Showing results by publisher "Audible Studios" in Short Stories

There are no holidays in the Abyss. Despite her friends' less-than-enthusiastic reception, Olivia is determined to have a wonderful Christmas - and if she has anything to say about it, Holden will, too. A brilliant idea for the perfect present to remind him of what is important at this time of year opens up more than she bargained for.

The astonishingly talented Valerie Trueblood has imbued each story with its own depth and mystery, so rescue comes as a surprise to the listener, who is in intimate sympathy for the soul in extremity. And these are diverse characters whose fates, in lesser hands, might be thought of as hopeless: the fired cop turned security guard, the stolid 19-year-old nurses' aide who will not be going to art school, the cynical radio producer who is dying of breast cancer and on a plane on her way to Lourdes.

Miranda Beverly-Whittemore weaves a dreamy, suspenseful tale: a clever child's recollection of a summer's day turned frightening. Francesca, Kelly, and Kelly's teenage sister Amanda are only meant to spend several hours at the pool together, while their professor parents finish up an afternoon of work at their lush, Oregon college. The younger girls are caught up in hair braiding and Marco Polo, but Amanda is poised on the cusp of an adult realm bursting with cruel secrets.

Could a little yellow pill be responsible for landing Lexie James in the bed of her lover - and her lover's wife? Whatever the reason for this charmingly reckless school counselor's bad behavior, you've never been on a bender like this one.

The three linked novellas that comprise Josh Weil's masterful debut bring us into America's remote and often unforgiving backcountry, and delicately open up the private worlds of three very different men as they confront love, loss, and their own personal demons.

Mary Moon explores the landscape of long-married life - the hidden hurts and disappointments that lead women to consider leaving, and the tender weight of shared history that prompts them to stay. In "Into the Light," a wife and mother finds the idea that she might legally choose the moment of her death comforting, but how will she balance the finality of that choice against the little joys and inevitable tragedies of living?

In this touching and moving pair of coming-of-age stories, best-selling author Jessica Anya Blau makes it clear that once you step over certain lines, there's no going back.

In this beguiling collection of short stories and memoirs, first published in 1969, Mordecai Richler looks back on his childhood in Montreal, recapturing the lively panorama of St. Urbain Street: the refugees from Europe with their unexpected sophistication and snobbery; the catastrophic day when there was an article about St. Urbain Street in Time; Tansky's Cigar and Soda with its "beat-up brown phonebooth" used for "private calls"; and tips on sex from Duddy Kravitz.

Three stories reflecting California’s intense pressures and addictions: "Sparkling Arabella", high on crystal meth astride a Harley, ascends into the stars. Will she find grace at last? A boy, a girl, and a dog meet in the Viper Room, looking for love on the eve of a devastating Los Angeles earthquake. And "Silicon Valley", once filled with apricot orchards, becomes a dream killer for a workaholic on the verge of cashing in.

One wintry night in Wyoming, a group of men come calling to collect a debt - the life and service of Stone, the young woman at the center of this strange and mythical frontier tale. Stone was promised to the mysterious Wranglers as payment for her father's debt, but when they come to take her on her 13th birthday, she escapes. Guided by the advice of three wise women, Stone and her friend, Thomas, set out into the wilderness on a journey to confront her father and uncover the truth about her origins.

We've all heard the adage "finders, keepers." But does that tenet apply when the found object is an abandoned baby on a bus stop bench, and the keepers two affluent gay men who have always wanted a child? Award winning author Lucy Jane Bledsoe expertly blurs the lines between what's right and what's necessary, especially when it comes to two loving parents who want to do the right thing, but are also determined to protect their only child.

In this long short story (or novella), a writer arrives at an old manor for a six-week residency, only to discover that while there, she can't seem to write a word. The longer she stays, the more she loses her grasp on who she is and what she needs to say, until gradually, the background becomes the foreground, as the minutiae of the place she finds herself in start to loom large. In the echo chamber of her own head, the natural world and the strangers around her begin to speak to her in odd ways.

"The road," Kerouac wrote, "is life," and the women in these three stories hit the road looking for fuller, richer lives than the ones they have at home. One flies to Ireland to land a husband; one, who hoped to find shelter in paradise, realizes her journey isn't over; and one loses a lover, a friend, and a few precious illusions about herself as she drives across America.

It's 2017, and a raging virus has drastically reduced the world's population of men, transforming all but a fraction into a race of putrid, brain-dead zombies. So what's single, ambitious 23-year-old Hattie Cross to do for fun, not to mention romance? In this hilarious marriage of post-apocalyptic fiction and super smart chick-lit with a wry twist, novelist Lynn Messina spoofs dating manuals, monsters, and the superficial media world, all the while creating a feisty, funny heroine with heart.

"Secrets", set in the '60s, is the gripping story of a teenage girl whose illusions about her best friend's family are blasted along with her faith in Kennedy's Camelot. "A Sympathetic Listener" is the hilarious and heartbreaking story of a 24-year-old woman with cancer who, on her healing odyssey, finds connection and support from a most surprising source. In "Great-aunt Mariah and the Gigolo", a 70-something widow rocks the family when she brings home her young beau.

The Rileys, of Bar Harbor, Maine, negotiate the changes in their family as they head to Ford's Theatre, in Washington, DC, for their son's violin performance. Sweet, comic, and exuberant, the novella also tells the story of a transgendered adolescent as she comes to terms with her family, world, and sexuality.

When we meet Shalem, a young woman in her late 30s, she is enduring small talk at a cocktail party hosted by one of her husband's colleagues. One talks about her breast milk and her twins; another frets about the matronly ass of his girlfriend. Shalem has arrived at the age of no longer young but not old and balancing the in-between. What she wears isn't cool. What she thinks isn't cool.

Finally available after three decades, a lost classic of the Harlem Renaissance that Langston Hughes acclaimed for its "hard poetic beauty". Eric Walrond (1898 - 1966), in his only book, injected a profound Caribbean sensibility into black literature. His work was closest to that of Jean Toomer and Zora Neale Hurston with its striking use of dialect and its insights into the daily lives of the people around him.

Noreen McAuliffe's Come Down in the World, a story about a nineteenth-century logging camp, wears a style so seamless and perfectly matched it feels tailor-made. From the first few lines to the quietly explosive finale, the listener is surrounded with instant authenticity that transports us to a time, place, and situation with stakes so high that most of us need a daring writer to imagine them for us.

Revenge is one of the great themes in literature, from Shakespeare to Poe. This collection contains 18 original stories commissioned for this volume plus a reprint of a classic Ruth Rendell mystery.