Showing results by narrator "James Watkins" in All Categories

For Frank Morgan, a reunion with his estranged son brings back bittersweet memories of another time and place. Conrad Morgan is an Eastern businessman trying to build a railroad through an untamed corner of New Mexico Territory. Even though Frank has revenge-hungry killers on his trail, his kin needs him now. So with a gun-toting, hard-loving beauty named Rebel by their side, father and son ride straight into a pitched battle with hired killers and furious Apache warriors. It’s a firestorm more treacherous and evil than Frank Morgan has ever faced.

Business is booming in Chirichua Junction, on the edge of a great northern river basin. But with cattlemen lined up against sheep men, the land has turned into a war zone and the town constable is a dirty as they come. Fresh from a violent confrontation with a fellow manhunter, Frank Morgan is called to Chirichua Junction by his old Civil War commander - and arrives just as an angry rancher is taking the law into this own hands. Suddenly, good men and bad are poised to kill.

Malcolm Theodore Puddle is a 21-year shipping clerk — from way back East. What is he doing out here? The Mountain Man’s former neighbor, Humbolt Puddle, has died and left his crumbling 600-acre ranch to his only living heir, just as a greedy and ruthless cattle baron is circling the Humbolt ranch like a ravenous vulture. Poor, unsuspecting Puddle is walking into a death trap. Smoke is the not the pitying kind. But any enemy of Smoke’s neighbor is his enemy, too.

Heading west to San Diego some honest pilgrims paid 10 men good money to keep their wagon train safe. Soon word comes to Tombstone, where Matt Bodine and Sam Two Wolves are wearing out their welcome gambling with Wyatt Earp. The wagon train’s guards turned against their charges and headed off to Mexico with six young pioneer girls captive. Everyone knows the tortures of the damned that await the girls in the hellholes south of the border. But only Matt and Sam will do something about it.

An invitation too irresistible to refuse from the Museum of Cadiz leads archaeologist Annja Creed to the sun-drenched southern coast of Andalucia, Spain. In a region rich in Moorish and Roman ruins, she leaps at the chance to join a dig across the Bay of Cadiz, where she unearths a bronze bull statue that makes the entire trip worth every minute. Until the day after her discovery, when she sees the same artifact beside the body of a dead Spaniard, killed by the estocada, the final sword thrust used by bullfighters to bring down the bull.

Desperate to find water and shelter on the barren plains of former Oklahoma, Ryan and his team come upon a community that appears, at first, to be peaceful. Then the ville is attacked by a group of its own inhabitants — people infected with a parasite that has turned them into slave warriors for an unknown overlord. The companions try to help fend off the enemy and protect the remaining population, but when Ryan is captured during a second ambush, all hope seems lost. Especially when he launches an assault against his own crew.

The seminal import of figurative language in the Bible generally, and the parables in particular.

Losing a sibling is hard. Losing three of them is even harder. Repairing a broken bond of trust is harder still. After his three brothers disappeared, one after another, gone to a mysterious place known only as The Rainbow Bridge, Buddy the degu is all alone in his cage. Confused and frightened, he knows only one thing for certain: he last saw his brothers in the hands of the human caretaker. That knowledge breaks the bond of trust forged between Buddy and his human in the years since he was a pup.

It's Christmas, and the human caretakers have told the degus that Santa Paws is coming to visit. They have no idea who he is, but since the human caretakers say he's bringing nibbles for them, and degus love nibbles, they're excited about it; though the news that he plans to come when they're sleeping seems strange to them. Will Santa Paws really be coming? If so, what sorts of nibbles will he bring? More to the point, can the degus stay awake long enough to make sure they don't miss his visit?

Oscar has everything a degu could need, or want, in the cage he shares with his brother, Romeo, but it's not enough; Oscar longs for freedom. Convinced he's missing out on an amazing adventure, Oscar dreams of the day when he'll be able to investigate the world beyond his cage bars without the human caretakers telling him where and when he can explore. Now, at long last, his chance has arrived. But will it be the exciting adventure he's always dreamed it would be?

Jenks the degu lives in a cage with his three brothers: Jacob, Jasper and Joshua. It might seem like a strange place to live, but they call it home and feel safe there. So you can imagine how scary it is for them when they are forced to leave their cage. Sure, they regularly leave it briefly for a bit of attention from their human caretakers, which they don't mind, but the thing the human caretakers are calling "The Great Degu Round-Up" is different, and they find themselves in a giant sandless sand bath.

From urban hotel rooms with interdimensional portals to far-future robotic societies, to far-flung galaxies, to the near future, to the present day with a twist. Eric Fomley's first full collection brings a variety of dark futures for your consumption and enjoyment. Flash Futures contains three very short stories and 21 sci-fi flash fictions guaranteed to take you to the future in 10 minutes or less.