"A sea witch, a bossy Virgin Mary, and a lesbian widow's wife--in ghost form--walk into a short story collection ... From a homeless teen abandoned by his scam-artist boyfriend and a woman who finds herself renegotiating the terms of her relationship with her lover's ghost, to the lovelorn Mary Louise, who struggles with butch bachelorhood, and a tribute to Grimm's "The Golden Goose" rendered as a jazz dance spectacle, Kristyn Dunnion's freewheeling collection goes wherever there's a story to tell--and then, out of whispers and shouts, echoes and snippets, gritty realism and speculative fiction, illuminates the delicate strands that hold us all together."-- Provided by publisher.

Merril copy signed and dated by author.

Now is the time to light fires --How we learn to lie -- Fits ritual -- Oort Cloud gets a makeover -- Four letter word for "loose" -- Pristine -- Daughter of cups -- Adoro te devote -- Midnight meat -- Asset mapping in Stoop City -- Tracker & flow -- Affliction: the taming of Bloor West West -- Last call at the Dogwater Inn -- Acknowledgements.