Short Days

A well-meaning dad frets because his fifth-grade daughter dresses as Dracula for the first day of school in this funny short tale. Haunted by his own memories of childhood insecurity, he nervously awaits the call from school.

While some are nestled cozy in their traditions, others are lost in darkness. An unkindness of ravens lurk like a warning above them while they try to escape their inner demons and fight the dragons they've been trying to avoid. There's no enjoying fatal amounts of pie because their minds are slipping, slipping into a twisted delusion. They are the murderers, the disturbed, the unfortunate, and the misunderstood. These outliers are imprisoned by their circumstances until they slowly fade into the icy landscape, smothered by the forged façade of a perfect Christmas.

"When I was a young boy, I asked my grandfather how he proposed to his wife. He said that he showed my grandmother a magical moment." This is a fictionalized set of stories, loosely based on the memories of my father and the romance shared by his paternal grandparents.

Ambjorn and his wife, Jofrid, face death eye-to-eye when the peace of their home village is shattered. Thrown into a game where every move carries high consequence, every choice could be their last. But is it possible to win when playing against forces beyond your own comprehension?

Brianna, still in Lottawattah, Oklahoma, is now being pestered by the ghostly ex-girlfriend of main squeeze Detective Cooper Jackson. The apparition won't move away from Cooper and towards the light until Brianna figures out who killed her. Volume 2 of the series, a novella, finds Brianna selling lake lots for a new resort, attending her boyfriend's high school class reunion where the guests aren't all of this world, and tracking down a killer (or two).

A charming story recounting the day of a little girl who goes on a shopping trip with her mum with some degree of reluctance!

A man in an insane asylum believes his handlers are lizard-people wearing human skin.

When Kris visited that psychic, she thought it would be fun. She thought the woman would tell her things that she wanted to hear: that there was true love in her future, that there was fortune, fame...but what she got was a dire warning. "The woman you kill will come back to you, asking for forgiveness. You must give it to her." But Kris would never kill anyone....

A woman gets a cursed tattoo on her hand. A crow. If she does something against "the rules" it pecks at her. At first the rules are easy. Don't eat this food. Can't use that color lighter.... But they've gotten worse. So has the pain from the bites.

Zoe and her best friends make a pact to wear a Christmas mistletoe headband until a man kisses them. It worked for Kara, and Zoe's next in line. Now it's Saint Patrick's Day. Zoe's met handsome Irish businessman, Carrick Kelly, but can she lay her heart on the line for someone who may be gone in a few days. Her job depends on Carrick signing a contract with her advertising agency, but he doesn't think much of her boss's ideas.

Welcome to the busy, industrial port city of Steamkettle Bay, the second-largest city in all of Industralia. It's filled with manufacturing factories, airship docks, inventors, artists, and lots and lots of streetwise, clever kids. It's a warm Saturday in the summer of 1872, and somewhere in Steamkettle Bay, bad things are happening. Can Paisley Pockets and Christopher Cogan stop a crime in progress? They may be just a couple of kids, but where there's a will, and some smarts, there just might be a way.

This delightful short story was the first work of Jules Verne to be translated into English by Anne T. Wilbur in 1852. Just as the balloon starts rising, a stranger jumps in with the intention of taking it as high as possible without regard to his own safety or that of the pilot. During the long journey, this mysterious passenger relates the historical background of the quest for lighter-than-air travel.

It was Mother's Day and Robert Allman tried to prepare for the occasion. Tradition held that when worshippers attended church on Mother's Day, those whose mothers were alive wore red roses. Those whose mothers were passed, like Robert's, would wear a white rose. However, after he could only find a red rose to wear, he never dreamed, not in a million years, what was in store for him.

Papa was a great storyteller, and his daughter wouldn’t settle for recycled tales. While Papa was not interested in telling stories he was badgered enough to come up with a whopper. Prepare to smile, and to wonder what it would really be like if it were Christmas every day - at least the way we often celebrate it.

This is a story from the Bliss & Other Stories collection.

A selection of short stories. 456 - Will the hunter become the hunted? A man pays the price for his arrogance Human Nature - An animal victim is given a voice in this tragic tale of animal cruelty Susan - A chilling tale of suffocating "love"; just when does devotion become obsession? Jarls of the Ocean - Will a warrior be judged as a hero? A fighter faces an epic adversary.

Worlds collide when a time traveling New York mobster travels to ancient Egypt, before the Great Pyramids are constructed. He brings the Pharaoh many small, insignificant, unassuming, modern items like an iPod, a six-pack of beer, and the Encyclopedia entry "How the Great Pyramids were really built". Does he change the course of history, or does he set the present course while becoming an Egyptian God?

A powerful, heart-wrenching, concise Mother's Day story about perseverance. A male child is born into a home of unwarranted maternal hostility. As he grows, so does his mother's contempt for him with each passing day. In short, the mother's unrelenting contempt for her son backfires in a big way. Most listeners will leave astonished, amazed, and dazed.

Will was once a truck driver. When he was on Earth, his days were spent alone, traveling the highways for months until he went home to see his wife and family. Then Space Trucking became the new thing, and they didn't want pilots. They wanted men like him: the ones who were used to the isolation. Now after six years, Will has had his first break down, but this isn't a semi and there's no such thing as roadside assistance. When you break down in space, all that remains are the Cold Days.

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English travel writer, novelist and war correspondent during World War I. 'Dr. Faust's Last Day' tells the story of a 70-year-old scholar who lives a regular studious life. On his birthday he invites his friends over for lunch, but he is puzzled by a strange note written in red ink which arrives from an unknown gentleman. The writer says he cannot make the lunch party but will call just after midnight.