Mainstream

Thomas Wingate's fourth book of poetry. He keeps getting better and better.

A collection of Stories that all involve a race, sometimes a literal race, sometimes the human race.

Lynn Blanchett's Steps to Happiness: Step 1: Find a job. (Done! I'm doing PR for hotshot young designer Muriel B.--which I'm totally unqualified for.) Step 2: Find a man. (Check! There's a rich, gorgeous man chasing me ... so what if I find him infinitely less appealing than my charming, possibly gay, French coworker?) Step 3: Find a translator. (Hmm? I do have that French-English dictionary ... but it so doesn't help with the language of love.) Step 4: Find a shower. (I did just fly in from New... more info>>

I started to tie a bib around Tucker's neck but I had the strongest desire to strangle him with it. I could see it in my mind, his head growing larger, like a balloon as his neck was cinched off by the strings. His tongue bulging, his eyes protruding, just before his skull was ready to pop--Jodi Graham knows that this is more than the "baby blues" she is feeling, but just before she slides completely into postpartum psychosis she comes up with an unconventional solution. She takes a job as a lon... more info>>

Rene Lamour, a libertine, is a premier danseur. He is a favorite of Parisian balletomanes, is loved by his beautiful mistress, prima ballerina Sabine De Vere, and lives a life of comfort with no qualms and no consequences until he seduces a beautiful underage coryphee. Then he is tossed into a maelstrom from which there seems no escape.

Flashes in the Pan, Fifty Short Stories for the Impatient, by Raymond Grant is a pithy little book that should be onboard when you're standing in a long, slow line, waiting on a download or upload, or killing time while TV commercials drone on. During any one of these exasperating instances, catch a flash--read a short story--let your spirit soar.

This very short story tells the tale of a man's wonder in a sliver of natural beauty, and something he just can't leave alone. The original setting is now a subdivision, but the clouds remember what happened that day in the clearing.

In a long-closed gas station at the edge of civilization, Josh's ritual of opening the donation box and finding pristine emptiness is shattered by an unexpected gift. Written over a 10-year period, this story was finally finished while the author worked on a bar, passing each handwritten page to his customers as he finished them. The last page was written five years later.

Ray and Sara are two friends who have a special bond. This friendship will take them through good times and bad, will be stretched thin by the miles separating them sometimes, and by simple life circumstances at others. But in the end, it is this friendship that will stand the test of time, and so much more. Follow Ray's struggle through a life filled with drug addiction, alcoholism, and the knack for spending more time in prison than out. Sara watches with her heart breaking as her friend spira... more info>>

All Stephen wanted was an autograph from a fading TV star, but instead, he encounters the fanatical side of fandom.

If you're so obscure that even death forgets you, is there any point in living at all? Some would say, "Oh, this and that." Which, of course, wouldn't mean anything to anyone. This story is about one man's pointless life spanning nine thousand years since his first rejection in the world's first city to his meaningless 35 years as a clerk doing whatever.

He loved her more than anything in the world, but her fate lay deep in the flow of the moody river and a past that haunted every moment of her life.

Larry Rochelle's latest book of poetry, Siren Sorcery: Magic In The Night, takes the reader on a tour of the jazz bistros of New Orleans, the blues bars of Kansas City and the honky-tonks of Toledo. Each new location creates magic in the night, as Rochelle combines the haunting rhythms of thesaxophone with the wailing of the blues harp, creating mood poetry for the big city soul.

Sophie Katz has just offered a man $12,000 for his services? Is she desperate or just meshugeneh? Considering the kind of disasters that usually befall the half-black, half-Jewish mystery writer, probably both. Because the last time Sophie saw sexy P.I. Anatoly Darinsky, he practically danced a jig when she waved goodbye--a normal reaction for a man who'd nearly bought the farm trying to protect her from her own foolishness. What are the chances he'd agree to take incriminating pictures of her s... more info>>

On a hot sunny summer afternoon in a canoe stocked with beer and mystery, a man and a woman learn that all paths eventually cross ... downstream. This one started off as one of the world's first email short stories.

