The Southern Liver Regulators
A novelette in five parts. A saloon owner in early Tacoma finds himself faced with a moral dilemma regarding the Chinese question. Betray his loyal customers to a sailor who wants to Shanghai (kidnap) them? Or save them and let them continue persecuting the Chinese?
The Watered Land
A kind man named Shannon O’Brian lends a hand to a new neighbor who is trying to dig an outhouse in rural Oklahoma in the 1920s. But there’s more to the digging than O’Brian knows. First-place winner Quincy Writer’s Guild.
Safe Passage
A preacher’s kid reluctantly rides to church with his father one Sunday during a heavy thunderstorm. Will his resistance end in tragedy?
Black Drink Journey
A lonely thirteen-year-old boy blames himself for a fire that burned down his grandparents’ house. He reads about a native American rite of passage called the Black Drink Journey and decides to undertake it himself in hopes of redemption and growth.
Demolition Day
An elderly man tries to stop workers from tearing down the house where he had raised his family. They ignore him and dust flies into his face. Soon he finds himself transformed into dust himself. When he settles into the scalp of another person, he experiences their innermost thoughts and feelings. This story gives new meaning to the saying “If I were you.”
A Winner Every Time
A small-case Seattle lawyer wins the lottery. But a tragic event leads him to realize that he was already won the lottery when his family and friends visit him in the hospital, whether he wants to admit it or not.
Tinebenga Eats Bitter
An indigenous man from the Paiwan tribe of Taiwan interviews for a job with a Han Chinese company in the 1970s. Some of his answers to their questions are just what he wants to say. The others are what he actually says.
RL Martin 