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?

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.

This is an intense psychological suspense short story by Eric Stringer. Dorothy is brought into the hospital, the victim of an accident. While in the hospital bed with her head in a fixed position, she sees a spider that takes her back to a childhood regret. The rest is just payback.

As is so often the case in Eric Stringer's stories, nothing is quite as it seems. When Marie LeBleaux, a Louisiana novelist, has to do strange research, she also tries to make it a boon for the community. She comes to learn her acquaintances in the Normal Louisiana Ladies Club believe the community needs to be improved in other, more drastic ways.

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

Noted psychiatrist Robert "Bobby" Singleton is defended in action and deed by his lifelong friends, connected guy Joey Di Salvo and NYPD Officer Salvatore Acolese. After all, Bobby just wants to turn the tables on his filthy rich socialist hypocrite father and REALLY do things to help the poor and downtrodden. Of course, help can take many forms.