Stories

This is my second story. It is mostly nonfiction with a little fiction mixed in. It is based on an real-life experience of a close friend that I thought would make for a good short story. He provided the skeleton and I filled in the dialogue with his approval. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed hearing it recounted to me.

A lot can occur in a single day, and this day starts with Virgil Pruitt riding into a sad, struggling Texas town seven years after the end of the Mexican-American War. Sometimes it's not easy to be a good man, one who calls out unfair hate when he sees it, but Virgil doesn't always look for easy. Will he pay the price for being such a man, or will he be rewarded for standing up for young Wyatt Burnham?

In a small Western Massachusetts former mill town, now part of a larger college circuit, people -- largely students -- keep getting approached.

They don't bring it on themselves -- or do they?

Police detective Elena Petrakis leads the investigation, while her standbys, Chief Owen Neland, Senior Detective Don Burris, Lt. Ike Omari, and Sgts. Jae Ryu and Rob Perez offer support.

Life is full of random events; tragedy strikes where it will until random goodness displaces the ugliness. Neither event lasts, fades in our collective memories until the roulette wheel of life lands on the unlucky number of some town or city. We’ve become callused…numb…and disbelieving of events outside of our homes, neighborhood, and state. It simply happens somewhere else…until.

Chip Andrews was living a great life with an accepting family and a loving boyfriend. Though not everyone had a fortunate life after people known as time shifters began escaping into this world from the supposed future. Chip was a champion for these people; however, things start to become complicated after encountering his childhood friend, Topher Maguire which quickly leads to a domino effect. They both have a lot of baggage that involved their once close friendship with Chip suddenly becoming a target by unknown forces as Topher continues his search for the truth while protecting the man he once loved. Welcome to Hullabaloo, New Mexico.

Brad Harris is coming to grips with not being able to hide who he is any longer, and the feelings he can't stop.

Kevin Thorne's life was pretty straight forward. With a loving mother and an adorable but annoying six year old brother as family, he didn't think he needed anyone else to make it better. But as usual, just when you think you have it all figured out, life throws a curve ball. And Kevin now has to adjust to accommodate a stranger in his family - a stranger who brings sudden change in how he felt about a lot of things in his life.

Cole has been in love with one of his best friends, Damon since they met in school. After graduation Cole took over his grandma's flower shop, Damon into the military. Now that Damon's home for good, will Cole go after what he wants or will he stay quiet thinking no one knows about his love for the other man.

This is book one in a six book series about a group of eight men who bonded by their sexuality throughout their adolescence into adulthood. Now that they're adults we'll get to watch them fall out of the single life but hold their strong friendship to weather the storm of being adults.

In the perilous journey toward adulthood, Valentín Gómez hasn't quite found his north. He's not much of a cartographer, but he and his boyfriend are still going to try their luck at map-making. Growing up is hard, isn't it?

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The North Down South is a series of vignettes serving as a sequel to Southward.

College freshman Huey McKee is unlucky in love and saddled with a bitter past he's strugged to bury. Rather than go back home for summer vacation, he wants to spend it with his best friend/roommate, Brandon Wimmer, in Florida. But as he starts developing feelings for Brandon's brother, a spiralling chain of events drags the weight of Huey's past screaming into the present...