The Gypsy fables called Darane swature seek to explain the everyday mysteries of the world. In Mort Castle's Nations of the Living, Nations of the Dead, Romany stories guide us along the dark misty trails of the realms of history and fantasy, of ancient magic and contemporary culture, as we meet: Wyatt Earp, who has a distressing personal hygiene problem. Dr. Valentine of Paris, Keeper of the Secret of Immortality. Nordo, Monstrous Night Creature of the Philco Radio. And Cowboy Bob Steele, Sir Richard Burton, Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin, Steve McQueen and Heather Locklear, Alley Oop, H.P. Lovecraft and Robert Bloch, --and "the saddest woman in the world, Marilyn Monroe."in the Bram Stoker nominated short story, "I Am Your Need." Nations of the Living, Nations of the Dead is "Mort Mythology" by the writer who's been called "a master of the short story," "a writer with a remarkable gift for storytelling and a profound sense of what makes humans tick" and "El Maestro del Terror."