Author Description

People read for all kinds of reasons, and this collection has something for everyone! This splendid collection begins with Alex H. Mittelman's tale of poetic justice in "Blueberry Tea for Burglars." Readers will experience mixed emotions as an affable bad-guy gets an extreme dose of the crime that he so freely dishes out to others. James Fox's "The Hidden Trail" features justice of another kind as a bullied and marginalized youth is vindicated-and eventually admired-by his status-conscious pre-teen peers. The story of male alienation ages a little in "Addicted" as Joshua Lane relates a tragic tale about a young man who watches his own personality and behavior degrade under the influence of a most unassuming addiction."Grand Theft Auto and Soup" by Leonard Treman returns to the theme of poetic justice as a would-be car jacker chooses the wrong victim. Without remorse, the intended victim becomes the gleeful perpetrator of an even worse crime. The "intended victim" in Josh Krigman's "Que Sera, Sera" is the object of affection, rather than criminality. Krigman's main character allows us to witness his imagination at work he considers (fantasizes about?) all the possible outcomes of a brief amorous event. "Schizo" by Felix Arrieta is so delightfully unpredictable that I'm reluctant to introduce it-for fear that I'll spoil the surprise. Suffice to say, the title is more suggestive than exhaustive of the themes in this brief memoir. Regular readers of our anthologies will recognize Patricia Crandall's name and will welcome "The Wedding Reception," which is written with Crandall's typical flair for family-friendly romanticism. "Semotian Tides" comes from a new writer to our press, Maeriah Bond, but from an author who is destined to become a readers' favorite. Her story has God, demons and humans clash over questions of destiny. The resulting tale stands in the best tradition of fantasy literature. Donna Bruck's "The Royal Secret" mixes the fantasy and romantic themes in Cr