Radio talk-show host Max Jervis plays the part of victim better than anyone, and that talent has made Mr. Jervis a very wealthy man. Mr. Jervis will share in any indignity and imagine any conspiracy that might help grow his broadcast empire. But Mr. Jervis forgets that there is a monster for every victim until a scraping and clawing arrive one night outside his studio door.Mr. Jervis plays the role of victim as fine as any actor. By taking offense at the slightest rebuke and by seeing conspiracies behind every shadow, Max Jervis has built an empire of listeners and sponsors with the countless parts of his victim-hood. Max rages and cries with anyone who hears his voice, and he creates monsters out of the airwaves to grip the passion of any broadcast market. But Max Jervis learns too late that his words summon abomination. The scraping of claws arrives outside his door following a caller's curse, and Max Jervis must face the creature his words have shaped. Views: 441
Owen Masters doesn't like the community of Flat Knob, and the community doesn't like him. No matter his efforts or intention, Flat Knob has despised Owen since he arrived to teach at the county school. A camera Owen purchases at the Turner estate auction, however, has a strange knack for capturing the dark held within the heart. Through that camera's lens, Owen will claim what is rightly deserved.Owen Masters languishes in the community of Flat Knob. He wastes his weeks at the front of a high school English classroom, where he suffers the futility of trying to instruct those who despise him. On weekends, he drifts through the barren county to attend estate sales searching for exotic and strange possessions that might deliver a little satisfaction to his days. A dark, phrenologist skull grips Owen’s attention at Homer Turner’s estate sale. Though his bid is not enough to bring that relic home, Owen soon finds himself tossed into Flat Knob’s oldest feud between a hated entrepreneur and a wicked family named Turner. And through the lens of a strange camera that clicks through the night, Owen Masters learns he must first become a monster to gain Flat Knob's respect. Views: 429
Memories flood Mr. Voss as the man sits amid the winking lights of his treatment. Mr. Voss’ memories have been lost for years, and disease shrouds his mind with mist. Treatment composed of glimmer promises to restore Mr. Voss’ health, and his wife will give everything to help him return. But the children fear what the light might summon, and they hesitate to pay any of the light's cost.Elaine Voss looks upon her husband and prays that Thomas quickly returns to her. Disease has stolen her husband’s memory, so that Thomas fails to recognize the faces of his family. That disease seems especially cruel to Elaine, for her husband’s shoulders remain wide, his legs strong, and his face little wrinkled. Elaine puts her faith into the lights, and she sacrifices to pay whatever cost the sparkle requires to reunite with the man Elaine always believed Thomas to be.Vicki Voss looks upon her father as the lights dance upon him. She learned to carve her own path while the mist filled Thomas’ mind, and she wonders if a returned father would do her more harm than good. Like her mother, Vicki believes the therapy will heal her father, but she remains unsure if she desires a family reunion. Vicki fears Thomas will mock her aims and force her to remain silent and meek.Logan Voss drives through the night to return to his childhood home. Mother again contacts him with news that his father will soon walk out of the light. Yet Logan remains skeptical. He has often hurried home only to find that disease keeps it grip upon Thomas Voss’ mind. But Logan hurries home now with a different purpose; he is determined to convince his mother and sister to let their father drift forever away, believing a quiet death a better option than the monster Logan fears his family summons. Views: 409
Fay appears at the corner of Fifth and Water whenever Adam suffers a recurrence of cancer. Her silver hair and spinning halos comfort Adam during his deepest suffering. Together, Adam and Fay visit fantastic worlds twirling in the snows of magical, glass globes. Adam knows he and Fay would be happy, if only Fay could see how her beloved Regent so cruelly toys with her sprite heart.Without Fay, Adam would have to face his sickness and mortality alone. Fay always visits Adam with a magical snowglobe whenever Adam's sickness lowers his spirits. Together, they travel to worlds filled with magic, music and color. Next to Fay, Adam looks upon worlds of which the rest of mankind cannot dream. He cherishes Fay for her comfort, and though he knows that each piece brings them one step closer to the cruel Regent, Adam helps Fay rediscover the shards of her splendorous mirror a king once gifted her. Adam knows that he has little influence over Fay's sentiments, and that in the end, he must trust his favorite sprite to learn for herself the truth of the Regent's intentions. Views: 396
