Fiction – Page 5 – Readers Alley

Category: Fiction

Literary Short Stories – Jenny on the Street

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And Other Tales of Reverence and Revolution by a Very Young Man

Literary Fiction, Short Stories

Published: January 2021

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

“Dark and twisted a bit like Stephen King,” is how one reader recently described “Jenny on the Street: And Other Tales of Reverence and Revolution by a Very Young Man.”

A desperate young woman lost on the drug-infested streets of London, an insane revolutionary holding the devil in a jar, an indifferent truck driver forced to run over cats and a reverent grandmother looking for God in a rock. All of them are among the unforgettable characters inhabiting these 13 short stories set amidst the magic, majesty, mystery, and mayhem of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was a surreal era of extreme idealism, exaggerated exuberance, ferocious fearlessness, and foolish folly. A period in which the scent of change permeated every tree, town, and tent. A time, in other words, much like our own.

Excerpt

THE SUN’S TRUMPETER

Mornings you could see him from the boardwalk. See him, that is, if you happened to be up that early. A tiny, upright silhouette bathed by the endless orange of the sunrise over the sea. You couldn’t tell what he was doing all alone on the beach at that hour. Probably nothing, you’d think. Perhaps he was just walking. It’d make a nice photo; wish I had my camera, you’d think. And then you’d hurry on your way because it had been a wicked all-nighter and you were eager to get home for some much-needed sleep.

But long after you had gone, long after you lay dreaming comfortably in the mahogany bed next to your wife, the sad silhouette remained on the beach. Remained, outlined by the increasingly brilliant sunrise, like a stubborn matchstick in the corner of a fireplace refusing to be consumed by the fire it had kindled.

The first time Sean ever saw the gleaming trumpet, it had been sitting in the window of George’s Loan & Music Co. on King Street. The boy’s eyes had lit up, but he said nothing. Sean seldom did say anything. But it was enough to catch the attention of his grandfather, who stayed finely attuned to virtually any emotion that clawed its way to the surface of the young boy’s face. “Do you like that trumpet?” the old man asked. “Would you like to take it home?” As usual, nothing erupted from the boy’s mouth. But the light in his eyes seemed to flare for an instant, just long enough to spark a decision on his grandfather’s part. “Let’s go in,” he said. “Let’s take a look.” And that was the beginning of Sean’s obsession with the ancient trumpet someone had hawked, and his grandfather had bought.

About The Author

David Haldane, a former Los Angeles Times staff writer, authored the award-winning 2015 memoir “Nazis & Nudists.” In addition to his journalism, essays and short fiction, Haldane has written and produced radio features for which he was awarded a Golden Mike by the Radio & Television News Assn. of Southern California. He currently divides his time– with his wife and two children–between homes in Joshua Tree, California, and Northern Mindanao, Philippines, where he writes a weekly newspaper column called “Expat Eye.”

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Suspenseful Drama – Old Mrs. Kimble’s Mansion – EXCERPT

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Suspenseful Drama

Date Published January 2021

Publisher: Speaking Volumes

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Forty-four-year-old Forrest Alderson isn’t at all sure of his motives for returning from self-imposed exile to Asher Heights, West Virginia, to see his hometown for the first time since he graduated from college. All he knows for certain is it’s something he has to do if he is to find out whether he can break free from the tragedy that compelled him to flee or whether he is forever doomed to be imprisoned by it.

He has spent the intervening twenty-three years in sacrificial preparation, striving obsessively to become enormously wealthy with one exclusive goal: to at long last take possession of Old Mrs. Kimble’s mansion, no matter the cost, and let that magnificent structure he has coveted since he was a poor boy stand as proof to one and all that native son Forrest Walker Alderson has done himself proud.

Or could it be his return is motivated – as his attorney, Olivia Fillmore, fears – by revenge, an evil desire to rub his great wealth and success into the face of the one person who caused him to hermit himself away all those years without a wife, children, or even a close friend?

To have any chance of finding the answers he so desperately needs, Forrest will have to struggle through a challenging new romance, an addiction to a perilous old love, a sensational murder trial, and the inevitable decision about what to do with the rest of his life.

About The Author

George T. Arnold, Ph.D., is a professor emeritus in the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Marshall University where he taught news and feature writing, language skills, ethics, and media law for 36 years. He worked full-time for seven years as a newspaper reporter to finance bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Marshall, and he has a doctorate in journalism and mass communications from Ohio University.

