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  A Little Joke - From their pens...

  Anthony Hope

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  Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins was born on 9th February 1863 in Clapton, London.  
  He was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, Marlborough College and Balliol College, Oxford.  Hope trained as a lawyer and barrister and was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1887. Despite what was thought to be a promising legal career he had literary ambitions and wrote in his spare time. 
  His early works appeared in various periodicals of the day but for his first book ‘A Man of Mark’ (1890), with no publisher interested, he published with his own resources.  
  More novels and short stories followed, including the mildly successful ‘Mr Witt's Widow’ in 1892. Hope even found time to run as the Liberal candidate for Wycombe in the election that same year but was unsuccessful. 
  His first major literary success came with ‘The Dolly Dialogues’, a collection of previously published magazine pieces followed very quickly by his instant classic, ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’. He now gave up the vestiges of his legal career to pursue writing full-time. 
  Despite never again reaching the same pinnacle of success he was popular and wrote prolifically across novels, plays and of course, short stories though his writing output rapidly diminished after the war. 
  In 1918 he was knighted for his contribution to propaganda efforts during World War I.  
  His short stories are delicate, mannered and often surprising with their wit, humour and interplay of characters who say one thing and usually mean another.  He was very definitely a writer of escapist rather than serious fare but they are no less enjoyable for that. 
  Anthony Hope died of throat cancer on 8th July 1933 at his country home, Heath Farm at Walton-on-the-Hill in Surrey. He was 70.

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  Owen Oliver - A Short Story...

  Owen Oliver

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  Owen Oliver was born Joshua Albert Flynn in Sheerness, Kent, on 15th September 1863.  He was the eldest son of Albert Spencer Flynn and benefitted from a good education at private schools and then on to graduating at King's College, London.    Writing came after he had established himself as a senior civil servant and after he married Ada Parkinson who he had two sons and three daughters with.   
   
  Flynn served in South Africa as financial adviser to Lord Kitchener, worked for the Admiralty and the War Office from 1885 and was appointed director-general of finance at the Ministry of Pensions in 1916.  He excelled professionally and was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1910 and knighted in 1919.  
   
  Under his pen name, Owen Oliver, he contributed over 250 short stories in different genres that were published in the popular magazines of the day.  Science fiction mainly in the Yellow Magazine, romance in the Windsor Magazine and numerous adventure stories in the London Magazine and  Cassell’s.  In 1918, he published the novel "An Author's Daughter" followed by A Knight at Heart, which delved into themes of chivalry, honour and love, set against the backdrop of historical events. Through his evocative prose and engaging narratives Oliver transported readers to different worlds, inviting them to experience the thrill of adventure and life in possibly a simpler time.  He wrote one further novel as well as a non-fiction book on the civil service that included the idea of widening recruitment outside of the elite universities. 
   
  Joshua Albert Flynn, aka Owen Oliver, died in Streatham, south London on 8th October 1933.  He was 70. 
   
  1 - Owen Oliver - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  2 - The Cloud-Men by Owen Oliver 
  3 - Days of Darkness by Owen Oliver 
  4 - The Awakening by Owen Oliver 
  5 - An Unsolicited Contribution by Owen Oliver 
  6 - The Specification by Owen Oliver

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  Revolting Tales

  Todd A Curry

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  These are a few of the author's favorite chapters from the five star rated dark humor thriller by Todd Curry and Christopher Abbott. The voice over characters in this audio version were actually performed by the authors themselve. During a recent PODCAST in Miami, Author Todd Curry was asked to give an analogy of there recent work." I can compare these stories to... Well, picture the little skeleton guy from the TV series "Tales from the Crypt" and he meets Rod Serling from "The twilight Zone" and they eat Stephen KingAuthor Todd Curry

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  A Lickpenny Lover - 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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  Fallen Pride - A Jesse McDermitt...

  Wayne Stinnett

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  In this fourth installment of the Jesse McDermitt series, Jesse faces an antagonist unlike any he's faced before, post-traumatic stress. A friend's son, who was dishonorably discharged from the Corps, is suffering from nightmares, brought on by the incident that was the catalyst for his discharge. With Jesse's help he learns to cope with his demons and gets his discharge overturned, so that he may once again serve the country he loves. 
  Meanwhile, another foe is out to get Jesse, Deuce, and anyone else that gets in the way, including a highly placed government official. When it's learned that the foe is one of their own, all hell breaks loose around the Florida Keys. 
  Half the proceeds from the sale of this book are donated to Homes for Warriors in Brevard County, Florida, to help build and remodel homes for injured military men and women and their families.

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  Aunt Sass - Christmas Stories

  P. L. Travers

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  A collection of charming holiday tales, by the author of Mary Poppins - a timeless gift for all ages.   Each of the stories in this book was written by P.L. Travers as a holiday gift, sent to her friends and family and never published. Now millions of readers and generations of film-goers will get a peek behind the curtain and see how she used her life story to inform her fiction. Whether it is Aunt Sass herself - who is partly her inspiration for Mary Poppins - or the crass ex-jockey whose life work is not at all what it appears, the characters are unforgettable.  P.L. Travers wrote with a signature blend of sugar and spice; her characters, including Mary Poppins, are endearing, outsized, and cozy. The Aunt Sass Christmas Stories will delight any child - naughty or nice.

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