Download or read book Short Story Press Presents True Wind written by Short Story Press and published by Short Story Press. This book was released on 2012-09-19 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short Story Press Present True Wind by Matthew Kilpatrick “True Wind” is a fantasy adventure story set in a secondary world where magic exists and so do merfolk (although not in the form traditionally depicted in similar stories). Moonheart, a young merman of the Calm Winds tribe, is sent on a mission to rescue a human (or “drylander”) woman from the clutches of another drylander country’s enemy nation. He must also take his young, vulnerable sister, True Wind along, so that she may discover her destiny. The story features: • A secondary fantasy world filled with magic and other strange things • A young merman’s struggle with bravery and conflicting loyalties • A young secondary antagonist who hopes to discover her destiny, even if it means facing danger • A dangerous rescue mission performed in an unknown, foreign land • A climactic and unexpected resolution The story begins with a depiction of the lives of Moonheart and his fellow merfolk but soon transforms into a suspenseful adventure where the stakes are high and a false or ill-considered move can mean disaster. You will follow Moonheart’s quest to protect True Wind at any cost, even if it means denying her destiny. He may learn, however, that destiny is not something one can thwart, no matter how determined they may be. Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.
Download or read book Short Story Press Presents True Wind written by Short Story Press and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-22 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "True Wind" is a fantasy adventure story set in a secondary world where magic exists and so do merfolk (although not in the form traditionally depicted in similar stories). Moonheart, a young merman of the Calm Winds tribe, is sent on a mission to rescue a human (or "drylander") woman from the clutches of another drylander country's enemy nation. He must also take his young, vulnerable sister, True Wind along, so that she may discover her destiny. The story features: - A secondary fantasy world filled with magic and other strange things - A young merman's struggle with bravery and conflicting loyalties - A young secondary antagonist who hopes to discover her destiny, even if it means facing danger - A dangerous rescue mission performed in an unknown, foreign land - A climactic and unexpected resolution The story begins with a depiction of the lives of Moonheart and his fellow merfolk but soon transforms into a suspenseful adventure where the stakes are high and a false or ill-considered move can mean disaster. You will follow Moonheart's quest to protect True Wind at any cost, even if it means denying her destiny. He may learn, however, that destiny is not something one can thwart, no matter how determined they may be. Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.
Download or read book Short Story Press Presents Along The Prairie Winds written by Short Story Press and published by Short Story Press. This book was released on 2012-11-05 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short Story Press Presents Along The Prairie Winds by Daniel Newcomer Tyler and Caroline live an almost perfect life of love and marriage after buying a farm and taking on the many challenges that farm life provides. Everything was going well for more than ten years, until one night at the end of another terrible harvest brought on by drought when the entire foundation of Tyler and Caroline’s relationship was tested after a sudden accident in the field. Their prized and most beloved horse, Marquis de Sade, collapsed without any explanation, and upon breaking the news to Tyler, the happy couple dived into conflict of what they could possibly do to save the horse. Although they are worried about the upcoming winter months and their ability to survive, both Caroline and Tyler have different ideas regarding what they’ll do with Marquis. The conflict that evolves and the measures they take to solve this problem surrounding the horse begins to illuminate the meaning of a long-lasting love, while both Caroline and Tyler begin to see something else that was hidden within each of them, leading to a startling discovery that will forever change their relationship as they know it. Along The Prairie Winds is a story of love and conflict, and how these two things relate and can manifest other issues in disastrous situations. Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.
