Cautionary Tales from the Letter D

D is for… Welcome to an anthology of cautionary yet controversial tales that plunge the reader into the strangest contentions of life. 10 short stories. 10 different lives. 10 shocking endings. All deriving from 1 letter: D.

What These Eyes Have Seen

In this collection of fourteen short stories, you will meet people you know in your own family or from down the street where you live. They all find themselves involved in things they did not expect or want or even dream about. In one story, savor the moment as a son watches his traveling-salesman father create a unique exchange for sandwiches and cokes. In another story, a volunteer soccer coach/dad receives a compliment that makes him reflect on his life. In other stories, you will watch a son find a way to shape his own life, a major league catcher who may finally get caught, two stories about soldiers who discover that the end result of a firefight is not always as it appears on the silver screen, and another story about a soldier who passes along his family’s perfect use for eggs. Then there is the killer with a soft spot. You didn’t know he was out there, did you? As you read these stories, you may smile, you may get angry, you may shed a tear, but one thing is for certain, you will remember these characters.

Trees and Other Witnesses

Trees are silent witnesses to the passing of time, guardians of myth and memory, metaphors of life. Each story in this collection has a tree of particular importance to its characters and their communities. These are tales of childhood and imagination, of migration and struggle, conflict and change. They are about specific places in Mexico, Nicaragua and the U.S., and real and imagined sites of cultural encounter, growth and adaptation. As the characters in these stories grapple with the forces of nature and the entanglement of human relationships, the trees are their companions and touchstones, reflecting, and at times shaping, the experience of their lives. These stories follow the roots and inner journeys of a variety of characters, while embodying a deep respect for the natural world around them and the power of its imagery to structure the meaning of their perceptions.

Stepping Stones

A selection of non-fiction short stories based on experiences in a 90-year life. 1. Save this patient or die - patient care under the gun. 2. "Here doggie, doggie." Calling the bear to join the picnic. 3. Roscoe finds his courage as the babies watch. 4. A baby in the street just for fun! 5. It's 8 for Space, and the last ship to go. 6. A visit to Chisum's Old Lincoln Town, where the past never dies. 7. A Cherokee bride, it's in the family tree. 8. A glimpse of Tucson town through a scarf. 9. A hat saves the day and helps an escape from war. 10. Sightless eyes find the murderer and prevent another.

Imagining Tanya

These early stories by the award-winning novelist, David Allan Cates, take place in Mexico and Central America during the war years of the 1980s. The protagonists are exiled lovers—broken for the most part and trying to make sense of their new world of grief. Far from home and working in a boatyard, on a movie set, a banana freighter, as a veal salesman, medical interpreter, writer, and Sandinista volunteer, they’re forced to re-imagine not only love, peace, suffering, and beauty but the meaning of their very own lives. “The stories in David Allan Cates’s Imagining Tanya, sometimes harrowing, sometimes hilarious, are always moving. Like his novels, they’re the perfect mixture of tough and tender, full of heart, mystery, and wisdom. But the compressed form allows him to focus on the strange, subtle moments that turn a life upside down or right it again, even if his characters don’t always recognize the change when it comes. In these rich pages, a host of American ex-pats wandering in Central America—some innocent, some jaded—all carry with them the potential for an earthly, messy sort of grace, gifted to them by a masterful storyteller.” – Scott Nadelson, author of One of Us and The Next Scott Nadelson “David Allan Cates creates a vivid, unforgettable world of souls lost in Central America in the 1980s. The characters’ heartbreak and displacement are mirrored by the larger conflicts of war all around them, and they seek redemption in the bravery of loving through pain. Imagining Tanya is a bold, gripping, and seductive collection, full of moments of grace.” – Maxim Loskutoff, author of Ruthie Fear and Come West and See

What's Love Got to Do With It?

A world of love, a world of death, a world of insanity. These four stories are distinctly different from each other in tone and substance, but is love the defining factor?

What would happen if we refuse to accept defeat, even in death? Would the spirit of love carry us forward? And if we could somehow find the courage to move forward, would love never die?

The four stories, together, encompass a wide range of life and death experiences, as different from one another as night from day. And yet, a similarity exists within the protagonists of each story: an overwhelming loss of hope. Perhaps they’ll each discover, as we all must at some point in our lives, that a new beginning is simply the resurrection of hope; and that love, indeed, has everything to do with it.

Ventitre Viaggi

The two renegade roustabouts from California, long-haired motorcyclists simply in search of adventure, were not initially well liked as they traversed the other states of the West during the summer of 1971. That meant that every new day they had to prove themselves anew to each new boss, as they worked a variety of odd jobs, to buy food, and to survive. All those efforts brought to them resilience, speed, grit, and the ability to pivot quickly when needed.

Tre

In the grand American tradition of agrarian writers such as Ken Kesey, Gary Snyder, William Kittredge, Wendell Berry, and Wallace Stegner, these three expansive stories follow a cantankerous and feisty farmer striving to make a decent living in the challenging terrain of California. The narratives, set against the backdrop of growing wine grapes and producing commercial wine, draw from real events and vividly capture the unpredictable nature of farming in this demanding state.

Beyond the personal struggles of our protagonist, these tales explore the broader agricultural issues that plague farmers everywhere: government regulation, labor laws, land-use policies, irrigation standards, and the ever-rising costs of water, fertilizer, and fuel. Written with a humorous and comic touch, some readers might even find the stories veering into the realm of slapstick.

The Two Sides of Yourself

If you find yourself as a main character in any of these stories, you are only human.

If you don’t, you are in denial.

This intriguing and powerful collection of prose reflects on the many complex facets of the human experience. The diverse narratives, perspectives, and characters in the stories touch on a number of experiences and emotions that everyone will relate to at one point or another in their lives, which is what makes the stories so captivating.

From family to love to loss to religion, the stories are sure to draw readers in and allow them to truly contemplate about what it means to be human, and the many shared experiences and emotions we have that make us so.

The Roadside Boys

In the time of prohibition, out of ignorance and greed, many sorrowful things happened to the immigrants of Slavic countries who tried to emigrate to the USA.

This is a story of hope, perseverance, and survival reflected within the hardships of those long-ago days.

The Retirees

As a schoolboy, Dr. Meiksins’s stories were always published in the school’s newspaper. In his professional life as well as in his layman’s life, Dr. Meiksin had surprising, intriguing, and inspiring experiences that he likes to share with his readers. Life does not end with retirement; revenge is sweet; life does not always work out as planned. Although the stories are all fiction, they are tailored after real-life events.

The Netsuke from San Francisco

The stories of Vladimir Torchilin, representing the irrationality and phantasmagorical nature of everyday life both in Russia and in America, reveal the difficult world of the people of our time. The writer's gaze sharply notices the details - sometimes funny, sometimes tragic. Written in a lively, fascinating, and often ironic way, these stories are easy to read and at the same time make you think.