Short Stories/Novellas

Sometimes, comedy can seem like death… For Pete "The Harv" Harvey, stand up comedy is a serious business. At least, he wants it to be. But the struggle to make it in the glitter dome of L.A. hasn't exactly been a smashing success. One night, after bombing onstage at a local club, Pete wonders if his next stop is managing a car wash. Then a man sits next to him at the bar--a man with an almost unbelievable proposition. One that could mean a whole lot of money to Pete "The Harv" Harvey, who will soon learn that deals too good to be true are no laughing matter. From "a master of suspense" (Library Journal) and the author of "heart-whamming" fiction (Publishers Weekly) comes a 3500 word short story which originally appeared as "Laughing Matters" in the e-book collection Fresh Kills. It is here offered as a stand alone story with a new title but the same twist ending. Praise for the suspense of James Scott Bell: "James Scott Bell takes his place among the top authors in the crowded suspense genre." –– Sheldon Siegel, New York Times bestselling author "One of the best writers out there, bar none." –– In the LIbrary Review

A game of catch between father and son brings back a memory that will change both their lives.

It's not every day you bleed to death... Things have started to turn around for Jonathan Curtis. He's out of jail and staying clean. When a car restoration job shows up, it's right in Jonathan's wheelhouse. This could be the first step in his dream of opening his own auto-body shop. A dream that is shattered when the job turns deadly. For Kris Boland, acting is what brought her to L.A. But when she rebuffs the sexual invitation of a top producer, her career begins to head south. Then her friend is arrested for a murder she is sure he did not commit. It's got to be a frame. Or does it? Somehow, Jonathan and Kris find each other in the deadly swirl, becoming the only hope each has of setting things straight before an innocent man is convicted ... or before a killer stops them both.

In the year 2016, Disney released Rogue One, a standalone installment in the Stars Wars saga. One of the more remarkable aspects of the film was the large role played by Peter Cushing ... because Peter Cushing is decidedly dead. But through the magic of computer-generated imagery (CGI), Cushing’s Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin returns, in full, flowering villainy. Which raises some interesting questions, especially about the future. Which happens to be where our story takes place.

I wanted my dad to like me... A son's attempt to give his father a birthday gift turns into something he never saw coming.

Was my crazy uncle a failure? Or was it all in how you looked at life? A warm-hearted story of a boy's coming of age.