Menage_a_20_-_Tales_with_a_Hook Read online

  International acclaim for Ménage à 20

  ‘Astounding... awesomely crafted... desperately readable.’ Mike Raffone, Tikka Journal, Rajasthan ‘Mix twenty parts variegated author bits, ten parts humor, twenty-nine parts imagination, ten parts suspense, a good sized dash of surprise and a pinch of biting wit. Stir with a large fork. Serve hot with a cup of tea or coffee. Feeds imagination.’

  Inga Hootz, Bertreville Review, France ‘In the dark crevices between feathery pages twenty-nine stories by twenty authors come together and intertwine. The culmination of this union is murderous, sweet, terrifying, tender and hilarious. What initiates this twisted intimacy between such dissimilar stories? That they will each leave you astounded.’

  Harden Thicke, Arcata Clipper ‘Twenty Goodreads authors come together in this short story anthology running across the genre spectrum. Each story has a surprise ending; the reader is lured in unawares until... watch out for that hook!’

  Douglas Furr, Osbaston Free Press

  ‘An instant classic...’ Anita Morehead, Malvern Post

  ‘Brilliant! A tour-de-force by unknown writers who deserve, all, to be household names. Bravo to you all!’ Ivor Bigune, Guangzhou Post, China. ‘Twenty authors, twenty-nine stories and one big surprise created by some of the best writers you have never heard of, and a couple of old-pros. Every story has a surprise ending, showcasing the talents and ingenuity that only a ménage can bring.’

  Ann Inch, Long Beach Times

  ‘Brilliant, hypnotic...’ Al Beback Chattanooga Voice ‘In a world where chaos reigns and creativity wreaks havoc, twenty writers have twisted tales to tantalize and shock. In a never-before-seen compilation, thirty stories written by Goodreads authors and each with its own surprise ending. From fantasy to horror, science fiction to comedy, Ménage à 20 hooks and traps its readers in the pages of imagination.’

  Boadicea Basher, Punjab Gazette, India

  ‘Powerful tales... twenty writers full of narrative power and abiding humanity.’

  Annie Howe, Oshkosh Reveille ‘Twenty Goodreads authors... thirty tales with a twist, each with its own surprise ending. From fantasy to horror, science fiction to comedy, Ménage à 20 tantalizes with each turn of the page.’

  Kenya Dewit , Chicago Sentinel ‘A unique collection of different genres and writing styles. Be a guest at a rousing round table; feast upon scrumptious morsels of literary delight.’

  Estelle Hertz. Everett Times ‘Twenty writers. Thirty tales. I dare you to join the Ménage...’ Brandon Cattell, Aguascalientes Dispatch, Mexico ‘Ménage à 20 is the prized possession, the pearl of all stories, the wind painted in the spring. Twenty lonely writers have dreamed a song to remember, of justice with knights and their ladies Emily and Elizabeth, of nightmares with yellow-fanged monsters and demons crawling through the fine print, of love for Valentines and donuts, of chaos where she couldn’t let go of her elderly cares, and of horses who were never harmed in the making of this book. Come peer into the window to view a room of idle commitment and foundational faults. You could have joined the fun if you had but please, drop by for supper.’

  Lotta Rump, Tweed Gazette

  ‘A masterpiece of literary seduction.’

  Raynor Schein, Lakeview Tribune ‘Stephen King, Iris Murdock et al, move over. There’s twenty new kids on the block. They’re bratty, breezy, brash and brilliant! If you read one book this year, make it Ménage à 20. Better yet, it’s free!!’

  Senta Message, Ouagadougou Courier, Burkina Faso Journey within these pages to laugh, cry, shiver with fear, and reel in shock as twenty authors lead you on a merry chase that will tease you into their world, only to hook you in the end.

