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  Church The - A Short Story...

  Henry James, D H Lawrence,...

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  Faith is a wonderful thing.  Whether its faith in each other or to a God, Gods, or whatever entity you believe in, it brings a familiar comfort and sustenance to heart, soul and mental well-being. 
   
  Whilst faith can be practiced anywhere religious faith is usually at a church or temple.  The stories in this volume are centered both in houses of worship and with those with a strong association to its calling. 
     
  Of course, short story authors have a determined belief in their undoubted talents to make us look at this subject from different angles.  In this volume they take us on literary journeys that are revealing and challenging yet always entertaining. 
  1 - The Church - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  2 - The Altar of the Dead - Part 1 by Henry James 
  3 - The Altar of the Dead - Part 2 by Henry James 
  4 - A Fragment of Stained Glass by D H Lawrence 
  5 - Neccesity. An Eastern Tale by Vladimir Korolenko 
  6 - Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley.wav 
  7 - The Haunted Church by Frederick Cowles 
  8 - Lucifer by Anatole France 
  9 - Anathema by Alexander Kuprin 
  10 - Lazarus by Leonid Andreyev 
  11 - The Black Crusader by Alicia Ramsay 
  12 - The Saint by Mary Butts 
  13 - Marsyas In Flanders by Vernon Lee 
  14 - The Ankardyne Pew by W F Harvey 
  15 - The Tomb of Sarah by F G Loring 
  16 - The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac 
  17 - A Collector's Company by R H Malden

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  Message from Mars

  Clifford D. Simak

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  What secrets lie hidden on the Red Planet? In Message from Mars, Clifford D. Simak delivers a gripping tale of mystery and discovery. When Earth receives a cryptic signal from Mars, a team of scientists embarks on a daring mission to uncover its source. As they traverse the barren Martian landscape, they encounter an enigma that could change humanity's understanding of the universe. Blending hard science fiction with profound philosophical questions, Simak's masterful storytelling explores themes of isolation, communication, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. A thought-provoking and timeless sci-fi classic.

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  Pretty Ugly

  Kirsty Gunn

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  Contradictions (both real and apparent), oppositions, enigmas, provocations, challenges——this is the kind of material that makes a life, and is the kind of material that, in fiction, one is never quite sure of. With Pretty Ugly, Kirsty Gunn reminds us again that she is a master of just such stuff, presenting ambiguity and complication as the essence of the storyteller's endeavour.
  The sheer force of life that Gunn is able to load these stories up with is both testament to her unrivalled skill and an exercise in what she describes as 'reading and writing ugly', in order to pursue the deeper truths that lie at the heart of both the human imagination and human rationality.
  So here we have all the strange and seemingly impossible dualities that make up real life——and pretty ugly it can be, as well as beautiful, hopeful, bleak, difficult, exhilarating. But never, ever dull.

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  After Twenty years - From their...

  O Henry

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  William Sydney Porter was born on 11th September 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At age 3 his mother died from tuberculosis. From an early age it was clear Porter had a large appetite for reading as he absorbed the world around him. 
  He first attended at a school run by his aunt before enrolling at the Lindsey Street High School and then worked at his uncle’s drugstore and gained a pharmacists’ license in 1881.  
  A persistent cough took him to Texas in the hope that a change of climate would help his symptoms. He took on various types of work, initially from ranch hand and cook and then as varied as pharmacist, draftsman, bank teller and journalist. He also began to write, though for now, purely as a hobby. 
  He was a member of several singing and dramatic groups when he met 17 year old Athol Estes, daughter of a wealthy Austin family. Despite her mother’s objection owing to Athol’s tuberculosis, they began courting and in July 1887, they eloped and soon married. 
  Athol, impressed by his writing, encouraged him to get them published. A job as a draftsman at the Texas General Land Office paid a healthy $100 dollars per month and life was good. 
  But then life turned cruel. His son died a few hours after birth although a daughter, Margaret, came the following year.  His job had to be vacated but another was found at the First National Bank of Austin. The bank operated informally and Porter was careless in keeping the books. He lost that job but began writing for the humourous weekly The Rolling Stone and the Houston Post. Some time later the federal Bank auditors went through his former accounts and he was arrested on charges of embezzlement. 
  Porter fled the day before his trial to Honduras. Holed up for several months he began to write.  Athol had become too ill to travel to meet him and learning that her health was deteriorating he surrendered to the court in February 1897.  Bail was obtained so that he could stay with Athol during her final days.  
  Porter was sentenced to five years at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. His pharmacy qualifications got him the job of night druggist.  His sentence also gave him time to write and publish fourteen short stories. In December 1899 in McClure’s Magazine he published a short story as O Henry.  
  He was released two years early in July 1901, and reunited with Margaret, now 11, in Pittsburgh.  He now began his most prolific period of writing; a short story per week for the New York World, while also publishing works in other magazines.  Eventually over 600 of his short stories were published. 
  Porter was a heavy drinker and in 1908 his health, which had deteriorated for several years, took a dramatic turn for the worse, as did his writing. 
  O Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver complicated by diabetes and an enlarged heart on 5th June 1910.<

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  Tempered Glass

  Stacey Longo

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  "Peppered with pop culture and brand name references to lend realism, these unnerving stories offer witty yet foreboding observations of humanity’s folly. Readers who relish the blending of genres will be pulled in by the humor, humanity, and horrors." ~ Booklife Reviews by Publishers Weekly 
  Readers' Choice Award-winning author Stacey Longo is back with a collection of darkly funny, spine-tingling fiction that will haunt your dreams long after you've turned the final page. Journey across the Donner Pass with young newlyweds whose dreams of grandeur turn gruesome. Dare to venture to a carny retirement community, where the echoes of past tortures still resonate. In Tempered Glass, Longo masterfully weaves together a tapestry of dread, seamlessly blending psychological terror with supernatural horror. Can you handle the horrors that lie within?

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  Old Faces: Yet More Tales from...

  Edward Forde Hickey

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  This book portrays a closely-knit group of people living in the north Tipperary hills during the early 20th century - a community largely made up of small farmers, whose lives were far different from today. The book's inspiration comes from writers such as Thomas Hardy and attempts to pass on to readers the lyrical and rich phrasings of Tipperary's old hill folk and capture the spiritual wealth of an age that remained unchanged for several centuries.  
  Tales of . . . brotherly love and hate, a rogue's return from across the sea and his efforts to reform, an unexpected first-love at the harvest-time dance-in-the-fields, persecution of two old saints at the hands of misguided youth, sports-day activities for adults and children alike following the arduous channelling of a new stream, two adventurous toddlers getting lost in the wilderness but saved by a witch, and more.  
  'Lovers of literature will find themselves engrossed in the lives of a past hillside community.'  Addison & Cole

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