(First printed in 2006)

No multi-media system will ever rival what fiction does in your mind. The author is only half
of it, if even half; then you take over. Fiction can put you in the headspace of a climber on the
Matterhorn at sunset who is wracked with memories of a previous love (previous to the one
waiting at base camp) while at the same time concerned about the first hint of frostbite in their
toes, even as waves of satisfaction flood in from cosmic scenic vistas all around. No video game
delivers that, and none ever will without the kind of neural implant I don’t want.

I conceived of my first book, Tales of Real and Dream Worlds, as being a gymnasium for the
imagination. I grew up on the Twilight Zone, with Rod Serling, and always loved that style of
fantasy fiction. It is also the Richard Matheson style, and was pioneered by HG Wells, who said
take a prosaic scene and insert one fantastical element. This book is in tribute to that style.

The nine stories of this collection are either based in real historical events that were freak
outliers that beggar belief, or they are unreal in every way but not impossible. Hence the title.

Tales of Real and Dream Worlds, which is crying out for a re-issue, won a Finalist prize at the
2008 National Indie Excellence Awards. It is presently available in paperback only. The Amazon link below usually has second hand copies. If you want a signed, like-new copy I still have a small box of them. I’ll say ten bucks, for you. Drop me a line at the Send a Message button on the Home page. This book drew many lavish responses. Around fifty, as I recall. Here are a few . . .

Storytelling to make the aficionado tremble with joy

“Forgive me the casual style, but this is not so much a review as it is a testimonial. I couldn’t
very well help myself.

Where to start? Well, the first story in the collection, Theater on the Air, is a time capsule that
takes the reader back to that fateful night in 1938 when Orson Welles aired his infamous “War of
the Worlds” radio broadcast that sent those who heard it literally heading for the hills. Framed by
the very real travails of a troubled husband and wife and their precocious second son, this tale
perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the collection’s title, wherein real and imagined worlds
collide, and when the moment of truth is nigh, the husband’s decision is at once anybody’s guess
and a glorious revelation.

The book’s cover features the visage of one of the predatory Statuary Cats that the middle part of
the book devotes three stories to, which could easily be lumped together and called a novella. Per
usual, Stewart’s writing is expansive and darkly humorous. His characters are well drawn, and
surprisingly expendable. This is to say, don’t get too cozy with any of them because the cats may
not only get their tongue, but a whole lot more of them before the story’s told.

The next story, The Jingle, after the Statuary trilogy is one wherein Stewart shows he can indeed
hit the ground running because right off the bat the reader is told the world is in danger of total
social and economic collapse thanks to … no, not a suitcase nuke or anything so predictable, but
… the inextricable catchiness of a soda pop commercial that gets into the very nubbins of the
listener’s brain, eventually reducing it to mush.

OK. I’m not going go through and summarize each story, but suffice to say where else are you
going to get a lump in your throat after reading a story whose main character is a honey bee? Or
be treated to a closing story that is as dead on a metaphor for getting ahead (pun intended) in this
world as you are ever going to find?

I strongly advise you buy this book. It’s money in the bank.

Steven Hansen, Amazon Reviewer

“I read a lot of short stories, and even years after reading it, I still think about The Jingle. Bart
Stewart’s writing is that memorable – witty, smart, and craftfully constructed. The Jingle was, in
my opinion, one of the best stories we selected in the decade we published.”

— Penny Talbert, Editor, The Circle Magazine (A Pennsylvania Literary Magazine)

“In an age of fakes, decoys, and lifeless imitations, the stellar originality of Bart Stewart’s Tales
of Real and Dream Worlds is like a shot of divine ichor in the carotid artery of a wonder-bled
world. Ranging from the whimsical to the weird to the outright horrific, the finely crafted stories
of this debut collection demonstrate a keen insight into not only the human condition, but the
inhuman and nonhuman conditions as well. For readers with a penchant for the darkly
miraculous and the mysteriously surreal, Tales of Real and Dream Worlds is positively
guaranteed to please.”

— Robin Spriggs, author of Wondrous Strange, Tales of the Uncanny

“The Statuary Cats! Too scary to read at night!”

— Ginger Bruner, KUNV-FM Las Vegas