The Surrogate Option Parts of this story describe the practice of surrogate partner therapy, with some scenes in graphic detail. Even though this is a fictionalized account, the benefits of sexual surrogacy are becoming widely known especially throughout the U.S., Canada, Great Britten and most of Europe. In 2003, sexual surrogacy became legal throughout the United States, provided the surrogate operates under the supervision of a licensed therapist. A sexual surrogate-otherwise known as a surrogate partner-is assigned by a doctor to help the patient recover from trauma or some other experience that led to sexual or emotional dysfunction. The surrogate is a professional who is specially trained to work with the patient on a level of intimacy that involves both emotional therapy and sexual contact. In 2013, surrogate partner therapy was-quietly-expanded to include physiological role playing of siblings and other family members. This new approach to sexual surrogacy requires the addition of improvisational acting skills. For this reason, therapists who are also actors or acting students are sought after as therapists for this new psychological methodology. Frank Knox and The Surrogate Sister This is the first in a series of Frank Knox books, written by Joseph Maas, and edited by Sarah Matalas. Frank Knox is an awkward used car salesman that is happy to spend all of his social hours alone with his pet fish or working out in his condo. Then one evening he decides to go out to the local bar, Brassie's. There he bumps into an old friend and his new wife who is familiar with a leading edge, breakthrough therapy that may be the perfect solution for Frank. During Frank's therapy, his surrogate sister discovers that her patient is either the strangest person alive or a super hero in disguise, or both. In the style of Kurt Vonnegut, Sirens of Titan, Breakfast of Champions, and Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Another Roadside Attraction Joseph Maas manages to spin up a tale with a set of memorable characters and laugh out loud situations that are at times heroic and romantic, if not out 'n out erotic. In this highly entertaining excursion into the whimsical side of USA's midwest, Frank Knox is the awkward and mysterious protagonist noted only for his remarkably bad sense of humor. He is also an ace sales leader at the local Mercedes Pre-Owned dealership. However, as his surrogate sister, Juliet soon discovers while snooping through Frank's closet one day, he is a Presidential Medal of Freedom winner. And as his scrapbook reveals, her patient has also collected an array of other national accolades that no used-car salesman, or any average guy named Frank, should ever possess. Can the drop-dead sexy Juliet help Frank to overcome his estrangement with his real sister? The romantic, erotic and downright hilarious twists and turns that lead Frank Knox up to that point-along with the jaw-dropping climax of the story-is sure to keep you turned on, flipping the pages, and considering that a slightly strange but otherwise ordinary guy, may be a hero in disguise. - New Vista Reviews
About the Author: Joseph Maas, grew up in the hilly part of Kansas. Okay, for those who may not know, yes, there really is a hilly part of Kansas; find that and you will likely find yourself in Joseph's home town. Joseph's parents put him in a series of Catholic schools so that he could get a proper eduction. But then after years of not really knowing if Benedictine Nuns of the day were male, female or somewhere vaguely in between. He finally came to the conclusion that, unless the Vatican was into cloning, they were probably women. At any rate, such pondering may have been the reason why Joseph ran away to join the circus, that is he was kicked out of school for continuously violating the "dress code," and then he finally landed in public school. After attending the UMKC school system, majoring in creative writing and physiology, he became a fry cook at Denny's. As Joseph says, "Where else are you going to collect prime material for your written works, especially on the graveyard/bar shift?" Later he would take this same approach to the wiles of Mendocino country in Northern California, and then southward to the San Fransisco Bay Area, where he now lives happily with his loving wive, Shirley, just north of Napa Valley California. Currently, after what seemed to him the equivalent of 5 different lifetimes of collecting, writing and illustrating (he's also a book cover designer) cryptic interludes and twisted tales, Joseph has now officially taken his fiction to the e-book format.