'When we are born we are brought into this world as perfection, and it is only with time and age that we move further and further away from it.' Ordinarily Stanley Laine is very structured and organized in his writing, typically applying the same techniques and practices that have worked well for him in completing his larger projects, but during the writing for his novel ‘The End of the Line’ he found he was spending a lot of time engaged in intense reflection and material was coming forward that was not related to his novel, so in addition to the composing he was doing for the larger work, he also began doing some free-writing to try to capture these ideas swirling around in his mind.

As Laine states, “A few of the pieces included here were written for a specific purpose but I was getting overwhelmed with other things I wanted to say while still keeping focused on the material for my last novel which I was thoroughly enjoying, so rather than following the same tried and true ways of writing for me, I just let myself go on these pieces and penned them freely, without trying to overthink things. It felt odd, organic, almost careless, but I was pleased with the results in the end, and rather than obsessing over the details like I might normally do, after I finished these stories I decided to step back and just let them go. The pieces I wrote that were included in ‘Compendium’ were much more thought out, so these stories might feel a little different to my readers, but hopefully just as enjoyable.”

Included in this collection are THE BOY WITH THE GOLDEN HEART, THE WITCH, MISSISSIPPI QUEEN, SILK GREENHOUSE, THE CURSE, & A CHRISTMAS LULLABY.