HomeKirkus Indie ReviewsFeatured Short StoryHoward's book reviews

Howard Cincotta
​CLIMBING THE RAIN

On Eëlios, the rainforest is like nothing on earth, extending more than a kilometer into the sky. In an effort to escape his dangerous past, Leyden signs up for a biological expedition to this remarkable planet, traveling across the universe through wormholes known as Illium portals. But when the mission is sabotaged, Leyden and the others must struggle to survive in a race through the harrowing rapids of the Whitebone River, fighting off pterodactyl-like creatures as well as attacks from a rival expedition. 

But Leyden suspects Eëlios holds more than biological diversity. What is the mystery that has attracted such attention from the space-spanning corporations known as chaebols and the deadly drug triads? Woven throughout the story is the incredible proliferation of life in the high-canopy rainforest and the growing desire between Leyden and Sylla, healer and consort of the Eëlian monarch. 

Climbing the Rain is a powerful story of love and adventure set in an unforgettable world of unending wonder.



Howard Cincotta served as an editor and writer with the U.S. Information Agency and the State Department for many years. At USIA, he worked on magazines for Africa and the former Soviet Union and directed a special publications unit. He later headed an electronic-media office and wrote speeches for State Department officials. 

His short stories have appeared in a number of literary journals.

Howard grew up in California and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. He lives with his wife, artist Deborah Conn, in Falls Church, Virginia. He has two sons and a daughter.

​PAINT ME GONE: A MYSTERY

Someone is stalking the members of the Chesapeake Watermedia Society, and painter Wade Strothers must unravel secrets that stretch into the past to find the reasons why.

Wade initially dismisses any serious threat as he deals with more immediate crises: a disastrous media interview, his shaky relationships with the society’s largely female membership, an apparent attempt at vehicular homicide, and the sudden 
appearance of his estranged daughter and toddler grandchild.

But a mysterious death changes everything. After a confrontation with the society’s imperious president, Wade joins forces with Elena Sokolovsky to peel back the years and determine how a past fire in Maine connects to a present-day, high-stakes museum project - and a stalker whose ultimate intentions remain obscure.
MEMORIES OF TUNA FISH

Told in a mix of voices and settings, these haunting stories capture the elusive nature of world that slipped by a moment ago, and the strange souls that inhabitit. 

All of these very different stories - with settings ranging from Latvia, New Mexico, and the Virginia suburbs to a strangely transformed Middle East - share the common themes of love and lost that define what it means to be a human being.