Bright lights flicker in the dark evenings of summer. Pinpoints of hope float against the black descent of night. The sweetest of small and innocent creatures finds its way through the shadows. Fireflies seem to dance on sheer air, illuminating the space between heartbeats.
Children give off a similar brave glow, despite the challenges of their young lives. The lessons of childhood are often painful, the shedding of fragile wings in the gloam of an uncertain future. These rich novellas are small jewels reflecting the essence of what it means to grow up dancing among the shadows of life, carrying a brave, small beacon because you know that even the brightest days always, always, end in darkness.
Childhood can be so sweetly sad and sadly sweet, profound and deceptively easy to categorize, yet poignant to remember.
New York Times bestselling novelist Sarah Addison Allen (GARDEN SPELLS, SUGAR QUEEN, THE PEACH KEEPER) anchors THE FIREFLY DANCE with her wistful and funny novella about Louise, a North Carolina girl whose keen observations of the lives around her weaves an unforgettable spell with just a hint of everyday magic.
Phyllis Schieber's Sonya, a child of Holocaust survivors, is confronted with the responsibilities of her legacy when she has a poignant encounter with a classmate, another child of survivors, and her mother, in a local shop in their 1970's New York neighborhood.
Kathryn Magendie's Petey deals wryly with her family's move from the cool blue mountains of North Carolina to the hot flatlands of Texas.
Augusta Trobaugh's stoic Georgia girl leads us through her surreal encounter with a mysterious backwoods toddler who turns out to be anything but ordinary.

""Schieber has painted a fine portrait of the struggles and challenges of being different in an unforgiving world. Her characters are authentic and touching. Using language that is at once both straightforward and evocative, Schieber writes a story that you will recognize and remember long after you read the last page."" - Karen Chase, award-winning author of Kazimierz Square
Tessa and Walter have, by all appearances, the perfect marriage. And they seem to be ideal parents for their somewhat rebellious teenage daughter, Regina. Without warning, however, their comfortable lives are thrown into turmoil when a disturbing customer comes into the salon where Tessa works as a manicurist. Suddenly, Tessa's world is turned upside down as revelations come to light about the mother she thought had abandoned her in childhood and the second sight that she so guardedly seeks to keep from others. A magical novel of secrets revealed and a family in turmoil, searching together for new beginnings.
Phyllis Schieber's first novel, Strictly Personal, for young adults, was published by Fawcett-Juniper. Willing Spirits was published by William Morrow. The Sinner's Guide to Confession was published by Berkley Putnam in 2008. Her short story, The Stocking Store, appears in Bell Bridge Books' 2011 anthology, The Firefly Dance.
Married and a mother, Phyllis Schieber lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. www.phyllisschieber.com

A novel Jodi Picoult calls "beautifully written, full of wit...and heart," from the author of "The Sinner's Guide to Confession."
Both teachers in their forties, Jane Hoffman and Gwen Baker have a friendship that has helped them endure. It was Jane who looked after Gwen when her husband left her with two young sons to raise. And when Jane comes home one day unexpectedly and finds her husband in a shameless act of betrayal, she turns to Gwen for support.
Now, tested by additional personal crises, Jane and Gwen face new challenges-as mothers, as daughters, as women. And in the process, they will learn unexpected truths about their friendship-and themselves.

From the author of "Willing Spirits"aa novel of three women, their deepest longings, and their most profound secrets.
Barbara, Kaye, and Ellen, longtime friends, are inseparableabut each nurtures her own secret. As a widowed mother, Barbara hides her persona as a writer of erotica. Kaye is having an extramarital affair that reawakens her passion but fills her with conflict. Ellen has lost her husband to a younger woman who is now pregnantaa painful blow, since Ellen and her husband were never able to conceive. But she is not childlessa]
Ellen is still haunted by the memory of the baby girl she had at sixteen and was forced to relinquish at birth. Estranged from her family, Ellen realizes that if she is ever to find her lost daughteranow a grown woman herselfashe will have to confront her shame and rely on her dearest friends.