Stories in this collection, such as HERE'S MASHED, A DIFFERENT KIND OF DAY, WITH ALL HIS HEART, along with a few others, all depict contemporary lives in conflicts of one kind or another, until something interesting happens to change things. The style is in the manner of modern minimalism, where character and behavior are depicted rather than described, more like a film or show than an account. Stories like I HEARD THEIR LAUGHTER and BRIAN'S LAW are quite different. These are longer treatments of rather inordinate lives. The first depicts the state of a math freak cooped up under the roof of an abandoned building, pondering the life he should have lived but had refused. Then something happens to redeem it. BRIAN'S LAW depicts a fourteen year old boy who thinks he is smarter than Einstein. The tale makes certain demands on the reader but is guaranteed to fascinate those interested in such things and who stick it out. It is the author's favorite work, by far. Bernard (Bud) Scott wrote these stories in between the demands of his career as an entrepreneurial computational linguist, a career depicted at http: www.logosinstitute.org/LogosStory.html. He is a published poet, anthologized essayist, and award-winning short story writer, and has published several novels, most recently, The Heart Hath Its Reasons.