The Lombard Alchemist Tales

High in the desert, between the mountains out west, up where the ground throbs from the nuclear test detonations, the casinos still glitter, drawing people from the far reaches of the world. They come here to try their luck, to take a chance, to have the adventures they wouldn't write home about.

Young men make rash choices. At 19 years old, with no money, no food, and no hope, one man's choices start making themselves. As winter sets in and time runs out, he needs salvation anywhere he can find it - in a brothel, a dumpster, a gun, or maybe in a creepy old pawn shop in a broken down city at the edge of nowhere.

Stephen got stoned so he could deal with the chemo, but it's his husband who really needs the drugs. After all, watching your partner of twenty years die of cancer can leave you courting bankruptcy, your life in ruins. It can drive you to steal, or cheat, or look for hope in a can of chicken-noodle soup you bought from the demonic pawnbroker at a creepy old hock shop at the edge of nowhere.

Alan Tosetti set the sterling standard in a town built on silver. The greatest architect in Nevada history, he died before he could finish his masterpiece Craftsman. Two years later, his youngest daughter died of old age in the same house, sitting in front of the fire. She was only 26.

Alliston Hayes loved three things: getting married, hats, and the late Jac Jarger. So when she got the chance to combine the three with the help of a demon-possessed cat and an ancient book, how could she pass it up? And how could she know that her enthusiasm would result in "The Incident"?

On a trip to visit his ailing grandfather, 17-year-old Peter meets a magician who claims to know how to grant Peter's dearest wish: to perform impossible illusions. But dearest wishes come with costs, and new opportunities come with each turn of the cards in a hospital room at the edge of nowhere.

A golden summer afternoon gave Albert the perfect excuse to escape his cubicle for a little fresh air and some time at the park. But when his boss catches him on the way out the door and piles on extra deadlines, forcing Albert to work through the time off, he figures he might as well just write off the afternoon. But neither Albert nor his boss could have planned on a surprise adventure courtesy a broken briefcase, an escaped python, and a mischievous pawnbroker who keeps a creepy little shop out on the edge of nowhere.