Sample and discover great ebook fiction from the authors and publishers of Smashwords.
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Sacrifices | by AM Kirkby Feb. 06, 2012 | Free! | 3517 words | Read a sample |
| In the Etruscan city of Cisra, the boy Karkana sacrifices his prize possession to help a prisoner of war. But the true implications of his act won't be felt till years later. | |||||
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The Crabber Stories | by Francis Bennett Feb. 04, 2012 | $2.99 | 43894 words | Sample 15% |
| This book is destined to become a modern classic. You can feel wonder turn to wisdom as this young boy recounts the story of his life in small town America. Hilarious but tender, fantastic but truthful, these stories will touch the youthful innocence remaining in every reader. | |||||
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Life In Parks | by P R Johnson Feb. 04, 2012 | $2.99 | 84121 words | Sample 10% |
| Matthew is in the twilight of adolescence when the old lady barges into his life. Taking him under her wing, she hints at a future away from his hometown, his beliefs and aspirations. With all roads leading to the capital, he encounters complications and mishaps that force him to question whether he is in control of his destiny, or whether destiny is controlling him. | |||||
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Recollections of an Italian Gentleman | by Stendhal Feb. 02, 2012 | $2.20 | 11066 words | Sample 20% |
| "Recollections of an Italian Gentleman" is a tale of a young man turned collaborator in a Rome occupied by French troops and then annexed to Napoleon's empire. The young collaborator recalls the events that marked these turbulent days, among them the abduction of the Pope by the French--His Holiness fiddled with his snuffbox during the entire operation--and the execution of the bandit Spatolino. | |||||
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Whispers in the Wind | by Cyn Bagley Feb. 01, 2012 | $0.99 | 5293 words | Sample 20% |
| Another "living in the desert" short story. Ellie goes to the small town of her birth to find her biological mother. Sometimes it isn't what it seems. And sometimes, you don't always find what you want. | |||||
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Night After (a short story) | by Nelson Lowhim Jan. 31, 2012 | $1.00 | 1661 words | Sample 30% |
| A man wakes up after an uncomfortable night; one where he has tested the limits of his own experiences. His nemesis walks in front of him. What happened? This short story looks at how events in life can seem to change us, but how the world remains as it is. | |||||
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The Merlot | by Gary Baker Jan. 31, 2012 | $0.99 | 2876 words | Sample 20% |
| Ted is not looking forward to the party that his wife has organized at their house this Saturday night. Of course his friend George will be there, but... He would do anything to get out of this party. Anything at all. Ted sees things, Ted knows things, and Ted is about to crash his wife's party. | |||||
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Face in the Water (A Short Story) | by Charles Sheehan-Miles Jan. 30, 2012 | $0.99 | 3029 words | Sample 20% |
| Jerusalem, 1989: After his best friend dies of a drug overdose, a Georgia Tech student walks away from his life, eventually winding up in the ancient and narrow streets of Jerusalem during the first Palestinian Intifada. An early short story written by Charles Sheehan-Miles, author of the surprise indie bestseller Republic: A Novel of America's Future. | |||||
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Migiro de halfbloed | by Patrick Brannigan Jan. 29, 2012 | $0.99 | 3212 words | Sample 20% |
| Net als iedere jongen moet Migiro zware beproevingen ondergaan om een krijger te worden. Maar Migiro is een halfbloed zonder vrienden. Spannend verhaal over volwassen worden, discriminatie en moed. Winnaar themaverhaal Pure Fantasy Magazine 19. | |||||
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Anybody's Dog | by Jerome Francis Lusa Jan. 28, 2012 | $0.99 | 5477 words | Sample 20% |
| Sometimes we don't fully understand a friendship until long after it is over. This short story posthumously explores such a relationship between a boy and a unique dog, but it could be about any friendship with an unusual or peculiar being. | |||||
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It's All About Survival | by Cyn Bagley Jan. 27, 2012 | $0.99 | 5824 words | Sample 20% |
| Chrissie ends up doing Randy's chores, Randy is her brother, when Chrissie is faced with a life and death situation. Another story from the "living in the desert" series. | |||||
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The Scorpion's Voice | by Cyn Bagley Jan. 26, 2012 | $0.99 | 5796 words | Sample 20% |
| Another short story from the "living in the desert" series. Two children like to spy on a man who is mentally incapacitated. The protagonist learns certain things about herself like sometimes we are more cruel to family than to strangers. | |||||
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Original Son | by Bernie Lincicome Jan. 26, 2012 | $4.99 | 79397 words | Sample 20% |
| Life is black and white in Perry, Ohio. | |||||
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In the Time of Water: living in the desert | by Cyn Bagley Jan. 23, 2012 | $0.99 | 5307 words | Sample 20% |
