Stories

We met Maurice and David in The Watcher. This story stands alone, but it might be more enjoyable if you read The Watcher first. These are two men of a seasoned vintage, and both, separately, have suffered great loss. This is a quick peek into their lives a month after a fateful meeting in the park.

When young librarian Rowan finds a letter hidden in a book, his curiosity gets the better of him. He tracks down the owner: an ex-Navy SEAL living alone in the woods. Grant is the rugged man of anyone’s dreams, but he’s sullen and withdrawn – a damaged hero struggling with the loss of his hearing.

Sensing a man in need of company, Rowan starts learning sign language to communicate with him, and an unconventional friendship forms. But their differences may be too vast to overcome… even as an intense, forbidden attraction simmers behind every stolen glance and signed word.

The early mass leaves a man reflecting on his past.

Wanted criminal Hong Shen finally meets his end after being stabbed in the back by a comrade. As he makes his final resting place under a dead plum tree, he submits to death.

Instead, he receives two choices: die, or be given a second chance.

To take the second chance means he must complete a trial in the past in order to return to the present. But what he doesn't know is that the trial isn't only difficult for him, but even more difficult for the person he must be to fulfill it.

Luke received a wonderful new gift for his sixteenth birthday, one that changed the way the he saw the world around him. It would lead him along a different road, and a different way of thinking, and ultimately present him with the one thing he was most missing in life.

Strolls; encounters; kisses through closed gates; lighted windows seen from below; rumpled bedsheets turning up men’s shirts . . . These are just a few of the images in August Stramm’s poetry collection titled “DU” (“THOU”).

What follows is a complete, fresh-look translation of the thirty-one poems of this set.

...some old entries I stumbled upon in the course of my research...

Brian and Danny are married. But they are stuck in limbo and can’t get past it. Can an Advent calendar, some Christmas ornaments, and a cigarette get them beyond the stasis that has frozen their lives? Will the lights of Christmas shining in the darkness help them find the peace they truly need? This is a Christmas story in eight parts.

Edwin is a young shop owner living a quiet life in the kingdom of Wisian, but that peace is shattered when his best friend vanishes without a trace. Desperate for help, he meets a mysterious man offering his assistance - a seductive demon named Lothar.

As attraction between the two men grows stronger every day, Edwin finds himself getting entangled in a conflict between demons and angels. Will Lothar be able to find Edwin’s friend in time, and what will be the price of his help?