Life in Miniature

A new collection of short stories from the author of "The Lumbermill" (BRW), including seven previously unpublished works. Stories to thrill, chill, and keep you up all night. Life in Miniature - "The first time was the hardest just because I wasn't sure if it would work. A pair of honeymooners had come to town looking for an isolated getaway, to bathe in the hot springs and enjoy the small-town quiet. They were so beautiful and young: just what our town needed."Love Thy Neighbor - "It was a good-sized island, but there was only one house. She couldn't ask the people whose dinner she'd just assaulted for help. And trying to swim for the boat in this weather could prove fatal. She hoped vaguely that Aaron had been worried enough to follow her, but she knew he wouldn't dare. She would've made his life a living hell. Yuki Onna - "Three weeks she'd waited for a break in the storm to make the trip up into the Hida Mountains, but it wasn't coming, and her flight home was in four days. After traveling halfway around the world to visit the village where her mother was born, she wouldn't let a little snow stop her."Grayscale - "When I was twenty the color faded from my world. Overnight I found myself living in a black and white movie. Delayed onset monochromatism, the doctors called it. They couldn't explain why it happened. I wasn't a painter or anything, so nobody saw it as a great tragedy. But you really can't appreciate what it is to mourn green, or say goodbye to purple until it happens."Same Old Song and Dance - "What did it matter if somebody learned the truth now that I was dead? It had been eating at me for thirty years so maybe it would a relief to finally air the dirty laundry. In the end, I decided that it was better if I showed him rather than letting him rip apart my entire house looking for it. I reached into the pocket and dropped it in his lap."Visitation - "Gathering up the boys' abandoned candy bags, he noted they were uncharacteristically light. But when he dropped them onto the dining table there was a heavy thump. He poured them out. Under a pile of chocolate and lollypops was a serrated steak knife. Drops of dried blood clung to the tip."To Keep Her Safe - "I don't know what will happen as she gets older. I know she'll never be soft again, never vulnerable to her father or any other man like him. Over time, scars will grow over the spikes, but they'll always be there underneath the skin, keeping her safe."Unrequited - "It's best when he's home, but I'm with him when he's out too. As he drives to work listening to his podcasts. On his lunchbreak when he drives 2.7 miles to the gym so he can run on the treadmill for 9.6 miles. I'm there at the grocery store, reminding him we're out of milk. There's never a time I'm not with him. Even when he sleeps, I'm pressed up against his skin monitoring his heartrate, feeling his breath. Keeping track of his dreams."The Curse of Eve - "Eighty percent of mothers attended by medical students fell ill. Half of them never left the hospital alive."Includes a FREE preview of the new thriller "The Lumbermill", available now from Black Rose Writing.