Stories

This is the story of two high-schoolers in the mid-70s growing closer and learning about life and love in rural Ohio. All songs and key phrases are linked to a video.

Jamie Grimmstone is a young apprentice mage in the shop of the Master Thorvil, and longs to be a master himself. Together with his best friend (and boyfriend) Garvin Kinsmith, they keep the Master’s shop in order, assist the Master on his many missions, and study to one day become more than they are.

Life seems orderly, if slow, and Jamie has resigned himself to years of study before he can be a true mage himself…until one day, quite unexpectedly, an opportunity arises that the boys can hardly pass up, and they are off on a task that quickly turns into an adventure...

Most of Rick’s life was performed solo and in quiet. He told himself he liked it that way, preferring to keep even his closest friends away from his secrets. But an aggressive woman and a stranger in town found a way to bring out his inner music.

Small town life still exists like this. The pace is slow, and everyone knows your name. And your business.

Rothenia celebrates as Svetlana wins the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv, for that means the Greatest Show on Earth will come to Strelzen in all its camp glory in 2005. The possibilities for Strelsenermedia IPC are not lost on Will Vincent and his team. But the Song Contest will come to a divided city, and caught up in the politics are Yuli Lucic, son of the Staroman of Strelzen, and Henry Atwood, who can never let a story go, whatever the distractions.

Sometimes the brain fails and the heart is left to pick up the pieces. Tyson, the son of a heartless politician and an abusive control freak, has survived four suicide attempts, and has now been committed to a psychiatric ward. With severe anger issues, unhealthy behaviours and a tendency to self-harm, Tyson's terrific treatment team fights a difficult battle. Another boy in the ward, Vladimir, suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress. Tyson thinks he's perfect.

The sleepy village of Crumbington is about to get a wake-up call.

When the new chairperson of the Summer Fête Committee pushes to create a naked calendar of the Crumbington football team, mouths drop open. Her further pronouncement at having snagged a celebrity host for the fête—rising television and movie star Clifton O’Keefe, and ex-resident of Crumbington—is met with indifference.

Not by Nathan Fresher, though, local baker and captain of the football team. He had been Clifton’s boyfriend in high school, until Clifton and his family disappeared into the night over ten years ago.

Henry has made it to university, but without Ed. Instead he finds himself in a first-year house share in Cranwell with Eddie Peacher, Andy’s problem brother, and the nervous Gavin. Between them, they find themselves combating the appalling Frank Hutchinson, landlord of the King's Cross, and unearth a mystery of the ages, to solve which is death.

Terry Young has just been appointed as chief projectionist in a run-down old cinema. But from day one he has problems. Resentment from the man who thinks he should have got the job. An undeniable attraction toward his general manager, Dan. And the re-awakening of psychic abilities indicating something is hidden under the building.

This story is set in 2005, modern enough for there to be mobile phones and Internet access, but still within the timeframe when cinemas like the Regal, with a crew of projectionists running film still existed.

A novel in fifteen chapters.

Fourteen-year-old Daniele Ferrero and his best friend Giacomo are finally finishing middle school. As they embark on the endless summer holidays amidst the mountains and olive groves of Italy’s Amalfi Coast, they begin to grow closer. But will Giacomo prove worthy of Daniele’s affections?

Meanwhile, Daniele’s other best friend Marco is waiting in the wings, and he suspects that Giacomo’s motives are anything but selfless.

Nick Jacobs has had a pretty crappy life. His mother is a drug and alcohol abusing prostitute. He never knew who his father was. Sadly, Nick ends up in the foster care system in Austin, Texas. After seven years in and out of different foster families, he ends up in a group home. Everything changes when the White family takes him to lunch and spends an afternoon with Nick at their home. It's a world that Nick had never even dreamed of. Will he fit in? Will he ever experience the kind of unconditional love most others take for granted?