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  The Abalone Ukulele - A Tale of...

  Roger Crossland

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  In this historical adventure, cultures from China, Korea, Japan, and the United States collide in 1913 over three tons of Japanese gold ingots. 
   
  Three ordinary men—a disgraced Korean tribute courier, a bookish naval officer, and a polyglot third-class quartermaster—must foil Japanese subversion and, with sub rosa assistance from Asiatic Station, highjack that gold to finance a Korean insurrection. Three ordinary women complicate, and complement, their efforts: an enigmatic changsan courtesan, a feisty Down East consular clerk, and a clever Chinese farm-girl. 
   
  It is a tale that wends through the outskirts of Peking to the Yukon River; from the San Francisco waterfront to a naval landing party isolated on a Woosung battlefield; from ships of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet moored on Battleship Row to a junk on the Yangtze; and from the Korean gold mines of Unsan to a coaling quay in Shanghai. Soon a foreign intelligence service, a revolutionary army, and two Chinese triads converge on a nation’s ransom in gold . . . 
   
  Praise for The Abalone Ukulele 
   
  “A masterclass in historical fiction. With painstaking research and a gift for story spinning, Crossland brings to brilliant life a sprawling epic of greed, gold, and redemption. Crossland’s gift for converting historic details into character and narrative makes The Abalone Ukulele an immersive read.” —Joseph A. Williams, author of Seventeen Fathoms Deep and The Sunken Treasure 
   
  “Crossland’s tale of shenanigans, greed, nobility, [and] slivers of grace propels across a geography spanning Shanghai, the Klondike gold fields, and San Francisco’s wharves. His characters are elemental, with a commedia dell'arte quality . . . . Clues to a mystery are sprinkled skillfully throughout, keeping the reader turning the page.” —Loretta Goldberg, author of the award-winning novel, The Reversible Mask 
   
  “Maritime historical fiction in the tradition of Patrick O'Brian.” —Steve Robinson, author of No Guts, No Glory

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  Jack and Kitty's Valentine's Day...

  Kitty Norton, Jack Norton

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  Jack and Kitty's Valentine's Day Feel-Good Stories: Funny and Heartwarming Short Stories for Couples, Singles... and Everyone in Between! 
  Grab your tissues and chocolate, and get ready to cuddle up with this heartwarming collection of Valentine's Day stories. From the joy of finding "the one" to the deep bond of friendship, these short tales are perfect for couples, singles, and everyone who believes in love.  
  Experience the magic of a 50th wedding anniversary, chuckle at a first date fail, and discover that sometimes, it's not just about living happily ever after, but happily after laughter. Jack and Kitty's Valentine's Day Feel-Good Stories celebrates the power of love in all its forms, making this a sweet treasure for anyone who enjoys uplifting short stories.

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  Without Expiration - A Personal...

  William R. Hincy

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  “Are we bad people who sometimes do good things, or good people who do bad things?” 
  As society struggles to reconcile the uncovering of past wrongs with simple human frailty, punishment and personal redemption, the stories in Without Expiration challenge us to consider the humanity of characters who are flawed and heartbroken and who do and suffer terrible things. Works from Without Expiration have been published in some of America’s best short fiction journals. From the tale of a devastated father hunting his daughter’s killer to that of a couple forced to confront the disintegration of their marriage anew each time the wife awakes from a persistent vegetative state, the short fictions in this anthology seek to obliterate any sense of righteous indignation and to question how any of us can make it unscathed through a life where our every mistake is without expiration. 
  Named one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2020 and a finalist for the 2020 Eric Hoffer Award. 
  “Flawed, despondent characters show a surprising wit and humanity […] Hincy’s taut prose makes the entire collection a quick read but still fills the stories with indelible passages. […] The book strikes a chord with characters whose defects make them simultaneously believable and with descriptions of moments involving a loved one’s death, either its prolonged aftermath or its inevitability. […] Cynicism and cheekiness abound in brief but memorable stories.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 
  “Deft, poignant, and unflinching, this collection takes the short story form and turns it inside-out like yesterday's lost sock. Not to be missed.” — Charles Hood, winner of the Kenneth Patchen Prize for Experimental Fiction

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  The Kingdom of God is Within You

  Leo Tolstoy

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  Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, along with many others, have referred to the influence that this work, written by Leo Tolstoy, has had on their psyche, and subsequent permanent change in their state of mind. The selected excerpt, from this much larger writing, reveal Tolstoy's philosophy regarding the literal interpretation of Christ's teachings and his fundamental ideas on nonviolent resistance.

