You've done it. Admit it. You've smelled the floss. In the finest tradition of literary reverse-psychology, author and painter Matty Byloos presents Don't Smell the Floss at Skylight Books. It's a collection of 14 short stories on local (Cypress!) imprint Write Bloody Publishing, split evenly among tales of love and redemption and tales of trauma and drama, forged from a lifetime doubtless wrought from his 2002-2003 stint heading the venerable Monday evening fiction workshop at Beyond Baroque. While love and loss might be traditional topics for discussion, Byloos' take on both is decidedly unique and vivid in its depictions. As the dentist says of flossing: “You only do the teeth you want to keep.” So too is it with Byloos' skewed skewering of life both thankless and gilded: It's something a little bloody, a little painful, which you want very much to keep.

Tue., Sept. 8, 7:30 p.m., 2009

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