Muse & Reverie:

MUSE AND REVERIE, by Charles de Lint. TOR (www.tor-forge.com), 2009, 350 pp., $25.99. ISBN 978-0-7653-1679-0

MUSE AND REVERIE collects 13 stories based in de Lint's Newford universe - the fifth since 1993.

These are my favorites:

•"Refinerytown" (from a limited edition chapbook published by Triskell Press, 2001). Comic artist Mona experiences the dreaded story block syndrome - until she encounters one of her own characters, Diesel, at a Refinerytown fair. Diesel helps her get the story and character relationships back on track.

•"Dark Eyes, Faith, and Devotion" (from MAGIC TAILS, 2005). Cab driver and ex-convict Billy Joe has turned from his former burglarizing ways and has restarted his life. But a stop at a Gracie Street bar yields him a new partner in crime (sort of), a woman by the name of Luisa Jaramillo. Luisa needs a favor from Billy Joe. She needs him to rescue her beloved cat from her ex-boyfriend. The boyfriend, she warns, has some extraordinary powers. But an ex-con and professional burglar always comes prepared for a heist. It's just that Billy Joe may not be prepared to understand what Luisa is all about.

•"Riding Shotgun" (from FLIGHTS, 2003). Marshall and Allessandra venture back to Marshall's childhood home, a farm which Marshall has just inherited. When visiting the place, he sees his beloved 1965 Chevy Impala - of which he still holds the key. When he checks out the car, he stumbles backward in time, to the scene of a drunken accident in which, originally, he killed his brother Billy. Is Marshall hallucinating? And when he meets up with a long-ago girlfriend by the name of Ginny Burns, whom he knows is dead - then what? Has history been somehow altered?

•"The Hour Before Dawn" (from THE HOUR BEFORE DAWN AND TWO OTHER STORIES FROM NEWFORD). Ina Bell, recently deceased, visits private detective Jack Daniels. Ina, another ghost with unfinished business, helps Jack come to grips with his own loss, his relationship with Ginger. Sometimes ghosts come not to help themselves, but to help others.

•"In Sight" (from MAIDEN, MATRON, CRONE). This is the story of two musicians who meet at the Casement Bar and who get to know each other, and how stereotypes can be pushed aside.

•"The World in a Box" (from a chapbook published by Triskell Press). A musician comes across a small box at the Antiques Market Mall. When opened, a small world floats in the center - and for the person that can see a world in a box, some wishes can come true. Having this kind of "magician's lamp" can prove to be good, or dangerous, depending on your perspective.