Ever find yourself in a dead-end with no future? Years after graduating from college with an art degree, Bugsy finds himself on a treadmill to nowhere and wonders how everything went wrong in the first place.Bugsy first appears in my short story "East Village" as a 16-year-old runaway living near Tompkins Square Park in 1967. Here we meet him again exactly one decade later and his circumstances have changed dramatically. If you don't set a course in life, you begin to drift, which has good and bad aspects. This story takes place in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, twin-cities dominated by the biggest university in Illinois. Many graduates hang around town for a few years after graduation trying to figure out a next move. Views: 603
A collection of five eclectic stories guaranteed to fill your down time with something to ponder about.Till death. A priests wife is sexually abused, what effect does it have on his religious outlook, life and the [email protected] Warning: A teenage girl wakes up to a normal Easter morning, but an ominous message from the past awaits her.Full circle: A young man who has lead his life on the fast lane is on his death bed and reflects upon his existence.Poachers night: A criminal recounts the last hours before he is busted. Does crime really pay?Cuffs for the priest. An elderly bishop holds on tight to his principles when a celebrity sports star crosses his path. What will become of him when the entire society is for superstar? Views: 603
Pierce must soon give his alpha an answer whether he will accept a position of Seattle pack beta, but he can't bring himself to decide. At the track, memories haunt him, throwing his fear into sharp relief. Views: 603
Michael Evans is only in rural St. Davids to maintain a low profile after his time spent as a city cop ended in disaster. The town is perfect for him: isolated. A tiny population. Virtually no crime.But when the residents begin killing each other with their teeth, Michael quickly realises that what he thought was a crime scene is something far, far worse...Michael Evans is only in rural St. Davids to maintain a low profile after his time spent as a city cop ended in disaster. The town is perfect for him: isolated. A tiny population. Virtually no crime.Until the night the strange canisters fall from the sky and the town priest starts killing people with his teeth. To Michael, the bloodbath looks like a murder case that the quiet town's two police officers can't possibly handle. But this isn't just a crime scene.And the priest is just the beginning... Views: 603
Cletus Rossiter is concerned about his sleep apnea and records himself while sleeping, but gets far more than he bargained for when strange voices show up in the recordings, including his own voice speaking German, a language he doesn’t know. Is he dreaming or is he is dealing with ghosts from the historic past?In “Conversations with Clete,” Cletus Rossiter, a man in his mid-sixties, is concerned about his snoring and sleep apnea, and records himself while sleeping in order to find out how bad his apnea is. But he gets far more than he bargained for when strange voices show up in the recordings and he even hears himself speaking German, a language he doesn’t know. He encounters Kruger, a Nazi soldier; Zeralda, a widow from the 1880s, and a club boxer, Kid Pierpont. Clete is left to wonder if these are dreams or if he is dealing with ghosts from the historic past? Views: 603
Christian version of the award winning Sequel to Highland Wishes (Highland Miracle)...In 1304, amidst Scotland's continuing war for independence. two wounded souls are forced on a journey neither wants, resulting in tragedy and disaster.Battle-hardened, untrusting and son of a Scottish Chieftain. Duncan MacThomas wants only to see his country free from English rule. Honor-bound to ensure his clan's financial future, Duncan reluctantly travels to England to wed a woman he doesn't want.Wealthy and pampered. Catherine Gillingham anticipates a marriage to a Duke's son and is dismayed when her king decrees she must wed a Scotsman, the sort of man all of London despises.Can these two opposites find love amidst war and lower their barriers to find the peace they seek within their countries and themselves? Views: 603
When Tinesha left her Seattle suburban home to join the space station building program it was with a sense of excitement. She hoped for adventure and something greater to dedicate herself to. Helping humanity expand into outer space seemed like a worthy path for her life, one that she'd be able to follow for years, maybe decades. But once she was on the station and had begun to help constructing it, Tinesha found that she was having a harder time adjusting to life in space than she expected. It wasn't the work that gave her trouble or her fellow construction workers in space.
