Short Stories Humor

The author of The End of the Road and Small Comforts returns to his fictional Alaska town, The End of the Road, to present more unforgettable stories about its colorful inhabitants and their doings.

Gus somehow won the church raffle. It was a miraculous feat given that he’d never entered it-the church or the raffle. He suddenly finds himself with two tickets to paradise and one of them premade out for Father Xavier. Paradise in this case being the Caribbean Island of Saint Hubbins. They’re joined at the hotel by two couples that appear to be engaged in a tangled web of extra-marital affairs with each other. Gus isn’t too interested in the affairs of others until one of them ends up dead. Another person is arrested by the local police for the crime. It’s not that Gus feels he ...

Mark is coming off a bad breakup, and he's just moved across the country. Dating is the last thing on his mind...at least, for a while. But it's lonely in a new city, and Mark starts thinking about finding someone. It's his lucky day, as he finds an auspicious flyer for a strange matchmaking service calling themselves Bird and Stone. Making his way through a grueling screening process, Mark finds himself set up on a date with two women, Emily and Sandra. A mistake, surely, he thinks. But no. Bird and Stone arranges harems, and Mark is about to jump into a world he's never even considered. ...

Tyler, Channing, and Sammy Clauster have descended on their childhood home, with significant others and four-year-old twins in tow, for another good old-fashioned Christmas. Overwhelming holiday magic, as always, comes courtesy of their mom, Claire. They know she’s thrilled to cook, wrap gifts, decorate, accommodate, play games, overprepare every Christmas Eve Eve Eve tradition, and still let Dad be known as the Fun One. It’s her thing, right? Maybe the family should have paid closer attention. Because this year, something is a little off-key - and it’s not just the carols.

In this darkly comic and surreal collection from celebrated author Alissa Nutting, misfit women scramble for agency in a series of uncanny circumstances. Throughout these breathtakingly creative 17 stories spread across time, space, and differing planes of reality, we encounter a host of women and girls in a wide range of unusual jobs. A space cargo deliverywoman enlists the help of her cybersex partner to release her mother from cryogenic prison.

What is it that’s so bad about a man’s marriage that he is driven to commit the perfect murder? Why is a gambler’s fate sealed when messages from the future give him the names of winning horses? Will a psychic be able to help the desperate parents of a kidnapped child? These are just a few of the stories in this collection of bite-sized tales which include ghostly goings-on, out-of-this-world visitations, murder, the paranormal, fantasy, nostalgia and much, much more. Author Anthony Talmage escorts us through a rollickingly enjoyable collection of stories for grown-ups

The Peterkin Papers record the antics of the most memorably and hopelessly bumbling of respectable American families. Confronted by the endless challenges of daily life, the Peterkins rise to every occasion with misguided aplomb: they sit out in the sun for hours and fail to go for a ride because they've forgotten to unhitch the horse.

Come with me on a journey into the dark distance. What will we find waiting? A wooden soldier that is much more than the toy it appears to be... A father who wants nothing more than the forgiveness of his abused son... The most tragic automobile accident in history... A trip to Mexico that is anything but a relaxing vacation... A tower with a valuable jewel that turns out to be not what's expected... A vampire who finds faith can come in many forms... An interplanetary outpost haunted by a rogue alien... A serial killing shaman who takes refuge in the most dangerous swamp on the planet, ...

These 14 stories, which have appeared in The New Yorker, GQ, Harper's, McSweeney's, and Playboy, display Boyle's imaginative muscle, emotional sensitivity, and astonishing range. Here you will find the whimsical tales for which Boyle is famous, including "The Kind Assassin", about a radio shock jock who sets the world record for most continuous hours without sleep.

This follow-up to The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories features familiar Seussian faces and places - including Horton the Elephant, Marco, Mulberry Street, and a Grinch - as well as an introduction by renowned Seuss scholar Charles D. Cohen. Seuss fans will learn more about Horton’s integrity, Marco’s amazing imagination, a narrowly avoided disaster on Mullbery Street, and a devious Grinch.

