The Complete Short Stories

THE OBSTINATE CANARY
A prideful young opera singer confronts his girlfriend's objections to his lack of success, as she threatens to leave him for a vacation with another man.

TREACHERY
Old age tragically strips us of all our youthful virtues. Does it leave us anything in compensation?

HOW TO SCORE HOT CHICKS
A step-by-step guide. Never fails.

RUNNING MIRROR
A starfleet officer becomes a criminal on the day of his retirement - the best day of his life.

MAKING IT RIGHT
An aging rocker returns home to right an ancient wrong.

THE TALE OF DANNY LARUE
An Angel in a dream reveals to a young man that he has an appointment with Death that very night.

MY SATURDAY MORNING COFFEE
A true story of courage and heroism in the face of catastrophe

LOVE STORY WITH FLUTE
A fable set on a modern Indian reservation about the love of a boy for an older girl

ROYAL DELUSION
He thinks he's the King of Denmark, and it's off to the asylum.

BLOWING SMOKE
A lout schemes to trick an elegant, worldly cigar expert out of his vintage Ferrari, by betting his own wife against the expert's skills.

DEVOTION
Four kinds of devotion - superficial, nave, vocational, and true - are explored in this tale of intergalactic intrigue.

HEY! I NEEDED THE BOOKS.
Refusing to do without. A true story.

THE OTHER MARY
A naked woman in church heralds a life-change for a young priest.

STUMBLEBUM
What's left when everything has been taken away from you?

THE MURDEROUS HOUNDS OF SATAN
It's not like he wasn't warned.

THE TWILIGHT OF IGGY FLYNN
An Irish assassin arranges his final hit.

BLOCHYFACE GRAMPA
A precious life-lesson from a cruel schoolyard prank

GRAMPA'S TERRIBLE TEETH
How far can empathy take us?

AMBROSIA, OR, WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW
A man reclaims a lost love through a desperate scheme

ON NOT PLAYING CHESS
How about we negotiate first?

CASTLE QUEENSIDE
Two lifelong rivals play a final bloody match

INTENSIVE CARE
A sick man's life-changing delirium

ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
A look forward to a perishing republic