A Rain of Frogs

“Just loved your book...”

Ginny Levitan and her husband, Jim, are inspecting a possible retirement home at the outset of Rob Hunter’s “The Song of the Rice Barge Coolie.” With the aid of real estate agent Barbara Casmirczak—“Call me Babs”—they buy the odd dwelling and soon discover they have an ant infestation. What raises this above the typical tale of marital discord is the alternating sections told from the ants’ POV. Insects are nothing new to horror fiction, but Hunter elevates this tale above the standard fare with engaging characters, keen POV shifts, and a quirkiness of style that makes the outcome most satisfying. While the dénouement was inevitable, it left me with a devious grin on my face. Impressive.
—Marshall Payne in The Fix Online

“...exceptionally well written.” (The Song of the Rice Barge Coolie)
—Linda Landrigan, Editor Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine

Some call it Sci-Fi, some call it horror-fi, but local author Rob Hunter writes in a genre not easy to categorize. It is fantasy and, one hopes, fiction. For some years it has appeared in off-beat publications and online (check out www.onetinleg.com). Now Rob has published a collection of his short stories as Lost in Willipaq: Lovers, Losers, and Part-time Demons, and it’s decidedly several cuts above the purple products of the school mimeo machine. The author has style and wit, a grasp of grammar and spelling, a more-than-adequate vocabulary, and good storytelling skills, all of which he employs in spinning some really weird tales. If you occasionally visit the fourth dimension, Hunter could be your best guide since Rod Serling. As he warns the unwary reader on the title page, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
—from the Quoddy Tides June 26, 2009

I loved “Facelift.” It's like “Ghost World”, “Only You Can Save The Universe”, and “Welcome to the Dollhouse” mixed together. Teen angst, comics / sf geekdom, and Pratchett / Holt / Fforde lunacy in one package.
—Robert Moriyama, Short Story Editor Aphelion

Shape shifting stories include one type of being transforming into another. A vampire or werewolf story would be a typical example. Yet far from typical is Rob Hunter’s Boys’ Night Out (Summer 2005 issue) werewolf story. The gated community of Sur la Mer is built to keep men in instead of out.
—Susan MacGregor, Fiction Editor On Spec, writing about Boys' Night Out in the Spring, 2006 issue.

I kept getting drawn back into the manuscript (The Year They Invented Frozen Lemonade). I picked back and forth through it for approximately six hours. It ‘works’ like a rather interesting puzzle (and this may be part of the story’s strong appeal to me).
—Michael R. Colangelo, Fiction Editor The Harrow: Original Works of Fantasy and Horror

Thanks for giving us such a well-crafted, entertaining, and flat-out funny story to enjoy (I Want to Share Your Wheat).
—Donna Thiel-Cook, Editor Demensions-Doorways to Science Fiction and Fantasy

Maine artist Lee Suta drew the pen and ink for “Just loved your book” on this page, and holds all copyright to his work. Lee lives ten miles down the road from me in Robbinston, Maine, and is the creative engine behind the illustrations for Magnetic Betty, a picture book for surreal children, wherein an eight-year-old Brownie Scout marshals her troop, the Browntown Ocelots, to save the world, Santa Claus, and Christmas as we know it, assisted by Walt and Madge, her bewildered parents, along with Dolby Jenks, World’s Number One Champion Detective. Available in hardcover or download.