Small States

Saturday night for the boys from Calcutta High started out with a dare on a dark country road...a dare that went farther than it should've gone. That old white church just moldering there in the long dark shadows of the trees, was it really as haunted as everyone made it out to be? Stories had circulated. Legends at school had now grown to stifling degrees. What's a try at the doors going to hurt? What about a look inside the sanctuary, just for the sake of satisfying one's curiosity? That can't hurt, can it? Surely not...

Mi mamá me dijo algo. Todos los niños deberían saberlo. Es acerca del diablo. Y he aprendido a odiarlo así. Sarah tiene 15 años, con un corazón amable y una disposición únicamente dulce, y se las arregla con una facilidad natural para ser la "hija perfecta" con la que todos los otros padres comparan en secreto a sus propios hijos. Sarah es definitivamente un producto de la educación que recibió, al ser criada en un hogar amoroso cuyos miembros tienen su vida centrada en adorar al Señor y la vida de la iglesia en general. Como resultado de eso, Sarah ha vivido una vida idílica, ...

Nothing ever changes in Redford, Georgia. It’s part of what freelance editor Jess Reid loves about her hometown—and part of what keeps her from ever leaving, no matter how much she might want to. That, and her relationship with her father, a car mechanic who raised her on his own after her mom left town. Jess is resigned to a safe, unremarkable existence...until Jasper Wilhelm, the town’s eccentric benefactor, dies suddenly. At his funeral, it’s revealed that he’s left his entire fortune to the people of Redford—but they’ll have to compete for it.

"Have to keep that smile", said Booker Wright in the 1966 NBC documentary Mississippi: A Self-Portrait. At the time Wright was a waiter in a Whites-only restaurant and a local business owner who would become an unwitting icon of the civil rights movement. For he did the unthinkable: Before a national audience, he described what life was truly like for the Black people of Greenwood, Mississippi.

In small towns between the North Carolina Piedmont and the coast, the best scenery is often in the sky. On flat sweeps of red clay and scrub pine, the days move monotonously, safely, but above, in the blink of an eye, dangerous clouds can boil out of all four corners of the sky. The flat slow land starts to shiver and anything can happen. In such a storm, on Annie Peregrine’s seventh birthday, her father gave her the airplane and minutes later drove out of her life.

Chicken Liver Blues is an inimitable collection of twelve stories that at times barrels and swerves down rural backroads kicking up gravel and dust in its wake, and other moments it’s a calm late-night country cruise that soaks up the stars, the moon, and the heavens while contemplating the meaning of life. In TWENTY DOLLARS, a working-class man whose marriage is on the brink of unraveling is convinced to go out for another night of drinking, but this time his night out with the guys changes his life in more ways than one. BLUESMAN OF THE WOODS involves a young guitar rambler and his ...

The fourteenth installment in Melanie Jackson's bestselling Chloe Boston Cozy Mystery Series is a 9k word short story. Melanie Jackson is a talent to watch." —WritersWrite.com It's Saint Patrick's Day in Hope Falls and the citizens are celebrating by having the mayor of their sister city in Ireland over to join in the festivities. Unfortunately, things go from bad to worse as rivers run red, drinking of Guinness takes its toll, and a criminal pursuit by Officer Bill is required. This is a fast paced short story with plenty of laughs as Saint Patty's becomes a day to remember not for the ...

The town of Red Bluff, Mississippi, has seen better days, though those who've held on have little memory of when that was. Myer, the county's aged, sardonic lawman, still thinks it can prove itself - when confronted by a strange family of drifters, the sheriff believes that the people of Red Bluff can be accepting, rational, even good. The opposite is true: This is a landscape of fear and ghosts - of regret and violence - transformed by the kudzu vines that have enveloped the hills around it, swallowing homes, cars, rivers, and hiding a terrible secret deeper still.

Float Up, Sing Down is the story of a single day. But in that day, how much teeming life! The residents of this rural town have their routines, their preferences, their joys, grudges, and regrets. Gossip is paramount. Lives are entwined. Retired sheriffs climb corn bins and muse on lost love, French teachers throw firecrackers out of barn windows, and teenagers borrow motorcycles to ride the back roads. Each of the fourteen stories of Float Up, Sing Down follows one character’s day in the life in one of Hunt’s most beloved and enduring landscapes.

