Stories

Another episode from the files of Detective Gennaro Saggio. Detective Saggio is off for the fourth of July. Simon Gallagher, his partner, is copied on the murder email this time around.

Prompt #9 - Creative scene by @wildone

You run into school knowing you are late, again. You quickly stop at your locker and ditch your jacket and grab some books. As usual the halls are quiet during classes. You dash to your classroom, open the door and start on your explanation and stop. No one is there. No teacher, no other students. You leave and look at other classrooms, all empty. You check your phone and it is actually a school day and not a holiday or anything else. What's happening?

The 2017 revision of a poem I wrote back in 2011.

I wrote this in 2017 for a friend who lost his first true love in a car accident, and after almost a decade was still grieving for his husband. I dedicate this to anyone who's ever lost someone they love.

When a clerk embarks on his first sea voyage, his life is torn apart by a brutal pirate attack. Captured by an enigmatic and merciless pirate captain, he becomes more than just a prisoner—he becomes prey in a dangerous game of dominance, survival, and twisted desire. Forced into servitude aboard the pirate ship, he grapples with fear, shame, and a dark pull he can’t explain. As lines between captor and captive blur, an unsettling bond forms, laced with power, control, and a longing neither man dares to name.

How far can you fall before you lose yourself completely?

There’s an old adage that states, “It’s too late to close the barn door after the horses have gotten out.” Sixteen-year-old Neil Michaels learns this lesson on a summer afternoon when he joins his best friend on a biking adventure to the old barn on Engle Mill Road. A secret door opens, and his life will never be the same.

Somewhere between parenting his little half-brothers, supporting his ailing grandfather in the family business and constantly arguing with his twin brother, Cedric has forgotten himself.

Riley needs money. To help his mom with the debts his dad left behind, to pay for his brother's life-saving therapy, to pay his own debts. But despite working two jobs and putting in long hours, it's never enough.

After a disastrous blind date, Cedric turns up on Riley's doorstep with an interesting offer in his pocket. It could actually be a win-win situation, were it not for a total of six constantly intrusive brothers…

My entry for the 2025 Poetry Anthology - Diversity! Quite possibly a topic we can all relate to.

Some poetic offerings based on the anthology theme of "Diversity". The Haiku included here are a departure from the usual and expected subject of nature, more reflective of inner turmoil.

Book 3 in the Jacksonville Jaunts series centers around Bart Hamilton. Bart was once a teammate of Carlo Marini's on the cross-country team. Even as a senior in high school, Bart was unsure of his sexuality. He waffled between thinking he was gay, bi, and periodically straight since his early teens. It wasn't until after he turned thirty-four before his feelings were cemented on the gay side of the fence. That was when a man named Noah Hankins changed his life for good.