A mother, fearing social disdain, sends her pregnant teenager daughter to a convent in France to deliver the baby for adoption. The infant girl is deformed and adoption fails but the daughter loves the child and must try to raise  her to thrive and succeed despite a parent’s objections. Award winning short story in both ... Go To Episode

The post Podcast #1, the short story “The Gift”, by William H. Coles appeared first on Story in Fiction.

At a small Midwest college a failing college student takes summer courses to stay in school and is charmed by the innocent beauty of an Amish girl selling pastries and baked goods on a street in  an adjacent village. The shy girl ignores him at first but as his attraction intensifies they must face inevitable ... Go To Episode

The post Podcast #2, the short story “The Amish Girl”, by William H. Coles appeared first on Story in Fiction.

A story about a man’s anger for his dead wife who he despised for her betrayal and rejection for whom he reluctantly agreed to deliver a eulogy at the burial. He discovers the power of forgiveness, through an unanticipated acquaintance with a college student. Finalist in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition. This story and ... Go To Episode

The post Podcast #3, the short story “Speaking of the Dead”, by William H. Coles appeared first on Story in Fiction.

An adolescent boy, the only son of an illiterate gravestone cutter, falls in love with one of his father’s beautiful clients and during his fatuous, one-sided affair he finds admiration and love for a father he’s silently scorned and dishonored for as long as he can remember. Finalist in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition. ... Go To Episode

The post Podcast #4, the short story “The Stonecutter”, by William H. Coles appeared first on Story in Fiction.

A young white male in prison for murder is the object of a young graduate student’s research—his first female contact since his mother stopped coming years ago. He begins to covet the attention of her sessions and schemes to charm her so she’ll never desist but has difficulty finding a key to open her caring. ... Go To Episode

The post Podcast #5, the short story “Reddog”, by William H. Coles appeared first on Story in Fiction.

Following the teachings of non-violence by Dr. Martin Luther King, a low-down blues piano player befriends a white-farmer of the Klu Klux Klan at a truck stop gig in Maryland. His activism saves lives but destroys his family. Finalist in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition. This story and thirty-two others are available online free ... Go To Episode

The post Podcast #6, the short story “Big Gene”, by William H. Coles appeared first on Story in Fiction.

An arrogant, self-centered audiovisual technician is fired for incompetence, his wife leaves him and he courts and marries the rich widow of an owner of a used-car lot. When his first and only love becomes ill, he hard-headily makes uninformed decisions about her health care with disastrous consequences for all. Finalist in the William Faulkner ... Go To Episode

The post Podcast #7, the short story “Nemesis”, by William H. Coles appeared first on Story in Fiction.

The time is late nineteenth century, the place “A Barnum and Bailey’s Circus on tour just ten years after the civil war. DiDi, one of the performing dwarf falls in love with Lazlo, the five-foot one trapeze sensation and rejects the amorous attention of the diminutive attendant of her midway act. She learns about the ... Go To Episode

The post Podcast #8, the short story “Homunculus”, by William H. Coles appeared first on Story in Fiction.