Authors note There seem to be a lot of Wild West stories floating around ... this one is a romantic fantasy, with an oddly singular and tongue in cheek look to a version of the Wild West. Enjoy. ***** Chapter 1 Caroline Bagshaw rested her head on the leather-covered steering wheel and wept. Her dream life, apparently so perfect two years previously, with...
Chapter 8 Tennessee In another few months, all hell would break loose in the Arkansas wildlife refuge I camped at overnight: the various hunting seasons would begin. Rabbits, squirrel, ducks, geese, deer, and even chipmunks beware! The hunters are coming! The hunters are coming! In absolute stillness, I stood with a small empty envelope in my hand, alon...
There was no doubt: she was crying. It triggered a reflex in him to reach out and comfort her. Except – he didn't. Why should he? She wasn't the one hurt, was she? He was. So why should she be the one crying? And yet, she was. Clear liquid trembled on the lower rims of her beautiful eyes – reflecting the candlelight. For a moment it clung to her painted l...
SHRINK WRAPPED By Marcia R. Hooper A Re-imagining of my 2001 Short Story The Girl Who Came Shrink-Wrapped Adapted from the short story: HE WHO SHRANK by Henry Hasse ONE On the afternoon it began, Kellie was at the mall, shopping with two friends. It was Friday and the three planned to shop until 6 o'clock, grab a pizza at Gino's, and then catch the 7...
Chapter One I saw her the first time at the bagel shop. It was the briefest of encounters, a quick "excuse me" from me, as I slipped past her to take my purchase to the register, then another moment as I held the door for her as we both left the shop and headed to our cars. Two hours later, when I could grab a couple of minutes at my desk between meetings...
Written by Embers © 2016-2017 This is dedicated to a special friend whose considerable input helped make this story possible—you know who you are. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE EDUCATION - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Four in a row. Guess I'm getting good at this, Eudora thought as her eyes followed another flustered shopper out the door. She yawned loud...
Author's note: So, here it is - the final chapter of Peter and Lindi's story of the year 2010. The year that brought us the first ever season of The Walking Dead, the travel chaos caused by ash from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, the rescue of 33 miners trapped underground in C...
Author's note: I feel rather proud of myself for managing to keep this story under the traditional forty-thousand-word lower limit for a novel -- if only by a little. As always, I've taken the time to lay the groundwork for the characters and story, and I hope you'll find the payoff worth it. MB "Good morning, Montana!" the obnoxious Johnny Temple bellows...
Hey Guys! So, this is a fantasy, for those that asked for one, here it is. Since I've done two sci-fi's last. Right, so same basic layout as usual. There's a small bit of incest in this one, at the beginning, but that's it. Just a warning, for those that hate that sort of thing, you can skim through it. It's a plot point, not a thing I wrote to stroke off by...
Foreword 'There's an interminable fog about the place; a fog that surrounds my body at all times, a fog that seeps all the way through into my mind. I can never get it to go, and sometimes I feel like I'm living a solitary existence in a secluded, remote cave in the middle of fucking nowhere. And I don't even get the sight of a misty coated sea to gaze at;...