Beginning at the depths of comfortably dim forest on the eastern slopes of Washington's Cascade Mountains, Smoke Follows Beauty is a collection from emerging author Brian Ames. With a distinctly rural sense of place and unforgettable characters, the book takes readers along on a hunt for wonder whose game is satisfaction. These tales echo those meant to be spoken around the half-light of campfires, and seek to restore a needed measure of awe and mystery to life, so lacking in our 21st century existence. The book offers eclectic subject matter - from hunting to horseshoeing, rescue to unprecedented disaster, colonial Africa, a mountain elk-hunting blind, a bar down the street to a pleasant apocalypse. Smoke Follows Beauty engages an exploration of the spiritual, paranormal, metaphysical - in the darkest, most ancient parts of the forest, where vapors gather, rise, take shape.

Smoke Follows Beauty is also available as an ebook on Amazon.com for the Kindle.

Brian Ames is also the author of Head Full of Traffic, As Many Hands As God, and Salt Lick. His website is tendollardog.com.