The Potion and Other Perilous Libations
by Matias Travieso-Diaz
"Would you give up your mind and perhaps your freedom
to add more months to your life?"
"Mr. Travieso-Diaz continues to distinguish himself as one of the
leading short story writers in the United States."
~ Alex Ferrate
COMING SOON
for paperback, Kindle, and Kindle Unlimited
This book is appropriate for teenagers.
"Would you give up your mind and perhaps your freedom
to add more months to your life?"
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This is the ultimate question posed in the title story of this collection of dark tales with settings around the world and times from the distant past to the terrifying future. We are taken to realms as remote as a bloody afternoon of games in the Roman Colosseum and as close as the addled mind of a drug addict, with characters and situations made more dreadful by being entirely plausible.
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A warrior watches his captors appease the gods with human sacrifices during a solar eclipse; a man trades his smile for a night of pleasure during Venice's Carnival and tries to recover it; a pre-Columbian man from a city threatened by Aztec conquest seeks assistance from a cryptid, who offers help at a steep cost.
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We'll learn that no matter the time period or the location, horror is a part of every culture and is universal. It reminds us that anyone's life can be at risk, whether by accident, by chance, or personally chosen.
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So perhaps the question changes:
What would you give up to survive these horrors?
Or would you want to survive at all?
About the Author
Born in Cuba, Matias Travieso-Diaz migrated to the United States as a young man. He is a former engineer and attorney who, following retirement, redirected his efforts toward fiction writing. He lives with his daughter and two dogs in the Washington, D.C. area. He describes himself as an "Animal Farm's goat, Packers and Barca fan, and lover of opera, classical theater, jazz, Italian food, and vino."
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He is the author of numerous short stories, over one hundred and seventy of which have been published or accepted for publication in anthologies, magazines, blogs, audiobooks, and podcasts. The first collection of his short stories, The Satchel and Other Terrors, was published in 2023 and is available through Dark Owl Publishing. He's also written a novel, The Taino Women, set in Cuba's early colonial period, and a novella, Lazaro Serrano, set in Havana in 1762.
Praise for The Potion and Other Perilous Libations
and previous works
"The Potion and Other Perilous Libations, a selection of some of the best of Matias Travieso-Diaz's over one hundred and sixty published short stories, is the thinking person's collection of fantasy, horror, and science fiction tales. Reminiscent of Isak Dinesen's Seven Gothic Tales with its Old World fairy tale charm and unexpected twists, it also takes the reader into the silvery future, and sometimes with a humorous wink.
"Many of the stories, like 'The Potion' and 'The Honey Cake,' force their characters to test the commitments they have made in life, to their art or their lovers for example, against their fear of a painful death. The results sometimes are unexpected, and the crisp pace of Travieso-Diaz's writing keeps you turning the pages to learn the fate of many interesting characters who also could be your neighbors, colleagues, and friends, today or two centuries ago.
"It can take a reader a lifetime to progress through a famous writer's canon and feel as if they have learned profound truths about the human condition. Like starting with Hemingway's Three Stories and Ten Poems and reaching The Old Man and the Sea like a pilgrim on El Camino arriving at Santiago de Compostela a hardened but still hopeful soul. In The Potion and Other Perilous Libations, the reader achieves a similarly profound feeling, but traveling much faster through twenty-two stories that can be finished on a rainy afternoon.
"Matias Travieso-Diaz continues to distinguish himself as one of the leading short story writers in the United States. Although these stories sometimes can be frightening, their reflections and arabesque details also make them thoughtful and unique. I highly recommend The Potion and Other Perilous Libations, either as a well-earned treat for oneself or as a present for a sophisticated friend."
~ Alex Ferrate, peer review
"No matter how bizarre, strange, or twisted the story, Travieso-Diaz's living, breathing characters are the life's blood of the tale... there's more than enough wonder and dread for any fan of horror or dark fantasy."
~ Jason J. McCuiston, author of Project Notebook and
The Last Star Warden series
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"[Matias Travieso-Diaz's] stories remind readers the world can be a very scary place indeed."
~ Adrian Ludens, author of The Tension of a Coming Storm
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"Mr. Travieso-Diaz's short stories are like the bloody news photograph you know you should not look at, but click on anyway... [he] leads you to the realization that terror begins in the familiar places, the hearth, the school, and the office, metastasizes into the terrors that haunt us collectively, and transforms banal, complacent souls into monsters."
~ Alex Ferrate
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"The imagination that Matias brings to us through his stories is a treasure worth savoring."
~ Paul Gaukler
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"The author has tucked a burr in our souls and left us itching and squirming. And that is as it should be."
~ Stephen Kimmerling