  Elle Vader, Barcelona Sun, Spain

  Twenty Goodreads™ Writers

  Ménage à 20

  First published by Carlos J Cortes in 2009 Copyright © Diane Condon-Boutier; Susan Elizabeth Curnow; Oscar Croselt; Carlos J Cortes; Michael Keyton; Henry F. Lara-Steidel; Andrew Love; Gwendolyn McIntyre; Minnie Estelle Miller; Renee Miller-Johnston; Paul Mitton; D.B.Pacini; Roy L. Pickering. Jr; Katharine Quinn; Kelley Roby; Lauren Stone; Rita Stradling; Wendy Swore; Jeanne Voelker and Rita J Webb, 2009

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Carlos J Cortes and printed by Lulu.com. This is a collection of works of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the authors’ imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The Library of Congress has not catalogued this edition. In fact, they don’t even know it exists.

  Typeset in Baskerville MT and Orbon by Luis Cano of Underdogs Unite Ltd. If you hold in your hands a printed and bound volume, it was done by Lulu.com. If you have a stack of loose pages, someone else did it, probably you—when inebriated or high so you don’t remember—or Aunty Gladys. If you’re staring at a screen and it looks blurry perhaps it needs a wipe over.

  ISBN we couldn’t afford, but 073 953 9984 is the phone number of a most accommodating lady. All major credit cards accepted. The publisher’s policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. But neither the publisher nor the authors are lumberjacks or forest inspectors (Glenn, Sue’s husband is, but he’s busy trying to patent Canadian ‘paella’) and have no idea what people will use to print this book. So, your guess is as good as theirs.

  http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/13591.On_Fiction_Writing http://www.goodreads.com

  http://www.menage-a-20.com

  To writers born and yet unborn, published and ignored.

  Acknowledgements

  The Authors of Ménage à 20 would like to offer our heartfelt thanks to Carlos J Cortes for being courageous (or masochistic) enough to bring this book, his brainchild, to fruition. Without you, Señor, none of this would have been possible.

  In addition to Carlos, we thank the talented Gwendolyn McIntyre for her tireless and unstinting encouragement throughout the editing process.

  We are also indebted to Luis Cano, for being the cover designer extraordinaire, layout overseer, compositor and allround good guy.

  A round of applause goes to Goodreads™ as well for creating the web space for our creative genius to flourish in the group On Fiction Writing. Goodreads™ is an invaluable resource for writers and readers. Principals, webmasters, and the cleaning lady supported this project and granted us permission to use their name. We are in your debt.

  We could never repay everyone who has helped us to produce the work; not restricted to reviewers and unpaid editors but friends, families and passers-by; those who kept us nourished with tea, coffee, the odd seven-veil dance and alcoholic beverages in a timely fashion.

  You know who you all are. Our thanks to each and every one of you. This work would not be possible without your contributions.

  The Authors of Ménage à 20

  Foreword

  Thirty stories. Twenty writers. In Tales with a Hook, you will find demons and gods, heroes and housewives, knights and robots. They will range through corporate offices, suburban homes, netherworlds and hellholes. Thirty stories, never before published, with one thing in common: they all end with a shocker.

  The stories are as diverse as the writers. We come from Europe, from Canada, from the United States, from South America, and many other places. Some of us are young, some are old; some are published, some are unpublished. But like our stories, we share something in common: we are all driven to write. For some that means giving up our lunch hours to
grind out a story in the soulless box of an office cubicle; for others it means getting up at four in the morning to hammer out a chapter on the typewriter before the kids or the livestock awake. We curse deadlines, we debate word choices, we moan over plot snags. “Why do you do it?” we have all been asked.

  Because it’s what we do. Before you is the fruit of our labors. Enjoy our stories—our reward is your gasp of shock at each new ending.

  We hope to get you hooked.

