"The past is dead, the present bleak and future even more so," thought Mayor Simms as he walked around town.

The new shoots shown through the dead and yellow grass.

In the town of Duplicity, Texas, nothing was as it seemed.

Puzzled by life, Fredric obsessed about his eventual death.

The Cheshire Cat moon gave little light.

Her dreams of revenge began to bleed into her waking life.

As Josiah grew older he became less tolerant of ignorance and lassitude, especially when found in his kin.

The carnival's troubles began when the fat woman act joined forces with the "Flying Wazowskis"

They sniped from the edges, sad and sullen halfwits with nothing but time on their hands.

Tangerine's diet of speed and ice cream resulted in a go go dancing style that many of the club's customers found off-putting.

The pigeon carried a warning.

The taste of the salt-sea air stirred memories of his youth.

The shadows lengthened across the back porch as she sat rocking.

The city was so overtly fake that it distorted one's idea of beauty.

She was afraid of tumbleweeds, believing they were both animate and malevolent.

Standing at the edge of the massive falls, Stan, for the first time in his life, decided there must be a God.

Anything went at the Turncoats and Troubadours Tavern.

Luella felt the world was against her, when in truth she was her own worst enemy.

Luke felt he got short shrift from his partner in their last long grift.

The railway station was deserted except for a man in a rumpled suit who stared at me with unbridled hatred.

The duelist always insisted on 200 paces with derringers, thus mitigating the chance of being killed.

When the storm slammed into the city the only ones on the streets were the cops, coke dealers and snow plows.

He won the election on one factor: his hair was perfect.

Intricate diagrams seemed necessary to keep up with her various love affairs.

She set me up like a game of 10 pins and knocked me down.

"Good luck," he laughed as he began shoveling the dirt on top of Drake.

The state department felt like a Byzantine palace, with backstabbing and intrigue taken to new heights.

His bland expression seemed incongruous with the gun in his hand.

"These slack-jawed yokels won't know what hit em," said Red a little too loudly as he and Duff entered the village, their wagon loaded down with second-rate tools and near-toxic patent medicine.