Because I Wanted to Write You a Pop Song
by Kara Vernor
publication date: June 15, 2016
softcover, $12
(ISBN: 978-0-990903-57-4)
The characters in this collection of 21 short fictions hum with restlessness. They pine for lost loves and pop music romances, Hollywood heartthrobs, and sunnier towns. They flee from failed relationships and looming violence, adulthood and other deaths. Written with dark humor and incisive, voice-driven prose, Kara Vernor's stories will stick in your head like a song.
Praise for Because I Wanted to Write You a Pop Song:
"Hilarious, dark, and beguiling. These wonderful stories crackle with hard-earned wisdom and wit and will, like all the very best songs, become forever etched on your heart."
—John Jodzio, author of Knockout
"Reading Kara Vernor is like being in a fast car that reveals the deepest secrets of its passerby. You rubberneck and yearn for more. You're spinning, you're flying, you're exhilarated and sad and brimming with thrill. Hail this book and hold on tight."
—Lindsay Hunter, author of Eat Only When You’re Hungry
"Like a knife, cutting through so many of the falsehoods of American life and leaving only the truth, somehow leaving it both gently and determinedly at the same time. These stories do not flinch and do not seem to even remember how."
—Siamak Vossoughi, author of Better Than War
"These stories dazzle and tenderize. They are strange little worlds that invite you in. Kara Vernor writes with gut, heart, and striking beauty."
—Jensen Beach, author of Swallowed by the Cold
"If I could leave a few things in a capsule for the civilization coming next, I think I’d maybe pick Kara Vernor’s stories. Beings of the future might know us that way: how we thought; how our words arranged themselves on our tongues when we were only half thinking; what we were after, and how messed up that all was, but how vital in a deeper way."
—Scott Garson, author of Is That You, John Wayne?
Kara Vernor’s fiction and essays have appeared in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Ninth Letter, The Los Angeles Review, The Normal School, Fanzine, No Tokens, and elsewhere. She was the recipient of an Elizabeth George Foundation scholarship for her MFA program, which began at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts and ended at Antioch University Los Angeles. Her fiction has been included in Wigleaf’s Top 50 Very Short Fictions, The Best Small Fictions 2019, and Golden State 2017: Best New Writing from California. Find her on Twitter: @karavernor.
