Confession: I’m a picky reader. Although I have a number of favorite authors whose books I’ll order sight unseen, there’s nothing I love more than discovering a new favorite. But I’m still picky. I still need to sample a bit of their story-telling before I commit my money, and maybe more importantly, my time.
If you too like to sample, I invite you to check out the free short stories below. Like my other stories, these span a range of tone and genre, from a poignant story of loss, to light (and somewhat goofy) romance, to gritty police procedural. (I never know which of my alter egos is going to appear when I start writing!)
Please click here (or on an image below) to go to the download page, via StoryOrigin. Whatever you choose, I hope you enjoy!
This is a bittersweet short story about family lost and the hope for family found, told from the perspective of a grieving mother.
In 2008, I was honored with a second-place award for this story in the York County (Va.) Pubic Library Juried Literary Competition.
Single mom Carlene Adams is minding her own business, getting gas near her son’s elementary school, when something bumps the rear of her sedan…or maybe her sedan bumps something to its rear. Either way, the tiny tap is irrelevant.
If only the driver of the other vehicle, none other than super hot Matt O’Malley, single dad to a girl in the same class, had the same opinion. He is in a full lather over the invisible slight to his giant pick-up, and he aims to make Carlene know his feelings.
A serial murderer leaves a unique token at the scene of each murder, compelling a show-down between the investigating detective and the department’s profiler.