Matters Familiar is an anthology of short stories, offering 12 tales from inside complex contemporary relationships featuring parents; kids; convicts; hustlers; lawyers; politicians; and other undesirables:

· A small girl, suffocating in the growing culture of fear around her, struggles to take the high ground.

· A recently-divorced father sharing custody of his young son learns about parenting in an unlikely place—Death Row.

· Adrift in his own life and desperate for a belief system, a young man finds direction and purpose from a surprising source.

· Two brothers try to make sense of their lives after their domineering mother's death.

· A girls' softball team rebels and instructs parents and coaches in the value of competition.

· A retired cowgirl and her best friend resort to drugs, kidnapping, and interstate flight to escape the nursing home and reclaim their lives.

· A vignette, after infidelity was declared an Olympic sport. (Sexually explicit)

· An amnesiac accident victim recovers more than his health among strangers in a small Southern town.

· Two boys, one mother; two lives, separated from birth.

· A top-dollar attorney complains about the bill and unwittingly becomes his plumber's Zen pupil.

· Worried about his sickly nephew's future, a dutiful mob soldier finds inspiration an ocean and an age away.

· A scandal-plagued politician contemplates suicide, but checks in with his cousin first to sort things out.