Okay, I have so far:

The Atheist's Guide to Tragedy: The superstitious nature of my neighbors, the great lyme disease exorcism, focuses mainly on the twins across the hall.

I Could've Had a V8: My next door neighbor is a stripper in a Hell's Angels bar, a hairdresser in a hipster salon, and the house mother. We're the grownups, which is sort of sad.

The Pumpkin Man of Los Feliz Village (about the community garden, my city councilman, and the evil building manager)

Cobras and Matadors (about the restaurants, clubs, shops, and neighborhood gossip surrounding them)

The Lawnmower Ghosts (about the Mexican gardeners and maids who float through the neighborhood, invisible to almost everyone)

The Coke Machine Taunter of Hillhurst Avenue: About the homeless in my neighborhood.

This is the first half of the book. I have no idea what I'm doing for the second half. Mostly it's all sort of hazy stuff. I have a general idea for a chapter on the fire, perhaps to be titled, "The Liquor Store Is Always Open."

Well, I want to read it!

Are these chapters all written? Or are you looking for inspiration for a new chapter?

They're all half assed outlined!

Um. Write something else for a little while? Let yourself have some fun?

Or I could tell you that I want to read "I Could've Had a V8" first and see if that motivates you.

The Lawnmower Ghosts

I think of them as the Leafblower Ghosts.

Heh. My problem is sorting through the stories and making clear lines separating them from each other, so that they're true essays and describe the people within them without becoming redundant.

I like

All is Their Prize

for the title of a teen resurrection romance.

Sorry, Amy, I posted right before I left for home. I like Ginger's suggestion, Unquiet Grave, best. My own mind keeps going to more poetic flights of fancy. Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress":

The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.

It just won't go away. Would you shoot it down for me?