~3,000 WORDS
©2014
Exclaim Books

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John Mortara's Small Creatures / Wide Field is a work of interactive fiction, a series of stories, and a collection of literary artifacts. Over the course of the interactive adventure portion of the story, you'll find yourself facing down dragons and ogres, contemplating the worth of your art, and lost in alternate dimensions. With many paths through the book, you may find yourself reading about a returning soldier with PTSD, cutting out a paper airplane to throw at your loved ones, contemplating a list of love poem ideas, or deciding whether living in America is similar to the cycles of domestic abuse. Different choices will lead to a different experience of the book, and you may not see every page depending on the path you choose.

“In Small Creatures/Wide Field John Mortara accomplishes a delicate balancing act, creating a story in which the broad comedy does not blot out the human confusion it springs from, but also does not allow that emotional flailing to become too heavy or too indulgent. Growing up and living in a world full of other people is hard to do, Mortara suggests, but fairy-tale monsters and inside jokes do make it a little bit easier.”  (Emily Kiernan, Rivet Journal)

John Mortara is a long list of very bad ideas. John Mortara is exactly why it didn’t work out. John Mortara is the weird feeling you have about this. John Mortara is worth a picture and a picture is worth a thousand words and at 25 cents a word that’s almost $8,000! John Mortara has his cake but refuses to eat it. John Mortara is poet laureate of FEELING VERY UNCOMFORTABLE.