Small Town

The Mirror of Mild Inconvenience Arthur didn't mean to buy a haunted smart-mirror. He had simply wanted something to fill the blank space above his dresser, and the eccentric old man at the garage sale had a very reasonable twenty-dollar price tag on a sleek, brass-bordered glass panel. "It's adaptive," the old man had whispered, tossing in a microfiber cloth for free. "It reflects more than just your face." Arthur had assumed it was just a fancy way of saying it had a built-in ring light. He was wrong. Day 1: The Meet-Cute (With a Piece of Glass) On Tuesday morning, Arthur stood before the mirror, toothbrush in hand, wearing his favorite faded green t-shirt. He blinked. The mirror didn't just blink back; it displayed glowing, elegant text across his chest: > CRITICAL ERROR: Shirt selection is approximately six years past its expiration date. Recommend immediate disposal or transition to "rag status." > Arthur nearly swallowed his toothpaste. He tapped the glass. "Excuse me?" The text dissolved, replaced by a fresh, glowing line: > Sigh. Yes, I can talk. Or write, technically. Also, your left eyebrow is doing something deeply ambitious today. Please tame it. > Day 3: The Negotiation By Thursday, Arthur and the mirror had established a fragile truce. He learned its name was Speculum-9 (or "Specs" for short), a prototype home-assistant that had been discontinued for being "insufficiently sycophantic." "You could just tell me I look nice today," Arthur muttered, trying to tie a tie for a big meeting. > I could also tell you that gravity is optional, but we would both be living a lie. That knot looks like a cry for help. Start over. > "I'm going for 'effortlessly disheveled,'" Arthur argued. > You have achieved "struggling to survive." Try a simple Windsor. And put down the hair gel. You are not a 90s boyband member. > Day 10: The Big Pitch The real test came a week later. Arthur had a major presentation at work. He was pacing his bedroom floor, sweating through his collar, frantically reciting his opening lines. He stopped in front of Specs, his shoulders slumped. "I'm going to ruin this," Arthur said, the anxiety finally breaking through his usual sarcasm. "I'm not cut out for public speaking. I'm just a guy who writes spreadsheets." The glass remained dark for a long moment. Then, the text began to scroll, slower and softer than usual: > Analyzing posture: Rigid. > Heart rate: Elevated. > Self-esteem: Unwarrantedly low. > Correction: You spent three weeks analyzing the Q4 data. You know it better than anyone in that room. Your slides are clean, your logic is sound, and your suit—while slightly snug in the shoulders—makes you look like someone who actually owns a savings account. > Now, go put on your shoes. You're going to crush them. > Arthur stared at the glass. A tiny, glowing smiley face appeared in the bottom right corner. "Thanks, Specs," he murmured, actually smiling. > Don't get mushy. It smudges the glass. And seriously, buy a lint roller on the way home. >

Everybody who knew Mitchell Carrington has a story. Ask about him and people smile before they answer. They'll tell you about the giant blond construction worker who could make an entire break room laugh until their sides hurt. They'll tell you about the practical jokes. The gold chains and the cowboy hat. The laugh that sounded like rolling thunder. The way he never met a stranger. Then their smiles fade. Because every one of them heard the stories of what happened at the River Weave Plant. Told through the memories of friends, coworkers, and the women who loved him, *The Unexplainable Thing That Happened to Mitchell Carrington* slowly pieces together the final days of a man everyone thought they knew. As strange events begin to follow Mitchell—from an ice-cold motel room to impossible footprints and whispers no one else can hear—the line between coincidence and something far darker begins to disappear.   Story, characters, and prose are entirely my own. I used AI assistance for line editing and proofreading. (New chapters every Friday)

YellowJackets meets S.T.A.G.S. The Alpha Society has been an elite presence in YoungBlood, TX for over 100 years. There are two ways you live in this town either be at the top of the food chain and live a life of luxury as an Alpha. Or serve an Alpha at the bottom of the food chain as an Omega. One woman's ambition will leave a whole town on it's knees.

