Book excerpt: DIAMONDS OF AFFECTION is a collection of short stories filled with a wild and eccentric cast of characters who are all, in some way, struggling to survive in the chaotic and disturbing world created by John David Wells. The reader will find a rock drummer, Todd Benjamin, who is schizophrenic, and thinks the images on MTV videos are originating from the Book of Revelation in the Bible; Donna Robinson, a former dancer on American Bandstand, who thinks shes a character in a song and when shes alone talks to Bob Dylan and Stevie Nicks; David Dickinson, a brilliant young man, who believes he is the real Catcher in the Rye; Byron, a wasted junkie, who would leave town if only he had some shoes to wear, and three college students who take a drug-filled, hallucinating road trip to Florida, turning their Range Rover into an Ecstasy orgy with shocking results. These are just a few of the lost beautiful losers who inhabit the pages of Dr. Wells fascinating collection of stories. In the end, readers will find surprising emotional attachments to these flawed, but likable, characters who struggle to maintain their sanity and dignity in the face of an absurd and often unforgiving world.