A Slice of Life
In A Slice of Life, Another Slice of Life, and The Rest of the Pie, average people face extraordinary circumstances, their own veritable moment of truth. They stand at the proverbial fork in the road faced with choices, whether their own or life's dictates.The first book in the Slice of Life collection. A Slice of Life mirrors the first season of life, reflected in a newly integrated Alabama of the 1960s."The summer of 1968 had been Alabama tropical hot, but my summer job prospects had been Chicago cold." --from College Boy
Imaginary Boyfriends
" Midtown Manhattan was like a stifling greenhouse filled with exotic human orchids that couldn't survive anywhere else and its streets were littered with their broken blossoms. Adele, bless her heart, was one of them." In his first collection, Imaginary Boyfriends, Manuel Igrejas spins eight tales of love, loss, sex, fantasy, and delusion, where characters who think they're clever often do foolish things.
Planet Earth
International award-winning stories of life and love in the midst of planetary decline In Planet Earth, Nicholas Ruddock moves nimbly through a range of styles--from conventional to flash-fiction to his unique mastery of the long sentence--in stories exploring themes of love and passion, all with an awareness of our species-specific carelessness burning up the world. This collection showcases a gifted writer at the top of his game, each story fresh and unexpected: the time Mario Vargas Llosa sucker-punched Gabriel Garc穩a M獺rquez at a theatre in Mexico City inspires a young Marxist couple's violent act of revenge in Toronto years later; an anxious young man finds solace in the employ of Prince, the musician; we get a haunting glimpse of Toronto's polio epidemic at its peak in 1953; a young Canadian student bears witness to the Algerian protests and police violence in 1961 Paris; a pair of naive young women find themselves involved with a mysterious circus troupe in Nice. These provocative but contemplative stories are paradoxically positive and quick-witted, with a humorous fondness for humans and all our failings.
Love, Dirt
From the intimate confines of a Nebraska farmhouse to the bustling streets of South America, the characters of Love, Dirt traverse uneasy spaces in search of human connection. A closeted teen on a trip to Chile hides in his parents' bedroom to avoid being caught fooling around with a local boy. An elderly couple attempts to scale a volcano, wrestling with their own physical limitations and an unbearable loss in their past. A father becomes convinced that a daycare has swapped his toddler with a near-identical imposter. The public relations industry of Las Vegas is at first amused and then scandalized by a businesswoman's ability to divine people's birthplaces and childhood experiences just by listening to them speak. And a son's long-deceased parents return to life as fumbling, inept zombies who are more nuisance than threat. In these and other stories, Bruce Johnson's bold, thought-provoking debut explores how we are shaped by the narratives that we craft for ourselves and others.
Legends of Pluto
Legends of Pluto is a collection of seven stories ranging from medieval times through to the far future. A female knight torn between the pagan past and the new religion. A broken world trying for a new start rooted in matriarchy. A criminal act surrounded by cultural misunderstanding. A paranoid man trapped in his clairvoyant mind. A world on the verge of pandemic. A young couple stranded on the road, as a circus performer seeks his revenge. A love story at the edge of the universe. And after the seven stories, four poems. Nightmare, veneration, disappearance, a distant loyal outpost. Legends of Pluto, a thought-provoking escape of the mind.
Bad Juju & Other Tales of Madness and Mayhem
Running a scam in a two-bit Caribbean republic, a tough-as-nails gun moll has to outrun both a murder rap and the local neo-Nazi commandant. A jealous archaeologist uses a Mayan stone dildo to bludgeon to death the chairman of the Archaeology Department. An accountant goes on a tropical vacation to a place where everything is falling apart, including his own sketchy soul. Seduced by an escaped psychopath named Dandelion, a frat boy has no choice but to commit murder. The nineteen opium dreams that make up Bad Juju provide the most outrageous, entertaining and over-the-top crime spree since Quentin Tarantino appeared on the scene.
Christmas Stories from Mississippi
How do you create Christmas spirit when the temperature refuses to dip below fifty degrees or when snow is a miracle that vanishes at sunrise? Held together by bonds of family, soil, and history, Mississippians share a peculiar yuletide experience in the Deep South. To capture the state's unique holiday glow, Christmas Stories from Mississippi packages writings by such greats as Eudora Welty, Willie Morris, Elizabeth Spencer, Clifton Taulbert, Barry Hannah, William Faulkner, Ellen Gilchrist, and many other Mississippi writers. Illustrated by one of Mississippi's best-known artists, Wyatt Waters, these seventeen short stories and essays reveal the wonders and sorrows of Christmastime and the special poignancy of childhood memories. With Waters's touch, the book makes the perfect gift for literary readers and anyone who relishes life in Mississippi. Christmas Stories from Mississippi opens with Welty's classic, "A Worn Path," and closes with Morris's personal reflection, "Christmases Gone, Revisited." Between the writings of these two Mississippi literary giants are stories, memoirs, essays, and excerpts such as Spencer's "Presents," Gilchrist's "Surviving the Holiday Season," an excerpt from Faulkner's Light in August, Hannah's "Sermon with Meath," and Taulbert's "Quilts: Kiver for My Children." The many storytellers and many perspectives in Christmas Stories from Mississippi share southern experiences in which families create their own entertainment, relish and break traditions, and celebrate a season in ways no other region's families can.