| As the world aged, the American deserts became hotter and hotter until they became similar to the the dune deserts of the Sahara. Alice hauls five gallons of water to her village on the edge of the desert. Without her water, the village people may not survive. It is a short story of desert and survival. | |||||
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Rarity from the Hollow | by Robert Eggleton Jan. 23, 2012 | $5.99 | 100438 words | Sample 20% |
| "Lacy Dawn’s father relives the Gulf War, her mother has lost her teeth, and her best friend is killed by her own father. But Lacy Dawn has one advantage—she’s been befrended by a semi-organic semi-robot (DotCom, alias Buddy) who works with her to ‘cure’ her parents. Buddy wants something in exchange, though. It’s up to Lacy Dawn to save the universe." --Books for a Buck | |||||
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The Messiah of Green Street | by Shuab Parvez Jan. 22, 2012 | $2.99 | 73461 words | Sample 15% |
| The Messiah of Green Street tells the story of Sahil, born to Bangladeshi immigrants Karim and Anjana in the deprived melting pot of Upton Park, London. This strange-looking prodigal of a boy – who can allegedly speak Arabic and Hebrew from birth - is greeted as a miracle and ‘a child of the world'. | |||||
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Revelations of a Resuscitated Mind | by EJ DeSalvo Jan. 22, 2012 | $1.99 | 143555 words | Sample 20% |
| EJ DeSalvo's Revelations of a Resuscitated Mind is a coming-of-age novel set in 1960s-70s New York. A metaphysical/psychosexual black comedy whose protagonist, a born mystic, is also a baby boomer obsessed with music and movies. The novel is neither “genre†fiction nor an endorsement of any religion. A semi-sequel, a three-act play entitled Raping Riddles, is also being prepared for publication. | |||||
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Anna-Belinda | by Jeannie van Rompaey Jan. 20, 2012 | $0.99 | 5013 words | Sample 30% |
| Anna and Belinda are twins, one seemingly more beautiful and talented than the other. Belinda considers herself the other and lives in the shadow of her sister. At times she worships her, at others despises her. After Anna leaves, Belinda has to find a way to get on with her own life, even if the cost is sacrificing her memories of Anna. | |||||
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Taming The Tiger | by John Rocha Jan. 19, 2012 | Free! | 2659 words | Read a sample |
| It is a time of turmoil and Civil War in China. The Communists and Nationalists are at war. Xiao Yian, a young teenage girl escapes rape and famine to become a circus performer - a Tiger Tamer - in Shanghai. There she has to face up to the fact that she must leave her teenage years behind her and accept her future as a woman. | |||||
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The Care and Feeding of Rubber Chickens: A Novel | by Scott William Carter Jan. 18, 2012 | $4.99 | 79850 words | Sample 20% |
| "My dad owns a rubber chicken factory." With this zany first line, readers are launched on a surprisingly poignant coming-of-age journey. Part buddy story, part road trip adventure, and part ruminations on the difference between love and infatuation, Carter offers up a vivid portrait of a young man who blunders into a thousand-mile quest to tell the girl of his dreams how he really feels. | |||||
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The Kaserne | by Stephen Ricker Jan. 18, 2012 | $4.99 | 140692 words | Sample 15% |
| “Daddy? What did you do during The Eternal Cold War?†In the tradition of MASH and Catch-22, The Kaserne answers that question on behalf of several ten-millions who served abroad in this vividly realistic story of soldiers, civilians, men and women, Americans and Germans on a small forlornly threadbare US Army base in Germany. | |||||
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The Couples | by Richard Alan Jan. 16, 2012 | $4.99 | 91049 words | Sample 20% |
| "The Couples" follows seven couples as they explore their relationships to determine if they are meant to be together. As the couple's lives intertwine we learn how the world around them helps or at times hinders them. Some of the couples learn to move from individuals to couples to family | |||||
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MOLOKA'I NUI AHINA, Summers on the Lonely Isle | by Kirby Wright Jan. 15, 2012 | $3.95 | 83544 words | Sample 10% |
| Julia Daniels, a Moloka'i pioneer woman of mixed blood, invites her grandsons Jeff and Ben to spend summers with her at her ranch on the east end. She shares the ranch with Chipper, an alcoholic war hero with a life estate bordering the swamp. The brothers roam a paradise of fishponds, waterfalls, pristine valleys, and mountains with herds of deer. Jeff meets the Kahuna Woman who freezes pictures of her enemies, the TS who seduces the Chief of Police, the man who refs cock fights in Kaunakakai, the sexy divorcee who lives in the Saddle Room, and the prodigal grandfather who returns to woo Julia. These characters help shape Jeff's sensibilities as he discovers the secrets of his grandmother's wild past in Honolulu and the intensity of her struggles on the Lonely Isle. | |||||
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Punahou BLues: THE LOST CHAPTERS (The Punahou Carnival Haunted House) | by Kirby Wright Jan. 14, 2012 | $0.99 | 3616 words | Sample 20% |
