This collection of five different tales gives some new takes on old stories. It's like following a familiar road, only to discover a new, unusual side path that takes you to an alternate destination. Here are new worlds to explore, with magic, swords, vampires, princesses in peril, and choices to be made. Heroes and villains and something in between. Monsters, both internal and external. Encounters with the unusual to make you think, laugh, and shiver with fright. Three stories are all new, and two have been previously published, in Aoife's Kiss and Sorcerous Signals.

In the snowy Canadian wilderness, a terrifying legend springs to life, sparking a series of gruesome crimes. Government agent Sean Laporte is sent to investigate, and must contend with an obsessive, resourceful foe, a hostile environment, and an elusive search for the truth. He is soon pulled between worlds of myth and madness, a present haunted by the past, and a primitive world of mystery and power.

Here are five tales of people going off the beaten track of reality to experience something completely new and unworldly. Stories of individuals in pain who ride a rollercoaster of odd happenings that show life in a different perspective. People running to something or away from something. A young traveler who encounters a modern marvel in an ancient ruin. A group of youngsters in a Lewis Carroll-like tale, where language and logic are stretched and reshaped into a tongue-twisting, whimsical adventure. These are places where mundane occurrences mix with myth and magic to turn life inside-out, where anything can happen. Gone is the workaday world of knowing the beginning and ending, or of a sound, sane, sedate frame of reference. Sit back and give your mind a break from the worries of today, and get away to a world of strangeness.