  Kate Quinn

  Soon-to-be bestselling author of MISTRESS OF ROME

  INDEX

  P LAIN DOUGHNUTS Diane Condon-Boutier 17

  A GIFT HORSE Susan Curnow 25

  BORN IDLE Isabella Erlenmeyer35

  THE PAINTER OF WINDS Isabella Erlenmeyer 49

  MY VALENTINE Carlos J. Cortes 61

  SPRING SPRUNG Carlos J. Cortes 71

  ELIZABETH’S HEAD Michael Keyton 81

  THE KNIGHT AND THE DEMON Henry Lara 99

  THE CRAWLER Andy Love 119

  A ROOM WITH A VIEW Gwendolyn McIntyre 135

  A SONG TO REMEMBER Gwendolyn McIntyre 143

  RECONSTRUCTING EMILY Minnie Estelle Miller 151

  THE FINE PRINT Renee Miller 167

  LONELY Renee Miller 177 YELLOWFANG Paul Mitton 187

  VACANT POSSESSION Paul Mitton 207

  THE LADY WITH GREEN HAIR D.B. Pacini 219

  DOUBLE FAULT Roy L. Pickering Jr. 235

  THE SUPPER Kate Quinn 249 STRING OF PEARLS Kate Quinn 257

  SHE Kelley Roby 279

  COMMITMENT Lauren Stone 293

  JUSTICE Lauren Stone 299

  MONSTER Rita Stradling 309 LETTING GO Wendy Swore 319

  FOUNDATION Wendy Swore 329

  ELDER CARES Jeanne Voelker 339

  PEERING IN THE WINDOW Rita J. Webb 357

  WRITER’S DREAM Rita J. Webb 367

  A WRITER’S GIFT 381

  DIANE CONDON-BOUTIER

  As an American residing in France for the past pair of decades, I find myself to have morphed into a hybrid of a Franco-American, rather like ‘spaghettios.’

  My studies at the University of Central Florida floated me across the pond from my hometown of Bay City, Michigan, where I grew up the daughter of a librarian and a junk-food factory manager, which probably explains why I love to read while eating potato chips.

  My day job consists of writing blurbs about life in France and travel tips for Americans wishing to visit here without any of the requisite trip from hell incidents to darken their scrapbooks. I have a small B&B/travel service located in Normandy where I contentedly drive my fellow Americans around the back roads of Normandy, showing off my choice of habitat, while plying them with French food and wine.

  I have two beautiful (they truly are) adult daughters, Rebecca and Abigail from a previous marriage to a Frenchman and am now happily living in an unconventional fashion with Jean-Pascal who shares my enthusiasm for oysters, scuba diving and motorcycle road trips.

  I am currently working on my first novel, a historical saga set in Normandy, which has yet to find an agent to represent it.

  P LAIN DOUGHNUTS is the product of my indecision when faced with the display of decadence at any American donut shop. I am not the only one, but sometimes there’s a good reason for it. Some of us have a wider agenda when it comes to consuming sugar.

  http://france-vacations-made-easy.com

  Plain Doughnuts

  Diane Condon-Boutier

  Copyright © Diane Condon-Boutier 2009 She always bought the plain ones.

  But she could spend ten minutes or more in her inner

  struggle between the sparkly kind, the exotic CoconutPineapple, the sophisticated ones with foreign titles like: French Cream, Cherry Danish or German Strudel, or even the truly voluptuously sinful Double-Chocolate Cream; an agonizing torment. Decisions, decisions...

  In the end, she was afraid to choose, fearing that she wouldn’t live up to their expectations.

  Because it was offensive to imagine eating a French Cream in the car, while sipping a cup of take-out decaf. Such a decadent treat would expect, at the very least, to be savored with a Café Crème in a sidewalk Parisian café, complete with a stunning view of Notre Dame Cathedral.

  And who knows? A suave Frenchman could slip into the opposite chair to introduce himself. Ahhh, Paris in the springtime, or summertime, or even in the winter for that matter! She was sure romance always blossomed in Paris, no matter the season. And what could be better than indulging in French Creams with a generous helping of l’amour spiced up à la French accent, on the side?

  The Double-Chocolate Creams would taste best if enjoyed in a bedroom, with a rich liqueur—while dressed in lovely, somewhat naughty lingerie—in the company of a romancenovel-cover-model type of man. She would anxiously wait for him to appear in her rearview mirror and invite her to his penthouse, a box of Double Chocolate Creams in hand. Probably unlikely. For today, anyway.

  Whereas the Coconut-Pineapple should be consumed at breakfast in a paradisiacal singles resort, under a Tiki umbrella—the sound of crashing surf drowning out her chewing. Washing down her delicate bites would be the freshly squeezed mango juice brought to her by a bronzed waiter—who always seemed to be at hand when she needed him—so pleased to ogle her gracious smile of thanks for his attentions. The hot sun, shining on his warm skin and reflecting off his pristine teeth, would be an unforgettable image, forever linked to the taste of the exotic-fruit jam filling. Well, unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be on this month’s agenda either, she mused sadly.

