Six short stories that give us glimpses into the lives of Luke, Nora, and the other characters from 'Backwards to Oregon'.● The Blue Hour: When her mother dies, twelve-year-old Lucinda Hamilton decides to start a new life—as a boy.● Grasping at Straws: No one knows that Tess Swenson, madam of a brothel, also owns a livery stable and a number of other businesses. On one of her secret inspections, she makes a surprising discovery.● A Rooster's Job: The Hamiltons hoped to build a home in the idyllic Willamette Valley with mild winters, but now they're snowed in and their rooster isn't doing such a great job either.● The Art of Pretending: Tess finds out that someone is stealing her money. She suspects Frankie, a woman who reminds her of Luke. But nothing is as it seems.● The Christmas Oak: Luke sets out to bring home a Christmas tree—but she finds something else.● Swept Away: The greatest flood in the history of Oregon sweeps away houses, barns, and animals in the Willamette Valley.... Views: 427
Melvin didn’t believe in fortune-tellers and those kinds of things but he was desperate. Ever since he fell out of a tree his back had not been the same and it was getting worse no matter what the doctors ordered. Bad back and Destiny? Is there a link? Ask Madame Nuage.In this novelette, an anonymous author failing in his struggle with OCD begins the dark task of composing a suicide note to justify his exit from the world.In a story that reads part stream of conscious, part introspection, and part catharsis, the author's journey in writing the note encapsulates that long look in the mirror so many of us are afraid to take. Views: 427
Why doesn’t eight-year-old Brett’s mother understand? All she wants is a pet. Since the family first moved to Texas a few months earlier, the girl has seen nary an alligator...either from her perch, high in the SUV motoring around the Urbs or the sub-urbs, or out the back or front doors at home. Why can’t her mother just get over what happened in coastal Florida to her three precious pups?If Brett has to believe in magic to get a pet companion - or two - she will. Of course she’d rather do it the normal way: by asking. Which of course she’s tried. Over and over again. And continually failed. But she always comes back to try again. Like today. Already scanned the area for alligators, too, and is relieved to report none. Now, if only Mom will cooperate.So far the woman’s first brunch martini has slid down without resistance, so Brett knows after one or two more, her mother may very well be in a cheery enough mood to agree. To something, even if it’s just another ant farm.The house keeper is always talking about ants made of fire, but she told Brett they don’t seem to have any in their yard. She’s also told the girl about Texas scorpions, and best thing about both of those pets? They’d be free. Views: 427
Perth, Australia, 1974. Young marrieds, Ross and June, attend a Joan Baez concert. Absent from the Old Men's Home, Baxter Moncur is in the audience. Despite their age difference, Ross and Baxter have much in common. Personal insecurities. Confronting love stories. Testing family dynamics. And an unceasing struggle to reconcile past circumstances with present realities. Enter Simone Passeri, a social worker undertaking a research project. Above and beyond the scope of her work, Simone embarks on a search. A self-confessed failure at Relationships 101, she casts off the conventional social worker image and takes us on an unconventional ride. In her own words: 'Very seventies, actually.' Parallel or intersecting lives? Eternal estrangement or potential reunion? In the background, the music plays, and the new Labor government surges and splutters - an Australian Reformation with the Emperor at its helm. Views: 426
The Units is a fictional story about a psychology graduate student from Chicago who moves to small town Wainwright to take an internship at Wainwright Mental Institution (WMI). During her time in Wainwright she works at the hospital and, while she falls in love with her romantic interest, she uncovers wrongdoings within the institution.Although all of the events, characters, and places in this book are entirely fictional, the ideas came from more than only the author's imagination. Weyburn Mental Hospital, later called Souris Valley Care Facility, opened in 1921. At the time of its opening, it was considered one of the largest buildings in the British Commonwealth. Sources say that, at its peak, it housed somewhere between 2500 and 3000 patients and was considered to provide the "cutting-edge" of mental health treatment. Historical accounts talk about treatments and experimentation that would be the bane of any current research ethics board. Stories include drug experimentation, "work and water", insulin, LSD, electro-shock, and lobotomy. Other accounts talk of patients who were committed, not because they were mentally ill, but because they simply didn't "fit-in" with the outside world. The most horrifying of stories include incidences of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. After the deinstitutionalization movement in the 1980's, the building was altered to become a long-term care facility and then was eventually demolished in 2009. Before it was demolished, stories of haunting by tortured and abused patients were common. My summers in Weyburn often involved visits to the large, red-bricked, remarkable facility. Although only a child, I was fascinated by the scope and history of the infamous institution and its stately, well-groomed grounds. I would often feel as if I were part of a movie set as I walked down the long lane that led to the extraordinary structure whose circumference was said to be more than a mile. In comparison to its small farm town surroundings, the estate-like property seemed eerie and out of place. As I would walk, I would think about stories told by family members who had been employed in the institution in the days no one likes to talk about. That place and those true stories were only the beginnings of the tales I would one day weave. Views: 426
At the end of World War II, Jack Baker, a landlocked Kansas boy, is suddenly uprooted after his mother’s death and placed in a boy’s boarding school in Maine. There, Jack encounters Early Auden, the strangest of boys, who reads the number pi as a story and collects clippings about the sightings of a great black bear in the nearby mountains.
Newcomer Jack feels lost yet can’t help being drawn to Early, who won’t believe what everyone accepts to be the truth about the Great Appalachian Bear, Timber Rattlesnakes, and the legendary school hero known as The Fish, who never returned from the war. When the boys find themselves unexpectedly alone at school, they embark on a quest on the Appalachian Trail in search of the great black bear.
