Showing results by narrator "Curtis Michael Holland" in All Categories

Dash made bad decisions in the past, ones that he paid for behind bars. He left his old life behind, but the memories linger. He finds a passion for food and sells his smoked meats and sausages at the Heartcraft Market. Evan loves his job as a sonographer, but sometimes, the weight of his work wears on him. He surrounds himself with flowers and pretty things that remind him of the beauty in life. Done with dating apps, Evan hopes to find someone in real life. When the intriguing tattooed man at the market catches his eye, could this be the "meat" cute the vegetarian was hoping for?

Arianna Lawson has one goal: help her sister defeat the Sendaxa regime and live a solemn existence free from the chaos of their dystopian world. Life has taught her hard lessons about pain and loss, and she has no desire to open herself to love—even for the strong, stoic man who consumes her every thought.

Joey Crow and Caleb Hollings first see each other across the rural Oregon country road that separates the farms they live on. Joey, an orphaned Native American boy, has come to live with his grandparents on their farm after the mysterious disappearance of his parents from the local reservation. Caleb is the only son of devoutly Christian parents. The Crow Flies Free follows the two young men in the summer of their 18th birthdays as they begin to recognize their loving friendship has grown into a deeper kind of love.

One Good Story, That One is a collection steeped in native oral tradition and shot through with Thomas King's special brand of wit and comic imagination. These highly acclaimed stories conjure up Native and Judeo-Christian myths, present-day pop culture, and literature while mixing in just the right amount of perception and experience.

Summer, 1989. It is a time for splashing in the lake and exploring the wilderness, for nine teenagers to bond together and create friendships that could last the rest of their lives. But among this group there is a young man with a secret—a secret that, in this time and place, is unthinkable to his peers. When the others discover the truth, it will change each of them forever. They will all have blood on their hands. Odd Man Out is a heart-wrenching tale of bullies and bigotry, a story that explores what happens when good people don't stand up for what's right.

Years of political violence and protests against injustice have revived interest in teaching civics in schools. The problem? Civic education—as it currently exists—privileges systems, not students. It promotes incremental change within a broken democracy rather than responding to the youth-led movements that call for the abolition of inequitable social structures. What will it take to prepare young people for the just future they are fighting for?

Greg Abimbola is a language teacher at the prestigious Calderhill Academy in Pittsburgh. Only that's not his real name or the only secret he's hiding. Greg has a closetful. When the murder of a wealthy parent on school premises shines an unwanted spotlight on Calderhill Academy, Greg is determined to avoid attention—that is until the closest person to a true friend he has is arrested for the murder. To prove her innocence, Greg will reluctantly emerge from the shadows. But doing so will put him in danger. His past is determined to find him, and his past is full of bad things.

Seventeen-year-old Mariana Villalobos's mystic gift creates a sensation in northern Mexico as hundreds of people undergo a personal religious epiphany. Even gangsters reject crime. Seeing revenues tumble in the drug trade, the Liones cartel issues a hit order on the girl.

Josh Moore lives with his family on the "wrong side" of Hamilton, a gritty industrial city in Southwestern Ontario. As a young boy, Josh plots an escape for a better life far from the steel mills that lined the bay. But fate has other plans and Josh discovers his adult life in Toronto is just as fraught with as many insecurities and missteps as his youth, and he soon learns that no matter how far away he might run, he will never be able to leave his hometown behind.

Jason loves his life as a stay-at-home dad, but being a divorced single father wasn't part of the plan. Besides his kids, pies are his passion. He makes and sells his creations at the Heartcraft Market, but it's not enough to live off of. After his father's recent health scare, Nico is determined to help revive their family diner. Then he meets Jason, whose pies are as sweet as he is, and an idea begins to form. Jason's kids are everything to him, but his bed feels empty at night. Nico has always wanted a family, but he has yet to find a man that he could build a life with.

