Where the Pavement Turns to Sand

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Ride along on a journey through the wild and wondrous backwoods of the Canadian prairies where the possibilities are as endless as the horizon where the pavement turns to sand...</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A golf pro claims he was abducted by aliens before the big local tournament though townspeople figure he finally fell off the wagon. A line cook comes face-to-face with something from his worst nightmare only to be mocked mercilessly by his peers. A beer league hockey player worries he didn't do enough to help a former teammate-and wonders if it was the man or his old pair of skates that was haunted. In these 20 stories the mundane and the menacing meet over a pint at the local rink on the darkest night of the year or around a midsummer bonfire beneath the stars on the shores of a deep forbidden lake.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)><span>??</span></span><em style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Where the Pavement Turns to Sand</em><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> is a collection of working class everyday heartbreaks and bad decisions. In a refreshing rural Canadian setting the characters in these slice of life tales stumble through divorce debt bad sex and boring jobs but also curling robots aliens jackalopes wendigo lots of legs wet with urine and (maybe) sasquatches with an unexpected whimsy. What makes it work is Birnie's signature dark humor and conversational style that makes every story feel like it was your neighbor telling it to you over a beer around a campfire or at the rink. Surprising entertaining grimy and weird.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>-Meagan Lucas author of </span><em style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Songbirds and Stray Dogs</em><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> and </span><em style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Here in the Dark</em><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> Editor in Chief of </span><em style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Reckon Review.</em><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1); background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> </span></p><p><br></p>