Bored with the same old genre clichés? Then follow my advice and read Ralph Robert Moore, a hell of a writer whose work is provocative and refreshing, never ordinary, always imaginative and graced by a compelling narrative style…Moore has all the features of a great writer: he conceives original plots, creates credible characters and makes them speak plausible dialogues, and, most of all, is a terrific storyteller. Try him, you won't regret it." - Mario Guslandi

Ralph Robert Moore's website SENTENCE at www.ralphrobertmoore.com features a wide selection of his writings, including the full text of his novel Father Figure and over a dozen short stories, more than ten years of his online diary entries, essays, recipes, videos, and other features. His Facebook page is located at www.facebook.com/ralph.r.moore.

Moore and his wife Mary live in Dallas, Texas.