Stories

This story is a prequel and sequel to my previous story, ‘The Boy on the Porch.’ While that was mostly Brendan’s point of view, this will be from the members of the Taft family's perspectives. It will cover things that happened before Nick was kicked out of his house, hit the necessary high points of what was covered in the first story, then continue on with their later lives, expanding on their pieces of the epilogue contained therein. I initially envisioned it to be Nick's story, but quickly determined it would be fairly short, so they all get some attention.

The impact of the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 was felt around the world, but in few places more than in New York City. Not only is New York home to the second-largest Jewish population in the world, but it’s home to peoples of many cultures, including a large Arab American population. In my New York Stories, New York Holidays and New York Anthologies series, I’ve introduced characters who might well have been in Israel at the time of the attack. October Fire is a 6-part story about Jewish and Palestinian New Yorkers who persevered in the face of hate.

You are the Nameless Hacker and Brandon is writing his story for you. Gay, confused, and deeply closeted he shares his struggles and his triumphs with us here. Despite all that goes on he always manages to smile and shine on through. Share Brandon's smiles and his tears.

Two for One

Book 2 The continuing story of Marc Alexander and friends as he navigates life in the family corporation, training, politics, lovers, mining, meetings and pirates. Helping people along the way as he starts his fledgling mining company. More problems than answers that can be easily attained.

A weary Hercules fell into the clutch of a pirate captain and was sold to a sadistic king. With his herculean strength put in check under a wicked contraption, Hercules had to endure the king's humiliations and twisted torments. Read as Hercules fought for his own life while his faced the ultimate challenges to his might.

Ralph has a successful web-design firm, lovely twin daughters and an ex-wife with whom he is on reasonable terms, though his parents persist in regarding him as a disappointment, disliking his choice of career and general lack of ambition. But, in the wake of his divorce, he experiences a return of feelings and ideas that he hasn’t had since his teenage years when an affair with another boy at school left an indelible mark. And now, he has to decide, does he want to be that person who hides, lashes out at any suggestion he might be gay, or does he want to break free.

A strange twist of fate sent a modern day professional bodybuilder to Ancient Greece where he encountered the love of his life, Hercules.

Prompt #385 –

Brendan Nelson had a tough week at work. He is a Project Manager at a small software company. Nothing went well on his current project. The last delivery to QA (Quality Assurance) was a total failure, the techs couldn't even install it. Add to that, a serious problem in the development of a new feature arose. Finally, on top of that, the customer was screaming about a bug that hadn't been fixed for months, and now it apparently crashed the system. As if things weren't bad at work, he had to come home to a surprise.

This is book 5 of the New Reality series. I don't recap, so if you haven't read the first four, you will be lost.

Greg's life has changed in many ways since that fateful day he ran into Scott. He has learned what his new life means; now he has to re-organize the Barony of Pittsburgh. On top of this, life continues to throw him curves.

Seventeen year old Dakota (Dak) Ross was having a little difficulty with the goings on in his life. He’d recently come out as gay to his mother. He hadn’t seen his dad since he was three, or so he had been told by his Uncle Spence. He couldn’t hide his relationship with Jamie Paxler any longer now that they were having sex. Well, just oral sex so far, but he couldn’t hide the goofy grin he wore almost all of the time. Definitely all of the time he and Jamie were together.

Sharing that little piece of news with his mother didn’t go over very well at all.