The day's greatest athletes wear the green and gold sneakers crafted by the Shoemaker. Spectators cheer as the most revered sporting records fall to the men and women sporting the Shoemaker's trademark shoes of green and gold. And now, the Shoemaker brings a new sneaker to market, one that promises to turn any wearer into a superstar, no matter one's level of talent or dedication.Sports agent Blake Tuttle represents many of the day's greatest superstars of the diamond, court and field. Blake's skills at the negotiation table earn him the respect of the athletic world, and Blake takes pride in his ability to discover hidden talent. So he finds it difficult to believe the Shoemaker when that tycoon of the sporting world tells Blake that his new sneaker is enough to make any man or woman plucked from the street an overnight legend on any playing field. Blake admires those athletes he represents, and so he bets the Shoemaker that it is the athlete, and not the equipment, spectators admire when they witness the winning of championships and the breaking of records. The Shoemaker and Blake pluck an unknown player from anonymity; and after fitting a new pair of green and gold sneakers upon that aging athlete's feet, take their seats in the arena to gauge the reach of a simple pair of green and gold sneakers Views: 360
Albino and ugly Maggie Turner vows to avenge her brothers. The village of Dry Acre does nothing to bring her brothers' murderers to justice. Even Maggie's father does little to stop the killing of his sons. So Maggie shapes the symbols of her family's dark magics in the dust, and in doing so, releases a swarm of wrath that sentences her to ever onward step a dark and blighted path.Maggie Turner is a daughter of a bone-shaker, and thus her family knows a nomadic existence. The settlement of Dry Acre shuns the ugly, albino Maggie and her brothers for the dark arts it is rumored their father practices. Rancher Randolph Harlington murders four of seven Turner brothers, and Maggie can only curse as Dry Acre does nothing to protect her surviving family. So Maggie turns to the only power that might protect her brothers, tracing strange geometries in the dust that pulsate with a wicked magic when her only friends ask for her help. Maggie summons the swarm, and the arriving blight forces her father to unleash the most terrible of his powers and sets Maggie upon a bone-shaker's path. The dead Turner brothers will have their revenge, and even the deadliest of gunslingers tremble as darkness chokes Dry Acre. Views: 349
Paul Seton and Marshall Lincoln are unique dealers in the Singularity. With a little wealth and a lot of faith, clients in Paul and Marshall's office may circumvent death by painlessly uploading their souls into the machine. Paul and Marshall's freedom and sanity are thrown into jeopardy when a tycoon's ambition to ride the Singularity to the stars threatens to expose the Singularity's secrets.The Singularity offers comfort to those suffering from terminal disease, to those exhausted from battling incurable cancer. Through the Singularity, lost loved ones tell the surviving lonely that death is indeed but a doorway, that heaven truly waits beyond the veil separating the living and the dead. Paul and Marshall are happy to offer their services of the Singularity, for though they may not offer their clients the complete truth, they in the end provide comfort and peace. Only the services that Paul and Marshall so careful safeguard begin slipping through their fingers when a tycoon expresses his wish to employ the Singularity to create immortal star-travelers. When the tycoon suggests his own daughter should be the first emissary to the stars, Paul and Marshall must choose between the Singularity or murder. Views: 344