| This chapter was not included in the original PUNAHOU BLUES book because the publisher felt it cut against the loner persona of the main character. We disagree. It helps round out his character by showing him constructing friendships while building and designing the Haunted House for the school carnival. | |||||
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Punahou Blues: THE LOST CHAPTERS (The Great Escape) | by Kirby Wright Jan. 14, 2012 | $0.99 | 5343 words | Sample 5% |
| This chapter was dropped by the publisher because he thought it cut against the CATCHER IN THE RYE tone of PUNAHOU BLUES. I disagree. By juxtaposing haole family life in the Kahala suburbs with an extended Hawaiian family living in Waimanalo, it helps reveal Mr. Gill's warden-like rule over a loveless family as well as the struggle his sons face as they move into their teenage years. | |||||
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Punahou Blues: THE LOST FINAL CHAPTER | by Kirby Wright Jan. 14, 2012 | $0.99 | 5142 words | Sample 5% |
| Critics of PUNAHOU BLUES wondered if there was a chapter after Laura and Jeffrey reunite at the prom. There was. This chapter set in Colorado was discovered yesterday on an old computer that functioned only long enough to download the file in Appleworks. Travel with the narrator to CU as he tries to salvage his relationship with his father while realizing he may never see Laura again. | |||||
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How He Roughly Popped My Cherry | by Valerie Grey Jan. 13, 2012 | $1.95 | 7515 words | Sample 20% |
| Elizabeth was a late bloomer, not losing her virginity until she was 19, at the expert hands of Professor Charlie Ashton at Clifton College. This is young Elizabeth's confession: how the Professor popped her cherry and how she became a woman who loves rough sex. | |||||
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Physics for Poets | by Nick Darcy-Fox Jan. 13, 2012 | $2.99 | 60567 words | Sample 20% |
| Charl spends the remainder of the steamy school holidays seeking out drinking crèches, oblivious to the relationship disintegrating in front of him. On Christmas day in South Africa’s surfer town, Durban he summons the dead, and with a kiss in a cemetery seals his fate. When he meets the girl of his dreams her games force him to make choices and face the family secret his lies have kept him safe | |||||
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Lovely Delirium | by Tiffany Fulton Jan. 12, 2012 | $2.99 | 5741 words | Sample 15% |
| "I’m not the best when it comes to keeping diaries or even social networking things like Twitter and Facebook, but I was really bored over summer vacation and decided to give the written record thing a try." According to her mother, Reyna's dream of becoming an author might be possible if she keeps a diary. Nothing will stop her this school year.... | |||||
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The Blue Van | by Jason Fox Jan. 12, 2012 | $0.99 | 25657 words | Sample 10% |
| My brother, my psychopath. | |||||
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Antigen | by D.B. Baldwin Jan. 12, 2012 | $4.99 | 50703 words | Sample 20% |
| A story about technology, science and love. | |||||
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Whistling Woman | by CC Tillery Jan. 11, 2012 | $2.99 | 83235 words | Sample 20% |
| In the last years of the 19th century, Bessie Daniels, a young woman growing up in the mountains of Western North Carolina, faces changes that will challenge her ideas of family and form her into the woman she’s meant to be. | |||||
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Saving Peace | by Mohana Rajakumar Jan. 09, 2012 | $5.00 | 56638 words | Sample 20% |
| Thirty years intervene in the friendships begun at the all female Peace College. Sib, the local news anchor with dreams of going national. Mary Beth, the capable, restless mother of three. Kim, the college president who admits male students. Saving Peace is the story of promises made and broken, love found then lost, and redemption sought for the past. Three women. Two choices. One campus. | |||||
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American Alligator | by Peter Schnake Jan. 09, 2012 | $1.99 | 45568 words | Sample 20% |
| This raw, coming-of-age story captures a musical savant, Josiah Greene, driven to self-injury for quietude. Finally free of an abusive past, but unable to obtain affection of Maya, cashier at the local Mercado, Josiah faces an onslaught of predators, including the Jesus grafittied on the side of his apartment. | |||||
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The Gringo | by Z.H. Morris Jan. 08, 2012 | You set the price! | 301 words | Sample 20% |
| A short story reflecting upon a young man's experience abroad and his realizations that result from it. | |||||
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The Salt Hollows | by Pacze Moj Jan. 07, 2012 | Free! | 1246 words | Read a sample |
| "Some people don't have souls no more. Sometimes they trade 'em away for doing what's right," she said. [Short Story: 1200 words] | |||||
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This One Belongs to the Reds | by Joseph Shaw Jan. 06, 2012 | $0.99 | 3328 words | Sample 20% |
| Is Baseball about winning? Or is it about something else? Author Joseph Shaw tells a story of generations linked together to America's past time. | |||||
