Books by Darcy Rhyno
The Underworld Magician
HOLIDAYS: stORIES
Longlisted for the 2012 Canadian ReLit Awards
Back cover description: "Crystal clear characters, compelling storytelling and rich detail – these are the hallmarks of Darcy Rhyno’s short stories. In this themed collection, he explores holidays – official and invented – as times when desires, motivations and relationships come into sharp focus. In language at times graceful and playful, in narratives both poignant and dark, he offers up an arc of vividly told stories that will captivate."
Recommendations from other authors:
Donna Morrissey: (Sylvanis Now): As with the holidays themed through his stories, Darcy Rhyno catches us with moments of delight, of thrills and surprises and, as well, moments of poignant darkness often found in the complexity in relationships.
Beth Powning (The Sea Captain's Wife): I love these stories by Darcy Rhyno, with their exploration of life’s ironies: the pain doctor faced with a patient who cannot feel pain, the house painter whose goal of renewal cannot be met. Told in strongly varied voices, with a terrific eye for detail, Holidays probes poles of despair and longing with great compassion. This is a lovely book.
Douglas Arthur Brown (Quintet): In Holidays, Darcy Rhyno probes deep into the holidays of the human heart, presenting a collection of stories that are evocative, sharp and enduringly buoyant. In Forgotten at the Airport, Cousin Gerty urges folk to Speak plain. Say what you mean. Mean what you say. Advice that Darcy Rhyno heeds to great effect as he tears down the tapestries woven of long weekends, mandatory vacations, religious dogma and expectations of goodwill, all draped to protect us from the drafts, cracked plaster and impenetrable stone walls of our lives.
Christie Ann Conlin (Heave and Dead Time): The worlds and holidays in Darcy Rhyno's stories are both shocking and soothing, disturbing and reassuring. With an uncanny knack for contrast, Rhyno writes with grit and beauty, showing lives where everything is predictable and yet nothing is."
Recommendations from other authors:
Donna Morrissey: (Sylvanis Now): As with the holidays themed through his stories, Darcy Rhyno catches us with moments of delight, of thrills and surprises and, as well, moments of poignant darkness often found in the complexity in relationships.
Beth Powning (The Sea Captain's Wife): I love these stories by Darcy Rhyno, with their exploration of life’s ironies: the pain doctor faced with a patient who cannot feel pain, the house painter whose goal of renewal cannot be met. Told in strongly varied voices, with a terrific eye for detail, Holidays probes poles of despair and longing with great compassion. This is a lovely book.
Douglas Arthur Brown (Quintet): In Holidays, Darcy Rhyno probes deep into the holidays of the human heart, presenting a collection of stories that are evocative, sharp and enduringly buoyant. In Forgotten at the Airport, Cousin Gerty urges folk to Speak plain. Say what you mean. Mean what you say. Advice that Darcy Rhyno heeds to great effect as he tears down the tapestries woven of long weekends, mandatory vacations, religious dogma and expectations of goodwill, all draped to protect us from the drafts, cracked plaster and impenetrable stone walls of our lives.
Christie Ann Conlin (Heave and Dead Time): The worlds and holidays in Darcy Rhyno's stories are both shocking and soothing, disturbing and reassuring. With an uncanny knack for contrast, Rhyno writes with grit and beauty, showing lives where everything is predictable and yet nothing is."
MONSTERS OF SUBURBIA
Monsters of Suburbia is a novel for teens, but adults love it too.
Synopsis - Everywhere Ray turns, he finds monsters in suburbia – bullies at his new school, a disfigured stranger in the park, a teenage witch named Theda. When Ray finds himself trapped with the bullies and the witch, he has to call on his know-how as a kid from the country to survive…and try to save the others.
Amazon.com Review:
"I loved it. So real and yet inventive, with characters that are engaging and interesting. I couldn't wait to read what happened next, and really care about the characters and their situations."
Another Amazon.com Review about a 2-chapter excerpt:
"In this excerpt there is a line of narrative I like very much - "if you're good with words, don't stay quiet..." - and that is what I would like to say its author. This excerpt shows real promise and I can only imagine how good the rest of the story is. It hooked my attention."