Legends of Pluto
Legends of Pluto is a collection of seven stories ranging from medieval times through to the far future. A female knight torn between the pagan past and the new religion. A broken world trying for a new start rooted in matriarchy. A criminal act surrounded by cultural misunderstanding. A paranoid man trapped in his clairvoyant mind. A world on the verge of pandemic. A young couple stranded on the road, as a circus performer seeks his revenge. A love story at the edge of the universe. And after the seven stories, four poems. Nightmare, veneration, disappearance, a distant loyal outpost. Legends of Pluto, a thought-provoking escape of the mind.
The Earth Room
The Earth Room transports us from the forests of Appalachia to the Sonoran Desert to the glaciers of Iceland, all while exploring the mysteries of what it means to be alive. In one story, a woman transforms her boyfriend into a salamander. In another, a group of women are drawn together by a support group for the partners of vampires and werewolves. Inhabiting this haunting and fantastical collection are secret tunnels, magical doorways, modern witches, a mother who gives birth to a ghost, a town full of doubles, a sanctuary for potbelly pigs, and a daughter who never grows up. The Earth Room offers a thrilling, fabulist journey through the natural world, superstition, motherhood, and loss.
Retcon
A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR CREATIVE MISFITS Ever feel like your life is a TV show with not-so-great writing? Francy Planet knows the feeling. After his band imploded, his marriage ended, and his identity crumbled, he did what any good writer does with a messy plot: he rewrote-or retconned-the whole thing. Part memoir, part comedy show, part late-night conversation with your friend who might ask you to read their screenplay, RETCON is a treasure map for anyone who's felt like a misfit trying to make sense of their scattered story. Alongside reflections on his debut album, Planet serves up wildly imaginative tales-from depressed robots making 90's music, to Quantum Leap with scene kids, and a one-night-stand with a mystical goddess that doesn't go as planned. Plus, the world's most emotionally honest soup recipe. If you love the vulnerable humor of Mike Birbiglia, the existential spirals of Bo Burnham, or the cosmic absurdity of Douglas Adams, this genre-bending collection will feel like home.
Essays Three
Unforgotten MemoriesPhil Bright struggles to cope after the death of his best friend, Ben. While on holiday and later at home, he remembers their friendship and the people who helped him heal. This gentle story shows how love, family, and memory can bring comfort after loss, and how friendship can live on in the heart.Comic KidTeenager Jake Hanley loves comics and dreams of creating his own superhero. But his drawings of Lana, the goddess of love, lead him into strange and emotional adventures. Blending imagination and reality, this story explores creativity, growing up, and how fantasy can help someone face the problems of real life.A Mourner's Tale (Carriages)Writer Stewart is haunted by the death of a close friend and struggles to make sense of his life. Through his thoughts on love, ambition, and regret, he tries to find peace. A thoughtful story about sadness, memory, and the human need to understand loss and keep hold of what matters most.Awaited Hits (Extravaganza)A small local band finally gets its big chance when a record company offers them a deal. Fame brings excitement, love, and success-but also stress, heartbreak, and change. This touching story shows the ups and downs of chasing a dream and how friendship can be tested when success finally arrives.
A Shadow of Love
Some loves save you. Some loves destroy you. Some loves do both.From fleeting encounters under city lights to passions born in blood and rain, this collection explores what it means to love in the shadows-when tenderness collides with danger, when devotion blurs into obsession, when survival demands surrender and defiance.A boy made of starlight who disappears like smoke.A gangster whose devotion can only be written in secret poems.A scarred stranger who becomes both captor and salvation.An assassin who learns the language of flowers in a gardener's hands.A childhood friend who burns brighter than the fire that hunts him.A master who lingers like mist long after his last kiss.Dark, haunting, and achingly intimate, these six love stories are not promises, but possibilities. These are tales where the heart is both weapon and wound...where even in the darkest corners, love still dares to bloom.This is the discreet edition of the short story collection 'A Shadow of Love.' Warnings for mature content. Please read content notes. Recommended for readers 18 years old and above. Also available in a discreet edition.
