Publisher's Synopsis
The stories in this collection are unique and varied. A young woman discovers a novel way to cure writer's block; an astronomy club turns out to be an efficient dating agency; a hardened businessman becomes the patron of an impoverished Peruvian family; and a bored professor discovers his true audience on talk radio. One story describes the unsuccessful efforts of a psychopath to convince a wealthy couple that bad boys really exist. Another demonstrates how political correctness can complicate space age exploration. With wit and insight, conflicts arising from gaps in social class, age, and gender are explored. One story even shows the frustrations one species may cause another. In the essays, Olsen explains how writers ranging from Jonathan Swift in the eighteenth century to Walter M. Miller, Jr. in the twentieth reached popular audiences while becoming masters of the writer's craft.
