Book excerpt: 'This is the one true star-map,’ he whispered. ‘Time fluctuates wildly beyond our solar system. Everything we know about distance is wrong.' Quiet Pine Trees is jet fuel for your imagination, a wrecking ball against writer's block. This collection features more than 500 enchanting microfiction stories, each one a miniature work of literary art. Using just a few words, these stories combine powerful imagery with compelling, high-concept themes to create snapshots of bigger, stranger worlds and inspire the reader. The stories in this volume span genres and galaxies alike: from science fiction about advanced time travel techniques and lovestruck androids, to fantasy about the best ways to wish and trees that long to speak, to chilling tales about dolls' eyes and the horror that awaits humanity between the stars.