His father is an abusive drunk with muddled religious views, and his mother, as hard as she tries to defend her son, only ever ends up delaying the inevitable. Things take a turn for the worse one Friday when Bobby brings home a black eye from school. The following day his father brings him out into the woods on a mission to do “God’s Work” and bring him into adulthood. A coming-of-age story about the sins of a father and a son’s chance to absolve himself from them.

    Can you imagine Draupadi in a Brothel house? How did she end there and who is responsible for that? Read this short story to meet her and know about her life.

    Not only does it lack the word burglar in the title, but Bernie’s not the story’s viewpoint character. It’s told entirely through the spirited and enterprising young woman whose fate it is to walk in on our lad in mid-job, all in a near-empty office building in the middle of the night. That could be pretty frightening, but hey, it’s Bernie. She’s got nothing to be afraid of, and neither do we.The story originated in the late 70s, commissioned by a women’s magazine called Savvy, with a suite of offices in the huge old Port Authority building on Ninth Avenue in Chelsea. A couple of editors decided it was an intimidating location late at night, and thought it would be a good setting for a short story, even though they hadn’t yet run any fiction. One of them knew my work, and they got in touch.I wrote the story, and they loved it and paid a decent price for it, but they never seemed to find room for it in an issue of the magazine. They kept scheduling it and changing their minds, and it seems to me they changed editors in the bargain, and after a couple of years of this they went out of business. Which was a pity, because it was an interesting publication, except for the fiction—of which, alas, there wasn’t any. My agent got the story back, and I believe he sent it over to Cosmopolitan, and no end of online sources now assure me that it ran in that magazine’s May 1983 issue.And maybe it did. Except I don’t have a copy of the magazine, and don’t think I ever saw one. I’ve seen Cosmo’s May 1983 cover, it’s not hard to find online, and they blurbed eight or nine major pieces on it, and my story is not among them. Well, really, what difference does it make? It either ran there or it didn’t, and it’s been in short story collections of mine since, including my omnibus, Enough Rope. I had to read it closely in order to format the scanned story for ePublication, and I was pleased to find that I like it a lot. I can only hope, Dear Reader, that it works as well for you.

    Included are: "The Duchess at Prayer," "The Angel at the Grave," "The Recovery," "Copy: A Dialogue," "The Rembrandt," "The Moving Finger," and "The Confessional."

    Reissue.

    After the glamour had worn off, and the glass slippers were worn out, did the Prince never find Cinderella's manner redolent of the kitchen hearth; and was it never necessary that he remind her to be more careful of her finger-nails and grammar? After Puss in Boots had won wealth and a wife for his young master did not that gentleman often fume with chagrin because the neighbors, perhaps, refused to call on the lady of the former poor miller's son? It is a great risk to take with one's book-children. These stories make no such promises. They stop just short of the phrase of the old story writers, and end truthfully, thus: And so they lived. E. F.(Summary from the Foreword to "Buttered Side Down".)

    but a freak accident had sent Holly Howe there to recover in seclusion...and to work at the only job she could find---as a servant at Cliff House. Sitting high above the bay, the gloomy mansion was filled with priceless antiques, a bedridden old woman, and things that go bump in the night.Holly didn't believe in ghosts, but she knew something eerie was happening when the moon was full and the legendary tides came sweeping in from the sea. Who was lurking about the darkened mansion? What was the strange buoy light bobbing off shore? Why was a handsome young craftsman becoming a regular visitor? And why did the ebony eyes of the withered old crone upstairs suddenly stare back at Holly---wide, clear, and luminously gray?