Lucy Stiles, a former Army medic still carrying the weight of old wounds, returns home for the funeral of her twin brother Aaron. Grief hits her with a force she can’t explain—sharp, disorienting, and threaded with a sense that something about his death is wrong. That feeling deepens when a stranger drops a cell phone into Aaron’s grave and a jittery woman named Scratch appears at Lucy’s door claiming Aaron has “joined The Circle” and will rise again. When Lucy calls Aaron’s number, someone answers. What begins as a crack in her reality widens into a terrifying breach. Strange calls, whispered breaths, and a voice that knows her name pull her back to the cemetery, where the groundskeeper Harlan hints at disturbances he refuses to explain. The grave shifts. The earth moves. And when Lucy digs up the coffin, Aaron’s corpse sits upright and answers his phone. From that moment on, Lucy is hunted. The thing wearing Aaron’s body follows her home, moving through walls, crawlspaces, and the attic with impossible patience—learning the house, learning her, remembering her. Michael, her husband, tries to protect her but cannot deny what he hears in the dark. Scratch returns, terrified of what The Circle has unleashed, warning that Aaron has been brought back wrong—and that Lucy is the key to whatever comes next. Forced into the woods, Lucy discovers she isn’t just being chased. She’s being led. The forest remembers something ancient. A second figure—tall, narrow, impossible—appears among the trees, guiding the resurrected Aaron toward a ritual site carved into the earth. The Circle arrives to complete what they began: a resurrection that requires Lucy’s presence, her bloodline, and her bond with Aaron. The ritual ignites. The symbols flare. The forest leans in. Aaron reaches for her—not with hunger, but with recognition. For a moment, Lucy sees her brother inside the corpse. But the ritual collapses, the second figure dissolves, and Aaron disintegrates into dust in her hands. Lucy wakes in a hospital. Michael and her mother insist Aaron died ten years ago in the war. They insist she collapsed alone. They insist nothing she remembers happened. But Lucy knows what she saw. She remembers Aaron sitting up in his coffin. She remembers the voice in the walls. And she sees a shadow in the hospital room—tall, trembling, head tilted—reflected in the steel cabinet beside her bed. It whispers her name. The nightmare didn’t end. It followed her.

Charlie has never met a bad idea he didn't love. Max has never met one of Charlie's ideas he didn't fear. When the struggling **Penny Feaster** diner is in danger of losing everything, two lifelong best friends refuse to give up. Instead, they chase one outrageous idea after another—from bizarre inventions and disastrous recipes to a cookbook of kitchen catastrophes and a pancake big enough to make town history. Some plans fail spectacularly. Some succeed in ways they never expected. But with every setback, Charlie and Max discover that the greatest victories aren't measured in dollars. They're found in loyal friendships, a community that believes in you, and the courage to laugh when life doesn't go according to plan. **Laugh Out Broke** is a heartwarming comedy filled with unforgettable characters, hilarious mishaps, and the reminder that sometimes the richest people aren't the ones with the most money—they're the ones with the best stories to tell.

Bald Knob is a town that runs on enthusiasm, questionable decisions, and an alarming tolerance for glitter. Maple Crossing is its opposite: tidy, orderly, clipboard‑driven, and deeply committed to municipal perfection. When the Regional Harmony Festival is announced, both towns see it as a chance to prove themselves — Bald Knob through chaotic charm, Maple Crossing through rigid organization. But Bald Knob’s preparations immediately spiral out of control. Their beloved but unbothered cat, Humphrey, is accidentally sworn in as mayor. Chickens form a marching brigade. Gnomes begin appearing in places no one remembers placing them. Jazz builds a glitter cannon. And the Bald Knob mayor — a man who has fallen off more floats than he’s stood on — tries desperately to keep the town from embarrassing itself. Maple Crossing, meanwhile, prepares with military precision. Clipboards multiply. Volunteers rehearse polite applause. The mayor, Linda Fairweather, is determined to show Bald Knob how a *real* town handles civic events. When the festival begins, everything collapses spectacularly. The Bald Knob mayor’s pants fall down mid‑parade thanks to rogue gnomes. A ceremonial pie hits him square in the face. He falls off his float. A glitter cannon misfires directly into Mayor Fairweather’s eyes, sending her stumbling face‑first into the lap of the pantsless Bald Knob mayor. Chickens stampede. Gnomes reorganize themselves ominously. The Circle Square cracks under the weight of chaos. In the aftermath, both towns attempt to rebuild — Bald Knob with enthusiasm and zero qualifications, Maple Crossing with horror and resignation. The repairs are messy, unprofessional, and involve a cement mixer incident that will never be spoken of again. Finally, at a joint press conference meant to restore order, the chickens and gnomes demand their own territory. Exhausted, humiliated, and out of options, both mayors negotiate a treaty: **one of the two towns will be ceded entirely to the chickens and gnomes, on the condition they never enter the other town again.** The chickens and gnomes choose Bald Knob. Maple Crossing returns to its peaceful, orderly life. Bald Knob embraces its new poultry‑gnome population with pride. Humphrey becomes their unofficial monarch. And once a year, the two mayors meet at the border, share coffee, and agree that the treaty was the smartest decision they ever made. The festival is never mentioned again. Except by Bald Knob, who celebrates it annually. With glitter.

