Stories

Pot Luck Theme: Lockdown

Sucked through his laptop screen by a hooded wizard, Jake must work for him and the voice in the sky… or be erased from existence. How long can he survive when he’s not in control?

Chandler Drake is in middle school and rides the school bus that Bob Bell drives. They’re also neighbor’s, so when Bob sees that Chandler is being bullied, he wants to help. Bob does what he can, but he would like to do more. When he discovers a second boy, Nick Morenus, who lives nearby and rides a different bus, is going through a similar situation, Bob attempts to offer a solution to help both boys. Chandler has devised his own solution that works even better when combined with Bob’s proposal. Will this strategy solve their problem?

This is my entry for the Fall/Winter 2021 anthology, ‘An Unconventional Gift’.

Zane is a methodical person. He’s great at making plans for work and for his life. When he discovers a rainbow sticker in the lower left corner of a window, he plans to visit a gay bar, for the very first time in his life.

Explorers surveying the galaxy find something humbling and frightening.

Aged 10, Albert and his younger sister Florence went to live in the old house at Coldbrook with their parents. What happened there would change all of their lives.

Nat lost touch with former friend and lover Grant after they finished university. He knows from Facebook that Grant inherited a farm in the country and married the 'Lord of the Manor'. So why has he received an invitation to a mysterious local event in aid of the recent flooding? Could there be trouble in paradise?

Rowan thought he was nuts for moving into a house sight unseen, even though it had been in Pieter’s family for generations. Oakhaven’s beauty changes his mind, and he soon finds himself on a journey of family secrets, where he learns that gods and monsters aren’t always what they appear to be.

Zach thought he was fooling everyone and was only out to Jake, his kid brother. Then on his 15^th birthday, his dad gave him a rainbow pendant inscribed with the Hebrew word ‘Chai’, which means ‘Life’. His dad had had it made to give to his best friend, Cliff, who had AIDS, but never got the chance. Zach promised to wear it with pride, but hid it under his shirt, forgetting he had to undress for gym, a class he shared with Tanner, his secret crush.

Joey Lam just lost his fiance, Jake Lawrence, due to an auto accident on Thanksgiving. They were supposed to get married on Christmas Day. Through a series of ancient taoist rituals and modern artificial intelligence programming, Joey may still be able to give Jake something seemingly impossible, the promised Christmas wedding.

Fall Anthology 2021 Theme- "An Unconventional Gift"

Cinema engineer Craig is tired of life on the road; eating junk food, staying in bland hotels and never knowing if he’ll get home at night. He can’t see any way out until an unexpected turn of events and an encounter with a fellow traveller makes him realise there might be an alternative.