Hunger and Thirst is a short novel of predatory love and its dangerous dance with survival. This is love with teeth. In a post-apocalyptic America, in a remote desert, two forces of human nature, the predatory and the humane, face each other, in need and in love—Natalie, the queen predator in her valley of the shadow of death, and Jack, who's walking to California with his stray cat, Artie. From the book: She circled the room and blew out the candles. She took his hand when she came back to him and led him down the short hall to her darker bedroom. Moonlight from the windows showed a neat, stark room with only a white sheet covering the bed. "I'm so glad you're finally here, Jack. I've been waiting for you a long time." Kneeling on the bed, facing each other, she pulled his shirt open, popping off the buttons. In the moonlight-marked room, buttons clicked on the floor and rolled away. Jack caught his breath. No vampires, aliens, or zombies. Caution for incidents of non-standard violence. (25,000 words) .... Previously released as Life on the Earth, this edition includes two stories from the series Matter Is Mostly Space, "Acrolithia" (from Mutants) and "Those To Be Destroyed Are First Shown Love." (from The Arrival of the Overlords).