PETTY OFFENSES AND CRIMES OF THE HEART (previously published by Wind Publications) includes stories of ordinary people engaged in ordinary lives until betrayals, accidents, and misfortune put the puzzles of their weak choices and unfair chance into stark relief, leaving them with a kind of clarity they may have been happier not to have. Threads of danger and emotional trauma run through the fourteen stories in this collection. In crime, love, marriage, or friendship, it's the little things that matter most. It's the small betrayals or mistakes that often result in our downfall. Among the stories in the book are the 2013 Pushcart Prize nominated story, "The Duke of Broad Street," and the 13th Story First Place Award winning story "Glass Slippers." The book was a finalist in BookBzz's 2015 Prize Writer Competition. The stories in Mitchell Waldman's PETTY OFFENSES AND CRIMES OF THE HEART startle with sudden, uncompromising insight. They seem ordinary people engaged in ordinary lives until betrayals, accidents and misfortune put the puzzles of their weak choices and unfair chance into stark relief when they are left with a kind of clarity they might have been happier not to have. Yet these stories are not moralistic judgments. Readers will come away from this book better for having spent time with Waldman's well wrought characters, all sprung from the heart of an exacting writer gifted with compassion. -- Perry Glasser, author of Dangerous Places In Mitchell Waldman's story collection Petty Offenses & Crimes of the Heart (Wind Publications, 2011) at the end of the story "Bad Neighborhood," the narrator asks, "Is there any place safe to go?,"and after reading the book you will feel the same. Waldman's stories present characters ranging from the descendants of Holocaust survivors to small time thieves to distraught lovers, and while there is pain in these stories, there is always the possibility of redemption....William Faulkner said that an author's job is to make the extraordinary seem ordinary and to make the ordinary seem extraordinary, and in Petty Offenses & Crimes of the Heart this is what Waldman accomplishes. While reading the stories you may wonder "Is there any place safe to go?," but you will be glad that you spent time in Waldman's world. -- Hardy Jones, author of Every Bitter Thing , at Cybersoleil Journal The stories in Petty Offenses and Crimes of the Heart leave the reader wondering who is the real criminal. . . .These characters have something to share -- something profound, something personal, and something that reveals a little about ourselves. -- TCM Reviews Truly a beautiful collection of stories about ordinary people living ordinary lives until various circumstances come along and change everything. One of the best books read so far this year! The perfect balance of a fantastic writing style, character development, and human emotion. Highly recommended. -- Online Book Club Beautifully crafted stories..."Missing Pieces"...is an example of Waldman's versatility as a writer. . .Each of these stories can be read as self-contained compositions but I would recommend you read them in sequence to experience the themes to unfold as most satisfyingly do. --Dean Cowan, Bookpleasures.com In Petty Offenses , subtle paradoxes & paradigmatic shifts undermine the reader's sense of stable themes. Waldman's writing...by not calling attention to itself all the more reveals everyday life as taking place on a far grander scale than we imagine. - Paul A. Toth, author of Airplane Novel In [his] collection of short fiction...Mitchell Waldman talks on many topics throughout recent history and the struggles to understand an impossible to understand world. With poignancy and wisdom peppered throughout, Petty Offenses & Crimes of the Heart is a read that is well worth considering, highly recommended. -- Midwest Book Review Waldman gives the reader a full buffet of crimes and offenses; from large to small, physical to mental and subtle to spectacular. There's something to chew on and sink your teeth into. --Timothy Gager, author of Treating a Sick Animal: Flash and Micro Fictions A few years ago Robert Olen Butler described Bob Sloan's BEARSKIN TO HOLLY FORK as a "kick-ass good work." Well, that exactly describes Mitch Waldman's new collection of short stories -- a kick-ass good book. --Charlie Hughes, Wind Publications In addition to PETTY OFFENSES AND CRIMES OF THE HEART, Mitchell Waldman is also the author of the short story collection BROTHERS, FATHERS, AND OTHER STRANGERS, and the novel, A FACE IN THE MOON. His short stories and poems have appeared in numerous publications, online and off. Waldman was also co-editor (with Diana May-Waldman) of the anthologies, WOUNDS OF WAR: POETS FOR PEACE, and HIP POETRY, and serves as Fiction Editor for Blue Lake Review . A new novel, THE VISITOR, is due out soon from All Things That Matter Press. Mitchell lives in Greece, NY, with his partner, poet an