From a young writer trying to win a girl to a boy grappling with confusion about sin, each protagonist in this collection of nine short stories experiences a journey, an encounter, or a revelation that transforms them.In Rosas Gift and Other Stories, author Michael Cantwell presents these stories reflecting the joys and sorrows of all stages of human life. In the title story, Rosas Gift, Peter Collins, a semiretired commercial artist from New York, visits Guatemala, where ...

After moving from town to town, Philip Nason and his family finally settle in a working-class neighborhood in Detroit. Its the summer of 1937, shortly after Philip turns eleven. A lonely child, he inhabits a world of daydreams, filling notebooks with his cartoon fantasies. He discovers hes unable to compete in the rough-and-tumble games that are a boys rite of passage.Then Philip meets Jeremiah Caseybigger, older, stronger, better at games than everyone else, but somehow isolated b...

The minister’s lovely young wife receives no love from him, but is subject to a life of servitude to his wishes. She enters upon a love affair with a fellow hospital therapist. Their love is very intense and leads to extraordinary consequences.

Fourteen-year-old Peter Collins cannot help but wonder if it was all just a dream. Even though it has been two years since he traveled back in time to ancient Mexico with his friend, Rosa Guzman, two questions continue to haunt him: Why hasn't Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent who guided Rosa and him through their time travels, returned as he had promised? Who is his real father? Peter knows the secret will be revealed once he passes his final test. When Quetzalcoatl finally shows up, the b...

Peter Collins and Rosa Guzman, having passed their first round of tests in ancient Mexico, are again summoned by the Plumed Serpent who flies them back in time to the first morning of the world. There, the sixth graders witness the origins of human sacrifice as gods throw themselves into the sluggish sun that refuses to rise despite receiving divine fuel.Finally, Quetzalcoatl, the Serpent, blows a hurricane-force wind that lifts the sun and whisks the children to Tollan Two in tent...

Max the mouse didnt mean to run away from home. He had a good gig with his owner, Melissa. He was well fed, and he liked riding on the little girls shoulder when she walked around the house. But Max was really curious to see what was on the other side of the fence in the backyard.Once over the fence, Max joins a group of endangered mice to found a new colony in a deserted field where mice are safe from the evil urban alley cats. But life, especially for mice, being what it is, the ...

Alex and his pal have started a band. How do you tell your best friend that he can't sing and will be replaced with the cutest girl in school? You ask President Kennedy for advice. Like most teenagers, Alex must deal with broken hearts, teenage angst, and escape summer chores. However, unlike others, Alex has the added pressure of having a reporter, the FBI and the Secret Service snooping into his world. Life's hard enough without Andrew Jackson messing with your baseball card collection.

The Perfect World exists in the far distant future and is ruled by an old man called the Grand Exterminator. In this heavily polluted world people wear oxygen masks and silver vinyl jump suits. Theyve never seen flowers or grass. Robots do their work and their thinking. Many laws exist, but the chief prohibition is against passion. Anyone who talks of love or acts on feelings of love or passion is exterminatedreduced in seconds to a few particles of dust.Jack Goddard, a young physi...

No one is more surprised than Philip Nason when an uprising occurs within the walls of a New York rehabilitation hospital. Moments after Phil, director of recreation, hears that a group of mostly paraplegic patients have staged a rebellion, he learns that the hospitals director is furious and thinks the patients were inspired by Phils current-events reading program. Now with his job in jeopardy, Phil is torn between his desire to empower his patients and pleasing hospital bureaucrats....

Peter Collins is a shy sixth-grader who thinks his worst problems are being bullied by his stepfather and his classmatesuntil he awakens one night to see a giant feathered serpent hovering over his bed. Terrified beyond belief, he has no idea that he and his classmate, Rosa Guzman, are about to time travel to ancient Mexico on the back of Quetzalcoatl, the god of life and peace.Through Quetzalcoatl, Peter soon learns it is time for him to discover the powers that are his rightful h...

How far would you go to tell the truth? Congressman McAdams made a promise to his dying grandfather to always tell the truth. Now he must decide between exposing a national secret or move up the political ladder and stay quiet. He has three days to decide while he sits in jail. Life is not always black and white and besides when is the truth not really the truth? What are your limits?

The Labyrinth of Love is a love story set amid the social and political upheavals of contemporary Mexico. The legend of the plumed serpent runs through the book, illuminating the theme of love and sacrifice and guiding the protagonist, Thomas Ryan, an aging American photographer, in his quest for love and artistic success.The heros struggle takes place in the context of his relationship with Maria Lopez, a beautiful young Mexican woman. A central theme of the novel turns on the int...