Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting previews from the 17 stories in my new short story collection,Before and Afterlives. If you like what you read, take a hop over to your favorite online bookseller and purchase either the print book or the e-book, and leave a review when you’re finished reading. It helps other people figure out if they’d like to read the book (and strokes my ego, at least when they’re good reviews).

Today’s preview is the opening to my novelette, “The Language of M...