Back in the Sixties while Motown hits filled the airwaves, naive Jill Novak acknowledged her knack for choosing losers when boring Husband Number One vanished, leaving her to support their two-year-old. Afflicted with planning deficit disorder, the perpetual daydreamer soon morphs from small town Jill to sophisticated big city Cherie, but a new name does not a better future bring. In 1969 Houston, Cherie encounters a rogue's gallery of characters unlike those from her small Texas hometown; a drop-dead gorgeous transsexual, a snarling wannabe Mafia hit-man, a hairy cop who incorporates fondling girls into his job, and a ditzo neighbor whose desire for friendship borders on stalking. But it is two distinctly different men-a middle-age gregarious gambler and a twenty-something gruff intellectual-who jump on board her turbulent thirty-year roller coaster ride and journey with her into the 21st Century and womanhood."

"Michael McCarty's 'A Little Help from My Fiends' truly shines. His collection of short stories is a lovingly created, watered with blood and harvested at the peak of ripeness kind of work. The approach to the collection is so fresh that -- were it a steak -- you would note still a bit of warmth and even a faint pulse. You see, each story in this collection is co-authored with another excellent storyteller. Mark McLaughlin, Terrie Leigh Relf and Dave Miller, to name a few, make appearances. Each short story is prefaced with a few words that identify the co-author, point to an interesting tidbit of the tale's creation, and never fail to show McCarty lauding the co-author while remaining modestly in the background." -- Sylvia Cochran

Curiously Odd Moral Insights for Children (COMIC) includes short stories and poems each highlighting a moral within a story delivering insights about good behavior. The stories are great for story times or individual readings and include tales about helpful clowns, friendship between a dog and a turtle and a misguided witch, among other tales. Children will love the flow of poetry and short stories, and the book encourages discussion between children and adults about morals.

This volume assembled a devil's brew of horror, from prolific author Mike McCarty and a wide-ranging crew of collaborators, including Mark McLaughlin, P.D. Cacek, Jeffrey Thomas, Charlee Jacob, Cristopher Hennessey-DeRose, Sandy DeLuca, Teri A. Jacobs, R.L. Fox, Cindy Hulting, and Michael Romkey.