Pure Slaughter Value: Stories


Robert Bingham - 1997
    Bingham's strange sense of morbid fancy collides with a gutsy realism; the result is splendid wreckage: a young man is seduced by his first cousin (or maybe it's the other way around) at her brother's wake ("The Other Family"); a bored couple plot to kill a man during their ski-resort honeymoon ("Marriage Is Murder"); a yuppie banker risks his whole perfect life for an affair with a junkie ("The Fixers"); an insurance-company bounty hunter tracks down walk-aways from drug and alcohol rehab ("Preexisting Condition"); and in the title story, an eleven-year-old boy is caught at the exquisitely uneasy intersection of the safety of childhood play and the pain of grown-up love and longing.These lean, potent stories are utterly original, and yet by turns recall Salinger, in their intellectual acuity, emotional depth, and wicked, dark humor; Fitzgerald, in their vivid chronicling of a new, restless social elite; and the work of "transgressive" writers, in their pervasive sense of the imminent possibility of danger and violence, even in the most civilized surroundings. Above all, the stories in Pure Slaughter Value mark the debut of a striking new literary voice--unsparing, bold, ironic, and true--that will haunt us for a long time to come.

Afterlife


Melissa Jennings - 2017
    Afterlife is a journey from the darkness to the light again, and again, and again.This poetry collection discusses depression, anxiety, trauma flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, death, self-harm, suicidal ideations, strong language.Please practice self-care while reading this poetry collection.Please see appendix at the end of the collection for detailed page number content warnings.Also available for download on Payhip: https://payhip.com/b/hYbl

I Don't Want To Lose You


A.B. Lee - 2013
    An encounter with a man who is as dangerous as he is sexy leaves her with mixed feelings about Connor. However, she is determined to keep her distance until fate steps in, or rather Connor's Beta, Jazz, and she finds that distance is the last thing she is going to get. When Annie uncovers the shocking truth of what Connor is hiding, Connor fears that he has lost his mate forever. Can Annie see past the wolf to the man or will he lose her?

Meeting Your Goliath (Timeless Talks)


Thomas S. Monson - 1997
    Jet-powered aircraft streaked toward specified targets, cannons roared, tanks lumbered, men fought and died, women wept, and children cried. The Holy Land, once the personal province of the Prince of Peace, was engulfed by war. This troubled land has witnessed much conflict throughout its history; its peoples have suffered terrible trials and tribulations. No single battle is better remembered, however, than occurred in the Valley of Elah during the year 1063 B.C. Along the mountains on one side, the feared armies of the Philistines were marshalled to march directly to the heart of Judah and the Jordan Valley. On the other side of the valley, King Saul had drawn up his armies in opposition. Historians tell us that the opposing forces were about evenly matched in number and in skill. However, the Philistines had managed to keep secret their valued knowledge of smelting and fashioning iron into formidable weapons of war. The sound of hammers pounding upon anvils and the sight of smoke rising skyward from many bellows as the smiths went about the task of sharpening weapons and fashioning new ones must have struck fear into the hearts of Saul's warriors, for even the most novice of soldiers could know the superiority of iron weapons to those of brass. As often happened when armies faced each other, individual champions challenged others from the opposing forces to single combat. There was considerable precedent for this sort of fighting; and on more than one occasion, notably during the tenure of Samson as judge, battles had been decided by individual combat. Now, however, the situation was reversed as far as Israel was concerned, and it was a Philistine who dared to challenge all others-a veritable giant of a man called Goliath of Gath. Old accounts tell us that Goliath was ten feet tall. He wore brass armor and a coat of mail. And the staff of his spear would stagger a strong man merely to lift, let alone hurl. His shield was the longest ever seen or heard of, and his sword a fearsome blade.

Dying to Live


C.M. Wright - 2012
    You think about it, fantasize about it, live through it in your head. But what would you do if zombies became a reality? If you actually were to see the dead walk, attack and kill people you know - who then rise right in front of your eyes? What would you do when the undead don't follow the script you've played out - over and over - in your own mind?Find out what happens to a woman in central Illinois when her life is turned upside down. Zombies become real and so does the danger. Her family means the most to her, but can she keep them alive? Can she keep herself alive?In this short story that begins the full-length series, you are a big part of it. The main character "speaks" to you often and you're invited into her thoughts - which can be quite humorous at times. She's not perfect and she knows it.She strong and she's a fighter...but she doesn't know it.

If I Had to Tell It Again


Gayathri Prabhu - 2017
    There would be no funeral. He had donated his body to the local medical college. It was part of his script, his fantasy about death. He would show his hospital donation certificate to anyone who came to our house. No rituals for me, he would announce. To his mind there was some justice in being cut up by medical students. He had wanted to be a doctor. There is his corpse, lying on the floor, people constantly milling around, talking about his untimely, unfortunate death, while I stare at everyone in dry-eyed annoyance. He had always been a popular man, much loved, generous to a fault to his neighbours, even if angry towards his own family. I just want him gone from the house. When the van from the morgue comes to pick him up, everyone urges us to touch his feet, to ask for his blessings. It is expected from children of dead parents. Everyone watches us. You first, an old man points to me, my father s first-born. I bend down, my fingers touch his feet. In my mind the words form, loud and distinct I forgive you.

