Stories

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

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

These stories are written as exchanged e-mails and reading this way is an acquired taste. But the first book of this series, Web Guys, has a small, loyal following, so here's the second.

Summer vacation had started out well for Derry and Caleb. There was much to occupy two adventurous boys in the rural landscape in which they lived. They had the woods, and the fields, and the waterways to occupy them.

And they had each other.

But then they made a discovery - a strange place hidden in the forest, a pathway to lands beyond description. And suddenly, the summer was not quite so simple any longer.

A series of short stories, one-shots, and ponderings that I have collected over the span of the last decade or so

Three years ago, Reed's bad decisions cost him his relationship. Now, does he have the courage to try again?

Jake is having a rough time. His career's at a dead end. His love life is a disaster. His mother is a mess. Finally, he decides to turn things around.

This is his story.

A college student puts his life at risk by standing up against hate.

Lucky, the newest heir to the Prince Charming title, wants nothing more than to fall in love and live happily ever after with his own prince . Instead, he's being forced by his father to marry a woman with long hair from a tower who would much rather cut it all off, so she too can be become the hero of her own fairy tale. But with the help of the Big Bad Wolf/officer, Lucky goes on an adventure to break the curse of his newfound friends, while finding love from the most unlikely person in today's world where the fairest women and the most charming men become celebrities and the stuff of legends.

Corporal Cameron Holden moonlights as Liberty, a costumed vigilante who watches over and protects fellow servicemen and the wider public from those that would do them harm. Returning to duty from the incident that gifted him with the powers to become Liberty, Cameron finds himself reassigned as the personal driver to the rugged and handsome Colonel John Haverson.

Cameron will need all his skills to keep the Colonel safe and to keep himself from falling for the older man.

If life was there for the taking, then it might look a lot like Kay Walker’s life. A good family with liberal and accepting attitudes, doing impressively well at college both on and off the field, a big circle of friends, and a promising future.

Of course, there are a couple of problems with this picture. Firstly, it wouldn’t make a very interesting story. And secondly, perhaps more importantly, it’s not quite true. Or at least, it’s not the whole picture.

Two guys and a dog load into a 10-year-old pickup truck and spend two months driving the perimeter of the United States. It doesn't directly show, but over the course of the two months, the narrator falls in love with the driver -- and with the dog.