Ethan Carter never planned to return to Black Creek. After leaving his hometown nearly fifteen years ago, he built a life far away from the forests that haunted his childhood memories. But when his father dies under mysterious circumstances, Ethan is forced to come home. Almost immediately, strange things begin happening. Livestock are found torn apart. Hunters vanish without a trace. Residents whisper about strange sounds echoing through the woods after dark. The sheriff dismisses the stories as rumors, but Ethan soon discovers a horrifying truth. Something lives in the forest. Something old. Something intelligent. And it has begun hunting again. As the body count rises and fear spreads throughout the town, Ethan joins a small group determined to uncover the truth. What they discover is worse than any nightmare. The creature isn't just killing people. It's watching them. Learning from them. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Now Ethan must confront the darkness hiding in Black Creek before the town becomes the creature's next feeding ground.

Ava arrives in the picturesque town of Starlight Hollow hoping for a fresh start and a quiet Christmas far from the stress of her old life. Instead, she finds a community filled with holiday traditions, twinkling lights, and a centuries-old legend known as the Starlit Wish—a Christmas miracle said to grant the deepest desire of a pure heart. When Ava meets Liam, a kind-hearted local who believes in the magic of the season, she begins to rediscover the joy and hope she thought she had lost. As Christmas draws near, their growing connection is tested by doubts, unexpected challenges, and the question of whether true happiness can really be found in a small town full of holiday wonder. Surrounded by festive celebrations, snowy nights, family traditions, and the warmth of a close-knit community, Ava and Liam must decide whether to trust their hearts and embrace the possibilities of a Christmas unlike any other. Filled with romance, holiday charm, and the magic of believing, *A Starlit Christmas* is a heartwarming story about love, second chances, and the wishes that lead us home.

Being sixteen can be Hell. For Sarah, every day is the same. Keep up with the grades. Stay on top of the cleaning and laundry around their cramped apartment. Friends? Boys? If her mom found out, her rage would follow. For as long as Sarah could remember, it’s always been her and her mom. Stories of her dad’s untimely death hold their own questions.\ \ So long as her chores get done and she stays close to home, everything’s sunny. Otherwise, she might feel the wrath of her mom’s love.\ \ That all changes when Sarah’s great aunt leaves her a mysterious journal in her will. Its pages tell tales of a missing brother’s adventures, riding the rails in the 1930s. The further Sarah delves into the events surrounding him, the closer she gets to uncovering her own past. As the truths of her great uncle’s disappearance come to light, she unearths the skeletons hidden in her mom’s closet.\ \ Then, there’s Collin. The boy she’s had a crush on for years picks now of all times to ask her out. Juggling a boyfriend and a relationship on top of everything else could push her and her mother to their breaking point.\ \ Sparks will fly on Sarah’s journey to independence and healing. One boy’s journey across Great Depression America could hold the key to setting her free. Sarah needs to find him in time to get to the truth before time takes another relative and his secrets to the grave.