  German Strudel? It should be partaken on a Rhine river cruise while watching romantic castles drift lazily by. The drizzled sugary topping would melt in her mouth, to give her face a sensuously satisfied air—which would draw lots of intrigued attention from the masculine passengers. But they would be forced to simply look at her with longing frustration because, as luck would have it, the cruise director’s seating arrangements would have positioned her next to a recently widowed millionaire.

  He, as a matter of course, would find that he absolutely loved German Strudel doughnuts and they would fall crazily in love at first bite. They would disembark at the landing in front of his own fairy-tale schloss, alighting hand in hand, extra German Strudel doughnuts tucked away in his Louis Vuitton matching luggage.

  Or the Cherry Danish, then? There just didn’t seem to be any point in eating one of those unless she was near the Arctic Circle, enjoying a breathtaking display of the Aurora-Borealis, while tucked warmly underneath thick fur robes on a bobsled pulled by ten huskies, ready to whisk her back to the snow covered chalet.

  It goes without mentioning that Lars, the bobsled driver, would have thoughtfully warmed the Cherry Danish as well as some delicious hot chocolate, served up with a sly, sexually promising wink thrown in for good measure. Back at the chalet, on a furry rug in front of the blazing fire the Cherry Danish would soon be a memory. Torrid sex is, after all, simply good survival sense in such a rude, unforgiving climate. You have to do what you have to do...

  “Excuse me, lady, but do you know what you want yet? There’s a line, ya know.”

  “Oh! I’m very sorry! Umm, let me see...two plain doughnuts and a decaf to go, please.”

  “Geezzz.....OK, that’ll be four twenty-five.”

  “Here you are... and.... thank you.”

  “Yeah, right...bye! Ok...next please!”

  The doughnut shop assistant manager came out of the office just as she smiled apologetically to the impatient line of customers which had accumulated during her lengthy scrutiny of the doughnut display. “So you got to wait on the plain-donutdecaf-chick, hey?”

  “Yeah! It took her like forever to decide! What’s wrong with her?” the spotty chinned, paper-hatted employee complained. “She comes in here every day. Ya’d think she’d know what she wants by now!”

  The assistant manager rolled his eyes.

  The young employee added: “Well, I hope I don’t have to serve her
every day from now on! She seems like a real nut! Next please!”

  She halted in her tracks, turning to look at them, incredulous. They were both so very wrong!

  Nuts she had reserved for next week and an African safari, dunked into some really strong, local coffee before hitting the trail with her cameraman, Clint. Off they would trek across the scorching savannah, sweat glistening on their upper lips. Heavily muscled Clint would set up their camp under an enormous baobab before preparing her dinner while she reviewed her notes. After dinner.... a satisfying teamwork of sorts would burn off some calories. Come morning, Kenyan coffee with Nutty doughnuts would be the perfect start to her day.

  They’d be inspired and ready to film an award-winning documentary on the last of the white rhinos...

  SUSAN CURNOW

  Born in England, a mad whim made me pack five suitcases and drag three children and an Irish Wolfhound onto a plane to Canada with my husband ten years ago. I now live in Alberta and love it, unless the wind chill is -40.

  Living with mountains to the left of me and prairies to the right and with my English background, how could I write anything but fantasy? The myths of the past collude with the mundanity of life to become reality in my mind.

  When not wrangling sons I wrangle horses and dogs during my day job. Writing to me is akin to breathing. One just has to do it, and fortunately I have a husband who cooks.

  A GIFT HORSE is a parable. Josie’s grandmother always taught her never to look a gift horse in the mouth, but Josie does when she buys a crazed but beautiful black stallion from an auction. Gifts often arrive with agendas. From the moment she sees the horse, Josie knows he is much more than a lucky find.

  http://makoiyi.livejournal.com

  http://www.facebook.com/home.php?&rt=2#/susan.e.curnow?ref=pr ofile

  A gift Horse