For millennia, the Middle East has been plagued by war. This millennium has been no different, with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Devastation has been wreaked on ordinary, innocent people. Children have been indiscriminately killed. Young men have had their lives terminated before they have had the chance to live their lives to the full. War orphans abound. Widows and Widowers weep at their spouses' graves. Grandparents have lost generations of their families. Whole communities have been destroyed and villages razed to the ground.

I have lived in the Middle East for 25 years now, and the constant undercurrent of these conflicts is ever present.

I remember reading one news report that said an entire village and its inhabitants were destroyed after a wedding celebration resulted in the village men firing their rifles into the air. A long tradition in village celebrations, it was viewed as an act of aggression, and the village and inhabitants were all destroyed.

I kept hearing words such as "collateral damage", "carpet bombing", etc. - words used by the media to deflect the true horror of the reality of war. It was at this time that I began to have troubled dreams and horrific nightmares about what was really happening in these theatres of war.

These vision-like dreams inspired me to write the stories that are contained in this work. The messages in these stories are not just relevant to the Middle East, but to the world at large.