E.M. Schorb

FORTUNE ISLAND
FORTUNE ISLAND is an exquisite reading adventure. We are hooked from the start by the poignant situation of William Makespeace Thackery McQueen, and are compelled forward both by the remarkable story and by the very human characters whom we love and identify with, not, despite their flaws, but because of their flaws---Bill McQueen himself, the beautiful and mysterious Susannah, and the remarkable Jessie Judas, whose life story is the real centerpiece of this skillfully written book. The setting of the Outer Banks is vividly detailed and contains the best description of Hurricane Hazel I have ever read. And finally there is a wonderfully despicable snake-handling villain, The Rev. Jason Petitt Cogburn, who makes a magnificent foil to the other characters. This is a must read.
--Anthony S. Abbott
Author of the Novello Award Winner Leaving Maggie Hope

A Fable
and Other Prose Poems
These prose poems are intelligent, humorous and perplexing in an odd sort of way. I almost want to use the train wreck analogy to describe them as I just couldn't stop reading them, even when they left little question mark filled light bulbs over my head. There is a tale of a woman whose house is made out of soap, right down to her sheets, tiny little carbon people who fall to the earth in raindrops and scurry off into the grass, a woman who hides her murdered husband by hanging him on the clothesline where the police don't think to look. Mr. Schorb's prose poems all fall along these lines and you will be entertained by his imagination which shows no signs of limitation.

Christine L. Reed, Editor
Maelstrom, Vol. IV, issue 3, 2003

A Portable Chaos
WINNER
WRITERS NOTES BOOK AWARD - 2004

The story opens with a stream-of-consciousness flashback to a childhood incident that resembles James Joyce's 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,' which gains significance as the novel unfolds, and you come to appreciate it. The main character is a decent guy overflowing with untapped potential, who walks away from opportunities and the wrong sort of success and follows his bliss as a poet. After a pretty squalid time living 'la vie Boheme' (vividly written, conjuring up the ghosts of the 1960's past, but squalid, nevertheless), he emerges from the slough and finds validation, the girl, fame, fortune, contentment, and reconciliation with all those pesky childhood demons. This is a well-plotted, well-characterized, and solidly written story. Writers Notes Magazine www.writersnotes.com

Paradise Square
"It's a modern blend of literary history and spunky humor that deserves its Frankfurt nod."

Scenerio For Scorsese
"Unlike the author's award-winning mystery, Paradise Square, what we know about Scorsese's characters comes from what is going on inside their heads, an irresistibly authentic introduction. The environment crawls with detail, little of it pleasant, but much of it inspired. Scenario for Scorsese is notable for considering the needs and ethics of living without the slightest philosophizing, using only the experiences of its characters to convey its viewpoint. A spectacular denoument."

Murderer's Day
"The poems of E.M. Schorb shine calmly even as they buzz with energy; are connaissant with the world and yet transcendent of it; make somehting deeply funny and yet highly sad -- given a world and a time and a good mind's eye. This is the work of a mature intelligence, its ironies unadulterated by cynicism, and its swells informed by understatement. A feisty book, a confident book, and in its own way, a furiously festive one."