Stories

Mike finds himself in an unexpected and uncomfortable situation. New school, new town, new family, and most notably, new roommate. And life seems to only get crazier every day.

Matthew is torn from the only world he knows and thrown into fear and uncertainty. Andrew, a passionate writer, discovers more than he bargained for while researching for his book on human trafficking. Read this world-spanning story and learn how their paths cross. Sold Into Freedom is a harrowing yet hopeful tale of survival, resilience, friendship and love.

This is the story Enrique Alberto, just another ordinary guy. But not everything is as ordinary as it seems.

"My grand-father always used to say that everything that happens to us in life happens for a reason. And when we look back on our lives there are some moments that just seem to stick in our minds forever and I can now see what he meant by that."

For Scott Fraser there was one such moment that he remembers well. It was the time when, as a teenager, he saved the life of a young boy who was about to be swept out to sea.

What he couldn't have prepared himself for, however, was what would happen when that same boy comes back into his life some years later . . .

John Winston III is as rich as the king of England. So, when he meets the love of his life, he pretends to be a poor struggling writer. The web of deception grows more and more complicated.

A response to Prompt #68:

Imagine where your character leads a pretty decent single life. Then there is a phone call and that life is turned upside down as they find out, they have just become a parent—to a teenager. Is this a cousin that has been left with no other family members? A god child? A niece or nephew? What is this first meeting between them going to be like?

The circumstances whereby Manny obtains guardianship are a little strange, to say the least. Not to mention what happens afterward.

Being the oldest and growing up in a large family can be hard, especially when you are gay and the family is extremely homophobic. You are constantly being compared to your deceased father. A man whose stature and deeds are always increasing, as time goes by, and are held up as your goals. Anytime you reach those goals, your mother moves the goalpost further away.

You never seem to measure up. You are always being told that you are worthless and will never amount to anything since you cannot measure up to your father. It never mattered that you were a straight "A" student and that you were an athlete.

Owain returns to live in his home town, 20 years after leaving when he was disowned his parents for being gay. He needs to rebuild his life following illness and come to terms with his messy family history. There is much to learn and discover, along the way he meets Colin, a builder who has his own family issues. The two explore how to make a life the way that they want, irrespective of the weight of their family experiences.

The story takes place in Cheshire, UK. The main setting, Netherwich, is my invention based on elements of Crewe and Nantwich. The language uses some regional idiom.

Fred Jamers has been falsely accused of killing his boyfriend, Stephane Thibedeau. Arrested, tried, convicted on circumstantial evidence, and sentenced to five to ten years in prison, the challenges he faces are more than the average prisoner.

Sometimes love comes from the unlikeliest of places.

Devastated by the loss of his mother, Cal enters his final year of high school in Cape Town facing an uncertain future, plagued by bullies and struggling to keep his grieving family together. When a handsome troublemaker with a mysterious past arrives at the school, an unlikely friendship develops. And as Cal grapples with feelings he never expected, he is plunged headlong into an adventure that will turn his entire existence upside-down.

This 10th anniversary edition differs from the Kindle version, and contains new and old material cut from the Kindle version.