Scum and Other Tales

This varied collection of short stories is filled with strange, amusing, memorable, and imperfect characters telling unlikely tales, such as: .Brown Acid: the psychedelic artist from Woodstock to 21st century.Soot: Asteroid impact and bumbling survivors .Unravel: Biotech mutations.Afterglow: Flawed long-life formula.Scum: Witches, aliens, junk food, and quasi-reality TV .Caterwaul: Cats a-wailing.Deep Fried: Fatty foods outlawed.Sex, Drugs & Rock and Roll: Hookers, Users, and Rockers.Overlook: Kids stage backyard Waco.Lanamite: Exotic dancers and asteroid mining.Death's Little Helper: Young man believes he is the Reaper's aide .Bathory's Dudgeon: Aspiring vampire killer. Follow the 60s artist who calls himself Aardvark through the personal and social changes of the past 40 years in the tale entitled Brown Acid. See how two very non-heroic humans manage to survive an astronomical catastrophe in Soot. Hope that a junk food called Scum does not actually reach the supermarket shelves! From the first page to the last, readers will find these stories entertaining and hilarious. All of the characters portrayed in the fiction of Richard Bellush are deeply flawed in very human ways, but they often manage to be likable anyway. Sometimes they are likable because of their flaws. We, as readers, hope they succeed in their endeavors and occasionally they do.The short stories in this collection range from an all-too-real depiction of contemporary life to pure unashamed space opera. Throughout it all, the writing remains acerbic, funny, and thoroughly enjoyable.