This post is sponsored by The Wendigo’s Credit Card and Other Stories, a new, independently published book available online and at Common Good Books in St. Paul and Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis.
Heavy Table editor James Norton has written a delightful collection of humorous short stories featuring the gods and heroes of ancient mythology caught up in modern-day situations. Please join the author at Foreign Legion Wine Bar in downtown Minneapolis tomorrow evening – from 5-8pm on Thursday, Dec. 4 – to buy signed copies of the book and literally eat cheese and charcuterie from his plate.
About The Wendigo’s Credit Card:
To err is human, but — as any reader of mythology knows — the gods are also no strangers to self-destructive shenanigans.
In this collection of short stories and essays, the gods of many different pantheons come vividly to life and commit all manner of mistakes, usually compounding them through some combination of vanity and hubris. Meanwhile, the author gets in his share of licks on topics as varied as:
— Good vs. bad Nintendo games (“The Tomte and the NES Classic”)
— How husbands get insufficient credit for doing household chores (“The Seven Marginally Easier Labors of Hercules”)
— Ski rental agreements (“How Skade the Ski Goddess Got Her Rental Deposit Back”)
You will laugh as Thor attempts to order a pizza topped with his own pet goat, roll your eyes dismissively as Zeus fundamentally misuses a dating service, and nervously double check your travel plans as a small northern Minnesota town is revealed to be a wellspring of geriatric evil. And best of all, you will be momentarily distracted from the ocean of pain that we all float upon until we inevitably sink beneath its inky waves.
Plus: a wisecracking demon who works as a purchasing agent!
JAMES NORTON is the founding editor of The Heavy Table, a daily online journal of food and drink in the Upper Midwest. His book reviews have appeared in the Washington Post and the Christian Science Monitor, and he is a regular contributor to Minnesota Public Radio, Minnesota Monthly, and WCCO news radio. You can read his short story “Diablo, Lord of Terror, Hires a Contractor” on the humor website McSweeney’s.