Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Anthologies & Short Stories

Narrator Glenn Hascall magnificently captures the characters of The Gift of the Magi, a short story written by O. Henry, about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money.

One of the worst storms - thunder, lightning, and rain - ever to strike London, arrived the same day the visionaries have predicted the end of the world. Could this be a harbinger of the arrival of an unseen comet that will destroy Earth? Has the apocalyptic day arrived? A beautiful maiden visiting the home of a doctor and his family believe so to the extent she is rendered catatonic. While in this state, her mind sees things unseen by mortal man.

Three passengers board a train, one a woman. They are not among the disembarking passengers. There is however in the compartment of the railcar a dead man who has no ticket or identification. In his pockets are six expensive gold watches. Will you be able to solve this crime before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle does it for us.

A dare and a wager to spend the night locked up in a room with a corpse: What could go wrong? Be prepared to be surprised.

Whether Christmas is a time of unbridled joy, a season of past reflections, or an ordeal to be endured until the return to normalcy after the New Year, its impact is pervasive in most of our lives. Everyone's feelings are super sensitized, every emotion is heightened. The happy become giddy, the sad become despondent, the lonely become lonelier – unless, yes unless – the magic of Christmas has its way. So it is for the characters in these stories.

Harker Brayton accepts an offer from an associate to stay at his house. We and Brayton learn that his friend's home is also home to numerous serpents. In fact, a wing of the house - the "Snakery" - is full of the cold blooded creatures, which have been known to wander.

Why do you suppose some combat veterans give up the sport of hunting? Is it because they gain empathy with the hunted, or hunting a prey less cunning than they has lost its allure. Richard Connell, in this short story “The Most Dangerous Game” takes us where the hunter becomes the hunted. This hunter is not being hunted by a beast less cunning or calculating than he is, like a lion or a tiger. No, this hunter is a master at his craft, crueler and only slightly better armed than he is.

War has always changed men physically and mentally. They go away as healthy physically fit young men; when they come back, if they do they are not the same young man who went away. They may have suffered disabling physical injury in addition to a mental injury that may or may not manifest itself physically, but typically it is there. In World War I they called it shell-shocked, today we call it PTSD. This is a short story by Edna Ferber of a healthy, husky, and slightly arrogant in a nice way young man, and the beautiful girl awaiting his return home.

Narrator and actor Glenn Hascall does a masterful job creating Edgar Allen Poe's madman endeavoring to convince the listener of his sanity while describing the murder he committed.

Ambrose Bierce, a veteran of the Civil War and writer of note, had a fascination with death and PTSD as a result of his war experience. "One of the Missing" follows Private Jerome Searing, an Army scout, as he goes behind enemy lines. In today's military, Searing would probably be in the Navy Seals or Army Special Forces. He was good at his job, and his job was soldiering.

A short story by Edgar Allen Poe about a mesmerist who puts a man, M. Valdemar, in a hypnotic state at the moment of death. M. Valdimar remains in the state for seven months. When the mesmerist removes M. Valdemar from this state, it resembles opening the door of a freezer that has been unplugged for months, the turkey inside.

Imagine being lost in Mammoth Cave, with no light, and your imagination begins to run wild. You hear footsteps, but they are not the footsteps of a biped. H.P. Lovecraft wrote this short story when he was 14 years old. A harbinger of future genius.

Ambrose Bierce participated in one of the bloodiest wars in American history, and though he survived, the war haunted him the rest of his life. Today we have a name for the demon that haunts many of those "more fortunate" who survive: post-traumatic stress disorder. In World War I and World War II they called it shell-shocked. The battle of Chickamauga was surpassed in casualties only by the battle of Gettysburg.

Mr. Damon is swindled, and to make matters worse, kidnapped. Our hero, the young inventor Tom Swift comes to the rescue and convicts the scoundrels with the help of his new invention, a telephone that also takes pictures. Imagine that! He also utilizes his amazing airships, and of course the help of his faithful companions and friends Ned Newton, Koku the Giant, and Eradicate Sampson. Every chapter of this book, number 17 of the Tom Swift series, is a cliff-hanger that has kept readers and now listeners in suspense, awaiting the next exciting chapter.

The Communists never have a chance. They are prepared to fight with atomic weapons. The U.S. instead uses... Dolliver Wims, history's first recorded person capable of turning other people accident-prone. Wims is a walking disaster who never gets caught in the shambles he creates! With great good humor, Sabia turns his lens on what might have happened had the Cold War gone hot!

Ever wonder where a $10.00 or twenty dollar bil lhas been? O. Henry obviously did, because he made up this short story fabulously narrated by Glenn Hascall. This is the story of a $10 bill as it is passed around the Bowery in New York City. It did get around and become so tainted that the church wouldn't take it.

"The Coup de Grâce" a short story by Ambrose Bierce, himself a troubled veteran of the American Civil War, details a fictional situation, which may be based on some truth. An act so humane and yet so repugnant it would not be spoken of. War is unglamorous and ugly.

As the American Civil War rages, an officer who longs for the glory of battle has been assigned to staff duties away from the battlefield. Now a captain, he is assigned to a combat unit and faces battle for the first time. He finds there is no glory, only controlled terror for those engaged in war.

From Tales of Soldiers and Civilians - In the Midst of Life, this, the second tale of the "Civilians" section, takes us into the paranormal as the protagonist becomes a witness to a possible murder. But is it murder when an individual has such power over another individual as to cause their own death?

To Build a Fire is regarded by many as an American classic, one of London's most highly regarded works. We never know the name of the protagonist as he makes his way towards his destination, trekking across the Yukon at 70° below zero. Nature is unforgiving to those who challenge her.