Showing results by publisher "Black Rose Writing" in Comedy & Humour

When ordinary lives meet extraordinary moments, magic happens. Take a journey through An Author's Dozen where vivid characters share their compelling adventures. Each of the thirteen tales offers a unique glimpse into the human experience, making the collection a treasure trove for anyone who loves the art of storytelling.

It’s the end of the world, and Hertell Daggett has decided to save it. Well not save it so much, as just, remember it. The earth’s magnetic poles have reversed and civilization has just had its clock reset to the great cosmic flashing 12:00am from almost a million years ago, and humanity, and everybody in it, is pretty much forgetting everything it learned since the last time.

Is it too much to ask that a managed care facility refund a year's advance payment when your grandfather dies before he can move in? Frank Johnson doesn't think so, which is why the thirty-three-year-old now lives in a nursing home, locked in a chess match feud with management that doesn't occupy nearly enough of his time. When foster kid Elroy is thrust into his life, Frank decides to turn this forced relationship to his advantage—launching a string of absurd decisions, inappropriate behaviors and unexpected glimpses of tenderness that ultimately turn a New Jersey suburb upside down.

This book relays my stories of being a country veterinarian in a rural area treating all sorts of animals. I have been writing down my experiences at the office and in the field for 30 years. These stories are often educational, emotional, humorous and unpredictable, but always entertaining.

Is history repeating itself? Like many baby boomers, David Haldane got swept into the turbulence of the late 1960s and early '70s, first as a radical activist and later a writer for the Berkeley BARB, then one of America's premier underground newspapers. Eventually, after self-imposed exiles in Europe and Mexico, he married, started a family and graduated to the Los Angeles Times from which he chronicled many of the events that shaped an era. But Haldane always longed for something more, a "green leafy space" in which he could feel at peace.

Tim Hamlet is the identical twin brother of the famously melancholy Danish prince. Tim has walked away from royal life, hoping to forge his own identity in London. But when tragedy strikes, Tim decides to return home. On his journey, Tim encounters a raging tempest, terrifying demons (of both the personal and supernatural variety), Russian pirates, bad improv, and much more...all while on a collision course with fate.

Award-winning humor writer Susan Luzader wades through the waters of aging with hope and humility. Sometimes making progress, often stumbling in the mud, she chronicles her adventures as a woman of a certain age. Searching for nuggets of truth, she often dredges up clumps of weeds but gamely presses on. A writer for as far back as she can remember, Luzader learned to tell stories from her father and her aunts. They taught her people remember a story that makes them laugh.

Detective Simon Grave's tour of a local winery turns sour when a body is discovered in the fermentation tank for his favorite wine, Duct Tape Chardonnay. To solve the murder, he and his team of fellow detectives will have to question strangers, a long-lost love, and his choice in wines.

Private detective Tracer Spence is being stalked by the song "You're So Vain," hearing it every day for a year. When he's hired by a man with the same problem, Spence realizes that his case is connected to another that he's working on-that of a kidnapped sister. In the process of solving both mysteries, Spence uncovers violent henchmen, a Mick Jagger doppelganger, and man-eating shadow creatures.

In Mustard Seed they discover a massive underground complex stretching through miles of ancient lava tubes, and Mister Frostie grows up in a familiar, almost mythical mid-century small town with parks and stores and movie theatres and schools, even a miniature golf course. It's a time capsule full of people meant to preserve a tiny seed of the human experiment—just in case the human experiment blows up in the lab.

Welcome to the latest word on atrocious English, from wierd – er, weird – spelling to idiotomatic expressions to modest proposals for change, wherein we tackle such pressing contemporary English language issues.

Father–son relationships are rarely easy and certainly not when the son’s first love is Shakespeare and the father is the kingpin of a drug empire. Esteban Velasquez, however, manages to forge a frosty détente with his father—he studies literature abroad while his father grooms his older brother as the heir.

Chester Clink, serial killer extraordinaire, has struck again, dumping the body of a young blonde woman in the town square to tease Grave into action—and distraction.

Timothy is a serial killer. He's also very lonely. He's a walking contradiction, and his psychological predicament doesn't escape him. Lynnette is a vampire. She's also a nurse. She, too, is a walking contradiction. When she unexpectedly answers his desperate call for company, they realize they could be perfect partners in crime, engaging in a few kinds of bloodwork at once, bringing out the worst and the best in each other.

The discovery of a dead body is nothing new for Detective Simon Grave, but when the body and the murderer are both invisible, well, that's another matter entirely, even in the futuristic town of Crab Cove. The question is whether he and his human and android team are up for the challenge, which also remains to be seen. Making his job even more difficult is the sudden retirement of Captain Henry Morgan, who taps Grave as acting chief.

When the head of a hovercycle club inexplicably calls in news of his own murder, Detective Simon Grave and his team are drawn in to Crab Cove's hovercycle underworld, a world of loyalty, betrayal, greed, and-yes-irony. As if murder weren't enough, the bombing of an election debate stage has the mayor pressing for a quick resolution to both crimes. It becomes increasingly clear that the crimes are connected, and that the solution will require the unraveling of an elaborate criminal scheme-and more.

A demon hound haunts Crab Cove, taking its victims as they come. When a mutilated corpse is found in the marshes, Detective Simon Grave rises to the challenge. Everything points to the hound, but it is quickly apparent that the body has been stabbed repeatedly, in a way that suggests serial killer Chester Clink also may be involved. Or maybe not.

The Otis, an inconsequential river—not the Hudson—flows through Wattsville, a small city a few hours north, but a universe away from the real City, capital C. You might think the everyday people who live here, in this land of scarce opportunity, are also inconsequential. Until you meet them.

The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin: musicians who reached the pinnacle of their profession. Their stories are familiar, but careers like theirs are rare. Far more common are musicians who toil in relative obscurity, scraping a living from meager club earnings and fending off the discouraging advice of friends and family to give up their dream and find a real career. Most of these unknowns eventually do just that, but what happens to those whose passion leaves them little choice in the matter?

i>The Old Man and Me is a collection of true stories that describe with humor and love the best of the friendship that grows between a father and his son. The stories begin with vignettes from toddlerhood, and cover all the ages from then to high school graduation (and a little bit beyond). The Old Man and Me taken as a whole is a story of love and joy and growing up in a time before television became an all evening affair.