{Book Feature} Long Live Us: Stories by Mark R. Brand

Release date: September 9, 2013
cclapcenter.com/longliveus

Synopsis: A family tensely waits out a meningitis scare in a quarantined home during the Great Recession. Small-town farmers in pre-war America battle a tree the size of a skyscraper. In a day-after-tomorrow dystopia, the new naughty contraband among rebellious teenagers is starchy carbohydrates. And in a barely recognizable far future, enlightened humanoids debate the implications of a mother who has smothered her child. These are just some of the speculative visions collected in the new Long Live Us by Chicago writer Mark R. Brand, author of the previous CCLaP hit “Life After Sleep.” Known primarily as a science-fiction author, this new collection will certainly not disappoint Brand’s existing fans, with pieces set among lunar colonists and blue-collar astronauts among other fanciful situations; but this is also Brand expanding his scope and vision for the first time, treating us with more down-to-earth stories set among contemporary families and even offering up a Great Depression tall tale. A multiple past winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award, Brand is at the height of his creative power in Long Live Us, and the stories found within are sure to delight, disturb and thrill you long after you’ve finished reading.

About Mark R. Brand

Mark R. Brand is the author of the novels Red Ivy Afternoon (2006), Life After Sleep (2011), and The Damnation of Memory (2011), as well as the editor of the 2009 anthology Thank You, Death Robot. He is a two-time Independent Publisher Book Award winner and is the creator and host of the video podcast series Breakfast With the Author (available on iTunes). A native of northern New York, he now lives in Evanston, IL with his wife and son, and teaches English at Wilbur Wright College. He is currently completing a PhD in English with a focus in Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.