The Valley
Some wounds never heal. For Kellie Sullivan, the past is not a memory. It is a shadow that follows her into every room, every dream, and every restless night. Haunted by a tragedy that fractured her childhood, she has spent her life balancing on the edge of despair, searching for comfort in places that only deepen the ache.Faith once whispered promises of protection, but those words feel hollow now. Instead, Kellie drifts between fleeting moments of calm and the unrelenting pull of nightmares she cannot escape. The verse once painted on her wall-Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil-stands as both a comfort and a challenge, a reminder that darkness is never far away.When echoes of long-buried memories rise to the surface, Kellie is thrust into a struggle she cannot ignore. The more she seeks understanding, the more the shadows close in, blurring the line between past and present, truth and torment.The Valley is a raw and unsettling exploration of the fragile thread between light and darkness. It asks what happens when the pain you try to bury becomes the very thing that refuses to let you go.
Found And Lost
Hook: A buried manuscript. A trail of clues. A vanished life until Found and Lost reveals the secrets that refuse to stay hidden. This restored edition of Found and Lost is a gripping literary thriller that blends the mood of classic literature with the page-turning pulse of detective fiction. At its heart is a suspenseful story of discovery: an anonymous author s fragmented narrative, a series of puzzling disappearances, and characters who must confront the moral cost of truth. As threads of crime mystery and hidden secrets unwind, readers are drawn into an engaging plot that balances psychological insight with a propulsive, suspenseful story arc. Historically significant and long overlooked, Found and Lost disappeared from print for decades until Alpha Editions unearthed, restored, and republished it for today s readers. This is more than a reprint: painstaking restoration returns the voice, rhythm, and nuance of a work that sits at the crossroads of mystery novel and classic literature. Collectors will appreciate the fidelity to the original text; casual readers will relish the brisk pacing and enigmatic twists. Perfect for fans of detective fiction, literary thrillers, and crime mystery, this edition also links readers to a free ebook legacy via Project Gutenberg while offering a premium, collector s presentation. Rediscover a lost gem a found and lost book that proves some stories are meant to be read again.
Fear And Other Stories
A chill that lingers long after the last page Fear And Other Stories reintroduces Achmed Abdullah s unnerving masterpieces to a new generation. Step into a shadowed archive of classic horror tales and psychological thrillers: this mystery and suspense anthology gathers Abdullah s finest supernatural short stories and eerie short stories collection, where gothic atmosphere meets razor-sharp human drama. From uncanny apparitions and claustrophobic dread to twist-laden classic mystery stories, each piece is crafted in the brisk, evocative style of early 20th century fiction. Readers will find vintage horror fiction s hungry curiosity about the unknown, paired with suspenseful, timeless narratives that unsettle and enthrall. This edition is a literary restoration out of print for decades and now republished by Alpha Editions. Meticulously restored for today s and future generations, the book preserves Abdullah s voice while presenting a clean, collectible format for classic literature collectors and casual readers alike. More than a reprint, this is a cultural treasure: a collector s item that celebrates the convergence of gothic literature collection and psychological nuance, offering both spine-tingling entertainment and historical significance. Perfect for fans of supernatural short stories, classic mystery stories, and anyone who loves timeless suspense narratives, Fear And Other Stories is an essential addition to your bookshelf where mystery, dread, and the exquisite craft of early modern horror await. Keywords: fear and other stories, Achmed Abdullah stories, classic horror tales.
The Collected Stories of Pietro di Donato
Pietro Di Donato's New York Times obit branded him "operatic, lyrical, ferocious, and hilarious," and with good reason; his short stories dominated the red-hot fiction offerings in the top men's magazines during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s . . . Di Donato shocked and delighted the readers of Esquire, Playboy, Penthouse, Ramparts, and OUI, making him the star of highbrow literary pulp on the newsstands across America. Originally made famous by his 1939 novel Christ in Concrete, his evolved voice in these popular magazines captured a whole new audience thirsty for his audacious sexual adventures, transgressions and confessions, poetic voice and fierce political stands. Now, finally, the untamable writer is captured in one volume: The Collected Stories of Pietro Di Donato.
The Church of Divine Electricity
Delightfully blending literary fiction with speculative genres, the stories in The Church of Divine Electricity somehow manage to feel as though they could take place today. In Emily Mitchell's created worlds, as in our own, technology bewitches, especially with its ability to heighten both connections and isolation. Whether being held by a giant and comforting machine, allowing micro-drones to record one's every moment for a year to win prize money, or choosing self-mutilation in exchange for a bionic hand, these characters navigate technological and social change. The familiar can turn unrecognizable and disorienting--sometimes in a flash, sometimes gradually. Lyrical, haunting, and often funny, these stories ask us to consider what--and who--gets left out of a seemingly utopian future of technological advancements. Finely observed, thoughtful, and vivid, Mitchell's stories get under your skin. It's not that the best-laid plans could lead us astray--it's that they may already have.