Amazon Customer Review:
YA readers will devour this story, the alienation of both adolescence and moving from two places of stark contrast as well as the bullying, name calling. The author doesn't hold back either. The portrayal of the bullies are very modern and realistic.
Buy as an Ebook or as a paperback now at Amazon
If you'd like to buy a signed copy, write to me through my contact page, and I'll sign and mail a copy to you.
Synopsis - Everywhere Ray turns, he finds monsters in suburbia – bullies at his new school, a disfigured stranger in the park, a teenage witch named Theda. When Ray finds himself trapped with the bullies and the witch, he has to call on his know-how as a kid from the country to survive…and try to save the others.
Amazon.com Review:
"I loved it. So real and yet inventive, with characters that are engaging and interesting. I couldn't wait to read what happened next, and really care about the characters and their situations."
Another Amazon.com Review about a 2-chapter excerpt:
"In this excerpt there is a line of narrative I like very much - "if you're good with words, don't stay quiet..." - and that is what I would like to say its author. This excerpt shows real promise and I can only imagine how good the rest of the story is. It hooked my attention."
Amazon Customer Review:
YA readers will devour this story, the alienation of both adolescence and moving from two places of stark contrast as well as the bullying, name calling. The author doesn't hold back either. The portrayal of the bullies are very modern and realistic.
Buy as an Ebook or as a paperback now at Amazon
If you'd like to buy a signed copy, write to me through my contact page, and I'll sign and mail a copy to you.
Conductor of Waves: Stories
Here's my first collection of short fiction, Conductor of Waves: The collection set on Nova Scotia's South Shore. The Globe and Mail said the book is a "strikingly accomplished collection... the best brim over with palpable atmosphere and characterizations." Silver Donald Cameron said, "Spare and clearn, these are impressively truthful stories."
To purchase, visit Roseway Publishing, an imprint of Fernwood Books: http://www.fernwoodpublishing.ca/Conductor-of-Waves-Darcy-Rhyno/
Below is an excerpt from the story "Soft As Milk" in Conductor of Waves
To purchase, visit Roseway Publishing, an imprint of Fernwood Books: http://www.fernwoodpublishing.ca/Conductor-of-Waves-Darcy-Rhyno/
Below is an excerpt from the story "Soft As Milk" in Conductor of Waves
from "Soft As Milk"
That's the kind of story William wanted to tell when the time came. Somehow, he felt he owed it to his grandfather. William and Granddad would come to this. All the rabbits and partridge, even the cans in the back field all came down to this first deer and the telling of how the killing got done. William could see the veins on Granddad's hands pushing the rabbit's hind legs onto the pair of nails on the wall of the shed. He used to think he could see the pulse, the blood pumping through those hands. They would pull the fur down from the hind legs over the belly until it hung from the front paws and neck. There was no resistance. When those hands pulled, everything came. Granddad would turn his eyes as soft as milk to William to be sure he understood. Then he would lay his hand on William's shoulder and say, "You do the next one."
Trouble was, lately, William had become aware of a vague skepticism growing in him. Things happened and he was supposed to act like there was never any other way. He had begun to feel the head beneath the skin of the rabbit pulling back. The contours of the face. Something familiar in his hands. A possibility stirring within him.
That's the kind of story William wanted to tell when the time came. Somehow, he felt he owed it to his grandfather. William and Granddad would come to this. All the rabbits and partridge, even the cans in the back field all came down to this first deer and the telling of how the killing got done. William could see the veins on Granddad's hands pushing the rabbit's hind legs onto the pair of nails on the wall of the shed. He used to think he could see the pulse, the blood pumping through those hands. They would pull the fur down from the hind legs over the belly until it hung from the front paws and neck. There was no resistance. When those hands pulled, everything came. Granddad would turn his eyes as soft as milk to William to be sure he understood. Then he would lay his hand on William's shoulder and say, "You do the next one."
Trouble was, lately, William had become aware of a vague skepticism growing in him. Things happened and he was supposed to act like there was never any other way. He had begun to feel the head beneath the skin of the rabbit pulling back. The contours of the face. Something familiar in his hands. A possibility stirring within him.
