Note that this novel is divided into two volumes. In the second half of FRAMESHIFTS, Professor Hank Randall discovers that one of his former students, Avery Crawley, in a bizarre interpretation of his classroom lessons, has founded a cult using genetic engineering. After horrific encounters with disease and a tornado, Randall begins to change his mind about Crawley's utopia. The stories of FRAMESHIFTS portray an imaginary region of Northern Virginia from the present time to the next century. A novel made of eight stories of different genres, the characters include small-time politicians, murder investigators, teachers, students, bullies and their victims, religious extremists, grieving lovers, special weapons officers, and technocratic visionaries who work against time to prepare for the environmental and social consequences of nonsustainable consumption and climate change. FRAMESHIFTS is a threnody for special people and places, a meditation upon loss and transience. Because there is no singular path through the work of grief, many kinds of loss are considered. Although the genres shift from mystery to suspense, to science fiction and poems, the characters continue through the eight stories--each of their paths a unique response to loss.

Note that this novel is divided into two volumes. The stories of Frameshifts portray an imaginary region of Northern Virginia from the present time to the next century. A novel made of eight stories in different genres, it is also a meditation upon loss and transience of special people and of our diminishing habitat. Readers will enjoy trying to solve the murder mysteries, be intriqued with the way characters move between the stories, be puzzled by the relationship that leads a young gay teacher to commit suicide, be surprised by the way the novel takes a turn into science fiction, and be pleased by the way the first six stories have prepared them to understand the two narrative poems at the end of the book.