Seven stories written by some of the best writers of modern fiction including Garry Kilworth, Ron Damien Malfi, Michael Boatman, and Michael Hemmingson reach to the edge of human endurance and push all the harder.

Winner of the World Fantasy Award "I am placing this entry at the beginning of my edited journal for reasons that will become apparent. Time is very short for me now, the final part of the ritual draws near...
I cannot pretend that I am not frightened."
There were these two British writers, one lived in the country, the other in the city. The country writer loved to visit the city and partake of brandy and Greek kebabs in the local hostelry. The city writer liked to visit the country and guzzle ale and barbecued steak under the apple trees. The two writers needed an excuse for these...

In 1870 an enterprise began in Australia that was breathtaking in its ambition: to construct a single galvanised iron wire between Adelaide and Darwin, crossing two thousand miles of virtually unexplored wilderness. This was the Overland Telegraph Line, using local trees as poles, thousands of them, and hundreds of men who would not return to civilization for two years or more. Some would not return at all.
Alex McKenzie is a young telegrapher who believes his chosen profession to be at the cutting edge of contemporary science. A man who knows that once the last pole is erected and the...

Steven Roberts has problems with women. He also has problems with men. The only people he feels a true affinity with are the impassive squatters who move in with him, camping quietly and without fuss in a corner of his living-room. A situation which continues to their mutual advantage until a night of terrible drama and tragedy. Steven Roberts, a man bereft after the devastating loss of his wife and child in a car accident, embarks on an intense and moving personal odyssey. Seeking redemption. Seeking forgiveness. Seeking a way back to life.