    An Off the Grid lodge owner in Fish Lakes, Alaska, Tom enthralls roomfuls of guests every year from the Lower 48 and around the world with tales of his adventures, foibles, and SNAFUs in 44 years living in the Alaskan wilderness. From his start as a Pennsylvania farmboy who ran off to join the United States Air Force, to his arrival in Alaska with less than a hundred dollars in his wallet and a growing family in his back seat, to his forty years as a Bush pilot and his accidental introduction to the fishing lodge business, to his multiple brushes with death, hardship, and questionable characters, Tom Brion has a story to cover it all. A pioneer in sustainable homesteading and off-the-Grid living, Tom Brion built his first lodge in Alaska on five acres in the Lake Creek area, in 1979, and continues to this day building and working heavy machinery 60 miles from any road. Born in 1941, Tom has collected 74 years of humorous, heart-wrenching, and sometimes mind-blowing stories of traveling, hunting, and exploring the backcountry of Alaska in the pilot’s seat of a Vietnam-era Cessna Birddog. A biography in the form of short life stories, Tom Brion’s memoir takes us to a rural Bush life where people live off the land, drill their own wells, put out their own forest fires, and depend on their neighbors to pick up their mail. Surrounded by nature, Tom continues to fly, plow, run his bulldozer, and wrangle his subsistence fishwheel up the river every year in the Skwentna area of Alaska, where temperatures in winter drop to 45 below zero and summers can see entire months without rain. Follow him in this (mostly) nonfiction anthology of (somewhat) true stories from the Last Frontier as he gives the straight scoop about bears, outhouses, farming, flooding, fishing, moose, guns, and aviation in the 49th State.An avid hunter, outdoorsman, fisherman, and jack of all trades, Tom documents his life with photos and illustrations that detail an epic adventure from start to finish.

    These two stories are perhaps even better known as films (The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock and Don't Look Now by Nic Roeg), but here we bring you the full terrifying texts, superbly read by Peter Capaldi, who brings the true dimension of these works to the imagination.

    His neighbors have been a great help with his daughter Charlotte, but he can’t work and take care of her properly.The town matchmaker Emma Hilton has the perfect woman to help Bradley with his baby girl.Nanny Shannon Howell loves taking care of children, but she’d also like to find a husband. She’s eager to travel west in hopes of finding a family to call her own. Shannon is happy to help Bradley with baby Charlotte. Unfortunately, Shannon’s former employer is having problems letting her go.Will the man that traveled across the country drag her back to the east?Has Shannon found the place where she can be her true self with Bradley and Charlotte in Lubbock, Texas?Find out in the first book in a brand new series from Bestselling Mail Order Bride Authors Indiana Wake & Belle Fiffer

    Get into the spirit of the season with this quick read!

    He dreaded the notion of following in his daed's and grossdaead's footsteps in working for the local RV manufacturer. Surely Gott had a plan for him to live the life Gott intended for him? Noah's maem was a renowned quilter and shopkeeper. She sold local Amish produce and her wonderful Amish quilts from her store, but she missed the opportunities presented by the seasonal flea-market when it closed for the winter months and harvest. With this in mind, Noah secures her a booth at the large Shipshewana flea market a fair distance from their home. It is here that he meets Miriam Yoder whose maem also has a booth at the market. As Christmas quickly approaches, is running out for Noah and he needs to decide on a vocation. Should he sell his dreams and settle into a life decided by his daed? When it becomes unbearable for Miriam and Noah to be apart for a week at a stretch, it seems that Gott is opening a window where He had so recently closed a door. Would the window offer Miriam and Noah the opportunities they both longed for? Find out if Christmas miracles do come true, in this truly wonderful seasonal story at this special time of year.

    Her life is finally falling into place as she moves into her new house, but a piece of her past comes back to surprise her. She discovers she is pregnant from a past college trisk, and now has to change her life. She never expected to be pregnant, and she never expected to fall in love with a sexy, billionaire, ER Doctor. Pete Walker is an older, hardened billionaire who knows what he wants—Tatiana. She fears she doesn’t have room in her life for a baby, and a new man; but her life has always been defined by the unexpected. This standalone story ends Happily Ever After. The story contains explicit love scenes and is intended for 18+ readers only! Get this book FREE with Kindle unlimited! A Steamy Romance Book + Bonus Stories!

    She’s not your typical western belle. Can an unconventional love bring them together? A Sweet Western Romance from #1 Best Selling Author Emily Wood Maddie has never been a traditional lady, even for the western frontier. More comfortable on a horse than in a kitchen, she immediately dislikes Cole who has never worked a ranch yet presumes to own one someday. Despite the clear friction, they may learn that an unconventional love is just what they both need. An Unconventional Love is a clean western romance from #1 Best Selling author Emily Woods. If you like clean, historical fiction about women who must overcome tragedy in order to love again, you will love this sweet romance! Buy An Unconventional Love and get lost in another sweet western romance today. Always FREE on Kindle Unlimited