The outrageousness of the short stories of r. c. cooper threaten to leave me without words, though I'm known to be the wordy sort. Nothing I can say could prepare you for the over-the-top madness and social sacrilige of these short stories. Yet for all their insanity, direct and implied, they contain a humanity often lacking in more mainstream works. They tell stories of human triumphs and frailties in the most unbelievable places.
rc lives in the Ohio boondocks, and considers fiction-writing a form of play—anything goes. He has published seven short stories: "I Was Young Then"(coming-of-age story) in the Carolina Quarterly, "Smile" (relationship satire) in Dirty Dishes, "Score?" (spoof on seduction) and "Refashioning Hitler" (satire on Hitler revisionists) in Fiction Funhouse, "The Coming" (mildly magic-realist take on evangelical religion) in Nuvein, "Billy’s Rock" (introvert dilemma) in The Oracular Tree, and "The Dandelion War" (exurban satire) in TRQ. Seven other stories have recently been accepted for publication: "Heads"(murder story presented in an original contrapuntal format) by Black Petals, "Cooler Heads" (whimsical horror story) by Devil Blossoms, "Keep Smiling" (relationship satire) by Carve Magazine, "WS" (Shakespearean wordplay) by Dana Literary Society Online Journal, "Dumb Rock" (coming-of-age story) by The Horsethief’s Journal, "Do You Mind?" (an experimental "disjoint") by Liquid Ohio, and "Happiness" (a fictional psychohistory) by 13th Warrior Review.
rc has also published a book of nonfiction humor (Follies, Foibles and Foolish Deeds) with Penguin, and published or had accepted for publication 15 essays. He has recently completed a ludic novel called It’s a Fact, Jack, and is well along on Peace, a novel that satirizes just about everything. Drop him a line at qccoop@1st.net.
R. C.'s works here at Unlikely Stories are: