Kentucky Bestiary

It has been quite a long time since Officer Peter Silone has been back to Tipple Hollow, the small Appalachian town where he spent many childhood summers with his uncle and his now-deceased younger brother. So when a job opens up in neighboring Gilchrist, Kentucky, Pete naturally jumps at the chance to escape big city police work, and spend some time taking it easy in the country. Nothing in rural Appalachia is as it seems, however. A meth amphetamine epidemic is sweeping the land, and Pete hears pray tell that monsters roam the hillsides and coalmines where no man has ventured in quite a long time. That all changes, however, when a reclusive and mysterious billionaire named Rufus Petulengro sets up camp in Tipple Hollow, and begins to conduct research in the long-dormant mines. He claims he wants only to help the environment, and to undo the damage he wreaked as a commodities trader exploiting the world for its natural resources. As Pete’s curiosity leads him on, deeper into the country and finally into the mine, he discovers a dark secret, hiding within the black bowels of the coalmine.

Joseph Hirsch’s shorter works have appeared in Underground Voices, as well as in 3 AM Magazine. He was also previously a writer for Fight Hype, covering boxing matches around the globe. He served four years in the U.S. Army, wherein his travels took him to locales as disparate as Iraq, Germany, and Texas. He currently attends the University of Cincinnati, and lists among his influences writers such as Ivan Bunin, John Fante, Ursula LeGuinn, Jacob Grimmelshausen, Carson McCullers, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Dick, and Stephen King.