The Secret Society of Demolition Writers

  Stories by

  AIMEE BENDER

  BENJAMIN CHEEVER

  MICHAEL CONNELLY

  SEBASTIAN JUNGER

  ELIZABETH MCCRACKEN

  ROSIE O’DONNELL

  CHRIS OFFUTT

  MARC PARENT

  ANNA QUINDLEN

  JOHN BURNHAM SCHWARTZ

  ALICE SEBOLD

  LAUREN SLATER

  Edited by

  MARC PARENT

  These stories are works of fiction. Names, characters,

  places, and incidents are the products of the author’s

  imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance

  to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is

  entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2005 by Marc Parent

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-

  American Copyright Conventions. Published in

  the United States by Random House, an imprint of

  The Random House Publishing Group, a division of

  Random House, Inc., New York.

  RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks

  of Random House, Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  The secret society of demolition writers : stories / by

  Aimee Bender ... [et al.] ; edited by Marc Parent.—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  1. Short stories, American. I. Bender, Aimee.

  II. Parent, Marc.

  PS648.S5S426 2005

  813’.0108—dc22 2004051355

  Random House website address: www.atrandom.com

  www.randomhouse.com

  eISBN: 978-0-307-43262-9

  v3.0