Love Among the Monsters

         Why should a "monstrous" nature keep a person or creature from having the free will to choose between good and evil? And don't vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and entities with tentacles need love, too? All the stories in this collection include characters and creatures who aren't quite normally human (if you count magic-users as apart from ordinary humanity), including some that fall into the "monster" category.            As for love, only the novellas "Mistress of the Shadow Hounds" and "Fantasia Quest" are romances.
All the shorter stories, however, also involve various kinds of love or affection: Mother and child ("The Unvanished Hitchhiker, " "Birthday Gift, " and "Mercy"); sister and brother ("The Wrong Hands?"); a potential romantic pairing seen through the eyes of a would-be rescuer ("Beast Lord's Captive"); grandmother and granddaughter as well as girl and cat ("Little Cat Feet"); devotion to the sorcerous arts ("Borderline Magic").