Floyd Kemske

Floyd Kemske is the author of five novels, including four "corporate nightmares," that is, novels that use fantastic situations to approach the realities of office politics, reorganizations, and, especially, the management of people by other people. Each of the novels is told in a dry, satirical way, but is as frightening and insightful as it is humorous. In each of his novels, Kemske plays with an established genre: the thriller in Lifetime Employment, science fiction in The Virtual Boss, horror in Human Resources, and serial killing (of businesses) in Labor Day. Kemske lives in Pepperell, Massachusetts.


LABOR DAY. In his fourth "corporate nightmare," Kemske looks at the world of union organizing and union busting. The result is a darkly comic labor of lies.

"[A]n entertaining look at the tribulations of working stiffs, wherever they toil."
--New York Times Book Review

$22 cloth, 203 pp., ISBN-0945774-48-6.


THE THIRD LION: A Novel About Talleyrand. Talleyrand, one of history's most vilified and unprincipled men, is also one of its most civilized. This Machiavellian statesman helped make and break both the French Revolution and Napoleon.

"Kemske, best known for his quirky takes on latter-day organization men, smoothly shifts
gears to deliver a wryly engrossing historical novel." -Kirkus Reviews

$22.95 cloth, 224 pp., ISBN-0945774-37-0.


THE VIRTUAL BOSS. Everyone wishes for the perfect manager. But what would happen if our wishes came true? An adaptive, interactive software system learns each employee's needs and weaknesses, and then effectively exploits them. Kemske's most frightening primer on management.

"The most intriguing computer character since HAL in 2001." -Library Journal

$19.95 cloth, 237 pp., ISBN 0-945774-22-2.


HUMAN RESOURCES. Corporate management is the use of humans as resources. So is vampirism. When a vampire is called in to turn an ailing biotech company around, reorganization takes on a much paler cast.

"Kemske understands that some of what's going on in corporate America is so horrible
that only fantasy can adequately depict it."
-Cleveland Plain Dealer

$12.95 paper, 224 pp., ISBN 0-945774-29-X.


LIFETIME EMPLOYMENT. Due to an extreme policy of lifetime employment, the only way to get ahead at Growth Services, Inc. is murder.

"Kemske blends black humor with a serious treatment of the individual's plight
within a closed, Kafkaesque society in his satiric first novel."
-Publishers Weekly

$19.95 cloth, 231 pp., ISBN 0-945774-18-4.

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