With a combination of characters from young to old and with drama and humor, these tales pursue such people as a supermodel who awakens after open-heart surgery, a famous playwright who faces a firestorm consuming the landscape, and a New Yorker who thinks she's a chicken.

Here is a story collection about love, death, humor, and the glue called family. In one narrative, a man wakes up one morning to find the odor of dead fish won't go away, but no one else can smell it. In another, a couple's visit with friends to watch the Academy Awards has the protagonist envying his friends' lawn and lifestyle. In these and eleven other stories, Christopher Meeks balances tragedy and wit. As novelist David Scott Milton explains, "In this collection, Christopher Meeks examines the small heartbreaks of quiet despair that are so much a part of all our lives. He does it in...

Love At Absolute Zero focuses on a top physicist determined to find his soul mate within three days using science. In this comic romp, Gunnar Gunderson, 32, has just been given tenure at the University of Wisconsin, and now he can think of only one thing: finding a wife. His research falters into what happens to matter near absolute zero ( 459.67 F), but he has an instant new plan. Channeling his inner salmon, he's determined to meet his love. Can Gunnar survive his quest? "