Walsh, M O
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(? - ) US author whose first book, The Prospect of Magic (coll of linked stories 2010), presents a sequence of life stories, some of them Tall Tales [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], that unpack the lives of a crew of colourful carnies who have decided to remain in Fluker, Louisiana, after The World Famous Ploofop Travelling Carnival, which had housed and employed them (see Keep), is stuck there when its owner dies. The frame, and several of the more Magic-tinted tales told, clearly evoke the world of Ray Bradbury. Also set in a small Louisiana town, The Big Door Prize (2020) evokes Clifford D Simak in its tracing what happens after a mysterious Machine is discovered which seems to need only a DNA swab to tell users (or victims) what their lives might really be like if they were able to fulfil themselves. Chaos threatens, but is averted through a re-assertion of family values. [JC]
Milton O'Neal Walsh
born Baton Rouge, Louisiana
works (selected)
- The Big Door Prize (New York: G P Putnam's Sons, 2020) [hb/]
collections and stories
- The Prospect of Magic (Livingston Press, 2010) [coll of linked stories: hb/]
links
previous versions of this entry