Even More Tales of a Highland Minister
This is the third book in the Trilogy about a young Glasgow Minister who moves up to the Inner Hebrides off the West Coast of Scotland.It is a series of Short Stories including, "The Haunted Croft," 'The Selkie's Grave, ' 'The Witch's Cat, ' and "The Whisky Olympics." The characters and the craic continue to bring a smile to our faces as they daunder through life on the Scottish Islands. Fun, faith and folklore feature in their everyday lives, bringing a rich tapestry of belief and banter to these stories - and all this, with a wee dram of 'uisge beatha' to be sociable.Gabh Tlachd!Enjoy!Some readers comments "I love these books, they have a lovely feel good factor""The author brings the characters to life, it's as if I've known them for years!""It's one of those 'can't put down' books.""Its larger print and spacing is great for older eyes like mine!""Beautifully written and flows effortlessly from page to page"
Mind the Gap
Mind the Gap is the beautifully crafted second short story collection from award-winning writer Alice Zorn. With an uncompromising lyric voice, Zorn travels through Mexico, Morocco, Texas, England, Austria, Tunisia, and northeastern Quebec in these seven short stories and one novella, each following a compelling narrator on a quest -- to find someone who does not wish to be found, to discover the truth behind family secrets, to expiate guilt, to make new bonds, to realize a dream. Away from home, facing a new mirror, characters leave selves behind and discover new selves. Alice Zorn shines once again in this exploration of friendship, love, art, work, gender, and cultural identity in this spectacular collection of travel fiction.
A Wooded Shore
From the award-winning "master of the short story" (The New York Times Book Review)--nine shattering, hilarious tales of men on the outskirts of America, habituating the motels, hot dog stands, and dive bars time forgot, grappling with a world that is swiftly changing, and dreaming of a return to the wooded shores of their youth In these nine peerless stories, a family boating trip veers into emotional disaster while very narrowly avoiding the physical; a would-be cheater hands over his car--his prized possession--for a shot with a pretty girl; a furniture magnate and his filmmaker daughter visit his impoverished hometown; a doctor's long-ago affair returns with a bitter pill. Crackling with wry humor, shot through with both wisdom and pain, these are stories of grifters and dreamers, of the lovelorn and the lawless, stories of the ongoing dissonance between the lives we want and the lives this world will allow.
Short Stories to Warm your heart
After the passing of three husbands Carleen Riach has rebuilt her life with a goal of living life to the fullest. She has gone on to enjoy each day using her life experiences to trudge lightly into the fantasy of fiction by simply making up stories and sharing them to groups who are eager to listen. She lives in an upscale Assisted Living Facility called Vivante in Newport Beach California and has created a valuable past time for herself and her fortunate listeners. Besides writing her stories, she is an avid golfer, tournament bridge player, and a curious world traveller.
The Crooked Hour - 1 Minute Past Midnight
The Crooked Hour is a chilling collection of 31 short stories where nothing is as it seems and safety is always one step out of reach. From famine-stricken Ireland to the frozen front lines of the First World War, from a quiet English garden to a German hostel's candlelit bar, ordinary lives are torn apart when darkness takes hold.A grieving writer discovers a forbidden iron door in his home; a child's drawings begin to predict the deaths of those around her; travellers chasing gold are consumed by greed and betrayal; soldiers learn the forests hold monsters older than war; and a solar flare plunges civilisation into chaos. Each story stands alone, but together they explore the crooked hours of human existence-moments when time falters and reality twists.Written with atmosphere and dread, these tales are not merely for scares but for reflection. They remind us that the real terror often lies not in monsters but in choices, obsessions, and the hidden shadows of our own minds.Open these pages after midnight if you dare, but remember: once you enter The Crooked Hour, there is no safe way back.
A Shadow of Love
Some loves save you. Some loves destroy you. Some loves do both.From fleeting encounters under city lights to passions born in blood and rain, this collection explores what it means to love in the shadows-when tenderness collides with danger, when devotion blurs into obsession, when survival demands surrender and defiance.A boy made of starlight who disappears like smoke.A gangster whose devotion can only be written in secret poems.A scarred stranger who becomes both captor and salvation.An assassin who learns the language of flowers in a gardener's hands.A childhood friend who burns brighter than the fire that hunts him.A master who lingers like mist long after his last kiss.Dark, haunting, and achingly intimate, these six love stories are not promises, but possibilities. These are tales where the heart is both weapon and wound...where even in the darkest corners, love still dares to bloom.This is the discreet edition of the short story collection 'A Shadow of Love.' Warnings for mature content. Please read content notes. Recommended for readers 18 years old and above. Also available in a discreet edition.
