title: The Miniature Wife: and Other Stories
author:  Manuel Gonzales 
description: Debut writer Gonzales blends imagined histories and biographies with the supernatural and scientific in 18 energetic tales depicting the bizarre as everyday events. Largely set in Texas, the authors home, these stylized stories disclose a zombie-infested mall, an animal-ridden house, and a shed-dwelling unicorn. Swamp monsters battle robots and a father becomes a werewolf, while artists and anthropologists reevaluate their careers. In the uproarious title story, a scientist accidentally shrinks his wife, leading to an absurdly ferocious rivalry involving a dollhouse, dead flies, and makeshift moats. And in the collections defining opener, a writer aboard a hijacked plane that has been circling Dallas for 20 years chronicles his fellow passengers acceptance of life in airborne captivity. Loosely anchoring the book is a series of wry, encyclopedic entries recounting the mythic lives of a clown, poet, scientist, and zookeeper, respectively, and another about an innkeeper who shares the authors name. Although these whimsical additions feel extraneous in an otherwise fascinating collection, Gonzales expresses empathy and demonstrates an impressive knack for violent humor, disturbing satire, and genre-infused literary fiction. --Jonathan Fullmer
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  Mace
  
  Copyright © 2021 by M.A. Gonzales
  
  Copyright © 2021 M.A. Gonzales
  
  First electronic publication: May
  
  
  2021
  
  M.A. Gonzales![](images/00002.jpg)
  
  www.magonzales.net
  
  All Rights are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
  manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief
  quotations embodied in articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction of
  this copyrighted material is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned,
  uploaded, or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or
  print, without the author’s permission.
  
  NOTE FROM M.A. GONZALES
  
  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents
  are product of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are
  not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead,
  actual events, locale or organizations