A woman is drawn to a shop that looks like an antique store; she's looking for furnishings for her home in the French Quarter, where she lived a very long time ago... a lifetime ago.

Married to an uncaring, workaholic husband, Shylia Allred walks to alleviate stress and to consider her divorce. Typical of many abused spouses, she dreams of escape but always comes up with a reason to thwart her own plans. Then, as she's walking past the local parish hall just as an AA meeting is letting out, she literally bumps into Randall Sly. As they get to know each other, she comes to trust him completely. He's the one man who can bring a huge change to her life. But change isn't a...

Some boys are reared by cruel fathers. For them, the beatings don't stop until they're old enough and large enough to fight back. Carson McCullers once wrote, "The hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes." Duffy Griswold is just such a boy.

What's a mobster punk to do when the detective he's talking with about an attempt on his life turns and walks away? Or worse yet, simple fades out and disappears?

This is a psychological thriller by Eric Stringer. His friend Janie is a collector, but a collector of what?

Would being a cannibal qualify for having an eating disorder? While under armed guard and being tended to in an ER, accused cannibal and murderer John Searcy, AKA Randall Sly, escapes custody and takes a nurse, Susan, hostage. Does he want her for her excellent body... or does he want her for the excellent tone of her body? In the piney woods near a railroad track, Searcy meets up with his brother Wayne and a new acquaintance known only as Jackson. Twists and turns abound. Susan escapes, a...

A psychological suspense story set in southern Louisiana.

These ten intense short stories also are included in the five-story collections About Town and Rare Women."But Babies Are Just So Cute!" is a touching story of how human beings react to babies. All babies. Especially in this intense, perhaps humorous, short story.In "Mouth Watering," an SF short story, when Lisa Reddich stops by a small café for a plate of French fries, she's looking for a mouth-watering experience. What she finds is considerably more than she bargained for...

Johnny Marsden sets out for home after a few hours' fishing. His grandfather becomes concerned and goes out looking for him. But what happens with Johnny and his grandfather is far from anything you might expect.

What's a guy to do when he just narrowly avoided taking a bullet in the skull? Where can he hide? What can he do? Maybe he should sit in a dumpster for awhile and mull his future.

Mr. Kristen dreams of world domination. Finally his chance comes. He finds himself in a launch bunker with the red button before him. Yes, that red button. And what he launches will not soon be forgotten.

In this terse short story by Eric Stringer, a woman plunges through a window on the 134th floor into a mob nightmare. Come along!