Download or read book Short Story Press Presents Getting Micky Dolenz written by Short Story Press and published by Short Story Press. This book was released on 2012-07-23 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short Story Press Presents Getting Micky Dolenz by Alicia Voss-Guillen “Getting Micky Dolenz” is a funny, touching, heart-warming story that will appeal equally to young adults, pop-culture lovers, and Monkees fans of all ages. Peppered with humor and full of heart, this is the tale of Julie Desmond—or, as she likes to call herself—Julie Desmond Dolenz, a thirteen-year-old living in the psychedelic sixties who is absolutely ape over drummer Micky Dolenz of the sensational, made-for-TV band, The Monkees. Ever since the show first aired in 1966—nearly a year ago now—Julie has been crazy about the sparkly-eyed drummer with magnetic personality and fluffy brown curls. And when Julie gets the chance of a lifetime—to meet Micky Dolenz at an exclusive Malibu party—no one on earth is happier than she. It takes one magical evening full of dreams come true for Julie to make a surprising discovery about crushes, first love, and finding romance where she least expects it. Julie’s scheming and dreaming about her favorite celebrity will strike a chord with any girl who has ever pined after a hunky movie star or musician. Her decidedly 1960’s lifestyle will tickle the fancy of those who lived through that colorful decade or merely wished to. Her idol-worship of The Monkees will cause Monkees fans, young and old, to be swept into the whirlwind adventure of Julie’s dream come true. Author Alicia Voss’s own love of The Monkees inspired her to concoct a tantalizing tale sure to be enjoyed by many readers. “Deciding on the title was easy,” she says. “As many may know, there’s an episode of the Brady Bunch entitled ‘Getting Davy Jones’ and featuring the Monkee of the same name. In my opinion, Micky Dolenz, much as he is loved, is an underappreciated talent, not to mention a wonderfully memorable personality! For these reasons, it only made sense to write a story entitled ‘Getting Micky Dolenz!’” Alicia Voss has been an avid follower of the Monkees since she was thirteen—Julie’s age. She has been to Monkees concerts, written endless amounts of fan mail, received personalized autographs from Davy Jones and Peter Tork (she still needs Micky’s and Mike’s!), and has even had the privilege of meeting Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz, her two favorite Monkees at a concert she went to for her fifteenth birthday. She is probably the only person in the world who has made their own Monkees paper dolls (complete with an extensive wardrobe of hand-drawn psychedelic clothes), carved Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz jack-o-lanterns, and named a stuffed animal D.W. Washburn (after the Monkees’ song). The death of Davy Jones in February 2012 was admittedly a very difficult time for her, but she plans to keep him alive in her memory always. As for Micky Dolenz, it has long been one of Alicia’s biggest dreams to go to lunch with him. “Who knows?” says the young author. “Maybe someday it will come true! I’d also love it if he read ‘Getting Micky Dolenz’!” Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.
Download or read book Short Story Press Presents Romance And Goblins written by Short Story Press and published by Short Story Press. This book was released on 2012-07-24 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short Story Press Presents Romance And Goblins by Blaise Marcoux Fourteen-year old Eador has never remembered a time he wasn't a slave to the goblins. In their dark kingdom underground, he works blindly at their tasks while suffering their belittlement. Finally, though, two warriors named Thorsen and Coreon rescue Eador from the creatures' grasp. The three humans journey to the village On The Rocks of Tyvar River, but not everything is as it seems. • Who is the mysterious goblin girl who spied on Eador all the time while he was imprisoned? What does she want from him? How could it change his life forever? • What secret lies in Eador's lineage, one hidden from him by both the goblin girl and Thorsen and Coreon? What secret does the girl hold from Eador as well? • Why does Coreon keep eying the boy with suspicion? Could he have ill-willed plans plotted out for one of his own kind? Two societies are at war - the goblins and the humans. In the end, how could Eador ever reject his own race in favor of one that has tortured him for so many years? What tips the balance for him... or is the balance even tipped? When Romance and Goblins becomes involved, the results will always be unpredictable. Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.
Download or read book Short Story Press Presents Across The Ocean written by Short Story Press and published by Short Story Press. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short Story Press Presents Across The Ocean by Helen Nazarenko The book Across the Ocean is not just any regular romantic love story. Because many readers often do not specialize in reading specifically only love stories when they read romance books, this story also incorporates various other topics or aspects into its structure in order to keep all kinds of readers entertained and engaged all throughout the tale, no matter what their personal reading preferences might actually happen to be. What that means is actually that the book happens to also include some very interesting and captivating fantasy parts, which can certainly help to grab readers’ attention and ensure that they follow every single twist and turn of the story, involving their minds in the plotline and understanding every single aspect and event with a perfect idea of what is happening. The way it is unique and unforgettable is also very noticeable. This is extremely important when it comes to keeping a group of readers entertained by a story, especially a short story, because a short story must fit a lot of meaning and action into a very limited space of only a few hundred words. However, Across the Ocean clearly performs this very well and strives to appeal to all sorts of readers in every way possible. Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.
