A “Howl” is the cry of alarm or pain in these short stories which takes on a sharper edge of life.  “Howls” include:

· “Fire in the Clearing” looks at the presence of life on Earth in an otherwise dead Universe and how it might be destroyed.

· “My Aunt Tishe” centers on “reading the soul” of another person, whether by a person with a “gift” or a software developer designing a product to analyze employees.

· “Happiness” presents a serial killer who claims the same right to be as happy as other people even though the source of his happiness is killing women.

· “Sacrifice” has 15^th century Spanish “Conquistadors” examining the ruins of a large Anasazi city in the American Southwest and asking why the people failed to handle the existential threat of a drought.

· “Ham Sandwich” is a not-too-subtle look at the distribution of wealth in the 1%-99% economy as people squabble over a ham sandwich discarded by a passing Mercedes. 

· “A Miscellaneous Item” ” follows a marble bust of a young woman by a Renaissance sculptor as its value in the art world is determined by supply and demand and not the quality of its artistic expression.

· “Thy Will Be Done” adopts the historical account of the murder of Hypatia of Alexandria, Egypt in March 415 AD to the present day murder of a college teacher as part of the plan of a fundamentalist preacher to “Christianize” a small American town.

· “Eleven Pints” refers to the quantity of blood in a young man’s body which the rich owner of a major corporation must have, and uses his power to take, as the only way to extend his life and enable him to grow his business further and increase his wealth.