Small States

Saturday night for the boys from Calcutta High started out with a dare on a dark country road...a dare that went farther than it should've gone. That old white church just moldering there in the long dark shadows of the trees, was it really as haunted as everyone made it out to be? Stories had circulated. Legends at school had now grown to stifling degrees. What's a try at the doors going to hurt? What about a look inside the sanctuary, just for the sake of satisfying one's curiosity? That can't hurt, can it? Surely not...

What readers are saying... "Sharon Srock has the ability to draw us in and and not let go until the last word." Amazon reviewer "I fell into this story quickly. The characters are so real I thought I should look for their Facebook profiles and friend them." Amazon reviewer YOUNG LOVE FOUND. In 1970, seventeen-year-old Ruthie Arnold found the love of her life. Six months later, she lost him to the horror and confusion of war. With Elliott missing and presumed dead, Ruthie had no choice but to go on—carrying regrets and secrets she never dared tell another soul. Even though she eventually ...

This collection takes us to a forgotten corner of the rural South, full of cemeteries, soybean fields, fishing holes, and Duck Thru gas stations. We meet a runaway teen, a mattress salesman, feral kittens, an elderly bachelorette wearing a horsehair locket, and a little girl named after Shania Twain. Here, time and memory circle above Phillips’ characters like vultures and angels, as they navigate the only landscape they’ve ever known. Corn reaches for rain, deer run blindly, and no matter how hungry or hurt, some forgotten hymn is always remembered.

On the evening of the eighteenth of May, a young woman walks alone into the small village of Chimney Rock, North Carolina, with the intention of staying for exactly one year. As she sets about to find lodging and work, she quickly meets two precocious children, a caring and generous business owner, and the neighboring town's Chief of Police. Family and loss make up many of their stories, and while these people and others attempt to get to know and help the stranger, the history and troubled memories of what led her to this place begin to gradually unfold. As the date of her planned ...

An Iraq War veteran turned small-town homemaker, Colleen works hard to keep her deployment behind her - until pregnancy brings her buried trauma to the surface. She hides her mounting anxiety from her husband, Derby, who is in turn preoccupied with the retrial of his father, Hare Hobbs, for a decades-old civil rights-era murder. Colleen and Derby's community, including the descendants of the murder victim, still grapple with the fallout; Corrections Officer Doc and his wife, Jessica, have built their life in the shadow of this violent act.

Lew Sherry and Pete Lang accept an offer they simply can't resist. Oliver Wilton is willing to pay the cowboys $1,000 a day for ten days to protect him from danger that has him living in a state of terror. A seafaring man has arrived at the inn in town and has made no secret of the fact that he's come to settle a score with Wilton.

A family secret. A new romance. And a summer she will never forget. When Caroline left Lake Summers thirty years ago, she thought she’d never return to the place where she lost her parents. But when she finds out that the town’s lily garden lovingly built by her mother is going to be destroyed, she knows fate is calling. Dropping everything at her office in Chicago, she knows she is the only person who can save the garden. Caroline and her daughter Lee are welcomed home by the warm smile of her mother’s best friend Maxine, and piles of pancakes at her cozy little restaurant in town.

Jack Duncan is a high school senior whose dream is to play baseball in college and beyond - as far away from Delano as possible. He longs to escape the political turmoil surrounding the labor struggles of the striking fieldworkers that infests his small ag town. Ever since his father, a grape grower, died under suspicious circumstances 10 years earlier, he's had to be the sole emotional support of his mother.

This is an exciting story, set in a small, almost unknown country, where the country's president and local poet Darko are trying to save the political and social system. Their friendship strangely evolves from their very personal letters, which are intercepted by the state authorities... - a captivating novel that takes readers on a profound journey of self-discovery, purpose, and the complexities of life. Set against a backdrop of neglected tables, dusty memories, and the longing for significance, this literary masterpiece explores the human desire for meaning and the quest for fulfillment...

When Jerry returned to his hometown of Perfect, he was upset to learn that the local bowling alley, where his father had worked and where he spent time as a child, was gone. Asking friends what had happened, Jerry discovered that in a town like Perfect, everyone has a story to tell, even if they are all different.

