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Scar Songs: Stories

by W. Royce Adams

SCAR SONGS contains nine stories dealing with male protagonists at various stages in life who experience events that leave either a psychological or physical memory scar. The stories cover dilemmas such as struggles with family loyalties, guilt after catching a shoplifter, suffering the loss of a loved one, the inability to forgive, and the breakdown of a professor while teaching his class.

She Taught Me Everything

by Amy Smith Linton

As long as she can remember, it's been Nicola and her sister Viv agains the world. Abandoned by their parents, the two of them managed to raise themselves. They turned out pretty well, too: Viv is a successful surgeon with a husband and a big house, while 26-year-old Nicola is following her passion as a working artist.

Nicola would have said she knew her charismatic older sister better than anyone in the world -- right up until that terrible midnight phone call. A car wreck has left... more

Next Stop, Boston

by Iris Dorbian

Sixteen-year-old Geri Randall's life is turned upside down when her late sister's fiance, Dez Deacon, a washed-up rock star, is named her guardian. Whisked away from the only life she knew and taken on a rock and roll tour, Geri is initially desperate to win Dez's approval. That desire hits a sour note when Dez's treatment of her becomes too much to bear. What ensues is a battle of wills between her and her temperamental guardian, a collision course that will push Geri to do the unthinkable to g... more

There's a Tortoise in My Hair

by Calvin Barry Schwartz

Cameron Simmons has always been haunted. It begins as a child, when Cam’s father bestows upon him an insult that will take a lifetime to outlive, blaming his slow development on a fictitious tortoise in his hair. From there, Cam’s hauntings multiply: The constant threat of the Vietnam War draft. Failed relationships—and chemical dependencies—that stack up like empty pill bottles. Unfulfilling career moves. And the nagging feeling that his life is just destined to mean . . . something, anything ... more

Triple Overtime

by Christopher Juliano

Fueled by the supernatural and a fallen anti-hero, in a story of redemption through both spirit and sport, a specter basketball team converges on a college campus to save a lost soul.

But I Digretch

by Gretchen Astro Turner

Love is a wavy lullaby sung through broken stained glass; Love is the sum of all our tries, the futures of hopes bypassed; Love is what catches up to us when the moment went too fast; Love is a sunrise dewdrop on a lonely blade of grass... The anaphora of this stanza (from one of the author’s surrealist, transcendental love poems) emphasizes what remains in the wake of life’s brutal inevitability of loss; it reflects the indestructible force -- of love -- that redeems after life... more

Perestroika: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth

by João Cerqueira

Perestroika overthrows communist regimes in Europe. In the People's Republic of Slavia the former leaders are trying to survive the new times, while their victims seek revenge. Former President Alfred Ionescu is placed in an asylum he himself built. Zut Zdanov, the head of culture, is confronted with his child abuse. Helena Yava, responsible for education, wants to avenge her lover's death. Igor Olin, responsible for the economy, fights for his disabled son to have a dignified life. Art histor... more

Fat Camp

by Blake Lucas

Desperate man launches an intense boot camp for eight reluctant clients who kinda, sorta, maybe, want to lose "fattage". Just about everything that can go side-ways, does go side-ways.

The Spirit In My Shoes

by John Michael Cummings

Title: THE SPIRIT IN MY SHOES Author: John Michael Cummings Category: Fiction Pages: 204 Trim: 5.5 x 8.5 ISBN: 978-1-960329-10-3 Format: Trade Paperback Publication Date: November 2023 Description: Featuring twenty-three stories, John Michael Cummings’s debut story collection brims with the vitality and complexity of our shared humanity. In tales that conjure comparisons to John Updike, Raymond Carver, and William Gay, Cummings tells the truth about loneliness, relationships, and t... more

Saving Raine

by Marian L. Thomas

When the life you've built crumbles and the past refuses to release its grip, sometimes you need a fresh start—a new beginning that promises hope and redemption. Once a celebrated author, Raine's life unraveled, sending her fleeing to the picturesque streets of Paris to escape the tormenting heartache that threatened to consume her. Yet, no matter how far she traveled, the pain remained her unwelcome companion. Returning to bustling Atlanta as a senior vice president for an... more

A Young Woman from the Provinces

by Jo Ann Kiser

From inhabitant of a cardboard cradle deep in the Kentucky hills to young romantic in New York City, Geneva Clay is transformed by her journey and yet indelibly the same.

As Geneva’s family migrates from one place to another, the once-familiar landscapes of her Kentucky childhood blend into a mosaic of poetic memories and near mythologies. In an Ohio college, she forms enduring friendships that provide both sustenance and education: Ella, an independent and empathetic spirit navig... more

Crazy Eye: A Novel of the Red River Wars

by Douglas Cornell

A precocious young boy joins his father on a hunt to capture a notorious renegade in the panhandle of Texas.

Tales From the Dickt: Rainbow Gash Edition

by Seth Wesley

From the forgotten catacombs of male phalli, a horrifying place of permanent testicular torture, comes a collection of short stories so radically harmful to the human psyche they had to be hidden in the deepest recesses of an abandoned cum factory. You hold in your hands a throbbing allegory for mental illness and crippling addictions. Tales from the Dickt: Rainbow Gash Edition, is a special rerelease of Wesley’s 2021 short story collection, Tales from the Dickt. The original text has b... more

The Rossi Agenda

by Aerin Shaw

Michael MacLaughlin is an up-from-nothing warm and charismatic 30-something who is working his brains out to earn a coveted VP title at the ridiculously large Conglomacom Corporation. The problem is that he’s about to be taken to the cleaners by his ‘Queen of Mean’ soon-to-be ex-wife. Her proposed divorce settlement means that he’ll be trapped in an upward spiral of hell – working impossible hours just to keep up, watching every raise and bonus go to his ex, and losing more time with Lillie, his... more

Death in a Gilded Frame

by Cecelia Tichi

Newport Summer 1899—yachts, balls, and famed artists eager to paint portraits of Society’s “Queens.” Western silver heiress Val Mackle DeVere (Mrs. Roderick W.) agrees to “sit” for a portrait for her beloved Roddy, only to stumble on a scene of bloody, grisly homicide at an art gallery. Like a figure from Pompeii, the dead Newport gallery manager screams in silence, his hands like claws clutching at a gilt frame pulled down over his head and shoulders while blood darkens his cream-colored ... more

Tween

by Sammi Leigh Melville

Don thought that death would be the end for him. Cherry thought she would have more time to spend with her brother. Both of them were wrong. Now, while Cherry tries to go about her life, unable to process that her brother's gone, Don wanders in a place between life and death, grappling with the discovery that moving on might come at a higher price than he's willing to pay. While there are a few others stuck in this strange between-place, Don finds that there's no way to be sure what happens n... more

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