Alaric Cabiling, Author

Maile Meloy might just be the most gifted short story teller in this postmodern era. There's a great deal of confidence in her narrative tone and the work is accessible for casual readers to love. There are stories done in the typical Chekov-inspired moral dillemma plot showcasing marital infidelity and middle-age meandering. There are stories that put lonely characters along the crossroads of reaching out to someone they're a long shot at dating. The plots are interesting and the language is confidence inspiring. Sure, some reviews are quick to point that some readers lose interest within moments of some stories, but I find that this isn't nearly the case with this book. She builds momentum in just a few easy lines and the book leaves you wanting for more at the end of each read. Highly recommended!

Insanity by Increments is an interesting read. Made up of nine short stories/ novellas, the book resembles snapshots of life or of the human condition. The snapshots are of the darker side of humanity and each story will make you think. Bleak landscapes and bleaker outlooks set the tone of the book.

What I liked: While I enjoyed all of the stories in this book, there were two that stood out for me.

Frailty was my absolute favorite out of the collection. It's the story of a photographer whose talent lies in photographing the macabre, the grotesque, and he has just been commissioned for something far outside the norm. It is, however, his specialty to document the decay of flesh and bone and his latest job is to photograph the work of a serial killer. As with most of the stories, Frailty is filled with sexual tension but this story is tempered with horror. The narrator tells us, " Frailty is mankind's incurable weakness. All of life is fragile to the core. ... My own frailty works twofold: first, I suffer from a starvation for life, a libido with an insatiable appetite. ... Secondly, I suffer a fascination for the beauty of death. ..."

Dulcinea is the story of Edward, a well renowned author who spends his nights drinking in a neighborhood bar. Affluent and handsome, he is bored and disdainful of his own success. One night a beautiful woman comes in a changes everything for him. That is, if she was ever really there at all.

What I didn't like: I love reading dark fiction, the darker the better. However, this book was more than dark. It bordered on depressing and at times I had a hard time reading it. That said, this is still a great read and a good collection of stories that will definitely make you think.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Insanity By Increments: Stories is a collection of literary short stories written by Alaric Cabiling. The nine stories that comprise this collection seem to share a theme of dislocation and/or alienation; many of their heroes are cold, disaffected or out of step with the world. The first story, Once Found, Once More Forsaken, is narrated by a man who admires his talented, eccentric and adventurous older brother and whose visit he has anticipated and prepared for with care and the deli meats he knows his brother loves. The brother comes and swirls through town in his Lamborghini; his old girlfriend throwing herself at him barely out of sight of her husband and his propensity to violence. "I never loved her," he tells his younger brother and is gone in the morning, almost as if he had never been there at all.

Inside Alaric Cabiling's literary short story collection, Insanity By Increments lurk compelling and darkly edgy gems that grab the reader's attention, toy with him for a few brief moments, and then toss him aside casually, without an afterthought while each succeeding story dares the undaunted audience to try again. The mood in these stories is stormy and oppressive and still somehow so seductive that I found myself unable to put Insanity By Increments Down. And after finishing the concluding, and title, story, I thought to read the first story once again and so retrace the cycle, but thought it best to wait a bit and let the dark magic settle down to safer levels. Cabiling is a master at creating moods, especially those which border on the macabre, the obsessive and the melancholy. Each word seems selected carefully, examined and put in place just so, and the flawed and flailing characters he peoples his work with become almost familiar to the reader as he himself is...and that's a pretty scary thing, and the handiwork of a powerful and creative writer. Insanity By Increments: Stories is most highly recommended.

Here is the first review for Insanity By Increments. The review will be published by Midwest Book Review for May 2015. Many thanks to MBR and Diane Donovan.

D. Donovan, Senior eBook Reviewer, MBR

This is actually the first promo video of my debut collection of stories, Insanity By Increments.  Hope everyone likes it.  Turn up the volume. :)

A Bit On The Side shows its stripes without so much as attempting to disguise them. Focusing on fluid language and moments of visceral impact, the tragedies and sad circumstances that beset the characters in A Bit On The Side truly reveal the tenuous nature of fragile relationships. Whether caught on a crossroads or unwillingly facing the end of a tryst, the characters here are approachable and intimate in their struggle against loneliness. William Trevor's body of work is awe-inspiring but I find that this collection more than the others he's written, truly reflects his capacity to shock and inspire his readers. Clearly, stories such as Solitude may not find many who relate to its hopeless acceptance of despair and loneliness, but every so often Trevor uses a character that we've all known intimately for at least some short time, and it is this aspect of his work that captures the reader's heart more so than characters that are out-of-step. Dare I say, that Trevor's A Bit On The Side is his most potent work? It is in my humble opinion, his most compelling. 

This is the second promo video for Insanity By Increments, stories by Alaric Cabiling