“Stage weaves a journey filled with hilarious situations, tightly written with sharp one-liners.”

—Jim Orso, The St. Louis Beacon

Wm. Stage gets paid to be a nuisance, and he is good at it. A process server in St. Louis, bearing bad news to strangers—no wonder people shun him. Apart from this peculiar work, he has his own secret mission: To find his unknown biological family and have cocktails with them.

His neurotic mother aids in the search, hoping to bolster her theory that the child she and her husband adopted 50 years ago has indeed become a sociopath. Meanwhile, in yet another meandering attempt to center his life, Stage desperately seeks a woman with a “friendly womb.” Why is he trying to reproduce like some rutting animal? It takes a series of painful life-lessons for him to find out.

Troubles abound yet Stage takes it all in stride, stumbling through life like a hod carrier at a tea party. Whether trying to weasel out of a shoplifting charge, chasing after troublesome factory workers, or being held prisoner at Lambert International Airport, he manages to land buttered-side up. But where will it take him?

“… a poignant and illuminating work that walks a fine balance between side-splitting humour and philosophical seriousness.” — John Gillis, The Inverness [Nova Scotia] Oran

“Stage takes the reader along as he cruises St. Louis … tracking down deadbeat dads, civil-suit defendants and assorted riffraff with the tenacity of a PI …” — Chad Garrison, The Riverfront Times

“Stage’s vignettes and life stories are all over the map, some heartbreaking, some satirically funny, but all of them telling of the human condition. And humor, some of it dark, pervades the book.” — Lynn Israel, The Columbia Daily Tribune

2009
Illustrated
Designed by Michael Kilfoy, Studio X
ISBN: 978-0-96291247-4
352 pages

Price: $10.95

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