White on Wight

This is the first chapter of my current WIP

————

…married? At your age, Tom?” My uncle Thomas looked up from the drafting board in surprise.

“Well, I am twenty-one, and Elizabeth is twenty in November,” I said with a smile.

“Twenty-one? I still think of you as a young lad! How long have your worked at the…

By Gillie Bowen

Read More

The Heraklion Gambit: A Nick Temple File

The Soviet Union has its eyes on Crete in this Cold War thriller

————

…small harbor is an unlikely place for a Superpower showdown. Its crystal blue water, fragrant Mediterranean air, and slow moving, small fleet of tired fishing boats all combine to paint a portrait of daily, lazy…

By Jonathan Dyer

Read More

A Land Beyond the Forest

…journey took longer than expected. I left Geneva twenty-three days ago, arriving in Zurich three days later and Vienna after one week; it took us three more days to reach Buda (the Hungarian city west of the Danube) and another nine to arrive here. Apparently, the further east you go the worst the roads become. The Count made arrangements to store the crates in a local warehouse. I can only hope that nothing happens…

By RC Lanzmann

Read More

Action-Reaction: Prologue

…only silk pajamas, a mid-length smoking jacket and shower shoes he stepped off the porch and trudged aimlessly toward the newspaper in the middle of the driveway. Since his wife’s death the paper was no longer at his breakfast place on the back veranda. He wondered how many times she had retrieved the paper, prepared his breakfast and readied the children for school while he slept an additional fifteen…

By Robert L. Scarry

Read More

Caledonia #2

...intricate tapestry of two young women separated by three centuries...

————

...many ventured down the close. The dark passageway gave no hint that it led to a large square courtyard surrounded by four- and five-story houses. One of them was mine. The alley was named Cheery Close; probably someone’s poor attempt at humor. It was one of many that spread like tree branches off the main trunk, The Royal Mile.

The close, and especially the courtyard, was a sea of heaving mud. Some residents poked fun at Sir Isaac Newton’s recent findings that the watery muck reacted to the moon’s…

By Sherry V. Ostroff

Read More

Caledonia

Anna Issac’s choices are bleak. Suicide is more appealing than marrying the revolting Frenchman her spiteful brother has chosen for her. Her only other option is to beg a man…

————

…was time. All of my dad’s affairs were taken care of except for one last thing, a safe deposit box at a large bank in lower Manhattan. I put off emptying the contents because it was the final act of a tragic play with no encores. I feared if I wrapped up this last bit of business, I had accepted his…

By Sherry V. Ostroff

Read More

A World Turned Back To Cinders

This story is an excerpt from John Graham's novel "Running As Fast As I Can".

————

…world turned back to cinders

We spent most of our afternoons lying together in the Starlight Motel on the north side of campus. We made love, passionate, deep, caring love like I never felt before. Afterward we would lay there, holding each other, and talking like we did in college, as if the past four years never happened, as if she never got married. I told her all about how I wanted to make a difference with kids like Daquan, and even guys like…


By John Graham

Read More