Showing results by author "Short Story Press" in All Categories

The story begins quickly with a bold admission. It maintains a quick pace by interweaving narratives from the past with the contemporary online conversation between two lifelong friends. The intensity builds through a series of escalating events.

When we lose everything, we tend to gain nothing back without help and support of loved ones. This audiobook describes the many trials and tribulations through which coma patients go. One would consider this counterintuitive, being that one is considered “unconscious” when in a coma. I can testify personally, however, that when you are in a coma, you are not asleep. It’s a dream sort of state. Most of all, this story tries to convey the message not to give up the tough times for easier ones if it’s not right. Sometimes, we must all bear seemingly unbearable pain.

This story follows Sandy, a 19-year-old woman, as she makes the difficult transition from living in an insular religious community to “outside” life in a college town.

When a grieving Todd brings Veronica, the secret daughter of Joy, to the hotel and introduces her to the world in the same spot he introduced her mother, they can’t help but be shocked. As their visit goes on, the staff feels like it's seeing ghosts, transported back to a time five years ago when Joy was alive. Veronica’s looks, movements, and actions imitate Joy’s so much, it sends shivers down their spine. She truly is her mother’s child.

“Hello, my name is Aura Smith; we are here to take you back to your time. I do not exactly why you think killing, what was his name again...oh yes, Stalin was a great idea, but you can’t just go around fixing things like that. Without Stalin, the world would have been a very different place, you see. I understand he was evil for whatever the historical context is, but we just can’t go altering all the bad things in history. The Fates do not like it."

Fourteen-year old Eador has never remembered a time he wasn't a slave to the goblins. In their dark kingdom underground, he works blindly at their tasks while suffering their belittlement. Finally, though, two warriors named Thorsen and Coreon rescue Eador from the creatures' grasp. The three humans journey to the village on the rocks of Tyvar River, but not everything is as it seems.

Michael is a professional photographer. He knows exactly how to take the best pictures and is desperate enough to accept any work when the rent comes due, which is slowly creeping up on him. When he’s offered a new job opportunity from a high-end client, the last thing he expects is to be confronted with an abuse scandal in the midst of the cast.

Poor Choices is a short story about an intelligent man named Dan who works retail. Dan has a lot of talents and a good education, but he is prone to making bad choices that keep him from really having the type of life that he wants. He works at a company called Game Swap, which is a used video game store not unlike ones you see in the mini-malls across America. The story takes real-life inspiration from working at a video game retail store and all the annoyances that come from working within that corporate structure.

Crusher Bruskiewicz doesn't believe he can be stopped. The 15-year old takes every challenge thrown his way, bolstering his fearsome reputation and encouraging his bullying ways. Some of his adventures are hazy in his mind, though, and hard to remember specifically. What the teenager doesn't know is that he keeps dying from his misadventures, only to be teleported into the future and repaired before being sent back to his own time.

An aged, decrepit old woman wanders the quiet hallways of her home. She remembers a day when they were brighter, more kinetic with anticipation of life within their walls. Family was a regular occurrence, and the tinkling laughter of grandchildren used to echo through the house. Oh, how she missed those times, as she now hobbles oh-so-slowly with her cane through the archaic old home. And as the old woman wanders, reminiscing through the halls, she comes upon a door. Rusty hinges amplify groan of age as the door swings slowly open, and she balances herself in the doorway.

Young David is on his first journey away from home. Hired as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher, he is flown half way around the globe to work in a pilot school teaching refugee children. Settling in and learning about the new world he lives in, he meets and falls in love with beautiful Amaris, a mysteriously secretive young woman who lives on the hill.

In the outskirts of Tuscany, a fuse sparked, leaving behind the entrails of an undesirable fire, slowly burning away the remains of those left behind. The love between Sophie and Alessandro seemed shallow and childish at best. From their initial confrontations to their constant arguments and differences, the gap between their relationships continued to push them further apart. Left with nothing more than a surreal dream with lingering desires, what will Sophie and Alessandro do when the reality of life finally takes over the world of fancy and dreams?

Brigitte had a rough start in life. It all began when her village was bombed when she was just a child. After being sent to the US by a refugee agency, she drifted from one foster home to another for some time. In her pursuit to find the sense of family, she is recruited by the Russian mob, where she meets up with an old friend. The mob offers them everything except freedom. She wants more. She changes her name and makes a new life for herself.

Alan and Katie, a young couple married for not quite a year, have both been consumed with work and wrapped up in starting their lives ever seen their marriage. But now, they've been given the chance to escape their busy lives for the first time since their honeymoon. Unfortunately, Mother Nature has other plans, and strong thunderstorms follow the unlucky couple all the way to their destination and stick around. Unable to fully enjoy all the ocean has to offer, the two are stuck inside for the weekend. Now, the young couple has to find ways to enjoy themselves indoors.

Angelique wants nothing more than to meet her personal Prince Charming. She becomes involved in a domestic case, and the officer in the case takes a liking to her stern attitude and brilliance in domestic law. Frederick comes back after being shunned and verbally excused from this teacher’s presence. She is aware of everything, except that he is readily and eagerly interested in her. After accepting a hasty date decision, Angelique decides that maybe a Prince Charming may come to her after all.

Elsa, the librarian, asks Benji to lend her a hand in putting books away. They immediately establish a strong connection and forge a lasting friendship. She encourages him to read from the subjects and topics he enjoys. She prompts him to follow his desires. Benji soon learns there is a vast world in front of him to make of, what he wishes. He gains confidence to make decisions for himself concerning his education and future.

The Tronik Gambit is the story of a rag-tag group of air pirates. Like their older, sea-borne brethren, they spent years terrorizing aerial shipping, raiding ships on the seas with float-planes, and robbing towns and remote outposts on land, and using their machines to make the fastest getaways imaginable. Operating from a massive flying aircraft carrier and using clouds, mist, and forbidding terrain to hide their presence and move around with impunity, their weapons and machines are makeshift and purchased from corrupt industrialists and created entirely from scratch.

Eddie has stepped in a virtual-travel cabin looking for a distraction from his bleak life, and on an impulse, he has made the journey to the era of the 1950s. There he meets Marylyn, a pretty waitress working in a snack bar. She is so different from the women he has been keeping company with that Eddie feels himself attracted to her, attracted to how real and transparent she is. However, Marylyn is not real and is the product of sophisticated computer coding. He tries to rationalize his attraction for her, but nothing can convince his heart, and that is where the trouble starts.

In the summer of AD 777, Charlemagne rode out to conquer the Saracens and reclaim Hispania for the Holy Roman Empire. While immortalized in the words of medieval poets, scholars, and historians, the story never told is the one of what happens when all the men leave and the village is left to run itself. This is a story of Lady Matilda, the wife of Lord Harold, one of Charlemagne’s many lieutenants. After Lord Harold departed, nearly two years ago, Matilda, her maiden, Marta, and her steward, Otto, had been left to maintain the affairs of their small hamlet of Doblesmark.

Waiting for Martin is set in a nebulous future-never in which catastrophic environmental change has returned ancient beings to Earth, as well as raining down a disastrous helping of new ones. A family of children try to make their way home to their older brother, who is their guardian, when a bit of environmental fallout gets in their way.