In Paris he gathers soldiers, on leave from battle, looks for red softenings in exposed gray matter, and Salpêtrière mothers, who fall into trances in which they reveal hidden birth traumas and scandalous plots. His intercranial pressure probes kaleidoscopic aspects of random episodes, those black seizures that lock in rows of unhappy smiles. Wary of his questions, there is silence, hardening silence in the end to crumble into ill-mannered song.
J.R. Salling is a teacher of mathematics, which should not imply any special ability in the discipline. His stories, for example, don’t always add up in the end. Recent publication credits include Pindeldyboz, Opium Magazine, Flashquake, Yankee Pot Roast, Facsimilation, Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k), Insolent Rudder, Dead Mule, uber, Ten Thousand Monkeys, Copperfield Review, Skive, Subterranean Quarterly, Defenestration and Thieves Jargon.