“The only thing that kept Sammy Waxman from sinking beneath the suffocating tide of failure was a short attention span. Sure, he’d been in and out of jail for petty larceny and mail fraud a couple of times. And that was after he’d watched every honest career he’d set out upon collapse at his feet for — to him — unfathomable reasons. But even before he’d finished wiping the dust off his face from the most recent bankruptcy or conviction, some gleaming thing down the road would catch his eye, and he’d be off again…”

The Coal Creek Quarterly is a heartwarming tale on the transformative power of unattainable dreams, male bonding and wire fraud. Oh, and literary fiction, too. Or did I say that already? Sorry – if it’s not obvious, the story was written with tongue firmly in cheek upon the receipt of my 34th consecutive form-letter rejection.

I know better now, and I hope you will benefit from the fruits of my hard-earned lesson by enjoying The Coal Creek Quarterly.