Redefining Darkness is a short story collection pairing protagonist choices and experiences with solid plots representing vignettes of time and place, and demonstrates just how much can be accomplished within the short story format.

Ten circumstances of 'redefining' one's world are illustrated in stories that run the gamut in presenting characters of different ages, sexes, and approaches to life.

Take the opener, 'Day of Darkness', for one example. Seven-year-old Francis is confessing his little crimes, but a bigger one takes place instead. Instantly the scene changes to a police report on television, then to the reactions of the Church, both internally and externally.

Readers receive only four pages to this short story, which create the precise and concise staccato impact of a verbal photo shoot, the camera clicking along from scene to scene while viewers receive a dose of just one definition of a growing darkness.

'Cause of Death', the next story, takes longer to build and describe its particular brand of darkness: here the anniversary of a wife's murder thirteen years earlier brings with it the nightmare of a life lived in grief, among bodies and murders, fueled with the fiery results of vodka and horror.

Again, experience the staccato paragraphs of description that click from scene to scene with the clarity of a camera shutter capturing images and vignettes. Readers have no idea where the journey is heading: all they know is that it's going straight into the darkness of death - with a peculiar twist.

Suicide. Abandonment. Death. The pursuit of fortune and sex. Each short story expertly hones the knife of angst and moves between vastly different character perspectives; and each adds a piece to the evolving jigsaw puzzle theme.

The result is a powerful, gripping gathering that grabs readers and doesn't let go. How does darkness evolve and grow? Read these stories and find out.

That which doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

"Since the dawn of time, mankind has only ceaselessly redefined darkness, so that a new dusk brought forth a new beginning, and to every end there was only the hope that hope would never be lost."In these unsettling short tales, dark secrets are brought to light, some of them in the most uncanny of ways. Each tale is self-contained and observes the characters within them, their intimate thoughts, motivations, and choices that set them on a collision course.The collection begins with "Day of Darkness" where a young child is confessing seemingly innocent sins to his priest, when an unexpected and more disturbing sin is committed that ignites a ripple effect that's clearly felt throughout the church in the form of a scandal. A bereaved forensic pathologist sinks ever deeper into the pit of despair, is plagued by addiction and grief, and finally consumed by death like Poe with his Annabel Lee in "Cause of Death." A young man on the brink of suicide and its impact on the authorities attempting to help him is examined in "Suicide Amidst Catharsis." And in the title story, "Redefining Darkness," a rogue CIA agent hunts down an SS German officer and confronts him with a dismal truth that hits close to home.Cabiling's stories deal with very heavy and serious topics: murder, death, suicide, rape, and depression. It is not light reading. They are not stories with definitive answers, and there are no clear protagonists or villains. Each character suffers a burden in some way, and Cabiling acutely explores the connection we each have to one another and how each action we take affects everyone connected to us. No one knows just what to expect in each of these sinister tales, and sometimes you are left with more questions than answers of how one should confront iniquity and sometimes evil.