The thatched roof villages belonged more to the days of Tokugawa feudalism than to those of the twentieth century. So did the people living in them. Indeed, they seemed like creatures from some far away place lost in the stream of time.
The Bait Shack – Novel Excerpt
“May I help you?” Nora asked, opening the door slightly. His eyes were deep blue with dark bags underneath, as if filled with viscous liquid.
“Who are you? Did Oliver sell this place already?”
He said “bastard” under his breath. She turned on her Manhattan edge.
“Excuse me. Who are you?”
That Was Before – Novel Excerpt
Nettie dropped to her knees and pulled David’s clumsy body off the porcelain tiles. Against his mother’s skin he reanimated, and Nettie kissed him over and over. There didn’t appear to be any damage, no bruises, cuts or bumps, but then again, why would there be? His tumble had been so quiet, so small, she hadn’t even heard it happen. It was as though he just slid, like Jell-O coming out of a pan. Nettie rocked him back and forth as much for her own comfort as for his, and he gurgled a surprised and excited sound before smiling wide, showing off his new tooth.
The Better Angels – Novel Excerpt
If, in the annals of our town of Lacana's folklore, the archangels Michael and Lucifer settled the whole matter of the apocalypse in town, it would be said thus; that they tucked their rusted iron-tipped wings behind the backs of two time-splintered oak chairs and fought for the souls of seven drunks and two anonymous alcoholics who’d steeled themselves against the drink but not the company.
Nowhere Man – Novel Excerpt from Sol & Serafina & the A.I.R.
“He might have some thoughts,” was all her mom, Luz, said, cancelling early Spanish classes at St. Cecilia’s. As long as Serafina wouldn’t get tricked by therapy into talking about stealing the mini-van at midnight to meet a boy who ghosted her at the winery—which got robbed after she forgot to rearm the alarm—before she lost the only key to aunt Julieta’s heirloom Armada chest from Mexico—she’d see the good doctor.