- Sisters Crossing (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 15 minutes Linnea sat quietly sobbing in her tiny studio apartment as she read over all the details on her baby boy’s birth certificate. It was all she had left to remember him by and she had not so much as looked at the document in the last twenty-some-odd years. In fact, the creases were tucked so… - Born Again Boston
Reading Time: 32 minutes You probably know the name of the man who shot Lincoln. You may even know the gunman was a famous actor in his day, a southern sympathizer, and an ardent partisan. But, do you know the truly outlandish story behind the man who shot and killed the 16th President’s assassin? Thick plumes of smoke billowed… - That Intersection (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 10 minutes I saw a pedestrian cross a busy intersection the other day. On my way to pick my son up from school, I stopped at a red light at a busy intersection. On the southeast corner, to my right stood a man, no more than about 5 ft 7 in tall, dressed in a muted orange… - A Very Simple Explanation
Reading Time: 51 minutes A troubled, deeply unfulfilled yet very successful middle-aged corporate executive, who was brought up in a wealthy but highly dysfunctional household, is given a remarkable chance to change his life; and after accepting the exceptionally rare offer, experiences an outcome that is utterly unimaginable… Theodore begrudgingly woke to an intense ray of sunlight, piercing through… - Just another Day at the Office (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 6 minutes A dead battery meant being late for work this morning, and now, a flat tire in the parking lot at lunch, with an in-person client meeting in less than 30 minutes. Needless to say, the day wasn’t going well, and to make it worse, there wasn’t a spare either. Time to catch a ride share… - Please, Don’t Let Me Fall
Reading Time: 60 minutes The assassination of the 16th United States President was a first for the country in more than one regard, and one of those accused of being in on the plot would become the subject of controversy – not only contemporarily – but far into the future… “Sic semper tyrannis!” was not just the ranting of… - How One Particular End Began (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 11 minutes The end had already begun. By this time, the young couple’s parting was inevitable; and to prove it, it had been more than a week since he and she had seen each other in person – something unthinkable just months earlier. Still, it was only hours since they had last spoken on the phone –… - A Most Desperate Pact
Reading Time: 32 minutes Just as the war against man ended, the war with nature began. Stranded in a remote area, far away from any semblance of civilization or basic infrastructure, a new struggle to survive is now a constant and desperate reality. Just three days ago, another member of our dwindling group finally succumbed to his injuries, his… - Why did God Create so Many Animals? (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 7 minutes It was a bright, sunny afternoon, with a few happy, puffy clouds dotting the sky. When the dismissal bell rang, Melony eagerly awaited her 8-year-old Billy, who just finished his first week of 3rd grade. He playfully skipped out of the school, and onto the playground, the teacher following behind her class. After checking her… - The Soul-Crushing Clutch of Undeserved Obscurity
Reading Time: 16 minutes Modern-day information and entertainment would not be the same without the contribution of one unlikely inventor, who changed society so profoundly but was unjustly denied the fame and fortune he rightly earned after many years of hard work and sacrifice… Sharp pains interrupted his tortured, shallow breathing as sweat beaded and dripped from his forehead…. - Coin and Coincidence (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 6 minutes Ever eager to make a quick buck, Burris suddenly had a devious idea. The scheme came to him in a moment of disappointment, disproportionately motivated by desperation. Being nearly five grand in the hole, it would take at least that amount, plus another $60k to get him through the year. So, $120,000 would undoubtedly be… - A Dark Harvest Yields Light
Reading Time: 18 minutes Abandoned by his mother only a few months after his birth, Taft had to rely solely on his dysfunctional dad. A man who always kept his word but could be very cruel at times. By the age of fourteen, the teenage boy knew what he wanted to do in life. So, he carefully laid out… - From Kindness to Incredulity (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 5 minutes Under sunny blue skies with a pleasant breeze sweeping across the little league field, Ryan and Sienna shared a mutual excitement – it was his first year as a coach and her’s as a team mom. Their ten-year-old, Tyler, rushed into the dugout, hastily throwing his equipment bag onto the bench before running onto the… - Remember the Raisin!