To Kill A Critic


Michael Leese - 2018
    A heart-felt compliment can make you feel fabulous but a blast of anger can wound deeply. They can even kill. This gripping short story features a fresh outing for autistic detective Jonathan Roper. He’s called in when a world-famous critic is found murdered in his London penthouse. As Roper soon discovers, the critic was uncompromising with his opinions, willing to beat-up the biggest stars of stage and screen if he felt they failed to deliver and his legion of fans loved his honesty. Which gained him a formidable cast of enemies. All Roper has to do is work out which of his many, many enemies had the determination to see him dead. To Kill A Critic is the latest story of the unique partnership between Roper and DCI Brian Hooley.

City Sticks


A.H. Sewell - 2015
    It was a sample (and not even the correct file - it was an old rough draft that was saved under a new title), and Goodreads will not take it down. The Amazon link directs to the correct, and full, edition. "She is lost, but the world is too. It is a perfect circle.For life is, but a dream /// is not."- "Seeing Ghosts/A Perfect Circle" excerptA. H. SewellCopyright 2015

Is This Normal?


Darcie Johnston - 2015
    This helpful resource book is filled with over 100 letters from real girls like you with questions about their changing bodies, and expert answers to each one.

The Hunger Moon


Suzanne Matson - 1997
    So she packs up her spare life, leaves her boyfriend behind, and heads across the country in search of a new place to begin. Settling in Boston, her life is suddenly changed by the chance meeting of two unlikely women: Eleanor, a seventy-eight year old widow who is stripping away the layers of her past, and June, an ambitious dance student who relies on a psychic to help manage her estranged relationships--all the while keeping a shocking secret. As these three resilient women of different backgrounds and ages face their own particular demons, Charlie becomes their shared center. Drawing strength from each other and the maternal bond that unites them, they soon discover that the lives they have run from just may be their saving grace. . . .

The Fourth Protector


Bri Baker - 2016
    Guard your kingdom2. Produce an heir3. No female protectorsThese rules have been followed for 2,000 years since the consummation of two protectors resulted in the greatest evil the world has ever seen. Until now. Lena is the first female protector since the original five. Born seconds before her half-brother, Anwar, her father has been able to keep her existence a secret from the other protectors. But due to unforeseen events, Lena must work alongside the other four protectors while hiding her true power and keeping a safe distance from the devilish fire protector.

The Right Mistake


A.M. Guilliams - 2018
    A job I loved-Check.An apartment I adored-Double Check.Friends who tried to get me to take a walk on the wild side-Triple Check. When my best friend announced her destination bachelorette party, I knew I was in trouble. I could handle just about anything she threw my way.But Vegas.I knew there was no way I could handle the city that never slept. And boy was I right. One night of planned fun turned into the night that would upend the perfectly structured life I’d built. What could possibly go wrong when you mix gambling, shots of whiskey, and a giving your engaged friend an example of how a wedding should go?Everything. What happened in Vegas didn’t stay there. He came home right along with me.

Small Towns, Big Stories


Ruskin Bond - 2017
    Timeless classics like ‘Time Stops at Shamli’, ‘Bus Stop, Pipalnagar’, and ‘The Night Train at Deoli’ rub shoulders with brilliant new stories that have never been published before like ‘Strychnine in the Cognac’, ‘The Horseshoe’ and ‘When the Clock Strikes Thirteen’. Vibrant, poignant, beautiful and tragic, these stories show a master storyteller at the height of his powers.

One Star


The Behrg - 2019
    But when Li posts a one-star review of a novel on her book blog, the results are far more frightening than she could ever have imagined. Not every story was meant to have a happy ending.ONE STAR is a previously unpublished horror short story, being released in The Behrg's upcoming short story collection--"The Passengers You Cannot See." It is the author's love letter to book bloggers and reviewers, and thus is being offered as a free download to any book reviewer in part to thank all those who have been a part of the author's journey. And if you haven't yet been a part, there's no better time than now to jump in that car and ride along. Oh, the vistas you will see.

I Watched Him Fall For Someone Else


Beeyotch
    I just got out of college. I wanted to explore the world. I wanted to go to the US and travel around Europe. Tapos maiyak at matakot kasi naliligaw ako sa isang bansa na hindi ako pamilyar. At siguro, tumira sa Thailand for a year or two. I also wanted to work three jobs at a time. Gusto kong maranasan na mahirapan sa pagbabayad ng rent sa apartment. Gusto kong makaaway iyong landlady ko kasi ubod ng sungit. I also wanted to adopt a dog and complain because I couldn't take care of it. He wanted to settle down but I wanted to do so many things in my life. Magkaiba iyong priorities namin. Still, I asked him to wait. That maybe after a year or two, we could talk about it again. Ang selfish ko pero gusto ko kasi na kapag ayos na ako, nandyan pa rin siya. There's the comfort in knowing that after all of this, he's still there, waiting for me. But two years, seven days, three hours, five minutes, and thirty seconds later, I was in a church. I watched him get married to someone else.