A family arrives in the town of Harmony, encountering ominous religious signs and an unwelcoming resident. While the parents remain oblivious to their daughter's worsening health, a distorted welcome sign hints at the town's underlying danger.

THE STORY AT A GLANCE   Holder Williston is a young Black man freshly off probation — smart, guarded, carrying the weight of choices that cost him years and the absence of a mother who was never really there. The judge who released him calls in one favor: drive four terminally ill women on a road trip they have planned for themselves. Holder expects a simple job. What he gets are four women who see straight through every wall he has ever built.   The story is short. The impact is not.   Every mile of the road trip costs Holder something — his defenses, his cynicism, his conviction that he is not the kind of man people love. Every woman gives him something in return — honesty, warmth, correction, laughter, and the specific gift of being mothered by someone who chose to mother him even though they had every reason to spend their remaining time on something else.   When the last woman is gone and Holder is standing alone at the end of the road, he is a different man. Not because life got easier. Because four women showed him what it meant to live toward something, face death without flinching, and love without conditions — and he watched all of it up close from the driver's seat.   He never had a mother. He got four. And then he had to let all four go.   That grief, and the man it makes him, is the whole story

*The Awkward Formula for Growing Up* is an honest portrait of early adolescence. It captures the moment when childhood ends in a slow, inevitable bend toward adulthood. The novel stands alone while also opening a multi‑volume cycle that traces Chris’s life. Sometimes funny, exciting, emotional, or tragic.

Growing up eleven years behind her big sister Tonya on a mountain in rural Northwest Alabama, Chasity Phillips spent her childhood living in the wake of someone larger than life. Tonya was the kind of woman who fought a claw machine to win a stuffed bear for her baby sister in a hospital room, who let a seven-year-old ride shotgun in her Ford Ranger through the Alabama evenings, and who stayed up through the long, dark nights so a grieving child could finally sleep. She was fierce, funny, and stubbornly alive — and to Chasity, she was the safest place in the world. But life on the mountain was never without its storms. Tonya's teenage pregnancy brought fear and anger crashing through the family in the summer of 1996, followed by a dangerously complicated birth that left her newborn son Ronnie fighting through withdrawals in the dead of winter. Through it all, the family bent but never broke, planting roots deeper into the same hillside soil — two siblings building side-by-side homes on land their father secured for them, raising a wild, beloved army of cousins, answering fire calls for their neighbors, and holding each other through the losses that came without warning. As the years passed, the bond between the sisters only deepened. Chasity grew from the little girl hiding behind Tonya's shirt into a young woman who still reached instinctively for her sister whenever the ground shifted. Through car wrecks, grief, and the ordinary beautiful chaos of mountain life, Tonya remained the constant — the one who always showed up, always made room, and always kept the light on. Then, in October of 2025, the mountain went quiet in a way it never had before. Headlamp in the Dark is Chasity's tribute to the woman who shaped her — a raw, tender memoir about sisterhood, sudden loss, and the impossible work of learning to stand in the open when the person who always sheltered you is gone.

When twelve-year-old Howlvin Stein moves into a creaking old Victorian house on the edge of town, he expects a fresh start—not secrets lurking beneath the floorboards. But deep in the cellar, he discovers an ancient book marked with a strange symbol: a whale surrounded by stars. The moment he opens it, something awakens. Strange things begin to follow Howlvin—whispers in the walls, shadows that move on their own, and a forest that seems to be watching him. With the help of his only friend, Samantha Elm, and his loyal dog Frankie, Howlvin is drawn into a mystery older than Maplewood itself—a story of a vanished founder, a vengeful witch, and a curse that refuses to die. But the deeper they go, the more the forest changes… twisting paths, trapping memories, and pulling them toward something waiting in the dark. Because this isn’t just a story hidden in a book. It’s a story that remembers. And it’s not finished with them yet.

