“Roughly Thrown Dice” is a wild, unsettling, and fearlessly inventive work by Steve Borst, blending crime, surrealism, humor, and psychological grit into a single narrative tapestry. Proudly published by Citi of Books, this is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other major retail platforms.
Steve Borst is a retired Ph.D. scientist and professor at the University of Florida and VA Medical Center, where he studied testosterone replacement for older men, including the best route of administration and the impact on cardiovascular risk. He has lived in Gainesville, Florida since 1988. Over the years, he has published poems and stories in literary journals. He is married to Michele Borst, an architect, and they have two grown children.
“Roughly Thrown Dice” examines the ordeal of several individuals kidnapped from a high-end ski resort during a terrorist attack. Rescue operations unfold externally, but the core narrative lies within a locked room far from civilization, where the captives attempt to maintain morale by exchanging stories. These range from playful jabs and personal grudges to accounts of strange experiences, romantic encounters, and moral reflections. Over time, their interactions highlight the shifting dynamics between people drawn from vastly different walks of life.
The book unfolds as a linked collection of short stories — each one distinct in tone, yet secretly threaded into a larger thematic arc. It begins in gritty realism: the kidnapping and ransom subplot connected to Uncle Gil and federal involvement pulls readers into a world of suspicion, withheld truths, and sudden danger.
From there, the book veers into surreal, darkly comic territory, the Sea Hag sequence introduces a bizarre, almost mythic storyline filled with grotesque humor and exaggerated world-building. Characters like Sea Hag, Hootily Tootily, and Señor Bacon Bits create a fever-dream quality that contrasts sharply with the earlier crime-driven realism.
As the stories progress, Borst intercuts sketches of troubled or offbeat personalities — Green Thomas, Elytra the bartender, Felix Catlanato, and the violent motorcycle-club figure Arnie/Sergeant-at-Arms — each one adding new pieces to the novel’s larger exploration of fear, impulse, and consequence.
For readers drawn to dark fiction, psychological complexity, and genre-bending storytelling, “Roughly Thrown Dice” is a rare find. It is chaotic by design, uncomfortable by intention, and masterfully crafted in its unpredictability. Borst delivers a book that feels alive — alive with danger, humor, strangeness, and a haunting honesty about the randomness of human experience.
“Roughly Thrown Dice” by Steve Borst is now available for purchase through the links provided below: