Stories

Harry Sussman is a perfectly nice guy in his early 30s. He's a successful architect who lives in western Massachusetts. He's intelligent. He's stable. He's reasonably good-looking. He just wants to meet a nice guy to marry. Now how hard can that be?

James, an American closeted teen follows his parents to France, Paris to be exact. Alone and incapable of saying anything coherent in French how will he manage?

Kevin was seventeen, and unhappy. He was in love with his best friend, but unable to share those emotions with him. And, he lived on pins and needles with his dad, who seemed not to care about anything that went on in his son's life.

Kevin had found some relief in writing - tales of other worlds and other life. But now his best friend was going to prod him into something new; something that would change Kevin's existence altogether.

The adventures in sex and friendship, online and off, of Alan Damshroeder, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, high school teacher.

Says Alan, "Sometimes I think it takes a triumvirate of saints to keep me out of trouble."

Note: These stories are written as exchanged e-mails and reading this way is an acquired taste.

After Adam Washburn recovers from a brutal beating that places him in a coma, and when he comes to he discovers he has an unusual ability. Now he has to decide how he is going to use this unique skill. Will he use it wisely or will it end up getting him into trouble?

Flash stories inspired by the writing prompts.

Ray Smith is living a double life. One is conventional and safe and the other is...well, not as mainstream. He misses his lover and that gets him into a pickle. Who exactly is mining for the iron pyrite? Ray or the others?

Everyone wants to know who is playing jokes on people at work. The joker's identity remains a secret until April Fools Day.

Frankie loves his job. He's good at it too. But events conspire to set him adrift.

Grid & Dice prompt: A neurotic tollbooth operator hides in an inner city one-star no-tell motel because: "Fuck, they saw me!"

While pretending to be cool when he is with his friends and trying to be intelligent when he is editing his popular weblog, Adam actually is going through a lot. He is able to ignore his own problems by running from reality. It works, until someone in the real world becomes interesting enough to stay for.