His textbook/resource book, Media Writer’s Handbook, a Guide to Common Writing and Editing Problems, is in its seventh edition and third decade of continuous publication. It has been purchased at more than 300 colleges and universities in the United States and abroad.

Dr. Arnold is the author of more than 50 professional and academic articles and has written a short story, One Minute Past Christmas, and two novels, Wyandotte Bound, and Old Mrs. Kimble’s Mansion.

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EXCERPT

Chapter One

A Curious Request

1985

“Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting that,” Mr. Vermillion utters as he hangs up his phone and steps into the outer office to share the news with Cassandra Pierce, his partner at their law firm on Stanford Avenue in downtown Asher Heights, West Virginia.

“Not expecting what, John?” Cassandra mumbles, her mind focused on her day’s work schedule.

“A call with a curious request from a big-shot attorney at one of Chi-cago’s most prestigious outfits.”

“Oh?” Cassandra responds with a little more enthusiasm, sensing she could be about to hear something that might provide a break from the monotony in the daily routine of a couple of small-town lawyers.

“Get this, Cassandra. It seems someone who doesn’t want us to know his identity is hiring us to buy the old Kimble mansion for him, and never anybody mind that it may not even be on the market.”

“Fine with me,” Cassandra answers without looking up from her pa-pers, “but what if it’s not for sale? What makes that Chicago lawyer representing ‘Mr. Anonymous’ think we, of all people, can buy it? We’re not even in the real estate business.”

“To me, that’s the challenging part, my friend. That and the mysteri-ous nature of the request. ‘Money’s no object!’ ” she said. “In fact, she said it twice.

“The guy is so dead set on having that mansion, its condition is no barrier either. And what’s more, he’s sending us a five-thousand-dollar retainer this afternoon!” George T. Arnold

Literary Fiction –

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Literary Fiction

Date Published: August 26, 2020 (ebook); September 22, 2020 (print)

Publisher: Propertius Press

Tolan has always let her mother have one secret — how she got that scar on her face — playing along with her mother’s game of inventing outlandish tales to explain the wound away. But when she finds a manuscript on her mother’s computer that promises to reveal the true story, Tolan only hesitates for a moment before curiosity compels her to read on.

She’s hoping for answers, but instead, she finds more mysteries tucked away in her mother’s past. Her mother appears to be associated with Bo, a feisty photojournalist who flies to Cuba in pursuit of a story and becomes embedded with Castro’s rebels, but Tolan can’t quite work out their connection. She’s more clear about the relationship between her mother and Michael, a man twelve years her senior. They bond over their shared outcast status, and their friendship quickly becomes intimate, but the relationship antagonizes the self-appointed moral watchdogs in their small town, who start to convert their threats into action. Tolan is pretty sure that Michael is her father. Her mother told her he died years ago, but the book suggests their story had a different ending.

Almost overnight, everything Tolan thought she knew about herself and her family has changed. She wants answers, but to find them, she risks destroying her closest relationships.

About the Author

Ciahnan Darrell’s short stories and essays have appeared in several journals, most recently in The Columbia Review, and his story, ‘What Remains,’ was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is a contributing editor at Marginalia, an international review of literature along the nexus of history, theology, and religion. He holds an MDiv from the University of Chicago, an MA in philosophy and the arts from Stony Brook University, and an MA and PhD in comparative literature from the University at Buffalo. A Lifetime of Men is his first novel.

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Historical Romantic Fiction – Dream of the White Stallion

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Historical Romantic Fiction, Coming of Age, Romance

Publisher: Page Publishing

Kathryn Alexander, writing in her personal journal, describes her coming of age while dealing with childhood bullies and a dying mother. She is a shy teenager living in 18th century England, the era when Thoroughbred racing and breeding became the rage among the aristocracy. She has always loved horses, and even though her Irish father is an exceptional, but nontraditional, equine trainer and healer, her humble working-class family could never afford one of the beautiful animals. Although a commoner herself, Kathryn secretly loves William Stanley, the handsome young viscount who shares her passion and affinity for horses. Kathryn and her father save a crippled, young foal and raise it only to have the filly stolen the night her father is killed. This horrific event spirals Kathryn into a nightmare of desperate destitution, destructive choices, and eventually a spiritual journey that will change her life forever. Will she solve the mystery of her father’s murder, find forgiveness for her crushing guilt, and overcome the class differences that separate her from the man she loves?

