Stories

Celebrating the 4th of July, I have posted the first of a four story set featuring Asher Romanski from the series Sanitaria Springs. Asher is a poor kid who has resigned himself to taking his lumps and keeping out of harm's way. But then an event makes him dare to dream.

After years of self-deception, Dan had finally seen the proverbial light, thanks to some caring friends. Scott was a game-player, brazenly wreaking havoc with Dan's heart, and he had let him. Christmas be damned, it was time to reclaim his dignity, and accept that he deserved better... much better.

Lautaro's life is upended overnight as his parents' divorce forces him to leave the town he grew up in, the country he called home, and the best friend he'd grown to love, all just before senior year of high school. Now he'll have to start over in a different city, deal with his unresolved feelings for the boy he's been crushing on for years, and navigate through the whirlwind of his first reciprocated love.

Kiaza, once the darling of hell and the palace, is back to causing trouble. The snakey shifter who can be anyone is trying his luck in all the wrong places - and when he meets a boy he can't quite shake off, that's the scariest thing of all.

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?

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...

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.