With a sensibility somewhere between Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk, and Franz Kafka, Peter Hempel's The Jump - Stories for Uncertain Times combines striking writing, dark humor, and a deep sense of irony that can leave readers both shaken and stirred. Drugs, sex, and untimely deaths mix with an elegiac sense of loss of a gentler and more perfect past. The more demented readers in the audience may find themselves laughing out loud as tragedy after tragedy unfolds. This collection of strange and compelling stories has something for everyone: -For senior execs contemplating the end of their careers: In "Rudolph at Rest - A Christmas Story," an alcoholic Rudolph is living in a reindeer retirement home and is haunted by the loss of Santa and the magical world he had known.-For Jews and those who know a few words of Yiddish: In "Meine Yiddishe Barbie," a blonde haired, blue-eyed, totally shiksa Barbie becomes a birthday present for a young Jewish girl preparing for her bat mitzvah.-For patients (and doctors): In "A Question for the Rabbi," Aaron, an illustrator at a fashion magazine, discovers that the small green growth on his foot is the unstoppable shoot of an apple tree.-For men trying to figure it all out: In "Would You Die for Me?", Abe, a young professor living in Brooklyn, tries to understand his young girlfriend's question and what he really wants out of life.-For virgins: In "Telling Stories," Dwayne, a hapless virgin working in a dead-end job at Target, starts up a career writing stories for a porn mag.-For New Yorkers and other city dwellers: In "Ileana," David, a transplant from Ohio, finds out if he has what it really takes to be a New Yorker when his apartment is invaded by a band of ominous misfits.-For unhappy office workers: In "Sweet Dreams, Asshole," Kyle finds an answer to his crappy job when he meets a questionable doctor who gives him the ultimate feral drug to test.-For athletes: In "Fast, Faster, Fastest," a man tweets out the rigors of his training regimen for a 12-hour Fastathon to Fight Obesity, and documents the constant temptations he faces along the way.-For feminists: In "The Book of Eve," a feminist Eve has no use for an Adam who worries about what God thinks.-For Boomers: In "The Jump," Ernst, a long-time con man, uses the progressive/libertarian "right to die" legislation he has helped pass to create the biggest (and most gruesome) attraction ever at a high-tech amusement park - and then looks for meaning in what he has created. and much more...Peter Hempel lives in New Jersey. He began as a teacher of literature and writing in the University of Texas English department. His post-academic career as a political and market research consultant has taken him to more than 40 countries on six continents, from war zones to Caribbean beaches, listening to people from taxi-drivers to CEOs talk about their lives, their jobs, and their deepest desires. He has spent over 15 years living in Texas, and enjoyed several spiritually enlightening years teaching two-step in an Austin honky-tonk. His fiction has been published in the Princeton Echo and online at Red Fez, Every Day Fiction, and Vestal Review. He has an A.B. from Princeton University, an M.A. from Rice University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.