WHEN YOU'RE A BRAIN WITHOUT A BODY, CAN YOU STILL BE CALLED HUMAN? Marc Gregorio wakes up paralyzed. He can't feel his own body. Accident? Stroke? Did someone slip him an overdose of Botox? The answer, he discovers, is much, much worse. He's only a copy of Marc, a digital brain without a body, burdened with all Marc's human memories, but without access to human sensual pleasures. Now he has to find a reason to keep on, um, "living." Adam the Mindclone meets the real Marc Gregorio--and his ...

Marc Gregorio wakes up paralyzed. He can’t feel his own body. Accident? Stroke? Did someone slip him an overdose of Botox? The answer, he discovers, is much, much worse. He’s only a copy of Marc, a digital brain without a body, burdened with all Marc’s human memories, but without access to human sensual pleasures. Now he has to find a reason to keep on, um, “living.”Adam the Mindclone meets the real Marc Gregorio--and his new girlfriend Molly Schaeffer. Adam loves her, too. But how...

WHEN YOU’RE A BRAIN WITHOUT A BODY, CAN YOU STILL BE CALLED HUMAN?Marc Gregorio wakes up paralyzed. He can’t feel his own body. Accident? Stroke? Did someone slip him an overdose of Botox? The answer, he discovers, is much, much worse. He’s only a copy of Marc, a digital brain without a body, burdened with all Marc’s human memories, but without access to human sensual pleasures. Now he has to find a reason to keep on, um, “living.”Adam the Mindclone meets the real Marc Greg...

Seventeen-year-old Margot McClain used to be witty, talented, and popular, but ever since a certain incident, she’s used her smart mouth like an insect-repellent to keep boys off her. That’s about to change.When lost-looking new kid John Smith enrolls at her school, Margot mocks his fake-sounding name. Then she learns “John Smith” is the name the authorities gave him. He can’t remember his own--or anything else about his past. His plight weakens her resistance. She offers to be his...

San Francisco ad-man Art Kassel has three seemingly unreachable life goals: to find some woman somewhere who shares his love for all things intellectual, cultural and culinary; to win accolades and awards for creativity in advertising; and to escape the iffy morality of his career by launching the big honking novel he’s been slogging away at forever. Imagine how thrilled he is when all his goals suddenly seem within his grasp. Especially when he comes up with a brilliant campaign for the a...

Parents don’t like it when a genetically enhanced chimp is smarter than their own 5th Graders.Some people just have no appreciation for progress. When Darwin, the most famous chimp in the world, entered the 5th Grade, his human brother Scott had mixed feelings. And a band of older kids didn’t like it. Worse, a band of parents decide this walking, reading, thinking and even talking chimp--thanks to a really cool electronic keyboard--has no business attending a pu...

Sometimes there's more at stake in a game of Scrabble than just victory.In this short story, Vera’s marriage has been dead for years. So when she reconnects with a childhood sweetheart, she seizes the chance to re-ignite her heart. But the comedy-of-errors affair she stumbles into leads to unspeakable consequences. Humiliation should have been punishment enough. But the arrival of “good news” during a board game is sending her straight to hell. Yet in the end, she...

What if you woke up one morning and discovered that you were your preteen self, but with all your adult memories intact? What if this alternate science-fiction universe gave you the chance to undo the many things you regretted? To act on those opportunities you missed? What tragedies would you act to prevent? Given the chance, what would you change about your life--and the world?

An android walks into a church and all hell breaks loose. Especially when he tells a young priest that he would like to confess his sins, be absolved and receive communion. The young priest is open to the idea, but his foul-mouthed superior is outraged. They decide (or are maneuvered into) a meeting with the bishop and even the cardinal. Their conclave also includes the inventor of the technology and, just to even things out, a rabbi. Finally, even the pope gets involved.

Welcome to Mordora. It's a dark place with secrets so powerful they trigger a double abduction and a murder. And so toxic that revealing the truth would be worse than the crimes themselves. It begins with a murder that isn’t a murder, followed by a strange double abduction. To Police Detective Jacob Zaag, it feels wrong from the start. Who would kidnap a developmentally disabled teen and his adult sitter? A random grab? A sex crime? Zaag falls hard for Andrea, the boy’s single mom, 30, so ...

The murderer has a perfectly logical reason for his kills. Logical, but insane. Wounded soul and single dad Nick Clayborne uses a radio scanner to listen in on private conversations. It’s virtually his only adult contact. He fills notebooks with what he hears in hopes of an eventual book deal. Then three of those strangers are murdered. Panicking, he reaches out to a long-time favorite he's been listening in on for years. Their connection begins to thaw his frozen heart. But when the polic...

Marc Gregorio wakes up paralyzed. He can't feel his own body. Accident? Stroke? Did someone slip him an overdose of Botox? The answer, he discovers, is much, much worse. He's only a copy of Marc, a digital brain without a body, burdened with all Marc's human memories, but without access to human sensual pleasures. Now he has to find a reason to keep on, um, "living." Adam the Mindclone meets the real Marc Gregorio--and his new girlfriend Molly Schaeffer. Adam loves her, too. But h...