Download or read book Short Story Press Presents Motionless written by Short Story Press and published by Short Story Press. This book was released on 2012-07-10 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short Story Press Presents Motionless by Magdalena Zielinska Benjamin wakes up, laying on a strange bed, in a strange room, in a house he has never seen. He can't remember what happened the night before or how he ended up in this place. Ideally, he would love to gather his belongings and go home but soon he realizes there is no going back from this house. He is not alone there and the girl who claims to be part of him is not exactly someone you could call a great companion. She's beautiful and, in very odd way, magical, but she seems very out-of-this-world distant. His efforts to get any information from her end up with her leaving and him being overly irritated. He ventures around the house and realizes how very off everything in it is. This house holds no sounds, no motion. Gravity seems to not be working well and the air... the air is very off, too. Benjamin is determined to find out the truth. He already knows it is connected with him and whatever he finds out will change his life forever. In the meantime, he also finds out a lot of things about the girl and grows feelings for her that only make it more difficult to let go... Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.
Download or read book Short Story Press Presents Barren written by Short Story Press and published by Short Story Press. This book was released on 2013-01-18 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short Story Press Presents Barren by Jesse Matthew Jacondin Four years ago, Nick Laverdi left his hometown of Barren in northern New Jersey and moved directly east to the city of New York. After the well-publicized collapse of the only famous person to ever come from Barren, the town picked up a crippling reputation that it was never able to shake. Each native bears its burden like a cross, and Nick is no different. He has spent his whole life trying to disassociate himself with his hometown, and on his first trip home since he left, Nick’s mission is simple: move his parents out of his childhood home. A drive down memory lane, otherwise known as Wanaque Avenue, quickly complicates this task. Memories abound as he conjures up thoughts of deceased friends, lost opportunities, miscalculated risks, and a town that is hard to escape successfully. It leaves Nick questioning why he ever thought he could get away in the first place. His arrival home does little to ease his torment. An emotional reunion with his mother and a distant reunion with his father offer glimpses into his own failures as he grew up and attempted to leave unscathed. Ultimately, a conversation with his older sister reminds Nick that even though he physically left Barren, it will take a lot more than relocating to wash away its stench completely. Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.
Download or read book These Precious Days written by Ann Patchett and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-11-23 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays. "The elegance of Patchett’s prose is seductive and inviting: with Patchett as a guide, readers will really get to grips with the power of struggles, failures, and triumphs alike." —Publisher's Weekly “Any story that starts will also end.” As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart. At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores “what it means to be seen, to find someone with whom you can be your best and most complete self.” When Patchett chose an early galley of actor and producer Tom Hanks’ short story collection to read one night before bed, she had no idea that this single choice would be life changing. It would introduce her to a remarkable woman—Tom’s brilliant assistant Sooki—with whom she would form a profound bond that held monumental consequences for them both. A literary alchemist, Patchett plumbs the depths of her experiences to create gold: engaging and moving pieces that are both self-portrait and landscape, each vibrant with emotion and rich in insight. Turning her writer’s eye on her own experiences, she transforms the private into the universal, providing us all a way to look at our own worlds anew, and reminds how fleeting and enigmatic life can be. From the enchantments of Kate DiCamillo’s children’s books (author of The Beatryce Prophecy) to youthful memories of Paris; the cherished life gifts given by her three fathers to the unexpected influence of Charles Schultz’s Snoopy; the expansive vision of Eudora Welty to the importance of knitting, Patchett connects life and art as she illuminates what matters most. Infused with the author’s grace, wit, and warmth, the pieces in These Precious Days resonate deep in the soul, leaving an indelible mark—and demonstrate why Ann Patchett is one of the most celebrated writers of our time.