A Kidderminster Tale
Zantis carefully steers the reader into nine different worlds and times, cultures, and traditions, through fact and fiction with a lightness and ease. One is a tale of a man whose family life goes to ruin when his wife joins a religious group. Another story recounts a quadruple murder and suicide on a Greek island that no-one can stop. Then there is a heart stopping story about a reckless swim in a dangerous ocean. There are nine different stories here. With well-chosen words we can visualise characters and places and forge deep connections to the heart of them. We are sometimes left reflective, sometimes outraged, and other times intrigued and tantalised and heading for the computer for additional research. Every story has a different texture, every conversation a different rhythm, tension builds and recedes or builds and overpowers. It is a fascinating journey."These stories weave together humour and pain, the importance of family and connection and will leave you wanting to read Zantis' next collection. I guarantee it."Alex Coutts FenderBeautifully written. The words and expressions carried the emotion well. I had a lump in my throat."Subba Rao, author of No Murder Tonight"Very enjoyable and the truth, so yeah." 'Tik Tok' Phil
A Shadow of Love (The Discreet Edition)
Some loves save you. Some loves destroy you. Some loves do both.From fleeting encounters under city lights to passions born in blood and rain, this collection explores what it means to love in the shadows-when tenderness collides with danger, when devotion blurs into obsession, when survival demands surrender and defiance.A boy made of starlight who disappears like smoke.A gangster whose devotion can only be written in secret poems.A scarred stranger who becomes both captor and salvation.An assassin who learns the language of flowers in a gardener's hands.A childhood friend who burns brighter than the fire that hunts him.A master who lingers like mist long after his last kiss.Dark, haunting, and achingly intimate, these six love stories are not promises, but possibilities. These are tales where the heart is both weapon and wound...where even in the darkest corners, love still dares to bloom.This is the discreet edition of the short story collection 'A Shadow of Love.' Warnings for mature content. Please read content notes. Recommended for readers 18 years old and above.
Playing the Symphony of the Impossible Peace
Playing the Symphony of the Impossible Peace is a searing collection of very short stories that dissects the anatomy of modern global existence. Author Ahmed Mostafa Ahmed wields the pen like a surgical knife, exposing the hypocrisy of political systems, the crippling weight of bureaucracy, and the absurdities of a world addicted to silence in the face of injustice. From a father's terrifying realization about a meager raise to a lawyer proposing a cinematic solution to corruption, each story is a powerful, fleeting echo of the impossible peace we strive to achieve. Prepare for reality, condensed-where a vote on democracy can lead to abandonment, and the most profound truths are found in the most concise moments.
Thin Places
A finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award, Thin Places is a gothic and atmospheric collection from the national bestselling author of The Bog Wife. This beautiful reissue includes four additional stories. A not-quite-human proprietor menaces guests at a hotel on the edge of a swamp. A composer visits a remote Slavic village where villagers perform soundless songs that accompany violent sacrifices. Four reclusive women conjour children out of unconventional materials in an unnerving mansion. The arrival of a lighthouse-keeper's daughter portends disaster for an insular island community with bizarre traditions. With transcendent prose that celebrates her hypnotic and humane vision of the strange and supernatural, Kay Chronister weaves a dark tapestry of love, grief, death, and the exquisite pain and joy of life on the periphery of the familiar. The fifteen stories collected here, chronicle the lives of powerful women and children, wicked witches and demons, cursed artists and overlooked communities. Thin Places is a perfect companion to Chronister's national bestselling novel The Bog Wife and ideally suited for readers of Shirley Jackson and Carmen Maria Machado.
Always One Mistake
A cow falls through the roof of a bar, landing on a criminal struggling with his bad choices. A recovering gambler wins and wrecks a car on the same day. A mysterious woman transforms toys and oddities into higher powers for newcomers at a twelve-step program. In a fit of road rage, an angry driver mistakenly flips off a cop. A broken man finds a curious companion while attending the reunion show of the favorite heavy-metal band from his youth. These are the strange stories of the all-too-real world of Always One Mistake. Here, author Ace Boggess shows humanity at its bleakest, but also its most hopeful. These stories are explorations of what it means to live in modern times-- times filled with addiction, crime, loss, and overcoming.
Winter Delights
The Holidays bring stress, comfort, mystery, and, in the end, ginger-flavored joy.Boxing Day at Wentworth Manor brings joy and celebration. But a cruel crime threatens to ruin the party.A Christmas parade, a mug full of comfort, and a special new friend help a mother learn how to better show her love.Walt knows y'all think Santa Claus ain't real. One snowy Christmas Eve, Walt learns better.The Christmas season hits hard for some people. Yet it sometimes also brings hope for recovery and renewal.Stuart's Stop 'N Shop, always open, even for Christmas. Then the holiday spirit surprises Stuart, Bobby, and Pete.When the Santa Train fails to make the trip, one special person makes all the difference for a grateful town.When the magic of Old Christmas makes an appearance, the magic of music turns sadness to joy.If there's one thing entrepreneur Tina Braddock knows, it's that a good salesperson rolls with the unexpected. Even when the unexpected only stands four inches tall.Carrie faces Christmas in a new city, far from those who refuse to see her. Then she finds a true family to join for the celebration.Ellie faces unwelcome changes in her life, threatening her Christmas spirit. Only Deke, Miss Pebbles, and a pan of Grammy's gingerbread promise a joyful new start.
