They hide among us, these near-immortals, and they go by names like William Shakespeare and John Donne and Napoleon Bonaparte. They're immune to most diseases, heal rapidly from injury, and age so slowly that their life-spans are encompassed by the passage of millennia. Only accident and injury, murder and mayhem, or suicide, can end their existences. Those who do survive, those who have learned how to live their long lives to the fullest, call themselves The Elders.

In "Katydid," Jack penetrates the mystery of a decaying L.A. trolley car and the curious 1920s photo album secreted inside. A statistical reporting anomaly for "Eldering," a forgotten town tucked away in the Cumberland Mountains, prompts a dying census worker to investigate. Abused wife Jewel-Rose can only find the "chaud" in the "Boneyard" just outside of her small Montana town. Time traveler Pat Wardon is determined upon "Saving Jane Austen"—whether she wants to be saved or not!

Great romantic fantasy.