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Bite the Hand | by John Vargo Jan. 05, 2012 | $0.99 | 160519 words | Sample 15% |
| Tommy is a quiet, passive kid but poverty forces him to change: he must become tough. The novel is told in Tommy's own words, as he experiences the orphanage, the north woods, the city slums, and finally the military. As he grows older, the language becomes more sophisticated and his attitudes change. Can Tommy maintain his integrity in these threatening environments? | |||||
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The Draft | by Michael C. Boxall Jan. 04, 2012 | $0.99 | 1572 words | Sample 50% |
| Short story about the end of a 1960s childhood in Massachusetts | |||||
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The Apple Sniper: A Short Story | by Eric Witchey Jan. 04, 2012 | $0.99 | 4289 words | Sample 20% |
| This short story by award-winning writer Eric M. Witchey explores the relationship between the village and the aspiring warrior. It is one of a dozen or so short stories the author affectionately calls "The Neighborhood Stories" because of their loose relationship to the neighborhood in which he was raised. | |||||
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The Basement | by Anthony Cimino Jan. 03, 2012 | $2.99 | 65885 words | Sample 15% |
| The Basement is a story of self-discovery that unfolds in a windowless basement. It captures the absurdity of modern office life. With the help of an aptitude test, a high class call girl/psychoanalyst, a delusional vitamin tycoon and the gas fueled wisdom of an octogenarian, the Universe rights itself. There is also a guy that is shaped like a tube. | |||||
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The Things We Save | by Joanne Zienty Dec. 31, 2011 | $1.99 | 137915 words | Sample 15% |
| A broken 45 rpm record held together with tape, a fading stack of Polaroids, a cobalt blue perfume bottle, and a braid of human hair … these are just some of the things Claire Sokol keeps stashed in an old Marshall Field’s gift box. How did they get there and what do they signify? If these relics could talk, what stories would they tell? The Things We Save is for anyone with a box of her own. | |||||
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The Testament of Judith Barton | by Wendy Powers Dec. 31, 2011 | $3.99 | 73939 words | Sample 15% |
| Imagine the cinematic masterpiece Vertigo retold by its tragic heroine. | |||||
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World of Folly | by Karl Stevens Dec. 31, 2011 | $0.99 | 68920 words | Sample 20% |
| The first book in the Ascalon, Ohio series centers on Paul Whin, who is in his first semester at Didymus College when he becomes involved in the death of a fellow student. | |||||
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The Prodigy of St. Pete's | by Michael DeStefano Dec. 27, 2011 | $5.25 | 113092 words | Sample 15% |
| Andy stands alone in the hallway, trembling, his sweaty hand clutching to the doorknob. He knows what lies on the other side of the door and what he must do. Though, should he summon the courage to open it, the world that he has come to know will end. The question is, can Andy Trumaine, the once orphaned boy, sacrifice himself for another? | |||||
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Chaos and the Dark | by K Lonheart Dec. 26, 2011 | $0.99 | 61466 words | Sample 20% |
| Thirteen year old Alex is a Freshman in high school. And not only is he having a hard time dealing with math class, but his relationship with his friends isn't adding up either.This modern drama is a break away from the status quo tale of dungeons and dragons. And a humorous and at times tragic embracing of the problems we all must face in our everyday lives. | |||||
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The Life... The Legend... Of An Englishman... | by Nick Davis Dec. 24, 2011 | $1.99 | 11005 words | Sample 20% |
| Meet Jack an Englishman waiting at Heathrow airport about to leave for the USA to be with the love of his life. With no real idea why he is really under taking this journey and leaving everything he ever knew behind. This is his life, his legend and how he got here... To go there... | |||||
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49 Mix Tapes | by Jeff Tompkins Dec. 21, 2011 | $3.99 | 53267 words | Sample 8% |
| A humorous and evocative coming-of-age story about the timeless mysteries of dating, friendships, school, parents, and finding your place in the world… | |||||
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Shari Sadeyes | by Patrick Prescott Dec. 19, 2011 | Free! | 5194 words | Read a sample |
| Roger runs into someone he knows from his small Texas town in a big city. He knows the tragedy that forced her to move away in shame. The become friends and he wants more, but she still has the shame of what happened keeping them apart. | |||||
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Anomaly | by Nathaniel Davis Dec. 19, 2011 | You set the price! | 68382 words | Sample 20% |
| Your parents have decided to have another child in their 40’s and you’re a teenager. It‘s no big deal. You’ll be grown and out of the house before he even learns how to add. It becomes a problem, though, when both of your parents die and there is no one but you left to raise him. Such is the lot of David Summers. | |||||