Late Rehearsals
A collection of self-contained chapters exploring human imperfections, life, and death through humor and raw introspection, perfect for readers who enjoy character-driven, literary fiction. The characters in Dominic Hoffman's tales of Late Rehearsals are familiar. Their choices are recognizable, and the people are far from perfect. Humor is a constant. However, their most significant commonality is the sense that every day is a rehearsal for the next. In this compilation of narratives, contemporary fables and intimate accounts, we travel cultures and cities, contemplate life and death to discover that our lives can be justified, vilified or distanced by the simple act of viewing the lives of others. The individuals in these stories walk their own paths, and their Late Rehearsals will continue into the inevitable closing night.
Winter Delights
The Holidays bring stress, comfort, mystery, and, in the end, ginger-flavored joy.Boxing Day at Wentworth Manor brings joy and celebration. But a cruel crime threatens to ruin the party.A Christmas parade, a mug full of comfort, and a special new friend help a mother learn how to better show her love.Walt knows y'all think Santa Claus ain't real. One snowy Christmas Eve, Walt learns better.The Christmas season hits hard for some people. Yet it sometimes also brings hope for recovery and renewal.Stuart's Stop 'N Shop, always open, even for Christmas. Then the holiday spirit surprises Stuart, Bobby, and Pete.When the Santa Train fails to make the trip, one special person makes all the difference for a grateful town.When the magic of Old Christmas makes an appearance, the magic of music turns sadness to joy.If there's one thing entrepreneur Tina Braddock knows, it's that a good salesperson rolls with the unexpected. Even when the unexpected only stands four inches tall.Carrie faces Christmas in a new city, far from those who refuse to see her. Then she finds a true family to join for the celebration.Ellie faces unwelcome changes in her life, threatening her Christmas spirit. Only Deke, Miss Pebbles, and a pan of Grammy's gingerbread promise a joyful new start.
Winter Delights
The Holidays bring stress, comfort, mystery, and, in the end, ginger-flavored joy.Boxing Day at Wentworth Manor brings joy and celebration. But a cruel crime threatens to ruin the party.A Christmas parade, a mug full of comfort, and a special new friend help a mother learn how to better show her love.Walt knows y'all think Santa Claus ain't real. One snowy Christmas Eve, Walt learns better.The Christmas season hits hard for some people. Yet it sometimes also brings hope for recovery and renewal.Stuart's Stop 'N Shop, always open, even for Christmas. Then the holiday spirit surprises Stuart, Bobby, and Pete.When the Santa Train fails to make the trip, one special person makes all the difference for a grateful town.When the magic of Old Christmas makes an appearance, the magic of music turns sadness to joy.If there's one thing entrepreneur Tina Braddock knows, it's that a good salesperson rolls with the unexpected. Even when the unexpected only stands four inches tall.Carrie faces Christmas in a new city, far from those who refuse to see her. Then she finds a true family to join for the celebration.Ellie faces unwelcome changes in her life, threatening her Christmas spirit. Only Deke, Miss Pebbles, and a pan of Grammy's gingerbread promise a joyful new start.
Now I'm Photogenic and Other Stories I Tell Myself
Winner of the 2024 St. Lawrence Book Award Now I'm Photogenic and Other Stories I Tell Myself is a collection of ten playfully strange and unsettling stories, some realistic and some surreal. The characters in these pages feel alienated: from their communities and relationships, on the streets of wealthy suburbs, at the doctor's office, in classrooms and swimming pools, in their own homes and their own skin. They wonder: is it better to be alone, imagining the life you want, as fantastic and strange as you wish, or is it better to be in the real world with real people, even if that means you might be hurt, embarrassed, and misunderstood? What if the intensity of it all feels equally threatening and glorious? In these stories, an angry father wishes he could be loving and gentle; a seven-year-old girl wants to be better at school and thin like her sister; an uncoordinated, awkward teenager is training to be an Olympic athlete. What would happen, we are left to wonder, if these characters brought their wild sides out into the light? What if they stopped trying to be normal?
