John Cunningham is a psychiatrist specializing in past-life therapy. Jack Cannon is his alter ego, a horror novelist who has kept his identity a secret from both his patients and the public. John has been able to keep his identities separate until he discovers his most fascinating patient. Now, drawing on the past life of his patient, Tony Smith, John written a story that creates the ultimate in terror, where a little boy gives birth to a worm as the result of a sexual exploit. Peter Nicholls calls THE FIRE WORM "a witty juggling act to delight the mind, multiple ideational balls spinning kaleidoscopically through the air and never threatening to drop and break the spell."