“Kaleidoscope: Dark Tales” by Derrick R. Lafayette

Just Published: A Provocative Short Story Collection by Our Own Writer-in-Residence

It’s Valentine’s Day and Publication Day for Kaleidoscope: Dark Tales, Derrick R. Lafayette’s newest book. AND we’re excited to anounce Kaleidoscope as our first Fictional Café Press book of 2023.

Derrick is a prolific writer who was our Fiction Writer-in-Residence for 2021-2022. He’s had several works published here at the Café, which you can read here. (Several are included in his collection but others are exclusive FC publications.)

As the French author Marcel Proust once remarked, the mind evokes endlessly changing thought patterns, much like a kaleidoscope. And so reading Derrick R. Lafayette’s Kaleidoscope: Dark Tales, a genuinely extraordinary collection of five short stories and a novella, is like seeing the world anew through bits of colored glass. Here’s a preview.

What if . . . ?

In this weird Wild West story an old gunfighter, accompanied by a Billy-the-Kid wannabe, arrives in a town to claim a straightforward bounty. But due to mistaken identity, they run afoul of a supernatural occurrence. This was Derrick’s first story for FC and it was published to great accclaim.

What if . . . ?

A loner, held captive for months in a mud castle, escapes but feels certain he is still doomed. Walking a deserted highway to Elysian he meets Kali, the most perfect being, as well as assorted man-eating monsters as he slowly descends into madness.

What if . . . ?

Two Abbott-and-Costello-like scientists, marooned on a nuclear bomb-blasted planet, try to re-engineer soldier-cyborgs. Convinced they’re living in the best of all possible worlds, they struggle to survive as the enemy armies swarm around them.

What if . . . ?

When a priest with supernatural ecclesiastical powers and an innocent young girl who has just buried her father board a Victorian horse-drawn coach, they begin a journey into a spiritual netherland where nothing is as it seems.

What if . . . ?

A middle-class Black family – father, mother and teenaged son – reveal their innermost thoughts and experiences, unaware that COVID-19 will strike its first deadly blow within a week. 

There’s more. Medieval fantasy. Science fiction. A paranoiac who plays chess against himself but cannot win. No dark tale in Kaleidoscope is beyond Lafayette’s keen observations and engaging storytelling. Rod Serling (“The Twilight Zone“) would have loved to create radio dramas from these dark tales. 

We’re celebrating Derrick and his book all this week. You’ll get news of where to buy a copy (paperback or eBook), a blog post with excerpts from several of his stories, and an interview Barista Lorraine Martindale conducted with Derrick. You’re our valentine, Derrick! Congratulations!