One Way and Other Stories
Miriam Allen deFord (1888-1975) was a feminist, a suffragette, birth control advocate, journalist, editor, winner of the Mystery Writer's of America's Edgar Award, and author of science fiction, mystery, and true crime. Now, at long last, a collection of her science fiction short stories are back in print with One Way & Other Stories.-Mystery writer, Fortean, anti-fascist, feminist of the first generation, and science fiction trailblazer for five decades, Miriam Allen deFord masterfully weaves all of her facets into her stories, bringing a macabre, fantastic tone to her tales: Bradbury meets Hitchcock. She was already the grand dame of science fiction when the genre reached its second peak with the magazine boom of the early '50s. Her work thus paved and led the way for SF's Silver Age.Miriam Allen deFord somehow slips under the radar when SF luminaries are listed. With luck, this volume will remedy this oversight. Gideon Marcus, editor of Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women
Epiphany and More
Epiphany and More gathers 13 new short stories by Alex Darkfell. Folklore-rooted, modern twists and raw emotional undercurrent including Cornish, Norse and Japanese myth re-imagined"Epiphany" - She was sold by her mother, mocked by servants and when betrayal came, she burned the world down."Dance of the Raven" - A hiker meets the trickster."Touchwood" - Inheritance, a locked attic and a hungry succubus."Of Ivy and Teeth" - Two schoolgirls step into a forest clearing in search of the Green Bride, how many will walk out?And more!
A Manual for Cleaning Women
One of The New York Times' 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. International bestseller. A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. One of The New York Times' 100 Best Books of the Twenty-First Century and a classic of short fiction, Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women was a global sensation upon its publication in 2015, eleven years after its author's death. Largely unheralded throughout her peripatetic life, Berlin was a fiction writer of staggering, singular genius. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafted miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians. Written over the course of thirty years, the forty-three stories in A Manual for Cleaning Women--collected here in a 10th anniversary edition--are short fiction at its most unforgettable and original, told with unmistakable style by a master of the form.
american bastard
A medium who talks to dead pets. A retail cashier stuck in a town that relives its tragedy every day. A backslidden young man tasked with finding his dearly departed meemaw's cat amidst the wreckage of her hoarder house. A red-blooded, beer-drinking, Jimmy-driving winning machine. And a well-meaning mama, haunted by her dead brothers, who will stop at nothing to resurrect precious holiday memories for her broken son. Losers - loveable and decidedly not-so-loveable alike - abound in american bastard. These stories, simultaneously strange and familiar, reckon with how home is more than a place. With making good, even when it's against your nature. With finding meaning in the face of loss - in a world that's weirder and weirder all the time. Matt Starr deploys his distinctly Southern drawl to bring y'all twelve original tales of smalltown American zeroes. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
The Other Shore
From the winner of the 2023 Ursula K Le Guin Prize for Fiction comes a short story collection that radiates from the dark forests of the Pacific northwest. In ten tales, Rebecca Campbell's exquisite prose channels ancient forest spirits, the lost ghosts of unknown fates, biological and technological transformations, and challenges the ways that colonization and extraction have shaped not only landscapes but how we imagine the future. Campbell zeros in on horrors and hopes, readying readers for the world to come.About Campbell's interconnected short stories in her novella Arboreality, the 2023 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize selection committee said, "In her masterful and profoundly ethical stories, Campbell asks us what might be saved, what must be saved, and what it will take to do so." Continuing in this tradition, The Other Shore delves deep into what transformations we need to survive and thrive.
After Midnight
From Daphne du Maurier, "a writer of fearless originality" (The Guardian), comes a collection of her thirteen most mesmerizing tales--including iconic stories such as "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now"--with an introduction by Stephen King. Daphne du Maurier is best known for Rebecca, "one of the most influential novels of the 20th century" (Sarah Waters) and basis for Alfred Hitchcock's iconic film adaptation. More than thirty-five years after her death, du Maurier is celebrated for her gothic genius and stunning psychological insight by authors such as Ottessa Moshfegh, Maggie O'Farrell, Lucy Foley, Gillian Flynn, Jennifer Egan, and countless others, including Stephen King and Joe Hill. After Midnight brings together some of du Maurier's darkest, most haunting stories, ranging from sophisticated literary thriller to twisted love story. Alongside classics such as "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now,"--both of which inspired unforgettable films--are gems such as "Monte Verit?," a masterpiece about obsession, mysticism, and tragic love, and "The Alibi," a chilling tale of an ordinary man's descent into lies, manipulation, and sinister fantasies that edge dangerously close to reality. In "The Blue Lenses," a woman recovering from eye surgery finds she now perceives those around her as having animal heads corresponding to their true natures. "Not After Midnight" follows a schoolteacher on holiday in Crete who finds a foreboding message from the chalet's previous occupant who drowned while swimming at night. In "The Breakthrough," a scientist conducts experiments to harness the power of death, blurring the line between genius and madness. Each story in this collection exemplifies du Maurier's exquisite writing and singular insight into human frailty, jealousy, and the macabre. She "makes worlds in which people and even houses are mysterious and mutable; haunted rooms in which disembodied spirits dance at absolute liberty" (Olivia Laing, author of Crudo). Daphne du Maurier is mistress of the sleight of hand and slow-burning menace, often imitated and rarely surpassed. Stories include: -"The Blue Lenses" -"Don't Look Now" -"The Alibi" -"The Apple Tree" -"The Birds" -"Monte Verita" -"The Pool" -"The Doll" -"Ganymede" -"Leading Lady" -"Not After Midnight" -"Split Second" -"The Breakthrough"
at the Dusk of Madness
.A Collection of Short Stories.The stories in this collection stretch across a wide canvas of genres, horror, science fiction, and poetic fables -- just to name a few. However, they are all united by a common thread, the examination of what truly separates the sane from the insane, the natural from the supernatural.Redcap Asylum - A doctor's investigation into her patient's claim that a mythical begin is to blame for his incarceration. Plague of Consequences - A town tries to bury its dark secret and inevitably must face the consequences. The Damned Rain - On his death a man stands trial for his life of sinful deeds. Along with a BRAND NEW story written just for this edition, The Creature - A man's dark warning of his spiral into an abyss of horror shrouded within the dark unlit alleyways of London. These and many more await.