Excerpt

“The massive stallion, silvery in the moonlight, was rending the air with his screams. From my vantage lying helpless on the ground beneath him, it appeared as if he was trying to claw a hole in the sky, his front legs thrashing above me. Any moment now he was going to return those hooves to the earth, most likely crushing my skull. I shrieked and tried to roll out from under the giant, white beast. I could feel the ground shake below as his feet pounded back to earth- had he missed me by inches? I kept rolling as I heard another blast from his nostrils, and then he was rearing again. I had the sensation of several men struggling and shuffling around me, hauling on ropes, shouting, and trying in vain to control the colossal energy of the maddened animal. I could smell their rank sweat and my own fear. But none of their faces or voices seemed clear. My only focus was on the piercing scream of the stallion and avoiding those stomping, flailing hooves.”

About The Author

Julia Oliver, like her heroine, has also loved horses from an early age. With her veterinarian husband, they have raised and trained jumpers, eventers, and carriage animals ever since their marriage in 1970. In her younger years, Julia was a high school teacher, but in the last decade has dedicated her life to Meadowstone Therapeutic Riding Center where she provides riding lessons to children with disabilities and also directs equine psycho-therapy for adult clients from a residential addictions program. Julia has previously written two non-fiction books that have gained wide acceptance in her field of therapeutic riding and carriage driving. She and her husband have lived on their Meadowstone farm for 43 years and are active members and teachers in their non-denominational church.

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Literary Fiction – No Birds Sing Here

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Literary Fiction

Date Published: March 1, 2021

Publisher: Boutique of Quality Books

In this indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time, two young pseudo-intellectuals, Beckman and Malany, set out on an odyssey to define the artistic life, and in doing so, unleash a barrage of humorous, unintended consequences. NO BIRDS SING HERE is a multi-layered novel about a Post-Modernist America in which characters are struggling to survive in an increasingly chaotic world.

Excerpt

Beckman thought that this would be an excellent metaphor for his first novel, just the thing he had been looking for. Often during that month, the screaming cats got to him. The very first notes would send him raging to the window to fling it open and shout down, “Quiet!” The cats hardly glanced up. It was apparent that they were somewhere outside of his control.

About The Author

A retired Aviation Safety Inspector for the FAA, Daniel V. Meier, Jr. has always had a passion for writing. During his college years, he studied History at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington (UNCW) and American Literature at The University of Maryland Graduate School. In 1980 he published an action/thriller with Leisure Books under the pen name of Vince Daniels.

He also worked for the Washington Business Journal as a journalist and has been a contributing writer/editor for several aviation magazines. In addition to, No Birds Sing Here, he is the author of the award-winning historical novel, The Dung Beetles of Liberia that was released in September 2019 by BQB Publishing.

Dan and his wife live in Owings, Maryland, about twenty miles south of Annapolis and when he’s not writing, they spend their summers sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.

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Romantic Women’s Fiction – Eat Your Heart Out

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Starting Over Series, Book 2

Romantic Women’s Fiction / Romcom / ChickLit

Date Published: March 17, 2021

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

When a tyrant in stilettos replaces her beloved boss, and her ex snags her coveted job, teacher Dana Narvana discovers there are worse things than getting dumped on Facebook. Time for the BFF advice squad. Alex—hunky colleague, quipster, and cooking pal extraordinaire is Dana’s staunchest ally. So what’s with the smooching after hours? And why won’t this grown man make up his mind?

Actor turned teacher Alex Bethany craves a family of his own. Newly hotified, he’s now got the confidence to try online dating. Meanwhile he’s sending Dana mixed messages in the kissing department. After a surprising event rocks his world, Alex panics, certain he’s blown his chances with his special person.

Funny and bittersweet, Dana and Alex’s story will have you rooting for them all the way to dessert.

Excerpt

“So, this is what it’s like being on a date with you.” Dana hesitated—caught herself. “This isn’t a date, is it?

Her voice flattened and she took a sip of wine. “Oh, I’m not belittling your gesture, bringing me to this fine establishment. But it isn’t a date because you’re seeing that woman, aren’t you? The one you asked me for advice about.”

Alex fidgeted. Idiot. Asking Dana how to recognize the signs a woman was interested––what had he been thinking? What could be more awkward? This. This was definitely up there on the list of more awkward moments.

“You’ve always been straight with me,” she said, holding the wine glass in midair.

That little flash of skin whenever she raises her arm. He picked up his wine glass. At this rate, he’d have to order a second bottle, simply to block his mind from going where it shouldn’t.

“Alex, do it again, be straight.”

