And the wide variety of stories presented in this latest volume of Fiction River make that case. Of the fifteen powerful stories in this volume, some will twist your heart, others will pound you in the gut, and still others will make you feel like the world has meaning. From a man avenging a wrongful conviction, to heroic women fighting to reclaim their homeland, to kids trying to find justice in the chaotic world of adults, this volume will prove one you won’t soon forget.

A baby bird…
One Breath...
Starts a dark future.

Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Vacation paradise by day. Gambler’s dream by night. But sometimes the line between day and night blurs, turning both paradise and dream into nightmare. When that happens even addicts can become heroes.

Or not.

A visitor from a dark past . . .
A gambling addict’s redemption gone horribly wrong . . .
A monster in sheep’s clothing . . .
A father’s misguided love . . .
A young girl’s reckoning . . .
Five tales that dig deep into the human psyche, uncovering skeletons that might be better left buried.

Includes:
BROKEN DREAMS
THE GIRL IN THE VELVET BLACK GOWN
I, MONSTER
SPIRIT LAKE
HUNTING FOR WORMS

A lost soul struggling to find the light . . .
A mother’s retribution . . .
A woman’s misguided faith . . .
A much-needed lesson . . .
A nagging gone wrong . . .
Five tales that peer into lives about to split wide open.

Includes:
EMPTY SHELLS AND BROKEN STONES
AND THEN SHE WAS DEAD
EGGSTREME MEASURES
IN THE ARMS OF THE SEA
SWALLOWING THE SERPENT’S TAIL

Co-dependency tangles with misconceptions in this tale about good intentions gone horribly wrong.

When Faith Morgan’s baby is murdered, Faith loses touch with reality. Grief and depression spin her into an ever-widening black hole from which the only escape is her own destruction. Rescued by a friend who sends Faith to a sanctuary on the west coast, she finally finds a path back to the world of the living, a path that is violently torn asunder by a sudden winter storm and a baby’s fearful cry.

From the eternal sea she rose – a tattered, lifeless husk – with but one solitary purpose: to take the soul of the one who condemned her.

The outcasts of Society, the freaks and the monsters, shamed and beaten into submission, know that Good doesn’t always triumph over Evil. When a little girl’s life hangs in the balance, however, the question doesn’t hinge on right or wrong, but on whether or not such an outcast—cocooned in darkness that exists halfway between fear and despair—can step into the light and take action.

When Hiram Randall finds a corpse in his bathtub all he wants is to make it go away, but the cops are determined to pin the murder on him and so is his shrimpy neighbor. Can Hiram con his way out of this sticky situation? Or will his wife’s research pull the plug on his not-so-soggy story?