BOOKS
A Consternation of Monsters–
A consternation, as you should remember from grade school, is the collective noun for monsters. I thought it a fitting title for a collection of short stories that each contain monsters of various sorts and shades. In these tales, a creature of make-believe proves difficult to disbelieve, a trickster-god takes an unkindly interest in witnesses, eldritch horrors can be summoned with a quilt, frustrated wolves face dangerous prey, the angel of death wears a plaid sport coat, wise old women are to be feared and heeded, Elvis remains king, the corpses of legends can be perilous to have around, and where one of the most powerful objects in the world is a fork.
The settings for the stories span from rural Mississippi, Appalachia, the desert southwest, Alaska, and on to Memphis, Tennessee.
Writer Belinda Anderson has described Eric’s short story “Wolves Among Stones at Dusk” as Quentin Tarantino fighting Jack London. (The author would amend this to read: Quentin Tarantino fighting Jack London while Walter M. Miller, Jr. watches, but he digresses…)
A Consternation of Monsters is also being adapted into audio podcast form by the author himself. Episodes of the Consternation of Monsters podcast can be found at its page on this very site.
REVIEWS FOR A CONSTERNATION OF MONSTERS
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Rhizomaticideas.com (a review by author Ed Davis)
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Unlimited Book Reviews
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New Mystic Reviews
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WriterBee’s Book Reviews
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The Joy of… (Jon Joy)
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Amazon.com reviews
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Weekly Read by J.D. Byrne
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WV Book Team: A monster mash in book form (Cat Pleska)
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Jason Half: Writer
PLAYS
A playwright as well, Eric’s short plays have been produced in a variety of theatres and outdoor locales. Check out more information about them at the Plays Page.
BIO
Eric Fritzius writes things, edits them, and occasionally acts. Sometimes he teaches others how to write, and/or directs them how to act.
His plays …to a Flame, …and Tigers and Bears, Honey Do, A Game of Twenty…, and Fargo 3D, have been produced at the Greenbrier Valley Theatre in Lewisburg, W.Va.. …to a Flame and …and Tigers and Bears were also produced by the Independent Theatre Collective in Wheeling, W.Va. Fargo 3D has also been produced by the Lewis Theater in Lewisburg, the 0 to 60 Play Festival at Longwood University in April 2017, and the MadLab Theatre’s 18th Annual Theatre Roulette in May 2017. You can read some of them via his page at the New Play Exchange.

From left Jordan Kaplan (AEA), Eric Fritzius, and Courtney Susman, in the Tragedy of Hamlet, 2015, Greenbrier Valley Theatre. Photo by Valerie Pritt courtesy of Greenbrier Valley Theatre.