Download or read book Short Story Press Presents Trapped In Margins written by Short Story Press and published by Short Story Press. This book was released on 2012-05-25 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short Story Press Presents Trapped In Margins by Blaise Marcoux Scandal forces Maria Posaltakis out of her job as a celebrity reporter. The paparazzi blacklists her, but media mogul Mark Bannerman takes her under his wing, intent on making Maria the newest addition to his politically-charged network AmeriPress News. He brings her to Isla Loci, his private resort, to personally train her on sticking to the channel's message. Then Chester, Mark's youngest son from a failed marriage, comes to the island. He's a moody, overweight bookish type who's just graduated from college and hates his father with an intense passion. • What mistake could be so heinous as to get Maria ostracized from an industry that makes questionable journalism calls every day? • What are Mark's intentions towards Maria? Did he really hire her purely for her skill or does he want something more intimate? • How will Chester respond to his father's interest in Maria? Is Chester interested in Maria? What else is Chester interested in... and how could it spell trouble for Mark's empire? Against the backdrop of a tropical paradise, a family conflict is brewing. Maria has to choose a side - the man who gave her a chance but with questionable motive, or his idealistic young son whose naïveté may be his doom. What of Maria's own motives? What will she do to get back into the news world's good graces? How far will she go to keep from being Trapped in Margins, unable to be herself in a world all about finding out other people's secrets? Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.
Download or read book Short Story Press Presents A Love In 3D written by Short Story Press and published by Short Story Press. This book was released on 2012-09-20 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short Story Press Presents Love In 3D by Valerie Lizotte What happens when you lose all hopes in yourself and in the world? Well, you become vulnerable and that’s what happened to Eddie, only he does not really know what is wrong with him until a meeting that will literally change his world and, in a very real way, his life. One day, as it is his habit, Eddie has stepped in a virtual travel cabin looking for a distraction from his bleak life and on an impulse he has made the journey to the era of 1950’s. An era that is so very different from his universe, somewhere in a not so distant, cold and unfriendly future, that Eddie is immediately fascinated with what he sees, with this much simpler and warmer life. He feels himself becoming alive again. There he also meets Marylyn, a pretty waitress working in a snack bar. She is so different from the women he has been keeping company with that Eddie feels himself attracted to her, attracted to how real and transparent she is. However, his engineer’s mind immediately sees the problem: Marylyn is not real and is the product of sophisticated computer coding. He tries to rationalise his attraction for her, but nothing can convince his heart and that is where the trouble starts. Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.
Download or read book Short Story Press Presents Masque Of Deceit written by Short Story Press and published by Short Story Press. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short Story Press Presents Masque Of Deceit by Jordan Lane KATHERINE CRENSHAW, whose real name was FENTON, was raised by foster parents. Although she knew she was adopted she accepted the fact that her true family would not return for her. As the days went by Katherine lived a tranquil life until one phone call changed everything. When her uncle came to retrieve her at her foster parent’s home, and invited her to FENTON MANOR, Katherine found more that she bargained for in the way of a family who resented her presence and old jealousies with evil intent, hidden beneath a veneer of civility. Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.
Download or read book Short Story Press Presents Fix Reset and Reload written by Short Story Press and published by Short Story Press. This book was released on 2012-06-30 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short Story Press Presents Fix, Reset, and Reload by Blaise Marcoux Crusher Bruskiewicz doesn't believe he can be stopped. The fifteen-year old takes every challenge thrown his way, bolstering his fearsome reputation and encouraging his bullying ways. Some of his adventures are hazy in his mind, though, and hard to remember specifically. What the teenager doesn't know is that he keeps dying from his misadventures, only to be teleported into the future and repaired before being sent back to his own time. • Who is Crusher's real father, and how does that play into why the boy keeps being patched up by medics from a completely different century? • What strange future keeps its watchful eye on a young hooligan as he risks life and limb far in the past? • What plans are being made concerning Crusher's fate by his father? How could it spell a very bleak destiny indeed for the misbehaving kid? Welcome to a future where corporations own people completely and time travel is a study option at the university. A time full of hovercars and holograms, space aliens and a totally privatized military industrial complex. Crusher had better prepare himself for another Fix, Reset, and Reload, because next time, he could very well meet his doom. Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.
