Author: chrchr

Tales Of The Blues presents 75 tales inspired by blues classics. The tales appear in a variety of formats, including poems, songs, free verse, mind maps, lists, mini-essays, and short stories. The majority are one page pieces of minimalist fiction. A longer poem and short story appear at the end.
Most of the songs are from the 1920s and 1930s and contain lyrics of desired, intended, threatened, attempted, or committed crimes. They were selected from the 607 crime songs listed in Blues With My Crime: Facts And Fiction. Each song is briefly described and accompanied by a QR link to the original recording.
Images, flash fiction, and short poems appear throughout the book.

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In 18th century France, women had few choices and little chance to shape their destiny.

Within these limits, Catherine Drummond dreams of a marriage as supportive and tender as that of her parents, but on her wedding night her new husband relates his own vision.

Catherine’s desire for sweet domesticity is crushed when Robert Picard reveals himself to be a man of his time, and assumes he will have the freedom to cavort without censure among the pantheon of women he has always kept.

She is trapped in the gilded cage of the chateau Lac d’Or.

Catherine attempts to escape only to be cast into a fresh hell from which release means being sent on a treacherous journey she could never imagine.

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Hollywood comes to Sweetwater Springs when a local historic estate is chosen as the location to film a blockbuster movie. Glory and Momma are having the time of their lives, working as extras, until Glory’s new friend is found hanging around the set — literally.When the police write it off as suicide, Glory’s gut tells her differently. Determined to prove the young man was murdered, she begins to uncover secrets about the old mansion that someone wants left hidden.Will Glory’s sleuthing lead the police to the truth or will her determination to bring the killer to justice land her knee-deep in a bootlegger’s backyard?And will her budding relationship with the hunky chief detective survive her uncontrollable urge to solve a mystery?

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In Coberley Hall, there lives a secret.
That secret is ready to claim its next victim.

DI Colin Walker inherits the Jacobean manor house from his wife Lizzie, in whose death he has played a part. Wracked with guilt, but equally determined to forget, he takes up his inheritance only to discover a 17th century chest in the cellars. Inside it are Countess Lucy’s clothes and possessions from the time of the English Civil War. A cryptic note next to her name in the village burial records leads him to question how she, once the house’s chatelaine, died. His wife’s death was the same? 

As far as Colin is concerned all love ended with Lizzie, but he has reckoned without the countess’s ‘dead heart’s desire’. But can he trust what he sees and feels? And what of the promise he made Lizzie on her deathbed?

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Each story within Snapshots places the characters in situations where their past behaviors will be changed in a moment that is like a snapshot picture: freezing in time who they are in a moment but facing new challenges that will alter that snapshot and create a new reality.

Eudora Welty’s quote “A good snapshot keeps a moment from going away” is a theme that permeates all of the stories in Eliot Parker’s collection of short stories, Snapshots. These stories are set in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. In the plots of the stories, the makeup of the characters is more interesting and important than the circumstances that the characters find themselves trying to manage. Each protagonist finds themselves in a complicated set of personal and professional relationships. By their nature, relationships are complicated. The protagonists in these stories are shaped by their backgrounds, life experiences, and expectations of other people. Conflicts arise for these protagonists when decisions and choices made by others alter the expectations and circumstances expected by the protagonists.

In each of these stories, the lives, values, and beliefs held by the characters are deconstructed and each of them face a new reality brought on by an experience or situation that forces them to reexamine who they are and who they need to become. Each of these characters occupy a variety of professional spaces: cops, a rich, successful couple, convicted criminals, and others grieving the loss of a loved one and grieving the absence of love.

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Dark Poetry dealing with horror and fantasy themes. Some silly, some sad, but all with a note of the macabre or horrific… 

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A trip into the western Liguria, dictated by Cardinal Rafael’s need to bring comfort to a Monsignor friend of his, will lead Aitana to a small community of nuns grappling with a possible case of violence against a young girl. The Toledan nun will strive to end that story and will not do that with prayers or reasoning, but employing much more effective and convincing tools.

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Some choose to fight the darkness; others become it.

Daughter of Winter is the first book in a gripping fantasy series based on the legends behind the winter goddess, Cailleach Bheur. The series draws you into a world of Celtic mythology, powerful Druids, dark magic, and fated mates.

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She thought she was ready to embrace her destiny. She was wrong.

Brydie MacKay has accepted that she is the last Daughter of Winter. Her old life soon becomes a distant memory as she is initiated into a world of Druidic magic. However, the further Brydie delves into her legacy, the more she realizes that she is up against impossible odds. Training is brutal beyond imagining, and the full power of her birthright eludes her. To make matters worse, everyone has an agenda—even the man required by prophecy to protect her.

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What is power without control?

In return for siding with the enemy, Brydie is given the secret to unlocking the full power of her birthright. But no power comes without consequence, and she must learn to become the master, rather than the victim.

Time is inevitably swallowed as Brydie grapples for the place she is owed. Her training is dogged by tales of horror, for not only has the leader of their Druidic clan fallen to the darkness, but he also holds an object of power that could plunge the world into a bone-chilling nightmare.

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When ex-astronaut Brock Finlander tries to reconnect with his long-lost daughter, a marine biologist, they discover strange things happening to marine life on Claw Island.

In a rush to identify why the crabs are growing out of control, they find more than they bargained for.

Now, they have only 72 hours before the cover-up becomes dangerous and unstoppable. But danger never expects to run into a man like Brock Finlander. A man who will not just respond, but will attack it with everything he has: his intellect, his military training, and his family.

But when the animals you’re trying to save become the enemy, how do you fight back?

Together, father and daughter must learn that family comes first before time runs out and they lose each other, and the island, forever.

What they thought they knew about the water was wrong… so very, very, wrong.

If you like thrilling action and heartwarming, endearing characters, you’ll love this coastal action-adventure set in the very center of Maryland’s blue crab population, the Chesapeake Bay, surrounded by NASA, NOAA, the Coast Guard, and the Annapolis Naval Academy.

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Black America unites in revolution. Thousands die as heroes. And the future of our country lies in one woman’s hands; Mandy Africa.

It all starts when Mandy sees thousands of angry Americans at an anti-Trump rally the night he is elected. With memories of her murdered mother fresh in her mind, Mandy rushes a news camera crew and demands an audience. What Mandy says next touches the hearts of millions and gives birth to the biggest revolution in US history; the Oya movement.

Named after the African goddess of revolution, Oya DEMANDS an end to racial injustice and rich, white tyranny.

But as the targeted protests, kidnappings of prominent officials, and corporate boycotts mount, the white nationalists in power take notice. They’re not giving up their money or power without a VICIOUS fight!

Will this be the moment that finally changes history? Or is Mandy leading her people to the slaughter?

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