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  Stemming the Tide

  Simon Strantzas

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  "Stemming the Tide" is a short horror story by Simon Strantzas, one of 35 entries in the audio anthology Come Join Us by the Fire.  
  The tide at Hopewell Rocks comes in every six hours and thirteen minutes. Sometimes, it brings the dead with it. 
  Come Join Us by the Fire, edited by Theresa DeLucci, is an audio-only horror anthology of 35 short stories from Nightfire Books, a horror imprint of Tor Books. The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of bestselling genre luminaries including China Miéville, Chuck Wendig, Richard Kadrey, and Victor LaValle; Shirley Jackson Award winners Paul Tremblay, Priya Sharma, and Sam J. Miller; Nebula Award winners Brooke Bolander, Alyssa Wong, Kij Johnson; and many, many more.

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  Anton Chekhov - A Short Story...

  Anton Chekhov

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  Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on 29th January 1860 in Taganrog, on the south coast of Russia.  
   
  His family life was difficult; his father was strict and over-bearing but his mother was a passionate story-teller, a subject Chekhov warmed to. As he later said; ‘our talents we got from our father, but our soul from our mother’.  
   
  At school Chekhov was distinctly average. At 16 his father mis-managed his finances and was declared bankrupt. His family fled to Moscow. Chekhov remained and eked out a living by various means, including writing and selling short sketches to newspapers, to finish his schooling. That completed and with a scholarship to Moscow University obtained he rejoined his family. 
   
  He was able to help support them by selling satirical sketches and vignettes of Russian lifestyles and gradually obtained further commissions. In 1884, he qualified as a physician and, although it earned him little, he often treated the poor for free, he was fond of saying ‘Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.’ 
   
  His own health was now an issue as he began to cough up blood, a symptom of tuberculosis.  Despite this his writing success enabled him to move the family into more comfortable accommodation.  
   
  Chekhov wrote over 500 short stories which included many, many classics including ‘The Kiss’ and ‘The Lady with a Dog’.  His collection ‘At Dusk’ won him the coveted Pushkin Prize when was only 26.  
   
  He was also a major playwright beginning with the huge success of ‘Ivanov’ in 1887.   
   
  In 1892 Chekhov bought a country estate north of Moscow. Here his medical skills and money helped the peasants tackle outbreaks of cholera and bouts of famine. He also built three schools, a fire station and a clinic.  It left him with less time for writing but the interactions with real people gained him detailed knowledge about the peasantry and their living conditions for his stories.  
   
  His most famous work, ‘The Seagull’ was received disastrously at its premiere in St Petersburg. It was later restaged in Moscow to highlight its psychological aspects and was a huge success. It led to ‘Uncle Vanya’, ‘The Three Sisters’ and ‘The Cherry Orchard’.  
   
  Chekhov suffered a major lung hemorrhage in 1897 while visiting Moscow. A formal diagnosis confirmed tuberculosis and the doctors ordered changes to his lifestyle.  
   
  Despite a dread of weddings the elusive literary bachelor quietly married the actress Olga Knipper, whom he had met at rehearsals for ‘The Seagull’, on 25th May 1901. 
   
  By May 1904 with his tuberculosis worsening and death imminent he set off for the German town of Badenweiler writing cheerful, witty letters to his family and assuring them his health was improving.  
   
  On 15th July 1904 Anton Chekhov died at Badenweiler.  He was 44.  
  1 - Anton Chekhov - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  2 - The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekhov 
  3 - Volodya by Anton Chekhov 
  4 - Misery by Anton Chekhov 
  5 - The Death of a Government Clerk by Anton Chekhov 
  6 - The Bet by Anton Chekhov 
  7 - A Chameleon by Anton Chekhov  
  8 - Vanka by Anton Chekhov 
  9 - The Student by Anton Chekhov 
  10 - The Looking Glass by Anton Chekhov 
  11 - Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov 
  12 - About Love by Anton Chekhov 
  13 - The Kiss by Anton Chekhov

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