He leaned in, took the glass from her hand and put it on the table. “Come closer,” he said. “I want to whisper sweet somethings in your ear.”

She bent toward him, a puzzled but amused expression percolating, her face glowing in the subtle lighting.

“Yes?” Her voice throaty, challenging.

“This is a date,” he said and tilted his head, brushed her lips with his, pulled back slightly, and did it again.

About the Author

Shirley Goldberg is a writer, novelist, and former ESL and French teacher who’s lived in Paris, Crete, and Casablanca. She writes about men and women of a certain age starting over. Her website http://midagedating.com offers a humorous look at living single and dating in mid life. Eat Your Heart Out is the second book in the series Starting Over. Middle Ageish, the first, is available now and Shirley’s friends like to guess which stories in the book are true. Her characters believe you should never leave home without your sense of humor and Shirley agrees.

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Suspenseful Drama – Old Mrs. Kimble’s Mansion

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Suspenseful Drama

Date Published January 2021

Publisher: Speaking Volumes

Other Books by George T. Arnold:

Wyandotte Bound

Adventure, Western

Publisher: Speaking Volumes

Published: January 2020

Bound, like many other strong words, finds its meaning in the perceptions of those it affects. To the Van Sheltons, it is positive and deep-rooted, defining their ties to a vast amount of land abundant in the timber, cattle, and silver that make them the wealthiest and the most powerful family in the town of Wyandotte and influential throughout the state of Nevada.

To J.D. Rohr, who has no money and few prospects, bound is a hopeful force, driving him to Wyandotte, where he assumes the identity of Jesse Bodine in a desperate attempt to live in obscurity, hiding from his reputation as one of the West’s most feared gunfighters.

For Dr. Frederick Albert Carlisle, an aristocratic Boston physician who becomes Jesse’s friend despite their romantic rivalry, bound is a magnetic lure that compels him to abandon his Beacon Hill mansion, his upper-class privileges, and his affluent patients in a quest to give meaning to his life by serving poor westerners sorely in need of his healing knowledge.

As for Honoria Lowell Blaire and Lillian Tomlinson Wellesley, blue-blooded descendants of two of New England’s oldest and most distinguished families, bound represents the chains that will bind them to “a God-forsaken wilderness” if they choose to live with the men they love instead of clinging to their pampered lives among America’s nobility.

And for the incomparably beautiful Jolene Lloyd, being bound is the same as virtual imprisonment when she is coerced into saving her family from financial catastrophe by being shackled to a ruthless, emasculated tyrant driven by hatred and bitterness to take control of Wyandotte and force the mighty Van Sheltons to grovel at his feet.

These and the other men and women of Wyandotte, the good and the bad, battle for a quarter of a century to determine their region’s fate during the fading years of the Western Frontier.

Media Writer’s Handbook

A Guide to Common Writing and Editing Problems

Writing, Editing

Popular with all audiences. The eight chapters in Part 1, “Improving Immediately,” provide opportunities for rapid and dramatic improvement in both writing and speaking skills. The book concludes with Part 4, Quick Reference, equally popular with Part 1 among students, teachers, mass media professionals and reviewers. It gives them more than 1,500 fast-check answers for words frequently confused, words frequently misspelled, irregular verbs, wordiness and trite expressions.

A thorough review. Parts 2 and 3 provide a thorough review of grammar and punctuation, the tools of a communicator’s trade. These 22 chapters are filled with detailed explanations, examples and advice on parts of speech, punctuation, sentence functions and structures, and syntax.

Speed and convenience are enhanced by the comprehensive table of contents and the index.

Free student workbook and an instructor’s manual. Teachers may obtain a workbook for students and an instructor’s manual free upon request. They can be used to supplement writing and editing courses or to provide a complete language skills course.

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One Minute Past Christmas

An Appalachian Christmas Short Story

Family Life

Publisher: Regency Solutions

One Minute Past Christmas is the story of a Greenbrier County, West Virginia, family in which a grandfather and his granddaughter share a special ability — they call it a gift — that enables them to briefly witness each year a miraculous gathering in the sky. What they see begins at precisely one minute past Christmas and fills them with as much relief as it does wonder. But they worry that the “gift” — which they cannot reveal to anyone else — will die with them because it has been passed to no other relative for forty-four years.

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About The Author

Dr. Arnold is the author of more than 50 professional and academic articles and has written a short story, One Minute Past Christmas, and two novels, Wyandotte Bound, and Old Mrs. Kimble’s Mansion.

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