Reviews
“Scotellaro is a master of flash and micro-fiction. I am a fan! Buy any collection he has written. Here is a sample of one of his 100 word stories in ‘Bad Motel’:
Sewn In
Outside the diner it was raining. Periodically, a truck’s air brakes would add its hiss to the mix. The trip had been tough. Talk, cracked as some of those roads. There were miles yet. Rain shadows ran down that dress you got in Mexico. Little mirror pieces sewn in. You said, “We are all prisoners of our own momentum.” I passed the salt. Didn’t know what else to do. The waitress poured coffee like she invented it. Had a wet rag that did little more than reconfigure the table grease. When she flipped her pad page over, we looked up.
It has all the elements. Visceral and depth sewn into every sentence.”
—Meg Tuite, author of Bound by Blue
“Like the short subjects and serials that played before the feature films in the movie palaces of the thirties and forties (which, for many, were the real reasons to spend a hard-earned dime and be roundly entertained by fast-moving narratives), the 100-word stories in Robert Scotellaro’s Bad Motel keep the reader’s best interest at heart while whittling words and honing the craft of great storytelling–something increasingly rare in a field of longer, self-congratulatory fiction.”
—The Minderbinder Review of Books
Bad Motel
- Paperback: 84 pages
- Publisher: Big Table Publishing (2016)
“Like perfectly crafted dioramas, Robert Scotellaro’s micro stories are tiny keyholes, tableau glimpses into fully formed worlds, entire lives implied with the barest swipe of words said, and more importantly not said.”
—Nancy Stohlman, author of The Vixen Scream and Other Bible Stories
“There are no vacancies at the Bad Motel. Every room is occupied by characters we recognize, interacting in exactly a hundred words, in provocative ways that are probing and prophetic. Behind every door there is word magic being performed, and here are the desk clerk’s keys. Welcome! Come on in and see for yourself.”
—James Thomas, editor of Sudden Fiction and Flash Fiction anthologies
“With grit and pathos, and at times sparked with humor, these intricate 100-word stories in Bad Motel travel far and daringly beyond their very short borders.”
—Paul Beckman, author of Peek
“You can’t be complacent when you read Robert Scotellaro’s stories. Each line, each word, demands attention. He’s a master of the miniature tale, wielding concision like a sculptor’s knife. He uncovers those strange moments of life that haunt, bewilder, and reveal with a poetry that is daring. These 100-word stories are both barbed and beautiful.”