Patrick O'Leary has garnered a broad base of fans for his fiction
based upon his novels Door Number Three, The Gift and The Impossible Bird plus his collection
Other Voices, Other Doors. The success of his writing
has encouraged him to continue his craft while working as
an Associate Creative Director at Campbell-Ewald Advertising in Warren, Michigan.
He makes his home in Detroit with his wife and sons.
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Patrick O'Leary Links Patrick O'Leary Website ISFDB Bibliography SF Site Review: The Impossible Bird SF Site Review: Door Number Three SF Site Review: Other Voices, Other Doors SF Site Review: The Gift |
Tor 
The book takes off when John Donelly wanders over to
Saul Lowe's place. There he, along with the rest of us, meet the book's most entertaining
character, Imish. Imish is a cardinal who makes me wonder about other author's attempts
at anthromorphism. For it is Imish who provides John with a Camel cigarette when he is faced
with a choice, a very important choice. Saul is about to tell John a story. But before, Saul
tells him to walk away with $10,000 in cash (without hearing the story), to stay and hear
the story (but John'll die a horrible death by Saul's hand if he breathes a word of what he is about
to hear) or John (along with Saul and Imish) can change the world by picking
Door Number Three. Whaddya think John chooses?
Cash, death or adventure? Which would you choose? Give that reader a prize...
Tor 
The Gift is a story within many stories told by The Teller to a ship's captain and his crew.
With the usual interruptions to remind you of the audience, the author weaves a simple tale
of a woodcarver's son, Tim, and a new king, Simon, and how they come to conquer the evil magic
loosed in this world by The Usher, a scarred man who sold his soul to become a powerful
wizard. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn how the king gained his throne, how Tim's
family came to hold a forbidden magic, and how The Usher got so mean. Simon is losing his hearing and
offers great riches to anyone who can heal him. To his throne room comes The Usher. While sitting
on a throne carved by Tim's father, Simon is cured but it soon becomes obvious that the Usher has
spelled him. Simon begins a savage journey that leads him through all manner of trial and pain.
Curled up in a tree, imprisoned by Disabla, The Eater of Magic, and his Griffs (as fine a fantasy creature
you're likely to meet), Tim drifts by and sets about trying to heal Simon.
Tor 
Daniel Glynn is a literature professor and his brother Mike is a movie director. They're catapulted by cicumstance into a frantic road trip
to find one another. So sudden is this search that neither knows his brother is dead. A vague stranger
compels Daniel to find Mike. To make sure it happens, Sean, Daniel's son, is held as a hostage. Meanwhile, Mike is pointed in the
same direction -- find Daniel. The novel tracks Daniel and Mike as each moves along separate paths. It soon becomes apparent to both that something
is wrong but what that may be is just beyond their ken. Odd characters, empty landscapes, evident (at least to the reader) clues
make you want to scream at them but their pace is so frantic that the obvious just skips past. But they do learn that they are just
pawns on a game board guided by two factions each with their own agenda. The two are aided by aliens working through volunteer hummingbirds.
But Mike and Daniel have something extra -- the aliens that control this murky dimension have met them before and it connects to Sean.
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Fairwood Press 
It collects the following stories, poems and non-fiction:
 Foreword: Gene Wolfe
Introduction: A Cowboy Hospital Romance
Fiction:
 23 Skidoo
Brand Equity
Bat Boy
The Problem Phone
We Are All Together
The Maker of Miniatures
Before & After
Ding, Ding, Ding-A Christmas Story
Poetry:
The Yugoslavian Poetry Maker
The Body Remembers
Brother
You're Smiling
The Square Dance
True Story
Something Needed
I Knew
Feel
Too Fast
Stuck
Only Parents Believe in Monsters
Flight
What We Carry
You Were Naked
Vasectomy: A Poem in Two Parts
The Black Garden
Mrs. Rotumka's Daughter
Easter
My Father is a Beautiful Woman
Drinking Air, Breathing Water
Pinball
Kudzu
The Astronaut
Somewhere Like Leonardo
Younging
Dusk (On Turning 40)
This is a Poem
Meditations:
How I Wrote Science Fiction: The Genesis of Door Number Three
Death & The Critic: A Response to a Pan of The Gift
The Importance of Being Spider: Spider Robinson, Callahan's Keeper
More Than Meat: Van Morrison
A Matter of Vision: "Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman"
It Only Has to Stink: Impeachable Offenses
Why Not?: The Real Question of Science Fiction
An Afterword to the Story "23 Skidoo"
1000-2000
If Ever a Wiz There Was: The Ineffable Art of Gene Wolfe
The publisher's address is 5203 Quincy Ave SE, Auburn, WA 98092, USA
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