Frostproof808: 88 books

Some things are much larger and more important than the individual. A rural New Mexico boy joins the Marine Corps. These thirty vignettes, each a slice of life, a snapshot, are stories, recollections, histories and confessions. They are truth and fiction, reality and fantasy. I'll let you choose which is which.

Johnny's about to get luckier than he's ever gotten. And with the new girl in school, a leggy wonder who sends his imagination to places it's never been. When he finally gets her alone, she's even more than he hoped for. Up to a point.  

A meek, mild accountant from Cleveland finally, finally gets a break when he lands a big client for his firm. But he gets an even bigger one when he gets to Louisiana.

One moment you're on a boat on the river in the jungle about to be inserted with your friend on a mission. Two days later you'll meet the same boat at the extraction point a few klicks downriver. Then all hell busts loose.   

Mobsters, angels, a bar and a busy sidewalk. What could go wrong?   

In one possible future there is a game show called The Suicide Watch. With teen suicide rates soaring so high even the government can no longer sugar-coat them, that same government teams up with their Hollywood pals to find a way to make money out of the deal. After all, sensational beats tragic, eh?  

He wanted to take a very special "directed immersion" deep into Mexico for his senior trip. But he got considerably more than he bargained for. Come along and see what you think.  

In this psychological short story, Mr. Wilson appears to have misplaced his mind. But then, why would he appear normal around a pretentious doctor who has completely alienated him? Well, if he could be anymore alienated than he already was. f

An anoymous tip has led a hard-boiled detective and two deputies into the desert on a recovery operation. The overwhelming solitude lends the scene an air of remorse and quiet reverence.  Lost in his thoughts, the detective draws parallels between violence on a massive scale and the ability of life to endure.   

Johnny Trimble rides his cayuse into a western town, on a mission to replace the sheriff. The sheriff isn't all that he seems. But then, neither is Johnny.  

On a distant planet, it's just you and your wife, stranded inside your apartment. You're unable to do what you're trained to do. And she drones on and on and on.    

Two buddies on a camping trip in a remote desert location. A town full of women nearby. Fantasies abound. But is it all fantasy? Or is some of it sheer terror? Come along for a surprise.

In Elegant Gestures: A Collection you'll discover a ghost story; a young mother-to-be, maybe, who is nothing short of mental; proof that one man's god is another man's monster; a family coven; and the rag-draped bones of a reluctant prophet, perhaps, moving along the street cursing your life with...

In this intense, funny, terrifying psychological suspense short story, Eugene and Christopher are at odds about only one topic. What to do about the dead maid on their hotel room floor.