The potential impact of runaway climate-change has long been grossly underestimated. The world is rapidly approaching an existential crisis—the Anthropogenic Extinction—the sixth annihilation of Earth-bound species since life first appeared 3.5 billion years ago. Assisted by teammates Eric Evans and Bella Moreno, and Thay Tuan, the team’s consigliere, Luc Ponti, now an astrophysicist at MIT, succeeds in creating a stabilized micro-wormhole, which is launched by NASA into high-Earth orbit and used as a means to contact intelligent life on exoplanets well within the “Goldilocks” zone.

Peter Thorne has a secret—he can bring the dead back to life. When Peter’s mother died, she passed him the touch of life and made him promise to use his abilities wisely. Unable to bring her back and afraid of being caught or causing too much imbalance in the world, Peter vowed to use his gift only on plants. After all, with people, sometimes dead is better.

James McKinney has always dreamed of having a house of his own and a place he can call home. After finding the perfect house, and ready to work to make it his home, nothing can put a damper on his happiness—even when he discovers the house is filled with the previous owner’s belongings. He focuses on the fact the house is now his and doesn’t mind at all when his cute neighbor offers to help him sort through it.

Collin is big, burly, and rides a Harley. He's the last person anyone would expect to have a passion for yarn. He crochets and sells his wares at the Heartcraft Market. Harper is new to town. He wants to plant roots and find someone to share a life with. He has only dated women since that unforgettable night with a biker who took his V-card. Harper compares every man he meets to the one he can't get out of his head. Finding him at the Heartcraft Market seems too good to be true.

Sex. Drugs. Lust. Courage. Loyalty. Betrayal. Drag divas. Hustlers. Porn. Gogo boys. Anything is possible at the gay club scene. Even love. Joey, fresh from the suburbs, gets involved in the gay club scene in Philadelphia during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He shares the stories of a diverse cast of characters, including his own special love story. Everyone at the club has a story, and every story deserves to be told.

Intersexion is a life-giving true story about choosing between social acceptance or health, fear or authenticity. Cynthia, an adjunct professor with a trunk full of ungraded papers and snack wrappers, has been an LGBTQIA+ ally for years—in convenient ways. She enjoys the company of her queer friends—but her support isn’t risky; it hasn’t cost her anything. Until she meets Danny.

Gay bars have been closing by the hundreds. The story goes that increasing mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, plus dating apps, have rendered these spaces obsolete. Beyond that, rampant gentrification in big cities has pushed gay bars out of the neighborhoods they helped make hip. Who Needs Gay Bars? considers these narratives, accepting that the answer for some might be: maybe nobody. Greggor Mattson embarks on a journey across the country to paint a much more complex picture of the cultural significance of these spaces, inside "big four" gay cities, but also beyond them.

Jacks Williams is Ritchie Ford’s one great love. Their life as the rhythm section of the band Vertical Smile is perfect—only upstaged by the one they share as lovers. Until one night Jacks locks himself in the bathroom and slices his arms open, shattering everything Ritchie knows. Ten years earlier, Jackson Williams, III appeared to lead a charmed life. In reality, it was hell. Trapped in an abusive home, Jacks acted out small rebellions and dreamed of freedom. Until Ritchie Ford rescued him like a puppy, and everything changed. He would be perfect for Ritchie—it was the least he could do.

Jacob Crestmore has given up on the idea of a brighter future, but when a mysterious woman reveals the wrongs of his past, he sets out on a journey to recover an artefact that can unlock a power he never knew existed. With an evil empire trying to stop him, and the threat of war looming, will he find the artefact in time?

In the 23rd century, spaceships just don't go missing. FBI agent Ray Volk is assigned to a task force to investigate a tragic accident: the disappearance of interplanetary passenger liner ValuTrip Cardinal, carrying 500 souls between Mars and Earth on a routine run. What looks like a cut-and-dried case of pressure loss is complicated by the arrival of a Martian Captain. A very cute Martian Captain who keeps sticking his nose in Ray's investigation.