The Smell of Burning Dreams

    (Buzz Bee Café, 2003)
™ and © Buzz Buzz Café Publishing

Buzz Bee Café is nothing if not an unusual publisher. Instead of producing X-Files derivatives or Marvel super-hero wannabes, they deal in such outré subject matter as a waitress who has a spiritual connection with coffee (Bzzz Bee Café) and a woman whose weight is somehow connected to the fate of planet Earth (Lips Red as a Gaping Wound). The Smell of Burning Dreams is a Santa Claus-Christmas story, and, naturally enough, it co-stars the ghost of an apparently repentant Hitler, a pair of green, pointy-eared demons, an entertainment industry attorney, and a symphony conductor. (“The acoustics in Heaven are Majestic.”)

Although humorous (“There’s always room in Hell for another famous man.”) and even philosophical at times, The Smell of Burning Dreams runs overly long at 72 pages and is a bit of a chore to get through. There’re a few nice moments peppered throughout (Santa burns his letters from kids to maintain immortality, Patsy’s love of Christmas is virtually palpable), the drunken-Santa-as-lecherous-bad-guy storyline is more quirky than entertaining, and the characters, other than Patsy, aren’t particularly likeable.
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