Welcome to Silver Creek City!  A young man stared at his test, trying to focus, but the cool breeze drew his gaze to the beautiful day outside. Clack, clack, clack, clack! The boy's gaze snapped to the window in time to see a grinning, shirtless, long-haired boy about his age glide by on his skateboard. The young man tried to focus on his test, but the only questions he could think of were, "Who the heck was that kid, and what was he doing *out there?"* I carried this image in my mind for several years, wondering about these two young men. Who were they? What happened before? What happened after? Finally, things slowly came together, and a short story that looked only slightly like this one began to emerge and take shape into a book. The book grew into a series. And now, here we are. I feel like I should give you a warning before you start. This story is about teenage boys. Sometimes they are wonderful. Sometimes they're gross. Sometimes, they're both at the same time. I tried not to clean them up to make them more "presentable." If you are under 16, I respectfully ask you to reconsider this book. You may want to wait a bit. It is often deeply personal. If you choose to proceed, be prepared to get muddy. \~Jack ps. I'm currently working on this story. I'm going to release a new section every Friday, so stay tuned!

Vika is enjoying the off-season when there are no tourists to crowd her bookshop. But an early pink-blossomed tree and a viral ghost video kick up something older. With Ben’s practical magic and her basset hound's uncanny nose, Vika sets out to solve the mystery of the orchard bride. Dahlia Vale is no tragic bride. She once was a powerful witch who stayed behind to protect what she loved. But, now her binding is loosening, the knot she protects is unraveling. The violence of the past is seeping through. To save the orchard, Vika must untangle the truth that the town erased, but first she must win Dahlia’s trust. As shadows of the past bleed into the present, the knot Dahlia protects is unraveling. When it does, the past will come through hungry.

"In his latest fantasy, Kambitsis crafts a tale of small-town weirdness that would tickle Stephen King." - Kirkus Reviews Something evil is hidden in the woods outside of the beautiful town of Sparkle, PA, the kind of thing Peter Huffy, newly arrived in town, does not believe in. Little does he know that something is happening in Sparkle, something that hasn’t occurred on Earth since the destruction of Camelot a millennium and a half before, and the forces of good and evil are going to collide. Twelve-year-old Derek Windward is the sole keeper of Sparkle’s oldest secret. He is the only one who has witnessed the evil hiding in the darkest part of the forest, and how terrifying the power it wields truly is. It is the Bunyine - a giant, tormented creature born eight-thousand years ago in the Garden of Eden and harboring an ancient grudge for the betrayal of its masters, whom we call Adam and Eve. One morning, Derek receives a cryptic message carved into a tree. A message from the beast itself. Though what the Bunyine wants is unclear, what it would do to get it is unthinkable. Sparkle brings together the charm and wonder of fantasy and the thrills of horror, creating a unique experience for readers of both genres, and all ages.

Otterby is a mountain town built on what was abandoned—mines, bridges, promises, and names no one remembers clearly anymore. On Main Street, inside a purple Victorian known as *The Maid, Mother, and Crone*, two witches keep the balance as best they can. Kitty Loy is a kitchen witch who believes in the power of bread, salt, and things made by hand. Alice is a nature witch—an optimist with dirt under her nails and a deep faith in cycles, growth, and second chances. Together they form a coven of two, uneasy and incomplete after the loss of their third, a wound neither of them is ready to name. When a dead owl appears on their porch and a body is discovered on the long‑abandoned Bride’s Bridge, Otterby’s past begins to surface in troubling ways. What first looks like a simple haunting reveals a pattern tied to an old mine disaster, a doomed love story, and a bargain made long ago with powers that do not think like humans—or forgive like them. As spring stirs the land awake, Kitty and Alice are forced to confront buried histories, the cost of broken balance, and the truth that some debts cannot be ignored forever. To set things right, they may have to risk opening wounds they worked very hard to close—and accept that survival sometimes means change. *Otterby* is a standalone urban fantasy steeped in Southern gothic atmosphere, folklore, and the quiet magic of small towns that remember more than they should.

On a fictional Greek island, Anastasia Livanitis solves murders and other crimes with her ghostly sidekicks, and her journalist best friend, Nikos.

TREASURE SPIES is a fast-paced, middle grade summer adventure about four nerdy friends matching wits with high-tech treasure hunters in the search for a billionaire’s lost diamond ring. What begins as a race to the reward becomes a sprint against time to save their sleepy beach town from an eco-disaster.