Overpopulation has ruined the Earth. Housing stacks dot the landscape, surrounded by piles of discarded rubble. Yet the newly discovered, habitable planets in the cosmos provide hope, and the lottery offices provide a chance for those in the housing stacks to ascend into the stars. Only, the game is rigged, and all the treasure found in the stars will be wasted so long as the lottery entertains.Becky Chen works with a broken heart. She wears a surveyor’s uniform, sent by the lottery offices to scout for habitable planets capable of providing a new home for Earth’s masses. It’s a job she does not love, for she knows that the settlers who follow in her trail will trample whatever splendor she discovers in those stars.Winston Clayton prays for a chance to ascend into the heavens. He calls the stale and stinking air of a housing stack home, and he anxiously waits each month to hear if the lottery chooses his apartment tower as the next winning stack to be transported to a new world of fresh air and uncluttered fields.Mary Lopez rides a shuddering settler’s rig down through the atmosphere of Wildberry. She knows she is a prosperous person, and that the planets are reserved for independent and strong characters such as herself. The lottery has supplied her with shelter and with tools, and Mary is confident that the weapon she smuggles into the contest will give her the advantage needed to survive and thrive.The pulsating creatures native to an alien world will become swept up in the schemes of the affluent and the fights of the desperate. Their wings can supply any desired scene to those settlers arriving upon Wildberry, if only the men and women who chase to that new, alien world can recognize the grace already occupying their new home. Views: 337
The town of Portis doesn't fault Sophie Carter for gunning down Samantha Tosh in the local grocery store. Knowing that a copy of a younger, more beautiful you walked the streets around your home would drive anyone to murder. Nor was Samantha a person. She was only a synthetic, and Franklin Tosh should've known better than to think a clone could substitute for a human wife.Sophie Carter shakes after killing Samantha Tosh in the produce aisle of Diekemper's Grocery and Goods. She bakes cookies for town functions. Everyone in the community loves her like a grandmother. Sophie had never believed murder could germinate inside her. Yet she gunned down Samantha Tosh between the onions and avocados without hesitating. Franklin Tosh should not have ordered a clone made to match the young Sophie Carter he had fallen in love with so many lost years before. Sophie might have broken Franklin's heart so long ago, but she did not deserve to be haunted by that synthetic person whose never-aging beauty reminded Sophie of what she had once been. So Sophie Carter trembles as the world descends upon her small community of Portis, determined to decide if a synthetic's blood should be valued as much as any woman or man's. Views: 276
Jay Logan's fortune takes a turn for the better when he purchases the old Turner manse for a bargain. For Jay knows that the decaying Turner home, and its outbuildings in the surrounding acreage, brims with antiques that promise to put more than a little gold into his pocket. Only, Jay learns too late that so many collectibles have been gathered about that old, forgotten home for a reason.Jay Logan is an avid collector of the old and rare. From vintage toys to custom furniture, there is little that escapes Jay's attention so long as it is old. Jay pounces on opportunity when the decaying home of the Turner family is set before the auction block, and he purchases the estate, complete with all of the antiques that crowd the inner rooms, for a bargain. For the Turners were never known as a friendly kind, and many a rumor had been whispered about the lifestyle that family practiced behind all the scrap iron and car carcasses they gathered upon the yard. It seems no one wants to call that Turner manse home no matter the bargain. And so Jay Logan travels to his new estate with an empty trailer waiting to haul antique treasures back home, unaware that one last collector keeps his eye on all the keepsakes heaped upon the old Turner family's property. Views: 267
Ollie Turner vows to ensnare the entire population of the small town of Beckmire into his servant ranks. He will lure them beneath his sway through the boxes of chocolate cakes and the pizza slices sold from his general store's register. Those remaining to claim Beckmire home are listless, lazy and dim, and so they present little challenge to a boneshaker working to multiply his zombies.Rose Pilger wakes every morning before the crack of dawn to peek between her window’s curtains upon the zombies who shuffle down the road running passed her home. She hates the zombies, for their limping souls represent the ruin that has befallen her town of Beckmire. If Rose had her way, she would forever hide in her home’s shadows, where she could gather amid all the treasure and trash her life has accumulated upon her floor, where she could whisper to her husband’s ghost. Only Rose runs dangerously low on food, and she is forced to make her own journey along that road that runs passed her home to reach ugly Ollie Turner’s general store. There, hunger forces Rose into a transaction that will reserve her own spot in that parade that each morning shambles by her home. Views: 265
