Art Theft, and Other Stories

Art Theft, and Other Stories is a collection of three short stories. One is a comedy and the other two are dramas."Art Theft", is about two thieves, Stan and Mike, seeking to steal a valuable painting from a museum. They do their best to take every detail in account to make sure things don't go wrong. However things may not go according to plan. "Past Regret", is about a woman named Lois who seeks to reconnect with her ex husband, Larry. She meets with him in a hotel to reconnect about old times, but Larry might not be in a listening mood. "Crimson Gravel", is about a man named Max who stands next to a truck in a street to reminisce about a traumatic past event. His old friend Joey shows up to comfort him, but Max wants to be alone and will use his fists to get that point across.
Views: 276

Forget About Me

They say there are two ways to get out of a bad situation; simple and hard. This is a story that takes someone down both paths. Deals behind closed doors are made while others made out in the open. But this is no ordinary game of cat and mouse. New Orleans is a big city with lots of graveyards and swampy routes. Take the wrong one and you may not back it back...They say there are two ways to get out of a bad situation; simple and hard. This is a story that takes someone down both paths. Deals behind closed doors are made while others made out in the open. But this is no ordinary game of cat and mouse. New Orleans is a big city with lots of graveyards and swampy routes. Take the wrong one and you may not make it back. Thus the sayin' "Two go out, but one came back."Heather had no idea how one night would turn her life around. "Timing is everything" she was told. "Do exactly as I tell you and in the order I tell you, and you'll succeed." is all the advise that was giving to her when she decided that she had enough.
Views: 274

Whiskey Romeo

Throughout this collection of stories, we follow settlers living on a deep-space mining colony, as they realize they’re unwilling actors in an interstellar conspiracy.
Views: 272

Linares del Arroyo

A short story about friendship.This story received an Honourable Mention in 'The Fiddlehead' magazine's Short story contest."....(Linares del Arroyo) is a story prepared to take risks. When they pay off the reader is rewarded with a sensual and evocative meditation on youth and the passage of time." Gerard Beirne, author of 'Eskimo in the net'He must find the ghost train, he must discover what happened to his father, and so he returns to the site night after night trying to get a glimpse of the train. One night he finally encounters the train and he finally enters the train. Once inside he finds he will never leave his father again.
Views: 272

Classic Ghost Stories

7 classic ghost stories by acknowledged masters of weird fiction with a brief introduction by Tony Walker:7 classic ghost stories by acknowledged masters of weird fiction with a brief introduction by Tony Walker:A Room in the Tower - by E F BensonThe Woman's Ghost Story -by Algernon BlackwoodThe House and the Brain -by Lord Edward Bulwer-LyttonThe Beast with Five Fingers- by W. F. HarveyThe Dunwich Horror - by H P LovecraftThrawn Janet - by Robert Louis StevensonThe Signal-Man by Charles Dickens
Views: 265

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2013

Pulitzer Prize–winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee, a leading cancer physician and researcher, selects the year’s top science and nature writing from journalists who dive into their fields with curiosity and passion, delivering must-read articles from a wide array of fields.
Views: 260

10 Steps to Creating your Dream Lifestyle

The 10 Steps in Creating Your Dream Lifestyle will give you the tools you need, and in time you will find a way. Know your why, manifest it and intensify it. Understand what you want (this process now), then determine and be flexible with your how.You will discover the secrets to how thousands of men and women before you have created their definition of a dream lifestyle. Wealth, health, happiness, freedom and true fulfillment are the desires of many, however not many will ever experience these feelings in abundance in the long term. As you read through this book and hang onto every word in anticipation, you will find the answers you seek, as a simple, pragmatic philosophy even a child could follow. Many people who read this book will do so with great interest, and yet will not act upon their findings. In fact, many people will start to read this book, but never finish it. Will that be you?
Views: 254

Sweet as Honey - Romance Short Story

It's Saturday night in New Orleans! The balconies and patios that line Bourbon Street are draped with beautiful women with drinks in their hands waving at the crowd of men gathering below. I've got a hand full of beaded necklaces and a cocktail in the other and can't wait to come back through for the “Boobs for Beads” show that New Orleans is famous for. But the night was just starting.Publisher's Note: This story is continued in the full-length novel The Art of Ruining a Rake, and is intended as bonus content or as an introduction to The Naughty Girls Series.A NIGHT SHE'LL NEVER FORGET...Miss Lucy Lancester has loved her brother's best friend, Roman Alexander, for as long as she can remember. So devotedly, she's vowed never to marry anyone else. But her beloved libertine is hardly aware of her existence, and not the least deserving of her affection. Deciding her cause is lost, she makes plans to open a girls' school in Bath. There's just one thing she needs to do before she confirms her spinsterhood forever: spend one blissful night in Roman's arms. But her handsome rogue isn't ready to have the tables turned. It will take more than a coquettish smile to turn his head. She must play a game...of persuasion.
Views: 253