No, the problem was that she couldn't adjust to the sensory differences in her environment. Just as Tinesha was about to give up and go back home, her new friend Kalila suggested a way that Tinesha could cope with the station. Taking her up on the suggestion opened up a whole new world for Tinesha. More importantly, it opened up a possibility between them that Tinesha would never have dared to hope for. Views: 603
In an old hut by a railway in Norway, two men face up to the reality of their love affair; both knowing what they want, but aware of the impossibility of realising it.This story also appears in the following anthology: ‘Sketches #001 – separations’ – click here to purchase: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/297938 Views: 603
A modern pirates tale-- complete with monkey sidekicks-- where the life at sea once again calls to the misfits of society.Once again those of us who don't conform to society take to the high seas. They're still robbing from the rich, with monkey sidekicks, swords and swashbuckling adventures.A humorous social commentary with a bit action. Views: 603
Everyone hates a Monday. It is the worst day of the week.The employees of Johnson Incorporated are about to have the worst Monday ever when a masked gunman enters the building.At first it seems that the gunman is just randomly shooting people, but could there be more behind the clown face mask?“I will be marketing synthetic beef in less than a year,” I told my brother, Kenneth Hunter Wolff. I expected my announcement to surprise him at least as much as had my sudden arrival. I was trembling with excitement. But Ken just nodded, inserting a mother-of-pearl fountain pen into the pocket of his red plaid flannel short-sleeve shirt. I think that is the moment I realized the depth of my hatred. “I'm here to give you fair warning,” I told him rigidly. Shouts of men, bleats of cattle, the clatter of hooves on concrete chutes, smells of alfalfa and vaccine and hot iron and seared cowhide brought back memories of childhood. I had my Leica with me, as always in those days. With it I snapped a picture of Bill Butts, foreman of The Broken Heart Ranch, as he directed the branding and vaccinating of beef cattle. “Beef ranching is doomed,” I purred. “We’re working on synthetic pork, chicken, even vegetables and fruit. We create food from organic compounds without killing animals. Agriculture is doomed.” Views: 602
Clarence Edward Mulford was a 20th century American writer who was popular in his time for stories about the Wild West, and his Westerns are still popular today. Views: 602
Witches and warlocks hide their identities from the rest of the human population, while three teens with demon heritage living with human families become unlikely companions in a race against time to deal with a demon threat to humankind in their own quirky way.
Alana Fainot, a witch and half Kubiteron demon, witnesses a Matusa murder his summoners, and she knows he'll target her next. Raised by her mother, she has no idea who her demon father is. But when she's pulled to a demon portal, she meets Hunter Ross, half Matusa, half human, who returns demons to their wolrd, but he's been poisoned by a Matusa and is more dead than alive. His human mother gave him up for adoption, and he doesn't know who either of his birth parents are. His friend, Jared Kensington, full blooded Elantus demon, less powerful than the Kubiteron, is a whiz at electronics and helps Hunter track demons in the city, but was abandoned by his parents on Earth world for reasons unknown. He's determined to find help to save Hunter. Alana knows aiding any Matusa is a mistake, but when she learns Hunter is half human, she makes a deal--he protects her against the Matusa who will come for her, and she helps find his dad in the demon world to save Hunter's life.
Often at odds, the three teens work toegether to stop the plans of a group of Matusa to take over the human world before it's too late. Views: 602
Lucy falls in love with Gregorio Raviolli, the presenter of the TV game show, 'The Big Hammer' and sends him a bottle fill of love and kisses. A couple of weeks later the bottle returns from across the sea. It's fill of pasta....Suitable for 10 years and upA quintessential novel of modern Los Angeles, Peeko Pacifiko is at once an outrageous romp, a survival story, a sardonic political history, and a keen literary walkabout. At once squalid and glamorous, literary and low-brow, philosophical and wanton, wickedly funny and empathetic, it is as honest as it is innovative, its own unique, hydra-headed genre. As the Nineties dwindle down, the waning days of one era and the dawn of a new one are seen through the eyes of Donovan. At loose ends, he and his wife forced by economic necessity to live apart, his is a unique passage through many a strata of Los Angeles life. Donovan and those around him may be down, but they are never more than superficially out. Peeko Pacifiko is an exuberant, episodic ride, an exploration of character, as well as of a city, rendered with playful and disarming erudition, straight razor wit, and well-observed descriptive power. Views: 602
