Book excerpt: PRAISE FOR BIRTHDAY PRESENCE "These are tales of intensity and indignation, of passion and pathos, of angst and anger, of grappling and grief. They're also tales of both humor and heart-though each of these elements skews, at times, rather dark. Most of all, these are tales of wounded spirits yearning for redemption, reconciliation, release... or just a reason to live. Cox characters step right up, grab us by the lapels, yank us toward them and, Willy-Loman-like demand to be known," Paul McComas Author of Unplugged and Planet of the Dates, from his foreword