John Mauk's stories are filled with magic, violence, and wisdom. Among the blessed and the cursed, the drunks and the perverts, you will meet a girl who can fly, a belligerent priest, and the son of a witch. There's something organic and essential, even inevitable, about these oddly-shaped stories; it's as though they might have written themselves. The community opinion always matters here, as do the small-town values of hospitality and tolerance...