Shoot Me, Jesus: Tales of the Old & New Southwest, is “erotic magic realism with a Southwestern spiciness.” The eleven linked tales move forward and backward in time in the manner of flashbacks and foreshadowing in a novel. The identities of the characters are malleable. The details of their lives, from their occupations to their sexual proclivities, change with each story. Their personalities develop by a process of accretion and the slow accumulation of traits. Humor is an essential element of each story.
The author wondered how things might have turned out for the protagonist if he liked men instead of women, or was poor rather than comfortable. A mere ten seconds can mean the difference between life and death. The smallest event can have enormous repercussions down the road, a kind of “butterfly effect” on a human life. Those are among the concepts explored in this anthology of short stories.