As the oldest of Kay's daughters, Mary feels it her obligation to protect her sisters who crowd the tight hallways of the trailer they call home. Mother Kay's husband regards Mary and her sisters with dangerous eyes, and Mary feels the footsteps of Belle creeping up behind her. Mary knows that if she cannot protect her sisters that Belle will discard her spirit to make whatever stand Mary cannot.Mary cannot deny that danger crowds whatever space in her trailer not occupied by one of her many younger sisters. She is old enough, and weary enough, to recognize the terrible appetite burning in the eyes of her mother's most recent husband. Mary might wish to ignore the peril, but old dame Queenie burns Belle's favorite, clove cigarettes, plays Belle's favorite songs, decorates the children in Belle's favorite costume jewelry. Mary understands that Queenie has no faith that she can protect her younger sisters, and Mary knows Queenie follows all the steps to summon Belle. And Mary knows there is no room for the both of them. For if Belle arrives to fight where she cannot, Mary understands how her soul will be cast outside to flutter in the chill wind. Views: 260
The stoning sickness has entered Mark Pence's home, banishing his father into the attic's secluded shadows. Stiffening as his limbs turn heavy and his skin morphs into stone, Mark's father warns not to open their door to the knock of that fool who travels the land promising healing. Only, Mark cannot forget how is father languishes in the attic, and his family's faith has never been so tested.Mark Pence serves as the head of the household after the stoning sickness falls upon his father, who suffers, isolated and hidden, in the family attic while he morphs into stone. With a stiffening tongue, Mark's father warns not to open their door to the fool who walks the land offering healing to anyone meek enough to accept such charity. Mark easily makes the promise, but the keeping of it proves difficult as his family's unity collapses. Mark struggles to respect the home his father built, struggles to find the true value in the homes of neighbors that surround him. Only Mark fears that all his father strove to build will crumble when that fool arrives to knock upon their front door. Views: 259
Lyle Davenport golfs for memories instead of birdies. The old course's clubhouse has vanished. His arms and back turn too stiff for a graceful swing, and Lyle realizes more tee drives arc behind him than fly in front of him. Still, Lyle keeps to his weekly rounds. He shares tee-times with ghosts, and Lyle would never traverse the narrow fairways of his memory from the comfort of a cart.Lyle Davenport's golf game has not changed for years. He shares his tee-time each Tuesday and Thursday morning with Ken Sutton, and the numbers penciled upon their scorecards never delineate from one round to another. Birdie always fall on the same puts as before. Water hazards and rough claim their sacrifices on the same swings as ever. But though Lyle's rounds hold a terrible measure of sorrow and pain, those rounds hold ever more exhilaration and joy. For in all his years flaying at a small, white ball, Lyle has never witnessed a swing as graceful as Ken Sutton's. And the memory is enough to keep Lyle coming back to those manicured and cruel fairways of grass. Views: 247
Cedrick Pyle's tower stretches high to stand as a monument to the mogul's dominion over time. But when the wind blows cold, the desperate and the lonely trespass to find shelter upon Mr. Pyle's estate. Cedrick steadies himself for battle, for he suspects his tower and the poor surrounding it will attract the desire of his nemesis named Turner. And Cedrick knows monsters always follow that man.Ethan Pyle trembles for grandfather Cedrick’s obsession. Though the tower sways in the gusting winds, Cedrick remains adamant that his tower must continue to grow taller and taller. Only the most desperate of construction crews brave the heights and the cold to attempt to build one level more atop the Pyle spire. Ethan’s anxiety swells further when Cedrick claims monsters are gnawing at the tower’s foundations, that the homeless who shelter in his estate's warehouses have attracted monsters and a terrible enemy. Soon, Ethan can no longer deny the evidence that something wicked has its eye on the tower as grandfather Cedrick claims. Soon, Ethan’s sleep is disturbed by the sounds of teeth scraping against the tower's foundation stones. Views: 243
