This book is comprised of eight short stories written over the span of twenty years. Although fiction, they are time portals to my own personal history. Each story has a special meaning to me and they are right up there among the top ten on my list of greatest accomplishments, just below my children, my marriage, and my recipe for peach cobbler. Last Call is simply heartbreaking. I wrote this during a bleak period in my life when I was struggling to cope with a life-altering situation. Even now when I read Last Call I can put things easily into proper perspective. My Restitution was born from an idea I was toying with for a novel. I hope it has the same surprising impact on the reader that it had on me. Rug Burn is proof that my weird has never really completely rubbed off. Stranger in the Garden came to me in a dream. At first it seemed like such a sad story, but then a few minutes after I wrote that last line I realized it was actually the story of a miracle. Sweet Revenge is an exaggerated story of my personal experiences on the web-dating scene. Nothing even close to what I describe in this story ever happened to me. The Gift of a Perfect Morning is probably my favorite of this collection. My son actually came to me with this story idea. He’d dreamed it several months before and asked me to put it into a format. Seldom have I felt so compelled to write a story. It was as though the story wrote itself. That’s magic. I love this story, even though it breaks my heart. The Good Husband is a bittersweet story of how terribly wrong a person can be and how misconception can cost you everything. The Lady Next Door is a story of seamless love. I’ve often wondered how a young person would cope with a loved ones inability to live in reality. In this story I’ve tried to capture that scenario.