A collection of ten years of love poems written by humorist Steven Brykman to Raegan McCain, his wife.

A collection of ten years of love poems written by humorist Steven Brykman to Raegan McCain, his wife.

Rule of Thumb — Humorous Tales of Perversion and Acceptance was written primarily to offend and embarrass my parents in a... More > cheap attempt at blackmailing them into giving me money to keep it from ever seeing the light of day.

These stories are bizarre and fantastic, yet at each one's center is a strangely recognizable gem. Something to take home. A sort of twisted moral. A rule of thumb. A message of love, loss, and the longing for acceptance we all feel, no matter how weird the world thinks we are.

In this book, a heterosexual hippie mans a gay-sex chat line, a child prodigy reproduces masterpieces in Play-doh, a high-school marching band drummer finds his cowbells give him power over the cheerleading squad, a curmudgeonly old yenta tries to perform an abortion on her dog, and a Kinko's employee engages in a love affair with a copy machine. These tales are intermixed with stories from the author's own neurotic life, tales involving erectile enhancers and anxiety drug studies. < Less

Rule of Thumb was written primarily to offend and embarrass my parents in a cheap attempt at blackmailing them into giving... More > me money to keep it from ever seeing the light of day. Unfortunately, I miscalculated. My parents did not have any money, leaving me with only one choice: have the material published. I am unsure what sort of damage my reputation will suffer as a result, though I suspect at the very least my friends will look at me differently from now on.

These stories are bizarre and fantastic, yet at each one's center is a strangely recognizable gem. Something to take home. A sort of twisted moral. A rule of thumb. A message of love, loss, and the longing for acceptance we all feel, no matter how weird the world thinks we are.

When you get through it, if it all somehow comes together for you, it'll be as much a surprise for me as it is for you. < Less