Kuro Crow: Three Short Stories

E-book – Boxfire Press - 2010

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In 1999, I decided I was through with Phoenix, the flat, suburban sprawl where I was I born and raised. I resolved to leave it for a place more, for lack of a better word, vertical. These three stories were inspired by my student observations of Tokyo at the turn of the 21st Century as I learned to look up for the first time.

In All You Can Stomach, an English-as-a-foreign-language teacher on an overnight package trip to Seoul is derailed from his mission to gorge on Korean barbecue by two too-adorable cult members. (First published in Pulp.net).

Kuro Crow is a drunk conversation between a cynical expat and an uncomprehending salaryman that weaves between cultural pretenses, winged predators and the disappearance of a young American hostess. (First published in Flux magazine.)

Originally a spoken-word piece, Whitecaps  is written in the voice of a young sailor who finds himself disgusted and inspired by his own voyeurism as he watches his mate dance with a “horse-faced sure thing” in a Shibuya night club. (First published in 5_Trope.)

“It nails the sense of timesickness and placesickness you get in Asia—and the cultural lag and fog that comes with it.”

- Douglas Coupland, author, Generation X,  Player One

“Maass’ stories aren’t typical travelogues disguised as short fiction. Observations about Japan are secondary. The author’s voice is most prominent: humorous, irreverent, slightly cynical, and clever.”

- Angela Carone, KPBS Culture Lust