Turnback Creek: A Novella & Six Stories

***"Part ghost story, part love story, all with the bite of loss, grief, and redemption."—***Jubal Tiner, author of The Waterhouse, a James Jones First Novel Fellowship Finalist, and editor of Pisgah Review. Turnback Creek, winner of the Clay Reynolds Novella Prize— During the day, retired heavy equipment operator Cole Emerson cooks, cleans, and tries to keep his dying sister Elsie comfortable, but at night he escapes into the dark solitude of Hardman Lake to fish for bass and clear his head, until one evening in Turnback Creek, when he spies a haunting teenage girl who awakens in him a young man's desires and old buried memories. The Marind-Anim— Clyde Buxton is in rehab trying to gather up the lost parts of himself when he wakes one night to find a mysterious yet entertaining young woman at the foot of his bed. A Happy Boy— After a rash of miscarriages, Jessica Garren hopes to dissipate her slowly deadening despair by adopting an oddly jubilant ten-year-old boy. The Call of Tin— During a short day-hike, Marsha witnesses a frightening creature that transforms her life, but her husband only heard it, and becomes fixated on trying to figure out what it was, hoping to shake his wife back to normalcy. Chaos Chaos— All the men in the Crane clan die before age fifty, but Mallory wants to spare her older brother Nolan the family curse, while struggling to get her own tilt-a-whirl life under control. One Night In Liberty— Convinced that his best friend had an affair with his wife, Arthur confronts Po, but Po isn't forthcoming, bound by a curious pledge of secrecy. Clewison's Wake— Obsessed with discovering how a fellow fisherman at the lodge is catching so many big trophies, Benny decides to follow Clewison one night, and ends up lost, his only guide back a peculiar light floating against the seamless black banks of Wambli Lake. [Intended for a mature audience. Some language and situations may be uncomfortable for certain readers]