Diverse Tales

(Taken from a review by author Norm Applegate) Grabowsky's novel "Diverse Tales," published in 2004 with 13 short stories is an honor to review. Did I say 13 stories, oh yeah; I failed to mention there is more, as an added bonus a collection of poems and thoughts. His writing style is colorful, alarming and is guaranteed to leave you with scary thoughts that will come back and haunt you in your dreams. If you are allowed to have a favorite story among so many I do, "The Newspaper Rack." I don't know where it comes from but out of nowhere Nick surprises you. Here is a story of a young hotel employee who works the night shift and out of boredom develops a personal challenge to help himself to whatever he finds and can loot, but gets so much more. In the tradition of the Grabowsky horror, layers are added to this tale until we realize we're in the middle of a chain reaction of events that end with a nightmarish finale. With titles like The Wanting Seed, The Falling, and Mental this collection of macabre stories will remind you why Nicholas is a major voice in horror.