A hit man gets some work in Sin City, a tryst goes awry for a pair of senior citizens, an alcoholic cop makes a dramatic appearance at a rehab, a young man makes a midnight visit to some friends' bedroom. All these tales and many more in Menage a Trois & Other Stories, a book of flash fiction by Jack Swenson. The prose snapshots in this book crackle with energy, irony, and humor. Less is more, indeed, in this collection of stories from the author of Bad Apples. Some of the stories are only a few hundred words long, but they pack a punch. The writing is lean and mean, often humorous, and always revealing. If you like Raymond Carver's gritty stories and the bare bones style of Elmore Leonard, you'll love these little tales. You'll laugh, cry, wince, grin, and shake your head when you read the stories in this provocatively titled little book.

This book is filled with sex stories from a real live insurance ninja. Not really, but now that I have your attention, flip through the book, read one story, if you like it, buy the book. If you don't, please put it down and keep your thoughts to yourself. You and I probably would not like each other. If you are looking at this online, I think this is one of the best books I have ever read. Take a chance, if you wrote a book I would buy it.

The resistance of the human spirit in face of time, disloyalty, and oblivion is the theme of Marina Sonkina's new collection of short stories. Her seemingly naïve and helpless protagonists inhabit disparate social stations, geographical locales and cultures; all are persons displaced in their own lives. But in their struggles for survival, they discover the redeeming and dangerous power of unconditional love - the only weapon available to them. Strange and incomprehensible to everyone, love makes its sudden appearance to an eight-year-old hunchbacked boy in the title story of Lucia's Eyes. As he brings the gifts of his artistic imagination to Lucia, a refugee from the Spanish Civil War, the bleak and cruel reality of Stalin's Russia dissolves into magic ... In 'Runic Alphabet' a Polish-Canadian painter plants a tree that brings to life memories of a woman long dead who remains the only true love of his life. In 'Carmelita' an aging man from Winnipeg, vacationing in Mexico, falls in love with a young Mexican painter. In 'Christmas Tango' a jobless drifter in snowy Montreal discovers tango, inadvertently transforming his own life and the lives of those who come in contact with him. In 'Tractorina' a hard-working crane-operator, retired in post-Gorbachev Russia, is driven into a rose-tinted abyss by her stepson. In 'Angels Ascending and Descending' a young girl is initiated into the mysterious symbolism of Russian Orthodox church architecture by a priestly man who hardly lives up to the spiritual heights he preaches. Full of unexpected turns and twists, sadness, joy and humour, these stories reflect life, itself always a surprise, and always a miracle.

The universe of the Neverglades grows bigger than ever in this collection of terrifying short stories, including four brand new tales never before seen on Reddit. Written for the r/NoSleep format, these stories are like found objects: snippets of various lives at their eeriest. A Southern boy falls afoul of a teenage psychopath. A high school student obsessed with beauty sees her inner ugliness manifest. A controversial doctor unleashes a terrible force in his quest to look behind the veil of death. A lonely man at an isolated outpost starts receiving strange broadcasts on his radio. A prominent scientist opens a door into a terrifying apocalyptic world. With metafictional elements that make the reader a participant in each story, the tales in "Fleshy Sensoria" are real in the sense that only the most immersive dreams can be. You may have a hard time waking up.

If not for money, then maybe for love. Three years ago, Emily was a struggling literary author when she met Scott, a struggling screenwriter. Combining her elegant writing with his gripping story, the pair crafted a novel that became an international bestseller—and fell in love along the way. Now her latest manuscript is stuck, his solo novel has flopped and their relationship is on the rocks. The situation is made even messier when an aspiring writer with her own agenda gets involved. Can Emily and Scott work it out and create another hit? Creative Differences is a wry and incisive study of love, writing and creativity from internationally bestselling author Graeme Simsion. It’s accompanied by a selection of stories from across his career, including the first appearance of Don Tillman from the Rosie novels. Graeme Simsion is the internationally bestselling author of The Rosie Project, The Rosie Effect, The Rosie Result and The Best of Adam Sharp, as well as The Novel Project, Don Tillman’s Standardized Meal System and Data Modeling Essentials. He and Anne Buist, co-authors of Two Steps Forward and Two Steps Onward, live together in Melbourne.

Mythic and realistic, farcical and tragic, The Washington Post Book World says these masterful stories mark T. Coraghessan Boyle's development from "a prodigy's audacity to something that packs even more of a wallop: mature artistry." They cover everything, from a terrifying encounter between a bunch of suburban adolescents and a murderous, drug-dealing biker, to a touching though doomed love affair between Eisenhower and Nina Khruschev.

"She asked me if I liked them. And what could I say? They were wonderful." From the very beginning of Sergio Troncoso's celebrated story "Angie Luna," we know we are in the hands of a gifted storyteller. Born of Mexican immigrants, raised in El Paso, and now living in New York City, Troncoso has a rare knack for celebrating life. Writing in a straightforward, light-handed style reminiscent of Grace Paley and Raymond Carver, he spins charming tales that reflect his experiences in two worlds. Troncoso's El Paso is a normal town where common people who happen to be Mexican eat, sleep, fall in love, and undergo epiphanies just like everyone else. His tales are coming-of-age stories from the Mexican-American border, stories of the working class, stories of those coping with the trials of growing old in a rapidly changing society. He also explores New York with vignettes of life in the big city, capturing its loneliness and danger. Beginning with Troncoso's widely acclaimed story "Angie Luna," the tale of a feverish love affair in which a young man rediscovers his Mexican heritage and learns how much love can hurt, these stories delve into the many dimensions of the human condition. We watch boys playing a game that begins innocently but takes a dangerous turn. We see an old Anglo woman befriending her Mexican gardener because both are lonely. We witness a man terrorized in his New York apartment, taking solace in memories of lost love. Two new stories will be welcomed by Troncoso's readers. "My Life in the City" relates a transplanted Texan's yearning for companionship in New York, while "The Last Tortilla" returns to the Southwest to explore family strains after a mother's death—and the secret behind that death. Each reflects an insight about the human heart that has already established the author's work in literary circles. Troncoso sets aside the polemics about social discomfort sometimes found in contemporary Chicano writing and focuses instead on the moral and intellectual lives of his characters. The twelve stories gathered here form a richly textured tapestry that adds to our understanding of what it is to be human.