Book excerpt: Blood a Cold Blue is James Claffey's debut story collection that Ronlyn Domingue says "spans the distance of continents and the gulf between memories. At times beautifully surreal then painfully stark, his stories reach into those parts of us that long to be gathered and made whole again." Meg Tuite says, "Claffey is a collector of moments that throb to life; shapes appear out of the mist of memory as irreducible as the mystery of existence itself. Blood a Cold Blue is fueled by a masterful writer: powerful, unforgettable and mesmerizing."