Your roommate says you should date more, that all those spandex nights on stage paying tribute to hair metal and banging faceless groupies only amplify your Jekyll/Hyde syndrome. That this quicksand town of floozies, fiends, and filmmakers will survive without your commercial jingles. And your narcotics. That you should turn in your daytime security-guard badge and settle down. He's got the perfect girl, a cinnamon-scented innocent who will bring that elusive substance to your life despite the familial forces that conspire against your union. Always lurking in the periphery, the roommate...

Electrocution and a two-story fall from a church rooftop leave former musician Tobe Mohr deaf, burned, and broken. A guilt-wracked priest invites him to live in the vacant rectory during his recovery, where many townsfolk believe Tobe - despite his own skepticism - has developed clairvoyance in his return from death. Adapting to rural life after having toured the world's stages, Tobe forms an intense relationship with the enchanting Sera and her daughter. But their disappearance forces him to embrace his rewired senses that have helped so many others, as he navigates Sera's mysterious past to...

Prison bars. Stained church glass. Deadlines precursing rejection. These are Submission Windows: vantage points for peeking in on-or out from-surgeons, killers, priests, perverts, inmates, athletes, musicians, and more than a few celebrities past their prime. Most clinging to frayed ropes of their own making, desperate for redemption, love, or merely an enduring pulse. For others, it's their ambition on display, destined for humility. These voyeuristic and vicarious vignettes include 26 short stories (all of the below, plus many never-before published), bridged by several dozen poems...