Other books that might interest you

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  Buried Frozen plus You Are the...

  A. J. Payler

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  What's buried beneath the frozen ground… will change his world forever 
  The only thing that made those seemingly unending days in prison bearable was knowing what was waiting for him on the outside, buried deep in the frozen ground where she'd sworn to leave his share of the loot. 
  And after years of isolation, all he has to do is dig it up, rejoin her, and get back to the life that's rightfully his.  
  But even the best laid plans oft go awry. And sure, they'd never claimed to be the best of the best, but still… he never could have imagined what he'd find waiting for him, cold and dark at the bottom of that hole. 
  From A. J. Payler, author of The Killing Song, Bank Error in Your Favor, and Terror Next Door comes Buried, Frozen—a story of the terror that lies at the heart of the human condition and the fear that creeps in the darkest, coldest hours of the night. 
    
  Also featuring bonus story, You Are the Protagonist (as seen in Flash in a Flash)! 
  As originally published in Dead of Winter: 13 Tales of Winter Terror (M Presents, January 31, 2024) and Flash in a Flash (May 13, 2024).

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  Gooseberries - From their pens...

  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.

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  The Yellow Paint

  R. L. Stevenson

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  Once upon a time in an undefined city was a doctor who was selling yellow paint. This was of so singular a virtue that whoso was bedaubed with it from head to heel was set free from the dangers of life, and the bondage of sin, and the fear of death for ever. All citizens in the city were painted in yellow. In the same city was a young man of a very good family but he had a reckless life and he always postponed painting in yellow. He had the best friend who had a reckless life just like the main hero.Suddenly his friend was run down by a water-cart. The main hero applied to the doctor to paint him in yellow.A SmartTouch Media production.

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  2014 Top Ten Gay Romance

  J.M. Snyder

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  2014 Top Ten Gay Romance brings together the best-selling short stories published by JMS Books that year.
  From first love to true love, from submission to sensual, from heat to sweet and everything in between, the couples in these stories are sure to keep you turning the pages as you fall in love with them.
  With stories by J.M. Snyder, Drew Hunt, J.L. Merrow, A.R. Moler, Jeff Adams, Terry O'Reilly, Iyana Jenna, J.D. Walker, Sam Singer, and Paul Alan Fahey, this head-over-heels collection goes beyond bedtime reading. Whether happily ever after or happy for now, there's an ending for everyone in here!
  Contains the stories:
  
  - Rivals by Jeff Adams
  - Words by Paul Alan Fahey
  - The Nutcracker by Drew Hunt
  - Ya Like That? by Iyana Jenna
  - Making It Pay by JL Merrow
  - Personal Protection by A.R. Moler
  - My Beagle, the Yenta by Terry O'Reilly
  - Broken by Sam Singer
  - Blurring the Lines by J.M. Snyder
  - The Best Man for Me by J.D. Walker

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  Stories Based on the Author's...

  Stephen Crane

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  It is often said that the best writers write about something they know, something they understand.  And it’s excellent advice.  So when authors of the calibre of Stephen Crane, James Fenimore Cooper, Joseph Conrad, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and many others share that experience with us, a bond of trust and respect is easily attained. 
   
  1 - Short Stories Based on the Author's Own Experience - An Introduction 
  2 - Baa Baa Black Sheep by Rudyard Kipling 
  3 - My Red Cap by Louisa May Alcott 
  4 - The Peasant Marey by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
  5 - The Mourner by Mary Shelley 
  6 - How I Killed a Bear by Charles Dudley Warner 
  7 - A Red Flower by Vsevolod Garshin 
  8 - The Eclipse by James Fenimore Cooper 
  9 - The Open Boat by Stephen Crane 
  10 - The Servant by S T Semyonov 
  11 - Youth - Part 1 by Joseph Conrad 
  12 - Youth - Part 2 by Joseph Conrad 
  13 - The Brothers by Louisa May Alcott

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  Caliburn's Fight

  Christopher Cartwright

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  The video was everywhere – a viral sensation sweeping across social media. 
  A golden retriever puppy in Bilbao, Spain. It was placed on a series of different rugs, its fur shifting in real time to match the colors and even the intricate patterns woven into the fabric. The internet was in a frenzy, with hundreds of thousands of comments debating whether it was an elaborate hoax, a genetic anomaly, or something else entirely. 
  But Sam Reilly knew the truth the moment he saw it. 
  This wasn’t a trick. 
  Caliburn, his dog, shared the same genetic trait. 
  The golden retriever was an engineered chimera infused with human and octopus DNA. He was originally designed as a classified military experiment rooted in the legendary craftsmanship of the blacksmith Merlin, who designed King Arthur’s greatest weapons – Excalibur and Caliburn. 
  If the puppy was real, then so too was the danger that followed it. 
  The hunt for Caliburn’s offspring leads Sam into the depths of a forgotten cave – where he stumbles upon an antique Basque Astrolabe that shouldn’t exist. The discovery sets off a chain reaction, dragging Sam into a deadly conflict with a Secret Society that has been protecting a hidden truth since the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804. Meriwether Lewis was murdered to keep the secret buried. 
  The question remains, can Sam work out what to do with the truth, before it gets him killed too?

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