Reading Time: 18 minutes The Battle of New Orleans is considered one of the most important American victories in the War of 1812, and one man helped to turn the fight against the British from a lost cause to a triumph that would seal the end of the Second War of Independence… Hungry, sleep deprived, exhausted, and inadequately dressed… - Forever Moments (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 10 minutes Laura looked over at the smart display on the end table next to her husband. It was noticeably, undoubtedly late for a school night – about an hour past their tween boy’s usual bedtime. But, she and her husband had already given their word – a new time for Patrick to tuck in. After all,… - Pretty Penelope’s Pernicious Perfidy
Reading Time: 23 minutes Pretty young Penelope and her husband have everything they could ever want and more, courtesy of his shrewd business sense that offers them a life of luxury. Unfortunately, he desires a simpler lifestyle, one free of all excess material trappings. But, she’s got a trick up her sleeve to keep things just the way they… - Between the Lines (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 14 minutes 2:17 am. Still, silent, unsettling, and four long, anxious hours until the morning alarm chimed. Leanna had grown so tired of tossing and turning she defiantly laid motionless on her back staring up into the discomforting darkness that offered absolutely no consolation. By quarter after three, she had only slept an hour, and morning wouldn’t… - Of Vikings and Indians
Reading Time: 14 minutes Around 1000 AD, a group of explorers sailed over 2,200 nautical miles from Grœnland to North America in search of exotic treasure. But, what they found instead caused the intrepid Norsemen to hastily abandon their only settlement and quickly retreat back to Scandinavia – nearly 500 years before Columbus ever set foot on the New… - To Whom We All Owe a Great Debt (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 11 minutes Twenty-seven – that was all. After numerous deployments and two enlistments, Dakota’s body trauma finally overcame his ability and will to live at just twenty-seven years old. The victim of a massive myocardial infarction, brought on by his lingering wounds, his body now lay lifeless in an old VA building, surrounded by total and complete… - Devil’s Bliss
Reading Time: 41 minutes A small western town is harboring an awful secret. It’s supposed to be a short stop along the way for former outlaw Brody Ray Byrne, who is determined to start anew. But fate has different plans for the wayward Irish immigrant… “Devil’s Bliss,” was the disturbing name etched into the wooden sign Brody Ray Byrne… - Fumbledierk (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 7 minutes Fumbledierk. That’s what all his teammates called him. Even the coaches (who previously discouraged and disciplined all the name-calling offenders), called him now, especially after costing the team a much-needed win late in the fourth quarter, nearly knocking the bunch out of the championship game contention. Dierk was big for his age. He was also… - The Plot against Black Tom
Reading Time: 32 minutes In the summer of 1916, the first world war raged in Europe and although the United States stayed officially neutral, a powerful blast equaling a 5.5 magnitude earthquake erupted in New York Harbor in the dead of night, shaking nearly every civilian in a 90-mile radius awake, some of whom were violently thrown from their… - Fifty for One (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 5 minutes The fast food restaurant was all abuzz with people ordering, eating, chatting, and laughing. Employees were busy taking orders, serving freshly-made meals, refilling condiments, and cleaning tables when a familiar middle-aged blind man walked into the store. He’d been in the establishment plenty of times before and had the routine down pat. He patiently stood… - The Middle Grounds
Reading Time: 23 minutes A young boy experiences his very first deep-sea fishing adventure with his father on their brand-new center console boat. But his giddy excitement turns to sheer panic when dangerous elements intrude on their lively, memory-making excursion… Laddie could barely sleep that night. His mind was full of visions of the open ocean under a bright… - Talent Alone (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 8 minutes Sonic chaos. It coursed through and consumed the entire musical instrument store. Drums thundered from a back room, while guitars and basses pelted out disparate, dueling melodies, with keyboards filling any semblance of empty space left with tunes of their own. None of it was in time nor even the same key. A rag-tag medley… - Salem Poor’s Plucky Patriot Performance
Reading Time: 20 minutes In the first year of the American Revolutionary War during the colonies’ campaign for independence, one former slave fights so valiantly that more than a dozen continental officers recommend he be officially recognized for his bravery and loyalty to their cause… A biting chill permeated the moist morning air, unceasingly cutting through thick clothing, wet… - Envelope Envy (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 9 minutes “You’re fired!” “No, No, please, please! Give me another chance!” “I’m sorry, you’ve had your chance. Actually, you’ve had three chances. And that’s this resort’s policy – three strikes and you’re out!” Lina stood nervously nearby, listening with great trepidation to the tension-filled exchange. It wasn’t the first time she heard it. The hotel facilities… - Nine is Not Enough
