A man who has died just seconds ago communicates the uncertainty of his final destination with The Great Unknown as consciousness slips away. A young woman composes a sarcastic letter of healing to her abusive father prior to defending her title as the psychiatric hospital's karaoke champion. A secluded rural family performs a bizarre ritual meant to harm the psyche of their estranged daughter and sister, who's only crime was to move far away from the family.

Enter a speculative universe where logic has been put on life-support, traditions are seen as useless appendages, and nearly every character in these overtly farcical tales lives a hopelessly bewildered existence, carried along by a dysfunctioning self-awareness antithetical to his or her well-being. If this sounds like our present day lives, it is, only ratcheted up a few dozen notches. Lurking underneath the stories is the reality that we humans simply take ourselves far too seriously, and it might behoove us to lighten up before the you-know-what hits the fan. Fractured Fictions is Mik Dietlin's second story collection, and is his most absurdist writing yet. It includes the novella Gummy Worm Mind Invasion, a near-futuristic look at what happens when a science writer's immovable skepticism collides head-on with irresistable supernatural forces.