CAN I HAVE A HUG FIRST?
is a short story collection born out of author Mary Paula Hunter's career as a performance artist. Her monologues turned short stories feature midlife adults struggling to align their crazy minds with an equally crazy world. Hilarious and tragic in a high-energy mix, these stories will get the reader questioning what came first- the whacked mind or the whacked world?

CAN I GET A HUG FIRST
IS DUE OUT FEBRUARY 18, 2025

As in the work of David Lynch, SOMEONE ELSE exposes the underbelly of small town America for all its charm and tragedy. At its core, this novel is a page turner luring the reader into the mind of Sally Tallman whose existential crisis blinds her to the real crises in her midst. Suicide may be the catalyst for change and discovery in SOMEONE ELSE but this is a book that never traffics in easy answers.