Reading Time: 41 minutes After a man rescues a frail lone mountain lion cub, he and his family nurse it back to health, and while raising the cougar, experience many exciting and dangerous adventures over the years… Derry found the tiny, starving cub when it was only one, maybe two months old, along a precarious hiking trail, not often… - It’s All Downhill Now (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 5 minutes The lengthy scenic walk took Jody’s mind off an increasing height, just over four hundred feet in the air. Realistic surroundings featured faux rock, clear-blue waterfalls, and naturalistic sounds wowed every guest making their way up the winding stairs, cleverly disguised as a genuine, rugged, but well-traveled mountain pathway. Now, nearly at the top, the… - The Peculiar Past of Posted Children
Reading Time: 35 minutes A year after introducing its parcel service in 1913, the US Post Office struggled to define what could and could not be sent, as people tested the boundaries by mailing coffins, construction bricks, puppies, freshly-laid eggs, snakes and other reptiles, small farm animals, and even their own children, from one location to another… Abigail watched… - Short yet Still Circuitous (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 8 minutes The poor little, unaccompanied pooch wandered through the empty street aimlessly, shivering, confused, and visibly afraid when a concerned stranger first approached. The tiny terrier mix was apprehensive, not wanting to go to the human, who was not calling the furry creature by name, nor had a familiar, comforting scent. Though the young man keenly… - The Unbelievably Bizarre Burmese Belligerents of World War II
Reading Time: 14 minutes In 1945, during World War II, British and Indian Allies pushed Imperial Axis Japanese troops back at a crucial battle in Burma, forcing them to die resisting or to retreat into a forested swamp, where the enemy would find themselves surrounded by a fierce, primordial foe who took hundreds of their lives in the most… - Little Change for Big Charity (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 9 minutes Alex wasn’t much different than any well-adjusted young, working-class man. A sensible 23-year-old, he had graduated from high school five years ago, spending the next two studying a trade, and the last three practicing it at least five days a week – sometimes six, even seven. He’d wake up regularly at 6:30 a.m. each morning,… - The Flying Flapper (or The East River’s Forgotten Far-Fetched Flight)
Reading Time: 22 minutes A little-remembered, early twentieth-century female pilot strives for the privilege of being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean but was ultimately edged out by a much more famous name that’s made its way into practically every classroom history book, despite her competition’s better aerial maneuvering skills and experience… Clear blue skies. Crisp… - Rays (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 8 minutes Expansive bright blue skies extended westward far past the sight of his young eyes, over calm, aquamarine almost emerald-colored water. Curling up his tiny toes, he could feel the white powder sand under his bare feet as he looked in the same direction, where the horizon seamlessly met the sea in the distance. It was… - Vindication on Broad Street
Reading Time: 23 minutes A late-nineteenth-century physician, formally trained as an obstetrician who dabbled in many other areas of science, puts his experience and keen sense of detection to work, solving one of the biggest mystery killer’s origins of his time, eventually convincing his skeptical colleagues of the deadly disease’s true source… Baby Lewis was just five months old… - The Dark Side of Artificial Light (or 10,000 Failures and the Desperate Invention of Vaporware)
Reading Time: 24 minutes A high-profile and very popular figure, dubbed by the press as a contemporary wizard, conducts gruesome experiments to discredit his chief rival – a troubled genius who ultimately wins a heated public battle for a nation’s and civilization’s rise to modernity… Her name was Topsy. Exotic by almost every measure, the unique twenty-eight-year-old circus performer… - The Two Greatest Words Ever Uttered by a Human (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 7 minutes It had already been over 200 days in the shelter, shuffling between the soothing shade of the indoor pen and the blistering heat radiating off the cement pad outdoors, the only respite being a makeshift cot of mesh fabric suspended inches above an unforgiving concrete floor stained with potent urine. But, his fortunes would soon… - The First American’s Final Battle
Reading Time: 27 minutes After eight bloody years of unconventional warfare, a controversial and transformative figure must fight one of the most important battles of his military career and this confrontation will pit him, not against his sworn enemy, but against his very own ranks… Seventeen long, tense, and bloody days had passed since the two belligerent forces first… - Two Tunics (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 6 minutes The bell on the children’s resale shop door rang suddenly, rapidly, as the ball repeatedly struck the bell, announcing the young mother’s presence too loudly, startling her as she struggled to nonchalantly enter the store without being noticed by anyone already inside. She pulled a shiny, bright red wagon behind her, filled way over the… - Weare White Pines Grow Free!
