Seven short stories that reveal the quirkiness of the Land of Enchantment.

Luli Russell never imagines the hurricanes, figurative and real, that will roar through her life when she turns fifty. A traditional Green Bay housewife, she has buried her artistic talent under the demands of family. For her birthday, her husband Herb and their four children give her a trip to Santa Fe on her own, a month of painting lessons, and an enviable set of watercolors. An hysterical call from her teenage daughter turns her dream trip into a nightmare. Minutes later, still in shock, Luli finds a bleeding man lying helpless in a parking lot. Her call for help is answered by Adán Alire, a former medic in Vietnam. He knows how to rescue the old man, and his kindhearted wife Rosealba knows how to rescue Luli. An Apricot Year throws together a quartet of dissimilar people who find their common humanity outweighs their differences as they meet in the shade of a bountiful apricot tree.

Relicarios reflects forty years of the author's research, including correspondence and interviews with relicarieros, art historians, curators, collectors, silversmiths, anticuarios, and clergy as well as the author's collection of several hundred examples.

A hard-hitting short story collection takes a hard look at teens and preteens on the edge.

Nephtalí De León is a USA born and raised Chicano former migrant worker that became a Poet/Painter/Author/and Playwright. He has been published in several countries with his poetry translated into twelve languages. Growing up in the cauldron of borderland conflicts between USA and Mexico, by the edge of the river that divides both countries, the Rio Grande, he is no stranger to the myths, legends, and stories that form the world view of his multicultural native people. Present day native American migrants have been labeled and treated as strangers in their ancient homelands. Those who appropriated their lands now call them illegals, undocumented invaders. They administer their presence with such legal definitions in the courts of their own invention. It is in this arena that the author presents a timeless legend of a tortured and maligned spirit that refuses to die. The legend of La Llorona begins 500 years ago when invaders first came to the American continent. Reality went beyond surreal, and the Victim became the Culprit, was punished and condemned to wander unto eternity in hopeless pain for her crime, the worst any one can be accused of – the drowning of her own children! This centuries old legend is very much alive. Everybody knows her name – La Llorona.