In intense discussion a group leader ponders aloud, asking why hermits hide and what defines outcasts, among other cerebral queries. A group of friends discusses the oddities they have seen and perceived in their lives leather-clad hermits and criminal astronauts among them. They debate the purpose of hermitage, the classification of outcasts, and the purpose of their own reflections.

When quiet academic Mr. Palmer involves himself with a group of mothers waiting daily for news from husbands and lovers fighting in Japan, he realizes his Grecian impression of the solemn waiting women is far from the reality of their bristling enmity.

Alyse, a part-time writer, is unable to excavate any interest from her seemingly boring family, utterly unaware of the deeply complex and exciting adventures her brother, sister, and aunt often have

An author discusses with his friend the best way to write about a poor aunt. Their words take on a new power when he manifests a literal poor aunt on his back and draws in spectators.

When a mysterious new member joins a group of struggling authors, the friends discover that they may have a supernatural creature in their midst, who can grant a single author success above all the others—but at a cost.

A man reflects on the past week while an unexpected storm rages outside, and he compares the events that follow with the fall of the Roman Empire.

In the depths of his mind, a writer tries to uncover the autonomous, nefarious motivations of his own characters.

In this metafiction, the many lives of an unnamed man are scrutinized as he passes through millennia.

A writing critic reviews the construction of Charles Chesnutt’s stories and how to write surfiction.

A young man leaves his traditional village behind to travel and work on distant planets. Throughout his interplanetary journeys, he must constantly reevaluate his understandings of truth, tradition, and love as he seeks a fulfilling life of his own, independent of what is expected from him.