Reading Time: 22 minutes In 1772, American colonists struggle to build a new life, fighting desperately against nature and tyranny, as King George III continues to issue destructive orders from thousands of miles away, one man leads a small opposition group in a historical confrontation that helps pave the way toward an independent nation… Beads of sweat covered a… - At Bat (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 5 minutes Aaron walked slowly, nervously from the dugout to the plate, sliding his favorite bat back and forth between his hands. Stepping into the batter’s box, he pulled his gloves tight, cinching the velcro, feeling his heart beat, beat, beat, as if it were about to burst right out of his chest. He took a huge,… - The Death of Legend Ludd at Huddersfield
Reading Time: 22 minutes Roger Johns is deeply committed to his cause, waging a war pitting laborers against manufacturers and merchants but the grass-roots movement will not adequately stop the revolution of industry and innovation will prove too great a force to overcome as the world moves forthright into modernity, leaving its antiquated past behind… Spring flowers stood tall… - A Wayward Physician’s Guide to Curing Consumption
Reading Time: 40 minutes A late 19th-century physician seeks a cure for tuberculosis at a time when the disease is killing nearly 14 percent of the population in the United States and Europe. He must rely on the rudimentary tools and knowledge of his time to fight back against a growing pandemic that continues to indiscriminately infect and claim… - 101 Miles to Padborg
Reading Time: 45 minutes American soldier Buford “Doc” Fry is stranded deep in Nazi Germany in early May of 1945. As the only remaining survivor of his platoon, he must sneak to safety from Hamburg to just beyond the border of Denmark where he can find the Danish Resistance, slightly over 101 miles away. During his escape, he happens… - Grave Escape
Reading Time: 55 minutes For Naill Donnely, this would prove the toughest case he ever had to crack – very few clues, and worse yet, no viable suspect whatsoever. Unfortunately, the crime itself was all too familiar. The latest victim, a young girl, her life choked out of her by some psychopath. But, it was the circumstances that left… - The Simple Pleasure of Pecan Pie
Reading Time: 58 minutes A young immigrant woman flees her over-domineering family and a pre-arranged marriage in hopes of living a life of independence. But the cultural divide shock and making it on her own proves more than challenging — until she unexpectedly meets a man who could be the right one… Jasmine had just enough time and money… - The Wristband
Reading Time: 14 minutes A pre-teen boy experiences many uneasy and awkward moments as new feelings for a special girl begin to arise, but they’re at odds with his embarrassing predisposition to avoid revealing his secret… Four hours and a useless wristband. That’s all Conor had. Along with a bit of cash saved up from the weekly commissions his… - New Perspective (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 3 minutes Putrid, sticky, icky puddle water stained Bridget’s best pumps. The stench easily carried from her feet up to her nostrils. There’s just no way she could go to her big-time job interview like this. Still, time ticked, ticked, ticked quickly away, as if the seconds sped up somehow. Now, she had to get back to… - The Light on the Other Side of the Graveyard
Reading Time: 39 minutes In a remote, small town, residents are fearful and suspicious of an eerie light that dimly shines from the edge of the cemetery every night. Legend has it the light comes from a ghost of a former resident, long ago killed in a tragic accident, who patrols the gravesites. When a young man passes through,… - The Great Birdbath Debate
Reading Time: 16 minutes A grandfather recounts his freshman high school debate club experience that pitted him against the smartest girl in the class. He tells his granddaughter about the face-off and how it changed his entire life. She learns a valuable lesson, which neatly applies to a set of circumstances she’s currently going through, and resolves a very… - The Biggest Difference between ‘Want’ and ‘Need’ is Often Contentment
Reading Time: 18 minutes An elementary school boy learns a valuable lesson about the difference between asking for something he wants and getting what he needs… Danny sat down at the kitchen table to eat his breakfast before scampering off to school. Mom, humming happily, hung a new calendar on the pantry door. “1954 is going to be a… - A Boy’s Delicate Heart
Reading Time: 22 minutes Sarah is the single mother of Tiernan, a very rambunctious teenage boy. Tiernan is exceptionally smart, funny, and caring — but also, inexplicably socially awkward. Though very close through his formative years, their strong mother and son bond is tested when he dates his first serious girlfriend and experiences one of life’s greatest difficulties –… - Lucky Compass Run
Reading Time: 32 minutes Couple Danny and Shannon embark on an ill-fated hike, getting lost in the woods. The two come upon a dog, who appears to be stray at first. But, when they realize it’s someone’s beloved pet, and are desperate to find their way out, they decide to follow the pooch’s canine instinct (magnetoreception or compass run)… - Life is What Happens while Making Plans (Slice of Life)
Reading Time: 7 minutes A burgundy wall to the left. A purple wall to the right. Separating the two – a glass pony wall. Nothing in the space spoke opportunity and only became more perplexing after seeing an extraordinarily outdated kitchen with bright green walls – and super dark brown countertops, of course. It was the opposite of inspiration;… - Moments (Little Slices of Life)
Reading Time: 12 minutes
