Eleanor knows she's a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action--life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother's company. It's also the day Joe has chosen...

The town sheriff, trapped in a loveless marriage, turns his attentions to Maud, a writer, and to the murders of three local women.

Laural Lockwood's 15-year-old son Andy is "special". She lost him once through neglect, but is determined to make up for her mistakes. When she allows Andy to attend a local church social she is terrified whenthe church is consumed by fire. Andy s

"Keith Weston nearly lost his life in an act of arson. He survived--but with devastating physical and emotional scars. Without his mother, he has no one to help him heal, no money, nothing to live for but the medications that numb his pain. Isolated and angry, his hatred has one tight focus: his half-sister, Maggie Lockwood. Nineteen-year-old Maggie spent a year in prison for the acts that led up to the fire. Now she's back home. But her release cannot...

In a rhythmically-written conversation between parent and child, Mama lists her son's many good traits--from physical attributes to behavior--and though he dismisses each quality as just a little thing, Mama explains that there is nothing little about love.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but...

In a society where everyone gets nine lives and enjoys burning through them, Julian is attempting to hang on to his first life as long as possible to avoid the example set by his mother and the resulting sickness she has to endure. Julian lives in a world where humans have nine lives. As you shed lives, you shed your awkward phases: one death is equal to one physical and mental upgrade. His mother burned through her first eight in just a few years,...

Forty-year-old widow Hush McGillen, having worked to create a booming apple orchard enterprise and to keep her son Davis from learning the truth about his philandering father, finds all her secrets exposed when Davis secretly marries the rebellious daughter of the President of the United States and brings her home to Georgia, along with her attractive bodyguard, Nicholas Jakobek.

In searching for a Mother's Day present that will be just right for his mother, Alaric Chicken demonstrates that he is just as cautious and particular as she is.