Jack! — Tova Dian Dean

Life is pretty simple in the town of Foison Surrounded, a tiny bygone desert mining town in California whose total population needle comes to rest at just a couple dozen or so. Its current claim to fame is an unusual rock formation known as the Numinous Vortex, a questionable source of healing and renewal that calls to the occasional tourist. It is a place where expectations for Jack are low and he meets them -- but just barely -- so that he remains under the radar of his small town's inhabitants. The only true contemporary and friend he has is Evonal, the orphaned daughter of rich, eccentric artists, who calls Foison Surrounded home and has since she was a child. They grew up together, and that relationship will come in awfully handy when Jack discovers an enormous cache of gold. When Jack inadvertently plants noxious seeds, a strange plant grows overnight. Its fruit proves irresistible and some of the residents immediately distill it into wine. Soon enough word about the delectable offering spreads and in combination with the Numinous Vortex's already nominal luring power, Foison Surrounded quickly becomes a hotbed for tourist activity. The sudden influx of economic opportunities, however, threatens to overrun the residents, many of whom live there for the isolation and peace. As the situation deteriorates and neighbor is pitted against neighbor while gold fever consumes Jack and his life, he finds himself in an unlikely predicament: reclaim the quiet life he once had and in so doing reclaim his self, or hoard his golden nuggets…alone.