A collection of ten short stories that have been published in popular and literary magazines in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. One story, though uniquely American, was translated into three other languages. With brevity and momentum each exposes the dramatic interior responses and emotions that occur when we face unanticipated, thought-provoking challenges or insights. There's a story about the effects of a deadly accident on a seemingly self-centered office drone. Another story is about a man, who like the character "Bottom" in Midsummer Night's Dream, accepts the fact that his body changed while he wasn't paying attention. One story dissects a single conversation between a long-time married couple, and reveals that it's anything but a single conversation. Another shows how a loving father, while in his grave, can still hearten his grown son, and help solve a sky-is-falling problem. Another builds to a modern-day civil war when a man from New York provokes a man from Appalachia. There's a claustrophobic wedding adventure. A story about a mountain lion behaving in an unexpected way. And a story about a grizzly bear who serves as a not-so-symbolic stand-in for a bartender gangster with an unsettling surprise. All these stories have been published in magazines the old-fashioned way, on paper, in ink. The author has also published short stories in online literary journals. However, this collection is limited to those that have appeared only in physical form. The magazines where they reside can fill a bookshelf. But, these stories are now collected into this one convenient volume, a celebration of paper and ink and ideas.