How to Train your Dog Without Really Trying
Simon held the package in one arm, cradling it to hold it in place. The other arm moved the jagged edge of his house key over the tape holding the box closed,...
Stormy's New Life
I don't remember much of my life before I met my guardian. My first memories are of drinking my mother's milk, nuzzling against her belly and burying myself in...
What Dreams May Come
Anthony hadn't slept at all the past four nights. Too much on his mind, he thought. Three months after she started college, his girlfriend Johanna and he had a shouting match about politics, privilege, and whatever else she was lecturing him that he...
In the Doghouse
##### Prologue Ugh, my mom is _such_ a bitch. She needs to chill out before she blows a vein in her head. Like, I get that she wants me to figure my shit out. But I just graduated a year ago, couldn't have got in to any good school (why apply when...
Dog Sitter
Eric pulled into the long, gravel driveway, singing along to Lady Gaga's “Bad Romance" as he did. The sky was overcast but still bright, the air warm and pleasant as it flowed through his open...
Scooby Snacks
Mystery Incorporated solved hundreds of mysteries around Crystal Cove, making friends with all the freaks, geeks, and hep-cats in town and exploring every creepy castle and ghoulish grotto within a...
The Hound
Once, upon an evening splendid, as another drink I blended With the mint and sweets intended to renew my bourbon straight, With the julep fit to guzzle, suddenly I felt a nuzzle From the soft, insistent muzzle of my hound, who could not wait One...
In the Den
##### The Auction My hands were shaking, for the first time in a decade, as I drove out to the gallery. It was hidden away in an abandoned warehouse by the...
The Kiss of Shame
The rise of monotheism, especially Christianity, has relegated demons to the role of villains, either as fire-breathing, destructive monsters or as the source of temptation to vice and self-destruction. Though this is often the result of consorting...
The Chain of Being
Count Gunzelin von Schwerin was raised from an early age to believe in his divine right as ruler. God, in his wisdom, had granted him and his forebears their lands and castles, their servants and sergeants, to rule over and protect, just as the duke...
Joe's Triumph
“You may as well just give up at this point. It's impossible to catch up." Joe gripped his controller tightly, the plastic almost bending in his hands, as he concentrated on the game. He and...
Curse of the Baskervilles
_May 19, 1945_ Journals have never been of much interest to me, as a man of action, but Mr. Mortimer has assured me that they might help me to occupy the idle hours in my estate. In the unlikely case that someone other than myself peruses this...