Condemned To Be
Technology to fuse the human soul with a machine, mysterious imps of popular folklore, a sea captain with a tragic past, a freedom fighter with no future, the disappearance of familiar strangers, and the final trip you'll ever take. A collection of tales exploring free will in the face of the inevitable. The first collection by Stephen Howard.
Deux
In a city where the crowds have vanished, only two remain. Together they wander streets once filled with voices, searching for meaning in the stillness and for connection in each other. What begins as survival slowly unfolds into something deeper-a meditation on love, possibility, and the quiet rediscovery of life itself.Deux is a tender 50 x 50 micro novella that imagines a modern Eden: two souls, one world, and the boundless journey of what it means to be human, together.
Obligations to the Wounded
Winner of the 2024 Drue Heinz Literature Prize Longlist, 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction Winner, Minnesota Book Awards of 2025 Winner, 2025 CLMP Firecracker Award Finalist, 2024 Foreword Indies Award Cowinner, The Boston Globe's Best 75 Books of 2024 Winner The Minnesota Star Tribune Best Book of 2024 Cowinner, Brittle Paper 100 Notable African Books of 2024 Cowinner, The Continent's Top 5 African Books of 2024 In formally adventurous stories rooted in Zambian literary tradition, Obligations to the Wounded explores the expectations and burdens of womanhood in Zambia and for Zambian women living abroad. The collection converses with global social problems through the depiction of games, social media feuds, letters, and folklore to illustrate how girls and women manage religious expectation, migration, loss of language, death, intimate partner violence, and racial discrimination. Although the women and girls inhabiting these pages are separated geographically and by life stage, their shared burdens, culture, and homeland inextricably link them together in struggle and triumph.
Dare to Dream Trilogy
Dare to Dream is a trilogy of hope, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of dreams woven with the powerful truth that life s greatest transformations arise from daring to dream and recognising the pivotal moments that can change everything. In New York, MALCOLM, a struggling taxi driver with a love for music, fights against endless rejection and hardship. One day, a chance encounter with a mysterious passenger opens a door he never thought possible. In Zambia, ZAWADI, a determined young girl with nothing but chalk and a dream of fashion, refuses to give up even as the world tells her it s impossible. Her journey shifts dramatically when her sketches reach someone who can change her life forever. In Budapest, RON, a waiter with grand aspirations, dreams of managing the luxury hotels he can only admire from afar. His rise is a testament to grit and recognising opportunity in the unlikeliest of places. Dare to Dream is more than just three stories. It s a celebration of courage, resilience, and the power of believing in your vision. It s a reminder that those pivotal moments do exist and those who dare to dream and seize them can change their lives forever.
Cinema 46
Cinema 46 is a collection of short stories with different themes, all of interest to current readers, as they address universal issues. Paul Costa Gavin, the author of this book, has a Brazilian and North American cultural background, but the different focuses of his stories cannot be restricted to a single country or community. PC Gavin does not exempt any religion, political party, ideology, or philosophical prejudice from his critical approaches, which are personal, and never express other people s ideas. In addition to harshly criticizing the decadence of current culture, Paul Costa Gavin addresses in depth the problem of the meaning of human life, and this appears in all the stories in this book. The relationship between feeling and thought, the deep analysis of what it means to be human, and the always relevant question of the destiny of humanity permeate this entire book of short stories entitled Cinema 46.