But what they are searching for is sometimes different from what they find. They will meet truly strange characters, each of whom figures into the pi story Early weaves as they travel, while discovering things they never realized about themselves and others in their lives. Views: 426
Christopher J. A. Saint Germain wrote his first poem at the age of eight, shortly after his father was killed in a tragic automobile accident. My Muse is a select collection of Christopher's work.Christopher J. A. Saint Germain is a traveler, poet, photographer, songwriter, mechanic and US Army Photojournalist. His travels have taken him around the world to experience many cultures. Each of these cultures has had a profound effect on Christopher's Psyche. My Muse is a select collection of Christopher's written work.Christopher invites you to travel with him through triumph and heartache as we journey through this life together. Views: 426
On Christmas Eve, Connie, daughter of Eile and Sunny of Team Girl, runs away from home to become a vampire. Giovanna Borgia, the vampire BFF of Team Girl, invites her to a vampire Christmas party in a cemetery and introduces her to a little girl vampire. Unfortunately, some vampire hunters have decided to crash the party, and they have targeted Connie and her new friend. This is a short story.Connie, the eight-year-old daughter of Eile and Sunny of Team Girl, is fed up. Her parents pay more attention to her sister Liza than they do her. She concludes they don't love her anymore and she decides to run away. She wants to become special, to teach them all a lesson, so she goes to Giovanna Borgia, a vampire and one of Team Girl's best friends, and asks her to make her a vampire.Giovanna invites her to attend a vampire Christmas party in a nearby cemetery, and there she meets Angela, a child vampire her same age. They strike up an unlikely friendship, and Connie learns what it means to be a vampire, the bad as well as the good.However, a group of vampire hunters decides to crash the party, and they have targeted Connie and Angela for extermination. Views: 426
Nick Wolfe is famous in Chicago – or is that infamous? He’s not only known as the illegitimate son of Mafia boss Rinaldo Moretti, but also as an unstoppable ladies’ man. He always seems to get the girl in the end, even when everyone around tries to plot against him. He’s a party guy, doesn’t work, and spends all his time picking up chicks and making notches on his headboard. He's the ultimate ladies man...or is that man-whore? Until he meets her, and she turns the tables on him. Views: 426
One Wild Night- EPISODE 1 in the first season of the Forever Wild Serial. (This is a six part series with one book releasing every 3 weeks)One Wild Night Can Change EverythingValerie Wilder doesn’t do serious relationships. She also doesn’t usually wake up in Vegas next to a male stripper…A male stripper who happens to be her new husband.One Wild Night- EPISODE 1 in the first season of the Forever Wild Serial. (This is a six part series with one book releasing every 3 weeks)One Wild Night Can Change EverythingValerie Wilder doesn’t do serious relationships. She also doesn’t usually wake up in Vegas next to a male stripper…A male stripper who happens to be her new husband.A quickie divorce seems like the answer, but the Nevada legal system doesn’t think so. When her new husband suggests flying back to Chicago with Valerie she accepts, wondering if one night in Vegas could turn into something much more Views: 426
Welcome to the October 2013 (and thirteenth issue) of Uncharted Frontier! Our current issue brings you Halloween, Horror and suspense themed fiction! Enjoy stories and photography that will provide you with one last chilling thrill as the Halloween season comes to a close!Welcome to the October 2013 (and thirteenth issue) of Uncharted Frontier! Our current issue brings you Halloween, Horror and suspense themed fiction! Enjoy stories and photography that will provide you with one last chilling thrill as the Halloween season comes to a close!Short Fiction By:Christopher KetchamKesia AlexanderAllan KasparRichard LawrencePoetry By:Faith KuzioPhotography By:Faith Kuzio Views: 426
After being publicly shamed and kicked out of the imperial service academy, Fortis chose to serve in the only other way possible: as a mercenary.
Working far from the boundaries of his homeland, he never thought he’d have anything to do with the empire again… until a powerful wizard hires the company to destroy an imperial outpost. Fortis must choose between betraying his captain and comrades or firing on the very men he once dreamed of joining. Views: 425
After discovering the first key in the wreckage of a crashed Builder ship, Skyler Luiken and his crew follow the migrating aura towers in search of the four remaining relics. But time is running out: the team learn that the next Builder event will be the last, and one of the objects has already fallen into dangerous hands. . . Will the survivors finally reveal the Builders' plan? Views: 425
Julian Bowen is young, good looking but not so wealthy as he seems. When he meets a moneylender who's making fat profits from his friends' excesses, Julian sees a chance to wipe out his mounting debts and make a new start; but his plan leaves a group of innocent tourists in deadly danger in the middle of Africa; and meanwhile there are some people in London who want more than their money backJulian Bowen is young, good looking but not so wealthy as he seems. When he meets a moneylender who's making fat profits from his friends' excesses, Julian sees a chance to wipe out his mounting debts and make a new start; but his plan leaves a group of innocent tourists in deadly danger in the middle of Africa; and meanwhile there are some people in London who want more than their money backFor Jill Stevens, more at home in an accounts department than the savannah, a wildlife safari turns into a nightmare ordeal that she must find new strength within herself to survive.Set in the parched heartlands of south east Africa, this unusual tale mixes an intriguing and violent crime mystery with a gripping struggle to stay alive. Views: 425