A Whirling Wind ... We take cover in our lives, hope for protection against nature. Wind, rain and snow assault us, drive us inside where we gather our courage, noses pressed against windows, waiting for the wind to wane. Somehow we keep our sense of humor, bonding with our families and friends until the next storm approaches. The poetry in Dust Devils thrusts nature into our psyches. We are buffeted by the elements and we react, remembering the distant days of childhood while we explore the mat... more info>>

When a mystery writer cries bloody murder, everyone blames her overactive imagination? Thriller scribe Sophie Katz is as hard-boiled as a woman who drinks Grande Caramel Brownie Frappuccinos can be. So Sophie knows it's not paranoia or post-divorce, living-alone-again jitters, when she becomes convinced that a crazed reader is sneaking into her apartment to reenact scenes from her books. The police, however, can't tell a good plot from an unmarked grave. When a filmmaker friend is brutally murde... more info>>

A Blinding Light ... Our backyards are flooded with hellish light. We try to see the stars but fail. The moon appears dimly, a memory from childhood, while shotguns are aimed at innocent noises of nocturnal creatures. The poetry in Pistol Whipped exposes the fears of suburban families, buffeted by low SAT scores, football defeats and lawnmowers corroding in the bushes. Rushing to golf courses to soothe nervous cravings, they confront stalking geese littering the fairways with green/gray pestilen... more info>>

An array of savory "recipes" designed to nourish the heart, mind and soul. This medley of poetic, philosophical and spiritual concoctions, hopefully shall whet the appetite of those seeking to satisfy the wisdom seeking palate. If one is to garner wisdom, then a proper diet of philosophically palatable and spiritually nutritious fare is essential. A Philosopher's Cookbookis a modest attempt to offer readers some savory "recipes" in the hope that with appetites whetted some may endeavor to subsis... more info>>

The author knows Germany and in this book he offers a picture of what it was like to live in West Germany just as the Berlin wall was built to split the town. The country was over-crowded and was still rebuilding after the ruin that WWII had brought upon the country. For a young woman, it was next to impossible to survive on her own. And because of that, Krista had been forced to continue living in her mother's home, even after the woman's death--sharing it with her step-father, who couldn't kee... more info>>

"It only takes one." "There are a lot of other fish in the sea." "Every pot has a cover." "When it's your time, it will just happen." Ugh! Karrie Kline had heard it all. But her search for the perfect man had never been all that pressing until her laugh lines became more noticeable, she attended one too many bridal showers and woke up next to far too many never-gonna-commit men. Suddenly, she realized that finding someone to love (and who actually loved her back) was important. Karrie wanted mor... more info>>

She had been murdered in her bedroom. And Robert Bradley was determined to find those responsible! He came to Hollywood to learn the truth and was sucked up into a nasty web of power brokers willing to do whatever was necessary to keep their secrets. Somebody had said: "Hollywood is a horrible snare for young women like us. If you get in the right crowd you sleep your way up to fame. If you get in the wrong crowd, you sleep your way down into the gutter. If you're lucky you get some permanent re... more info>>

A rousing good tale of adventure. Human cloning is not far away and this page-turner reveals the potential misuse of this incipient technology by a wealthy drug lord in Costa Rica, who greedily tries to save his ownlife at the expense of all else. He is in pursuit of a living heart-donor--his own clone birthed 25 years before.

Getting ahead in Hollywood demanded good looks, talent, connections, timing and youth. Missing any of those spelled failure. For the established Stars the Youth Game was serious business. There were endless young woman eager to grab the starring roles. Like young Gloria Davis who would use her lush body to get parts in films. She had Joe Blake in her sights, and was determined to have him as her agent. But Joe's main job was to make sure everything ran smoothly for their top client, Karla Kane, ... more info>>

Teri Lynn has been trying to rid her life of the handsome but irresponsible Garth for longer than she can remember. On the coldest night of the Canadian winter, Teri Lynn's fantasy alter-ego might just accomplish what she never could manage on her own.