The Killer Fire

A simple, easy read about a poor girl whose parents die in a fire in which she is the only witness of. It's quite moving! I aimed it at 10 year olds, I (the author) am 10 and I think I would like to read it, as would my friends. because her parents die, the girl in the story has to stay at her Aunt's house. It's quite a short story of 7 short chapters and 7000 words.Detective Franklin Monroe isn't easily disturbed by much and always finds the thread of logic in every case. He is certainly less prone to superstition than his partner, Hugo. When they follow up on a lead from an aging DCS case after an elderly caregiver dies, they don't expect much based on her mental condition. Her final days were spent raving of demonic activity. But inside the home, every inch of her dilapidated house challenges Franklin's unshakeable faith in the empiric. As they discover room after room filled with bodies, the detectives are compelled to investigate and discover answers for two questions. What happened to Kayla Adams? And what kind of hell was unleashed inside the old Woodson mansion? Father of the Esurient Child was originally published in Fear & Trembling Mag (Feb 2008) and was revised/expanded into a novelette in 2016
Views: 252

The Doll With Odd Eyes

Spending years in a wooden chest Betty "The Doll with Odd Eyes” was reluctantly given to a charity shop. She was a gift to Annie over 60 years ago. What will become of her favourite doll now? Would she be loved and cared for.?Investigating the bow and arrow murder of Marko Dubzek at a naturist park just south of town presents Inspector Gilles Maintenon with a pretty pickle indeed. There are no suspects, no one saw or heard a thing and Dubzek has a bit of a past with the police. Death is a many-splendored thing, and in the end, it’s always the one you least suspect. The eighth in Louis Shalako’s The Inspector Gilles Maintenon Mystery Series, this intriguing noir mystery will not disappoint.
Views: 249

Therapeutic Window

A story about a medical family that spans the years from the 1950s to the present. Written from the viewpoint of a son, we witness his and his sibling's life changes as they grapple with the generation gap between themselves and their over bearing father. Other themes explored are romantic and family love, extramarital relationships, medical ethics and hierarchical work relationships.The themes explored in this novel include the generation gap, romantic and family love, extramarital relationships medical ethics and hierarchical work relationships.The story is based around the protagonist’s life from his time as a child in the 60s and 70s, through to the present day. Three distinct periods are looked at: his last few years at school, his time as a trainee intensive care doctor in the mid 80s and thirdly the present day.The back-story time spent in the 60s and 70s is where we see the generation gap of that time in full force. The clash is between the father and the daughter in particular. The protagonist is more an observer here. The effects on the daughter and elder son are apparent and manifest later through the story in different ways. The father’s obsession with medicine and the way he feels it positions him in society, effects both his son’s careers as his over arching expectations come to bear. The middle part of the book details life working in a surgical intensive care unit and how the son deals with a medical ethics dilemma and a love affair.In the present day, the protagonist has returned home for a visit, after becoming a success in the music industry in North America. This rejection of medicine and success in the much derided ‘pop music industry, is a source of astonishment and amusement to the father.But the son has information that gives him the upper hand - he has accumulated knowledge that his parents pre-children years were deeply effected by an extra-marital affair. Thus when his mother suggests the father and son take a few days away hiking in the mountains, the son senses an opportunity to challenge the father. What plays out in the. Mountains results in a coming of age for both parties.
Views: 243

Ancient Island

An ancient Hopi legend predicts the birth of a girl with pale skin, blond hair and yellow eyes. When the prophecy is misread the child is abandoned, but unexplained forces ensure she is found by a loving Christian family. As her body and mind undergo a strange metamorphosis she is faced with the revelation that the future of mankind may depend upon her.Have you ever wondered why you were born? You know deep in your soul that life has purpose, but answers to your questions are illusive. We are all searching. A million years before the Florida peninsula existed, a chain of small islands arose from Earth’s primordial oceans. Today, people call it the Florida Ridge. It was there an ancient and highly advanced civilization established a final sanctuary containing an underground library with historical records and remnants of technology. The archaeological site was discovered in 1930 by French explorer Claude Gautier, but remains a closely guarded secret to this day. Sleep was difficult for Haley King. For as long as she could remember, her nights were filled with recurring dreams of a strange civilization. Everyone in her community knew her. They all loved the little blind girl, everyone except Brian. He learned of her true identity from a strange old man with glowing eyes, but he didn’t dare tell anyone; they would laugh at him. She was the biological offspring of two full-blooded Hopi Indians, but her DNA was very different. Her eyes were fluorescent yellow, hair blond, and her skin was pale. An ancient Hopi legend predicted her birth, but the tribe’s partial conversion to Catholicism in the late sixteenth century resulted in a serious misinterpretation of what to do with her. The medicine man took Haley from her mother and gave her to the Catholic Church. Haley was adopted and moved to Florida when she was twelve years old. She became close friends with five boys who had the suspicious happening of all being born on the same day. While the boys were on a fishing trip celebrating their sixteenth birthday, their boat was struck by lightning. Four of them (including Brian) were nearly killed. A tattoo of a leafless tree was burned on their feet. The fifth boy experienced a vision of the future. They were all changed by the incident and their lives became more intermingled with Haley.
Views: 231