検索キーワード： 選集・短編小説

With just the right flourish of his pen, author James Street takes his listeners for a walk in the footsteps of the men and women who populated the small towns and piney woods of his beloved home state, Mississippi. James Street turns his singular experiences into moving and thought-provoking universal truths - seeing beyond tarnished exteriors to the treasures within.

Hoping to help save her family, Rachel Murphy becomes a mail order bride to a strange man out west. She longs for a life of security, if not love, but is devastated when the local townspeople turn against her so bitterly. Alone in her new life, with no friends to lean on, Rachel worries that she will never feel at home in this distant town.

As wealthy debutante Violet Beauchamp travels across country on Route 66, she finds a small dog hurt on the road. Unwilling to leave the dog, she stops at a small Hopi Indian souvenir stand, where she is advised to go to the Holbrook Wigwam Motel. She is also given an enchanted rock, and told that the next man she sees will be the man she marries. When she meets motel clerk Lee, although handsome and kind, she still believes she is destined to marry a wealthy man in California whom she has never met.

Sir William de Clopton has come to defend the Crusaders' last toe hold in the Holy Land only to find it besieged by a terror so great even his supposed enemies have fled. Now he must face history's greatest marauder, Tamir the Lame, and his army who have laid waste a continent. Sir William's only hope lies with a small band of the Knights of St. John and warriors who serves the sworn enemy of his king. They must hold the port of Smyrna at all costs or they, and thousands of innocents, will die horribly.

Set during the 1970s glam rock scene in Hollywood, Wham Glam Thank You Ma'am follows best friends Jemmie and Dara, who will do anything to get into Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco after they hear a rumor that their favorite rock star is going to be making the scene. No tickets, no ride, no I.D. - no problem! Nothing will deter them from meeting their idol.

Grandma Mary is an educated, yet financially poor woman. She struggles every day to pay the bills and to put some food on the table. The only one she has in life is her grandson Misha. She works for a wealthy family in Rublevka, yet this doesn't improve her situation. A tragic event will turn her life upside down, completely changing the existence of both Mary and Misha. This is the story about a little boy who had everything and nothing at the same time.

Can the past heal the future? Ninety-year-old Marvin Hermesch is determined to find out. After sneaking out of the retirement home on a hot and humid Sunday afternoon, Marvin embarks upon a journey. His memory is deteriorating fast, and he's having difficulty recalling the face of his deceased wife, Ruthie. As his short-term memory slips, it awakens memories buried deep from his younger days and vivid nightmares of his youth, including the horrors of World War II.

Viciria is an actual person who lived. She is real and her son, Marcus Nonius Balbus, actually became the first citizen of Herculaneum. Before this wealthy resort city was buried by Vesuvius in AD 79, she was known as The Witch. At title well-earned for sure. But why? What could happen in her life that could change such a gentle creature? Find out in the accompanying short story to Threatened Loyalties also by J F Ridgley.

The Quest is a story of the Delaware war chief Killbuck who led raids against the settlers during the French and Indian War. He was a remarkable man who spoke several languages and fought long and hard for his people and his ancestral lands. He eventually aligned himself with the Americans and lost his life while under their protection at Fort Henry. Descendants of this determined chief live today.

Elizabeth Sterling loved to view the paintings at the Royal Academy in London, but she was not expecting to catch the eye of one of its most famous painters Aidan Drivatti. He was a sexy and passionate genius, but also a known scoundrel. When he asks Elizabeth to model for him for his next painting, she has a risky decision to make.

Mary: A Tale of Captivity is a short story about Mary Mallow Heavener who was taken captive by an Indian war party in 1758. A blend of fact and fiction, the story describes the massacre at Fort Seybert, Mary's life in an Indian village, and her eventual escape and return home. Mary lived from 1749 to about 1804, married and left numerous descendants. Her mother and four siblings were also captured but only one returned home. The historical fiction novel The Dark Side of the Mountain describes the massacre and the journey of her captured mother Anna Margaretha Mallow, who lost three children during that time.

When DeLoyd Stroudamore discovers a cedar chest filled with handwritten stories from 1930s Toad Springs, Florida, he uncovers a world of three-legged gators with Jesus's face, preachers with prison pasts, and beauty shop disasters. Through authentic voices in genuine dialect, these interconnected tales reveal how ordinary people survived the Depression with humor, faith, and resilience.

Marie Jenson is no longer the naive college student whose life was turned upside down by terrorism many years ago. When she is personally caught up in the throes of the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, Marie is forced to come to terms with deep scars she carries. While risking the loss of everything she holds dear, Marie is catapulted onto a new path that will have deep implications for her personally and for the nation's security.

Annie Fuller, a young boardinghouse housekeeper and reluctant clairvoyant, met the kind, older Chinese servant Mr. Wong during her investigations into a mysterious death in Maids of Misfortune, the first book in Locke's Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. In "Mr. Wong Rights a Wrong", Annie Fuller once again turns to Mr. Wong for help in solving a puzzle that could have life or death consequences.

What made Lincoln's hat stand up? Did Chairman Mao keep a Little Black Book? Lynda Schor's "Seduction" follows Warren Beatty on his tireless erotic journey, with characters like Joan Collins and Joyce Carol Oates chiming in on his legendary prowess. In "The Ballad of Scott and Zelda," Maxim Jakubowski traces the passion and the slow, bitter disconnection of those idols of the Jazz Age.

Manitoulin Memories is a collection of coming-of-age stories set in Canada in the 1950s. They are about a man who's recalling his father and take place in Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada, which is now dead, consumed by civilization. After WW II, tourists came to the island from the States for a summer getaway. Manitoulin Memories deals with those who came and what they found and how they ended up; it makes use of a middle-aged man who returns to the Manitoulin to see how it is and to learn who he was when he lived there.

From the dark depths of the past to the bright hopes of the future, Pati Nagle's stories range across the palette of human emotion. Named for her Theodore Sturgeon Award Finalist story, Coyote Ugly includes fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, romance, mystery, and a few surprises. The rhythms, colors, and flavors of New Mexico enrich many of the stories. Curl up with this collection and your favorite hot cuppa, and prepare to escape the ordinary.

So there was all that: the ordinary twill of life; the ho-hum sturm und drang of the workplace: the ubiquitous absurdities, the annoying co-workers, the bloody deadlines and even bloodier bottom lines; the bland, eternal, Sisyphean, absolute, unrelenting, surreal certainty of the day-in-and-day-out of it all. Life as a slice of white bread, moistened with spit and rolled into a messy glob, a doughy ball that couldn't make the slightest dent in the iron gates of life. But then, suddenly, on August 27, 2002, all that changed. Suddenly, Rae-Jean's uneventful life began to leaven and swell with hypotheticals.

Charlie White leads a simple life in 1920s Philadelphia as a chemist at the Dupont Corporation. One day, as he's walking home from work, he is approached by two men and is forced into the world of bootlegging, corruption and murder. When tragedy strikes, Charlie must decide whether to continue his double-life or tell the world his story before it's too late. The Chemist is based on a true story during Prohibition.

“The Matt Cooper Chronicles” consists of the following short stories.