Be prepared to immerse yourself into eleven stories of youth, travel and trouble from Karl G. Trautman in The Appocalypse and Other Stories. The author of Deacon Blues writes of compelling tales of pain, hope, regret, love and wanderlust. There are also stories of technology gone crazy, as inanimate objects come alive and plan necessary acts of nefariousness.

"Crying in the Basement" is the story of an emotional wound passed down from father to son in Depression-era St. Louis. "My Lost Friend," "My Paper Route," "Midnight Madness," are stories of the idealistic, awkward and confusing world of an American teenager in the 1970s. Introverts fall in love in "Penrod and Beryl" and a man leafing through an old photo album generates an epiphany in "When Did It All Start?"

"Hiroshima" and "Looking for the Wind Phone" take place in Japan as an American Fulbright scholar travels the country in search of history and meaning while "The Long Walk" recounts his perilous plod to a bus stop. "The Cake Fork Planned the Murder" is an anthropomorphic tale of brutal justice, kitchen-style. The title story is about the destructiveness created when humans allowed apps take over the world and how the apps responded to rebalance the unhealthy reality of today.

59,000 words.