These 10 classic tales attest to the growing depth of Gurganus's genius. Offering characters antic and tragic, Gurganus charts the human condition as we live it now. His parables recall William Faulkner's scope and Flannery O'Connor's corrosive wit. We encounter a seaside couple fighting to save their dog from Maine's fierce undertow; a mortician whose dedication to his departed clients exceeds all legal limits. A virginal 78-year-old grammar-school librarian has her only erotic encounter with a Joe Exotic-like polyamorous snake farmer.

In the years since a mysterious cataclysm caused a permanent blackout that toppled infrastructure and thrust the world into anarchy, Evan Whitesky has led his community in remote northern Canada off the rez and into the bush, where they’ve been rekindling their Anishinaabe traditions, isolated from the outside world. As new generations are born, and others come of age in a world after everything, Evan’s people are stronger than ever. But resources around their new settlement are drying up, and elders warn that they cannot stay indefinitely.

Instead of spending the next phase of her life traveling around the world with her husband, Tara finds herself alone and starting over. Welcome to Blueberry Hill. Tara Singleton was perfectly happy with her life, right up until the moment she cut the cake at her birthday party. As everyone cheered, her husband sheepishly admitted he'd lost everything, they were flat broke. And he was leaving her for his pregnant mistress, a personal trainer young enough to be his daughter. Thank goodness their three children are grown with lives of their own. Instead of looking forward to traveling and ...

After Graham’s inn burns down, his life turns upside down… Graham Timber has put everything into his quaint bed and breakfast in Charming Falls, Illinois. When disaster strikes and his business burns to the ground, his entire life is upended. Miranda Wilson lives to fight fires. She’s drawn to the quiet and handsome innkeeper, until the arson rumors surface. Although Miranda doesn’t want to believe it, the evidence seems to point to Graham as the culprit behind the fire. Will Graham and Miranda’s explosive chemistry burn out before their flame of passion can fully ignite? Find out...

The Center for women's reproductive health offers a last chance at hope - but nobody ends up there by choice. Its very existence is controversial, and to the demonstrators who barricade the building every day, the service it offers is no different from legalised murder. Now life and death decisions are being made horrifyingly real: a lone protester with a gun has taken the staff, patients and visitors hostage.

Discover a Heartwarming Tale of Faith, Love, and Survival in the Wild West! for fans of Christian Westerns, Frontier Romance, and Women’s Historical Fiction! Texas geologist Andrew Carter has struck copper, but his greatest discovery is yet to come. Alone in a desolate mining camp, he longs for a partner—a woman of strength, heart, and unwavering faith. His prayers are answered when Julie Tully, a determined apothecary, responds to his mail-order bride ad. Julie is brave, intelligent, and ready for adventure, but life in the untamed West is more perilous than she ever imagined. As ...

What separates the struggling small business owners from the mighty rich CEOs who seem to have everything working in their favor? Why is it that one person can start a business and become wealthy, happy and incredibly successful while the other person have nothing to show for no matter what they do? What's the truth behind their success? Are they lucky? Are they born talented or do they have breakthrough approaches to doing business? What if I told you that none of this matters much at all? You can have an amazing idea. You can have an amazing product that meets a massively ...

She staggered through the dark alley...Finding work as a private investigator, ex-cop Frank Harper settles into the small Ohio town of Cooper's Mill. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, a young Hollywood starlet's career is on its last legs. Jessica Mills struggles with drugs and alcohol. But when a dangerous accident changes her life forever, she must pay her debt to society. An audacious plan keeps Jessica out of jail, for now, putting her on a collision course with a man obsessed with possessing her...no matter what the cost.

When Andrew Apperley visits his brother David in the East, he brings along an unexpected companion. Andrew's giant wolf dog, Comanche, is so wild that he has to be chained up for the safety of others. However, when the Apperley brothers come across a man drowning in the East River, Comanche breaks loose from his chains and swims to the man's rescue.

Born in Brooklyn, Sammy Gregg is small in stature and naive to the ways of the world, yet headstrong and resolute to save enough money to marry Susie Mitchell. Gregg calculates that he needs $15‚000 and figures he can earn enough in six months out west. Although he is a small man who knows nothing of fighting‚ guns‚ or horses‚ he takes his $5‚000 in savings and heads west‚ arriving in Munson‚ a tough, lawless town.