Book of Dreams

What price would you pay to revisit a crossroad in your life when you had made a terrible, life altering mistake? Would you give up an unfulfilled life for the chance of virtual happiness in a computer-generated alternate reality? Would you sacrifice everything if you could attain absolute knowledge? If so, could you live with the knowledge you attained? It is said that no person is an island, but what if even the least among us is a god in his/her own right? If an alien visitor offered you a lifetime of health and the gift of telepathy in exchange for a small service, would you be quick to accept? And if consciousness utilizes only a small portion of our brain, what function does the larger, presumably unused portion actually serve? These are some of the questions explored in this collection of science fiction and speculative fiction short stories that probes the interrelationship between dreams and reality, the nature of reality itself, and the dangers attendant to the single-minded pursuit of wish fulfillment with its attendant unexpected and unwanted consequences. Most of the short stories published here were written and revised over a period of more than thirty years (1977- 2011) and, with the exception of "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream" have not been previously published. The author is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies at Hofstra University's Frank G. Zarb School of Business and has previously published seven non-fiction books through traditional publishers. His business law and legal environment textbooks have been used in colleges and universities throughout the United States since 1993. This is his first fiction collection.
About the Author: Victor D. López is currently an Associate Professor of Legal Studies at Hofstra University's Frank G. Zarb School of Business. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from St. John's University School of Law and a B.A. in English (Honors Program -- high departmental honors) from Queens College, CUNY. He is a member of the New York State Bar, the New York State Bar Association, the Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB), the North East Academy of Legal Studies in Business (NEALSB), and a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals. In addition to publishing two college textbooks in the past two years, he has presented articles at conferences and published scholarly articles in peer reviewed journals over the past five years in a range of subjects that include immigration law, bankruptcy law, unauthorized practice of law, state and federal efforts to regulate the high cost of college textbooks, and ethics. Although he has published mostly non-fiction articles, textbooks and trade books, he has been writing poetry and fiction throughout most of his life. This is his first collection of short stories spanning more than thirty years. Other books by Victor D. López -Business Law: An Introduction 2e (Textbook Media 2011) -Business Law and the Legal Environment of Business 2e (Textbook Media 2010) -Free and Low Cost Software for the PC (McFarland & Company 2000) -The Legal Environment of Business 1/e (Prentice Hall 1997) -Case and Resource Materials for the Legal Environment of Business (Prentice Hall 1997) -Business Law: An Introduction 1/e (Irwin / McGraw Hill) -Free and User-Supported Software for the IBM PC: A Resource Guide for Libraries and Individuals (McFarland & Company 1990) (Co-authored with Kenneth J. Ansley) For more information about the author's books, textbooks, scholarly articles and blogs, you can visit http: //www.victordlopez.com.