Welcome to another installment of If My Book, the Monkeybicycle feature in which authors compare their recently released books to weird things. This week Steve S. Saroff writes about Paper Targets, his novel just reprinted by Flooding Island.
If Paper Targets were a road, it would be a county route out west, winding along the edge of mountains and through dying towns where diners and gas stations would be the last places still open.
If Paper Targets were a meal, it would be a breakfast of fried eggs, sausage, toast with the butter melted in, and a large mug of coffee.
If Paper Targets were a person, it would be the eighty-five-year-old stranger who sat down next to you at the counter and then asked you to pass the saltshaker.
If Paper Targets were a conversation, it would be the one you had where you confessed to a murder you did not commit.
If Paper Targets were a weapon, it would be the stranger who would become the friend and offer to repay all your overdue regrets.
If Paper Targets were something abrupt, it would be how you turned when a dropped plate shattered on the floor, and how, when you turned back to your meal, the new friend was gone.
If Paper Targets were a door, it would be the one closing behind you.
If Paper Targets were the weather, it would be the warm winds carrying the scent of thunder and dust, mixed with a hint of blossoming cottonwoods on a spring morning.
If Paper Targets were a direction, it would be one that you could follow.
Steve S. Saroff is the author of the novel Paper Targets (Flooding Island). His traditionally published short fiction has appeared in Redbook and other national magazines. His recent fiction has been published in Monkeybicycle, The Examined Life Journal (University of Iowa), Jewish Fiction Journal, Bull, and Rejection Letters. Saroff is the host of the podcast Montana Voice. Follow him on Instagram at @SteveSaroffWords and visit Saroff.com.
Buy a copy of Paper Targets here.