Stories

When Ned agrees to give his neighbour cooking lessons, he finds himself being drawn into the life of ex-con, Garry, and his daughter, Lizzie. Garry is trying to turn his life around, but as Ned finds out, moral support and cooking lessons will only go so far.

Follow Roland, his brother Oliver, and their friends as they navigate a day filled with humor, concern over a stubbed pinky toe, and an unexpected revelation through a visit to Karl's soothsayer grandmother.

Horrified, I jumped off and rode home standing on the pedals, moving like the wind. Mother took one look at me and had me lie on the couch with my shorts and underwear around my ankles. She tried to pull the splinter out, and I screamed bloody murder. Then she wrapped some ice cubes in a facecloth, hoping to numb the area before trying again. Have you ever had an ice cube escape its confinement and pause as if deciding how far it should travel? I now know that water seeks its own level, and ice-cold water is no exception. It found the perfect valley to irrigate.

The poem explores the truth that not everyone who walks beside you is meant to stay. Each couplet reflects on how people enter our lives, share moments, and sometimes drift away. The refrain “beside you” reinforces the theme of closeness that isn’t always permanent.

A mythic retelling of the American Revolution told as an epic poem. Ordinary colonists rise into heroic figures as they confront an empire and fight for liberty. Blending history with legendary imagery, the poem follows their trials, sacrifices, and triumphs as fate, courage, and unseen forces shape the birth of a new nation. It is a narrative of struggle, hope, and the forging of a republic.

When Jamie and Connor find themselves stranded on a deserted island, they have to learn to put their rivalry aside and work together to overcome the challenges of the island and the primal urges of being young, red-blooded American men. Hate, lust, danger, and survival come together to forge a relationship that just might save their young lives.

The first time Niran Shin meets him, Kaleo Rana is having a meltdown of epic proportions. Breaking glass shelves with a baseball bat after a terrible breakup. Niran Shin loves Kaleo’s vibrant personality, but their worlds seem too far apart. Niran is on a path of vengeance and has no desire to pull Kaleo into his world. Then, a villain asks Niran for a favor that places Kaleo’s life in danger, and Niran has no choice but to pull Kaleo into his world. A world haunted by an unknown, vicious villain who threatens their future together. Will Kaleo ever choose him? And what will it cost him?

Ben and Cole are roommates, gym bros, and competitors who don't back down. When Ben impulsively bets his roommate Cole that he can spend the entire month locked in a chastity cage—loser has to clean their apartment for a month—Cole expects him to crack by day two. But as the month drags on, the guys try to outlast each other, until a surprise side bet ups the ante.

Owen has never met his best friend.

For four years Xavier has been a voice in his headset. Xavier knows about the dog Owen lost at nine. He knows which voice Owen uses when he's lying about being fine.

Xavier lives two thousand miles away. That's what Owen believes.

At midnight, when a man appears under the tree across the street and won't leave, Owen calls the one person who always picks up.

Xavier tells him to breathe and stay away from the window, and promises he's safe.

Xavier means every word.

He's lying about almost everything else.

A note on this story: it is written in the dense, melancholy register of 19th-century Gothic fiction, and does not shy from grief, loneliness, or loss along its way to its ending.

For a hundred and fifty years, Jack has walked a county that has forgotten him, a farm boy who bartered his soul at a crossroads and paid twice over for it. Refused by Heaven, unclaimed by Hell, he has only a stolen coal to light his way, and windows he can watch but never touch.

Then he finds Julian's: nineteen, ill, certain no one would notice if he stopped waking. As October nears Halloween, the veil thins, and an old bargain comes due.