A member of the North Fork Writers Group, David Porteous breaks out with a remarkable collection of short stories. As he says, "The stories are not autobiographical, but while the characters reveal facets of my views, they came to me with personalities and situations formed. They are mind-invaders because their presences prevented me from working on other projects; they refused to leave until I wrote their tales. I chose tales whose characters came in diverse styles of tale-telling, with cultural differences, and some echoing other stories to expand those themes for you. I haven't defined their settings – New York, Sydney, Shanghai or Oslo is irrelevant to people dealing with life's universal issues."