Book excerpt: This collection of literary, sometimes melancholy, tales by E. W. Farnsworth invites thoughtful readers to dive right in anywhere for a few minutes or an hour on a subway ride or before bed. Novella 'River Tales' outlines the recruitment of a female CIA agent. 'The Blood Closet' is about a headmistress's perplexity dealing with gender issues in a middle school. Each work of flash fiction is thought-provoking. Some stories are profound and most will reward re-reading - closely; a few link by characters and actions to other works by the author. E. W. Farnsworth lives and writes in Gilbert, Arizona, USA. With over two-hundred and fifty short stories published online and in print, he renders real-world experience in fiction with his own cosmos. One critic sincerely hoped that the incidents in Farnsworth's fiction have no counterparts in real life. In fact, they all are drawn to life. In that sense, his fiction is troubling, intentionally so.