American Short

From her first days at Virginia’s Hampton University, impressionable, creative Nia falls smitten with Chris Eidos Alleyne, an athlete and a scholar. “Love is sweet nothings and beautiful promises”, Nia writes in her journal. What her girlfriends know, and her mother doesn’t, is that Chris’s expression of love is deeply physical. Wielding powerful charisma, Chris soon has Nia abandoning innocence for experience.

In his first, “engrossing and delightful” (Town & Country) collection of stories—drawn from the wealth of film and TV ideas Rupert Everett has worked on over the course of his illustrious career—Everett takes us on exhilarating journeys with a cast of extraordinary characters. From Oscar Wilde’s last night in Paris to the ferociously unforgiving world of a Los Angeles talent agency and beyond, these “dynamic and glib, knowing and innocent, atmospheric and frothy” (Booklist) stories will delight and surprise his many fans.

Roxie Stillwater’s father gets her a job with his oldest friend, the CEO of a software company, Griffin Graham. Roxie and Griff form an instant attraction and connection – but Griff is old enough to be her father. How can she have a love relationship with her boss? What will her father say? Roxie knows her dad will kill them both if he finds out. And yet more trouble arrives when Griff’s ex-wife decides she wants Griff for her own. Sneaking behind her father’s back makes Roxie very uncomfortable, but she’s helplessly falling in love with Griff. Nor does she dare tell her dad. How ...

After breaking up with his longtime girlfriend, Tyrese is heartbroken. Using the money he saved up for her engagement ring he goes to Las Vegas where he meets beautiful stripper, Aaliyah. After hitting it off in the club, the couple agrees to go on a date where a romance blossoms. Things get hot and heavy between the two and Tyrese realizes that Aaliyah is more than just a rebound. This African American erotic romance is less than 7,000 words and is for mature readers only.

The American literary tradition has, in a far shorter span of time than others throughout history, achieved a glowing and glittering reputation. From its transatlantic roots it has absorbed the sons and daughters of other cultures, other lands and made them part of her own. Within this melting pot of styles, genres and wordplay one fact stands out: In the American short story, literary tradition has a strong, vibrant and almost inclusive history, if you know where to look.

Melody Ramsey has a daring and dangerous thirst for adventure in this inspirational Civil War romance. A governor’s daughter, she is in the unique position of meeting President Abraham Lincoln when news of the war breaks out. In fact, her father, the Governor of Minnesota, is the first to offer troops to Lincoln in response to his proclamation to put down the Confederate rebellion. She has no idea how she’ll accomplish the mission in her heart, but she has a courageous if not overly zealous idea to become a spy before she settles down into becoming a teacher. Since she doesn’t see how...

America's richest legends come from the frontier - from the land where the events of a single moment might erase the lines between law and lawlessness, between safety and mortal danger, between heroes and villains. The carefully selected stories in this collection are vibrant proof that the great American West is a fertile ground to storytellers. Here's the most varied collection of short stories, by 17 highly acclaimed Western writers.

Seamlessly transitioning between the absurd and the tenderhearted, balancing acerbic humor with sharp emotional depth, Afterparties offers an expansive portrait of the lives of Cambodian Americans. As the children of refugees carve out radical new paths for themselves in California, they shoulder the inherited weight of the Khmer Rouge genocide and grapple with the complexities of race, sexuality, friendship, and family.

When Desa Rae Jenkins ended her tumultuous relationship with Roc, it seemed like the appropriate thing to do; but now she's second-guessing her decision. Roc moved away to Kansas City, leaving street life back in St. Louis up to the brothas who can handle it. He continues to live his life on the edge, though, and when he returns to St. Louis, Desa Rae shows up at his doorstep to reconcile. Roc is reluctant to go there with the one woman who ripped his heart from his chest.

Lisa Johnson isn’t a fan of Valentine’s Day, until she is surprised with a bouquet of roses from a secret admirer. Once she finds out who he is, she falls head over heels for him in this holiday instalove steamy romance. This short BWWM interracial story is 3,000 words long and is for mature readers only!

Welcome to the fascinating Yoruba religious culture! This will be a brief introduction to the Yoruba Religion. Whether you are reading this because you have just received your Mano de Orula or are curious about the ceremony, You are in the right place! I will explain in simple words what it consists of, how the ceremony is performed, its preparations, my personal experience in Cuba, and the meaning for the community. An added touch will be the images. The practitioners of the Yoruba Religion come from different parts of the world. The information it contains was consulted specifically in ...

Confession: I like being frisked by rough, sexy, crooked cops because they are always excited to find my BIG surprises. Arnold is a straight college frat boy with a criminal past that desires to be manhandled by muscular, sexy police officers. He has one in mind, Officer Stuart. Arnold fantasizes about Officer Stuart pinning him against the wall, frisking his body, and finding a surprise so big he made him his boy toy for the night. He gets butterflies in his stomach, and his little friend between his legs inches down his basketball shorts at the thought of him. He wants Officer Dennis ...

In the series of linked stories at the heart of Filthy Animals, set among young creatives in the American Midwest, a young man treads delicate emotional waters as he navigates a series of sexually fraught encounters with two dancers in an open relationship, forcing him to weigh his vulnerabilities against his loneliness.

There's a saying in Brooklyn that if you come from my part of town, you're from around the way. Around the Way Girls is a fast-paced look at the life of some street-smart women who think they know it all but are about to get the lessons of their lives.

"Echoes of the Grand Majestic" follows Susan Vance, an ambitious architect grappling with the pressures of her career while designing a new city library that she feels lacks soul. Despite the project's technical perfection and encouragement from her business partner Mark Brewer, Susan is plagued by a sense of emptiness and a longing for inspiration. As she works late one night, she stumbles upon the old blueprints of the Grand Majestic Theatre, a cherished place from her past that evokes powerful memories of her teenage love, Julian. The discovery of the theatre sparks a journey of ...

We have gathered between these pages. To bring you stories of love, murder, deception, and redemption. Untethered by a single plot but molded as one in pen. With seeds planted in EyeCU Reading & Chatting's weekly writing challenges, and nurtured with inspiration from its founder Ebony Evans, our creativity blossomed. We present this bouquet!

From the royal wedding to boring airplane companions, Samuel Beckett to Margaret Thatcher, "senior moments" to life as a waitress, Maeve's Times gives us wonderful insight into a changing Ireland as it celebrates the work of one of our best-loved writers in all its diversity - revealing her characteristic directness, laugh-out-loud humor, and unswerving gaze into the true heart of a matter.

Framed as a reference work of humorous “entries” that offer trenchant social commentary, Everything Abridged presages a dark vision of the near future but tells jokes in the face of it: An intelligence agency operative uncovers a conspiracy to generate conspiracies and realizes his participation in the scheme. A Caribbean monarch meets four decades of American presidents and adjusts his country’s foreign policy accordingly. Experiment participants are asked to bring back a gun as quickly as possible.

Once again on the American side of the Atlantic talent pours forth from the pens of these literary women. Even to choose a mere ten seems to be a choice too difficult to make. Society may hold women back but these writers are equal to the challenge and overcome its boundaries with superbly written stories that are a beacon for all others who follow.

One of them was going to have to get married. The McLain brothers agreed on that much. Running the Bar-M-Bar ranch took just about every minute of the day – from can see to can’t see. They didn’t have time for beating dust out of carpets and chasing cobwebs from the ceiling. They’d tried hiring a housekeeper but that hadn’t worked out so well and, two housekeepers later, neither of them was enthused about trying to find housekeeper number three. Besides, there was more to consider than just dirty floors and greasy kitchens. Though they were still in the prime of life, it wasn’t ...