Download or read book A Kite in the Wind written by Andrea Barrett and published by Trinity University Press. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Kite in the Wind is an anthology of essays by 20 veteran writers and master teachers. While the contributors offer specific, practical advice on such fundamental aspects of craft as characterization, character names, the first person point of view, and unreliable narrators, they also give extended, thoughtful consideration to more sophisticated topics, including “imminence,” or the power of a sense of beginning; creating and maintaining tension; “lushness”; and the deliberate manipulation of information to create particular effects. The essays in A Kite in the Wind begin as personal investigations — attempts to understand why a decision in a particular story or novel seemed unsuccessful; to define a quality or problem that seemed either unrecognized or unsatisfactorily defined; to understand what, despite years of experience as a fiction writer, resisted comprehension; and to pursue haunting, even unanswerable questions. Unlike a how-to book, the anthology is less an instruction manual than it is an intimate visit with twenty very different writers as they explore topics that excite, intrigue, and even puzzle them. Each discussion uses specific examples and illustrations, including both canonical stories and novels and writing less frequently discussed, from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, by both American and international authors. The contributors share their hard-earned insights for beginning and advanced writers with humility, wit, and compassion. The first section of the book focuses on narration, with particular attention paid to various kinds of narrators; the second, on strategic creation and presentation of character; the third, on some of the roles of the visual, beginning with establishing setting; and the fourth, on structural and organizational issues, from movement through time to the manipulation of information to create mystery and suspense. Contributors include Wilton Barnhardt, Andrea Barrett, Charles Baxter, Karen Brennan, Maud Casey, Lan Samantha Chang, Robert Cohen, Stacey D’Erasmo, Judy Doenges, Anthony Doerr, C. J. Hribal, Michael Martone, Kevin McIlvoy, Alexander Parsons, Frederick Reiken, Steven Schwartz, Dominic Smith, Debra Spark, Megan Staffel, Sarah Stone, and Peter Turchi.
Download or read book The Western Wind written by Samantha Harvey and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Staunch Book Prize. “A beautifully written and expertly structured medieval mystery packed with intrigue, drama and shock revelations.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune An extraordinary new novel by Samantha Harvey—whose books have been nominated for the Man Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize), and the Guardian First Book Award—The Western Wind is a riveting story of faith, guilt, and the freedom of confession. It’s 1491. In the small village of Oakham, its wealthiest and most industrious resident, Tom Newman, is swept away by the river during the early hours of Shrove Saturday. Was it murder, suicide, or an accident? Narrated from the perspective of local priest John Reve—patient shepherd to his wayward flock—a shadowy portrait of the community comes to light through its residents’ tortured revelations. As some of their darkest secrets are revealed, the intrigue of the unexplained death ripples through the congregation. But will Reve, a man with secrets of his own, discover what happened to Newman? And what will happen if he can’t? Written with timeless eloquence, steeped in the spiritual traditions of the Middle Ages, and brimming with propulsive suspense, The Western Wind finds Samantha Harvey at the pinnacle of her outstanding novelistic power. “Beautifully rendered, deeply affecting, thoroughly thoughtful and surprisingly prescient . . . a story of a community crowded with shadows and secrets.” —The New York Times Book Review “Ms. Harvey has summoned this remote world with writing of the highest quality, conjuring its pungencies and peculiarities.” —The Wall Street Journal “Brings medieval England back to life.” —The Washington Post
Download or read book Commonwealth written by Ann Patchett and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Exquisite. . .Commonwealth is impossible to put down.” — New York Times #1 New York Times Bestseller | NBCC Award Finalist | New York Times Best Book of the Year | USA Today Best Book | TIME Magazine Top 10 Selection | Oprah Favorite Book | New York Magazine Best Book of The Year The acclaimed, bestselling author—winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize—tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families’ lives. One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families. Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them. When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another. Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together.
Download or read book Trees Without Wind written by Rui Li and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012-12-25 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Trees without wind takes place in a remote Shanxi village during the Cultural Revolution. A rare affliction has left the residents physically stunted, and the deformed villagers, echoing the manipulated masses of China, become pawns in the Party's factional infighting."--Book cover.
