Southernisms: A Collection of Stories
About this book
Southernisms isn’t sweet tea. It’s moonshine in a Mason jar — smooth going down, dangerous when it hits.Dr. Timothy M. Ballard’s stories wander the dirt roads and church aisles of the South, but they don’t stop at gossip and cornbread. They rip the white sheet off polite society to show the rot underneath — where religion morphs into tyranny, where power drips with hypocrisy, and where ghosts (literal and political) refuse to stay buried.The collection’s dark heart lies in Theocracy and Theophilus — two blistering, full-length tales about a charismatic preacher who turns the United States into a theocratic dictatorship. Heads roll (sometimes literally), freedoms vanish, and God’s name gets stamped on every act of cruelty. If you think it couldn’t happen here, Ballard dares you to read and sleep easy.But in between the prophecy and the fire, you’ll find the twisted humor of small-town life — casseroles as weapons, affairs gone sideways, ghosts with strong opinions about your sex life, and family reunions that should be declared disaster zones.Southernisms is part Southern Gothic, part political nightmare, and part comedy of manners from hell. It’s a warning and a wink, a funeral and a punchline. Read it if you dare — but don’t say you weren’t warned.