"That's what hocuses are like, and that's why, if you live in the Lower City of Mélusine, you keep one eye on the Mirador all the time, same way you would with a swamp adder. It's just common sense."

Mildmay is a thief, a successful cat-burglar in the city of Mélusine. All his life, he's tried to keep clear of magic and its practitioners, but it seems every job he's come across lately has a hocus behind it.

There are very few writers who are skilled at making the reader a part of the writing process. Their stories are written in such a way that the reader is left with much to infer. Is the event the protagonist describes really happening, or is it within their mind? Is this sentence a metaphor, or is it to be taken literally? I tend to enjoy this type of writing and often come away from the experience feeling connected to the piece on a deep level. I don't mind not having my hand held.

We've all heard this story before. A rogue asteroid is headed toward Earth, and the destruction of all life is imminent. . .unless a band of self-sacrificing loners does something to save us. It's pretty familiar ground that Eric Shapiro's new novel, "It's Only Temporary", published by Permuted Press, treads, except for one thing: there is no intrepid band of saviors. Six weeks ago, the governments of the world announced that no one has any aces up their sleeves. Less than half of one percent of life on the planet is expected to survive impact.