Callie’s status as a single mom is about to end when she meets up with local dad, Scott Prince, at the pumpkin patch. Love is definitely in the air…or is that just pumpkin spice? Either way, Callie is about to embark on a seriously satisfying journey. That is, until the mystery knocker comes knocking. Is it just a Halloween prank, or is someone trying to send her a message—the deadly kind? As Callie and Scott traverse the dating life with one another and ring in the holidays with the hope of uniting them all as one big, patchwork family, the lingering question of who keeps knocking ...

Did you know that just 10 minutes of laughter a day burns calories and keeps you trim? Do you need a good belly laugh or two to release the tension of the day? Would you like to be healthier, happier, and more relaxed? You don’t need a prescription pill just try to up your daily laughter quotient. Research shows that laughter lowers blood pressure, engages your rest-and-digest system, and is linked to physical changes in the body that reduce stress and even increase pain tolerance. So basically, y’all need to be laughing a lot more.

A rare orchid is flowering on the magical Garden Isles but when Fran arrives to see it on her latest travel writing adventure she’s horrified to find the plant has been attacked and the exotic bloom is lying chopped on the floor of the glasshouse. Soon Fran is teaming up with tour guide Harry again for a spot of sleuthing and they’re hot on the trail. Who destroyed the special bloom and why? One thing is for sure, there’s a long list of suspects and they need to work fast to catch the vandal before they catch the next ferry off the island and escape to freedom…

Asher the Carpenter This angel walked into my life when her car broke down in Cherrycrush. It was Instalust and Instalove, but then she crushed it when she said small town life wasn’t for her. She had to go to NYC. The only thing worse than losing her would be to steal her dreams, make her live a life of “what if”. Better I live a life of misery, than steal my dream girl's dreams. But I fell in instalust and instalove the second I met her. Now all I can do is curse a world that is determined to keep us apart. Riley the City Girl A final college adventure: A roadtrip to NYC for my big ...

"A bend in the road is not the end of the road . . . unless you fail to make the turn." ~Anonymous Short and light, a few stories about things unexpected in life, but what's wrong with happy endings or new beginnings? A bit of history, a little mystery and some optimism too.

Everybody lies on their computer dating profile, right? It seemed harmless enough, just a bit of fun. But that secret has grown beyond her control. It stares at her now like a little troll. When imagination overcomes common sense, is that feeling just the thrill of her fantasy still, or fear from something far more sinister? Maybe someone really is following her . . . KEEPING SECRETS & Other Curious Encounters include: MALLORY’S GHOST: When memories become as haunting as a ghost. WHISPER: If you’re going to answer those voices in your head, make sure you do it in a whisper. But when the...

When grandmother Maureen Phelan is surprised in her home by a stranger, she clubs the intruder with a Holy Stone. The consequences of this unplanned murder connect four misfits struggling against their meager circumstances. Ryan is a fifteen-year-old drug dealer desperate not to turn out like his alcoholic father, Tony, whose feud with his next-door neighbor threatens to ruin his family. Georgie is a sex worker who half-heartedly joins a born-again movement to escape her profession and drug habit.

This book was previously published as "The Reluctant Bride's First Spanking" by Reba Bale She's going to need a strong hand to get her to the altar! After five years together, Rebecca’s fiancé Jacob is getting impatient. He wants to get married, but something is holding Rebeca back: a nagging sense that something is missing from their sex life. Jacob has always been a gentle and attentive lover, but Rebecca longs for something less vanilla. She longs for passion and something a bit rougher – something to fulfil her secret spank fantasies. When she sees an ad for the Spanking Therapy ...

During an upturn in the economy, faced with a downturn in the soul buying business, The Devil resorts to telemarketing.

The best-selling humorist returns to The End of the Road, Alaska, to bring to life a new collection of stories about the colorful inhabitants of the unusual town.