The stars whispered to amateur astronomer Levi, and to his alarm, one by one they disappeared within the abyss. But when he witnessed one such disappearance, the star fell to him and took a human form. Explaining Celesta's sudden appearance to suspicious townspeople became an insignificant problem when a Darkness threatened to consume the universe, one star at a time, including the one that warmed his world. A fantasy story written for the 2026 Open Novella Contest, utilizing prompt #69: The stars are disappearing one by one, and only you can hear their whispers.

A peek into a few weeks of the disparate life in a small town, as it prepares for a holiday weekend. Fictional, flawed, facetious, fumbling, and fundamentally funny (hopefully). Hope this provides a bit of a change and some smiles. As always, my stories are complete before posting (contests excepted). So the chapters will be posted regularly.

An earlier version made the ONC 2025 Long List. This is the longer, revised version for the Wattys. Scott an insecure idealistic young man gets his girlfriend Zelda new virtual reality goggles that control one's senses and thoughts. The complete immersion in the MMORPG adventure cannot be distinguished from reality and raises the question will their love survive virtual realities with dream lovers and none of the inhibitions of actual reality. An exploration of ideas on love, sexuality, reality and the impact of future mind-altering technologies. Hopefully thought provoking and entertaining.

At age nine years, Emmeline witnesses, undetected, the brutal killings of her parents and the main man responsible. A child's promise over her parent's grave sites leads to a lifetime of tracking down the killers, carrying the vivid memories and feeding her quest for retribution.

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Small time thief meets partner, wealth ensues, troubles begin.

In the mid-latitudes the approaching winter has serious gardeners putting to bed their flower gardens. Often a shortage of space provokes the handing out of parts of well-loved treasures to other practitioners of the art. Some weirdness may surface in such encounters.

Satchmo Turner, erstwhile Private Detective, is looking for love. He's also looking for a missing photographer and some direction for his drifting life. Unfortunately, what he excels at finding is trouble, and when a canal boat-load of it hoves into view, Satchmo is going to need all of his wit and tenacity to emerge intact.