Böcker av Jan Maher

A dozen stories featuring characters aged 4 to 94, each dealing in some way with how and why our memories shape our current crises. Included in the collection: in the days just after World War II, a young girl tries to remember the man being introduced to her as her father; an academic denied tenure remembers how to land on her feet; a couple on their way to divorce think about the things that once drew them together and then drove them apart; an elderly man struggles to recall where the bathroom is and why his wife has been replaced by a stranger; a newly widowed grandmother remembers the joy of finger painting and answering to no one; and the title story, in which a great-grandmother proves that you never forget how to make a bicycle go even if you may need a crash course in how to stop one. 

From Scout Media comes A Contract of Words-the fourth volume in an ongoing short story anthology series featuring authors from all over the world.In this installment, the authors wove multi-genre tales around characters entering into contracts, who found repercussions or rewards. From comedy, to drama, fantasy, romance, and horror, these stories put eclectic and unusual spins on what is usually thought to be typical and mundane events. Whether you are honoring a request for euthanasia, satisfying a contract for home improvement, failing to meet an exorcism agreement, or feeling the ramifications of a shady television reality show, you may find yourself gripped with fear from an evil pyramid-scheme company or desperately searching for a loophole in a contract that pits you against a gunslinger at high noon. These stories of both infringement and fulfillment of contracts will warm your heart, send shivers down your spine, and tickle your funny bone.Whether to be enlightened, entertained, or momentarily immersed in another world, these selections convey the true spirit of the short story and the complexity of promises.

It's the 1930s in Texas when Charlie Bader comes of age with urges he has struggled with since childhood and does not understand. After his new bride finds him wearing her own sexy lingerie and leaves him in disgust, he tries to move on. His efforts lead him to Chicago, where he stumbles on a community of cross-dressers and begins to attend their secret soirees. When Pearl Harbor is bombed, he volunteers for the army, serving as a dentist and trying once again to leave his obsession with soft clothes behind. Instead, his wartime experiences combined with the army's faulty record-keeping lead to his reappearance in the small town of Heaven, Indiana, as Charlene. There, Charlene opens a beauty shop where Heaven's women safely share their stories and secrets as she shampoos, clips, curls, and combs their hair. Charlene deftly manages to keep her own story hidden and her sexual desires quiet until she falls in love with a female customer and her life begins to change.