Leftover Shorts

By Amy Neftzger

A diverse collection of three short stories: The Marshmallow War, Peripheral Witches, and Parson's Song.

The Marshmallow War is a humorous look at how organizations sometimes push aside older workers and their accumulated knowledge in favor of younger workers with "fresh perspectives." The story is set inside the Merryman Marshmallow Corporation's research and development department where management confuses youth with innovation.

Peripheral Witches combines elements of a fairy tale and the paranormal as a young working mother struggles to discern whether or not she's losing her mind. A trip home at the end of a long, stressful day has Miriam seeing witches that disappear whenever she looks directly at them. The witches reappear in her peripheral vision.

The last story in the collection, Parson's song, is based loosely on the legend surrounding the folk tune "MacPherson's Lament." Set in the rural south, a small town speculates on whether or not a young gentleman named Billy Parson will be a great man or great criminal. According to their superstitious beliefs, he would be legendary whether for positive or negative reasons. Billy also struggles to come to terms with the local superstition surrounding his fate.

• Language: English
• Publisher: FOG INK
• Release date: May 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9780974629667

Amy Neftzger

Amy Neftzger (born June 23) is an American researcher and author who has published fiction books, non-fiction books, business articles, and peer review research. Her works have reached an international audience.Amy was born in Illinois and graduated from Elk Grove High School in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. She received her bachelors degree from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida and her Masters in Industrial/ Organizational Psychology from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She graduated from both Universities with honors.She has written numerous business and journal articles, but her fiction works have been the most commercially successful. In 2003 she published Conversations with the Moon, which was also translated into Korean and published in South Korea. In 2005 she collaborated with her husband, guitarist Tyra Neftzger on a children's book called "All that the Dog Ever Wanted." The book was designed to introduce children to jazz music at an early age and included a CD sampler of jazz tunes. In 2007 she worked as an editor on a business fable called "The Damned Company." She's also written "Confessions From a Moving Van" and "Leftover Shorts."In 2013, Amy released her first Young Adult book called "The Orphanage of Miracles." The sequel to this book, "The Orchard of Hope" is scheduled for release in June of 2014, and The Ferryman (adult fiction) is scheduled for release in October, 2014.

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