Embroiled in the sweeping changes of nearly a hundred years, the characters in Captured Up Close: 20th Century Short-Short Stories reveal themselves in transitional and catastrophic times from "1912" to "1992." In the first story, a gender-bending vaudevillian aboard the Titanic defies death in an astonishing twist. In the final story, two women of different races let go of the rift that's grown between them while trapped inside a dry-cleaning store during the L.A. riots. Spotlighted through a personal lens, regardless of race, gender, or age, the characters breathe life into the era they lived in. Many of the stories are award-winning, including two nominations for the Pushcart Prize and one for Best of the Net Anthology.