Porter Solomon, manuscript reviewer for a publishing company suddenly finds himself unintentionally falling into the stories he's reading. With his sanity and his job at stake, he enlists a fellow employee to help him solve his dilemma, placing both their careers in jeopardy.…
Frustrated by the inability to achieve some meaningful contribution, Rick Stanton has lost his direction in life through a festering annoyance over his own unmet expectations. Jaded with creating slogans and promotions for people whose enterprises make no truly meaningful contributions to the welfare of society, he is driven to a spontaneous, rash act - he quits.…
Entry in the 2026 Flabbergasting Flash-Fic Smackdown based another picture prompt from the wild minds of the challenge promotors.…
Based loosely on ONC2026 prompts 32 and 33.Two assassins from rival organizations are sent on the same mission, and in a very short time they each find themselves shifting from their chosen profession to the unexpected role of nanny.…
Entry in The Multigenre Mashup Smackdown 2023, based on the starting prompt of a flat earth concept.…
A young female college student at an end of term beach party in a small community s found murdered. A young man with a mental illness is convicted of the crime but the girl's uncle is not satisfied with the findings and sets out to learn the truth himself.…
Part 2 of 4 (The Stainway Quartet)Nigel Returns to Ashton Hills after a miserable attempt at fame in the big city. It is the 25th Anniversary of the playhouse, and while he's back to assuage his moral conscience, he gets roped in once again with the same crowd he felt caused all his mental grief in the first place . . . and he's about to get some more.This book is a sequel to The Playing Fields.The next book in the series is You Oughta Be In Pictures…
This is the original short story that inspired the poem, The Tale of Edward Brown, in my Poems Primarily Narrative (or not) collection. At the time, the poem was quite well received, and I set the book aside, but so much time has passed I thought maybe it might just draw some interest on its own.5 chapters roughly 6000 words…
Cover courtesy of @BarryVoslooAn action adventure pirate tale with all the expected elements. The ship carrying the governor's daughter is attacked at sea and she is kidnapped by Tortuga's most notorious pirate, Terrance Hollick. Spirited away to their haven in a hidden cavern on the rocky north coast, Alicia Francorte discovers a lot more about the pirate captain than she imagined and when her father's ships come looking for her, the action builds.…
My entry in the TEGSA2025 challenge. 10 chapters based on specific musical prompts for each chapter.Charlie Croft had it all and lost it - his own fault. This is his rocky journey, trying to recapture all the things he carelessly threw away, and only now realizes it wasn't just things he discarded - it was his life.…
A small collection of short word challenge stories presented by The PoetsPub quite a while ago. Just some idle reads for anyone interested with a few minutes to spare.…
SELECTED FOR FEATURED LIST BY WATTPAD PICKS - JUNE/20182nd PLACE IN THE 2018 CORONA MYSTERY AWARDSTed Wagner has taken a sabbatical from life to travel and write. He chose the desolation of the southwest to escape from the city's pace. On a whim he gets off the bus he was riding in the middle of nowhere at a roadside diner and decides to begin his search for a story there. He's not in the diner more than fifteen minutes when the place is robbed and the waitress murdered right before his eyes.…
FIRST PLACE COFFEE AFTER DARK WRITING CONTEST - JULY 2020This collection has no particular category or message. They are errant thoughts and observations on various subjects. If interested, I hope you find some you enjoy.…
THIRD PLACE IN HISTORICAL FICTION - 2020 SOAP AWARDSWith nothing to remain for or even forget, Allison Bleeker listened eagerly to the descriptions offered by the agent who encouraged her signature on the marriage contract that would see her travelling west, dreaming of a new start in life with the man who sent for her.The nightmare awaiting her would give her something she would never forget.…
At age nine years, Emmeline witnesses, undetected, the brutal killings of her parents and the main man responsible. A child's promise over her parent's grave sites leads to a lifetime of tracking down the killers, carrying the vivid memories and feeding her quest for retribution.…
*** FIRST PLACE WINNER UIC2023 ***12 chapter contest based on specific weekly prompts. An assassin realizes something isn't right about the new target they've been given. They switch sides to save the person they were meant to kill.…
ONC2025 Round 2 winner, Ambassador Pick and Long List Selection Entry based on Prompt 110. 20 days of freedom and Prompt 77. In a world where art and entertainment are forbidden, you're born to challenge the system and change the world.…
Rule Number Two follows the dramatic adventure of Hitman Dane Chase and the woman he refused to kill in Rule Number One, as the man who hired him tracks him to the island of St. Lucia and back, for revenge.…
A retired homicide detective finds that retiring physically and retiring mentally are very different animals. A two-week getaway for sun and relaxing start right away with curiosity that leads to involvement, and that leads to defending the life of a widow as well as his own.…
A peek into a few weeks of the disparate life in a small town, as it prepares for a holiday weekend. Fictional, flawed, facetious, fumbling, and fundamentally funny (hopefully).Hope this provides a bit of a change and some smiles.As always, my stories are complete before posting (contests excepted). So the chapters will be posted regularly.…