It's the most wonderful time of year in Perfect, WA. Christmas. Although, in Perfect, things are never really... perfect.

Jessi Raylan is kind of a mess. Living with her cat in one big booby-trap her mom left behind, she’s always one foot away from complete and total failure. Her job? Barely there and ethically questionable. Her love life? Laughable. Her ability to bake brownies? Never better. Walton Hayes has been after Jessi for a while. He wants her almost as much as he wants more of her brownies. He can also deal with her crazy cat, her kooky house, her slightly neurotic tendencies. Anything to get closer to her. When his work spills over into her life, he’ll have to keep her even closer. When she ...

Mac Star is a private person with a secret she hasn’t even told her best friends. The only person who knows is Grandma Starla, who has somehow adopted Mac as her own. When that secret, and her slightly nosy behavior, gets her in trouble, the person she has to depend on is the one person in the world she’d rather strangle than spend time with. Tennessee Jones. Tennessee Jones has spent two years trying to avoid Mac while also getting just close enough to smell the sweet perfume she wears. He pulled a typical move on her before any of their friends met, and it came back to bite him in the...

When their mother passed away a decade ago, Evie Ross and her sister, Suda Kaye, were each left a stack of letters, one to be opened every year on their birthday. While the letters encouraged Suda Kaye’s wanderlust, taking her away from Evie for years, their free-spirited mother’s wish for her more cautious daughter was to discover what her heart truly desires. But steadfast Evie discovered long ago that wishes rarely come true. A successful life stems from planning, building a stable career - and keeping your heart guarded at all costs.

When Andrew Apperley visits his brother David in the East, he brings along an unexpected companion. Andrew's giant wolf dog, Comanche, is so wild that he has to be chained up for the safety of others. However, when the Apperley brothers come across a man drowning in the East River, Comanche breaks loose from his chains and swims to the man's rescue.

Discover a Heartwarming Tale of Faith, Love, and Survival in the Wild West! for fans of Christian Westerns, Frontier Romance, and Women’s Historical Fiction! Texas geologist Andrew Carter has struck copper, but his greatest discovery is yet to come. Alone in a desolate mining camp, he longs for a partner—a woman of strength, heart, and unwavering faith. His prayers are answered when Julie Tully, a determined apothecary, responds to his mail-order bride ad. Julie is brave, intelligent, and ready for adventure, but life in the untamed West is more perilous than she ever imagined. As ...

Most people think the reason Prudy Millings married the best-looking preacher in the Carolinas—who inexplicably turned psychotic and mowed her down with the church van—is that she was raised all wrong. So not true. Prudy's reclamation of her life begins two years after the crime spree that nearly stopped her heart. She packs up her two precocious children and settles in her parents' South Carolina hometown where she deals with a delightful Proverbs-spewing mama who pretends her grown daughters are virgins.

A disappearing body. Hidden magical talents. An adorable mind-reading dog. And small-town secrets . . . Addie James’s life imploded when she discovered her fiancé cheating and got downsized from her biotech job. So she left Silicon Valley for the haven of her Aunt Kate’s tea and apothecary shop in the peaceful mountain town of Stargaze. There, she plans to take a deep breath and figure out what’s next. But when Addie reaches Stargaze, there’s no trace of her aunt. Until one night, Aunt Kate’s lifeless body shows up and then disappears from the locked shop. And that’s when ...

Barney Dwyer is a gentle giant who has yet to find a place in the world. Capturing two notorious outlaws has made a hero of him, so much so that rancher Robert Parmelee offers him a job on his ranch to put a stop to persistent rustling. Taking the job promises an income sufficient for Barney to marry his sweetheart. But this promise for the future falls into jeopardy when the outlaws escape, determined to kill Barney.

Feeling lost in the maze of bookkeeping and taxes? Is managing your author finances leaving you in a fiscal fog? Are you dreading tax season?With over twenty years of experience in accounting and a passion for helping writers thrive, Certified Public Accountant Christy Nicholas is your guide to navigating the complex world of author finances. In WRITE IT OFF: An Author’s Guide to Bookkeeping and Taxes, you'll find everything you need to turn financial confusion into financial clarity. WRITE IT OFF! is more than just a manual. It's a roadmap to mastering your author business's financial ...

In the fifteen masterful stories that make up this collection, Jai Chakrabarti crosses continents and cultures to explore what it means to cultivate a family today, across borders, religions, and race.