Synopsis

A love-struck modern-day whiskey runner. A man addicted to fruit. A young boy’s horrific experience running away from home. These stories look deep into human nature and how we cope with life’s many challenges.

A deathbed wish by an estranged father forces his son to confront his past. A man tells his friend an unexpected secret and hopes his buddy will understand. A widower takes care of a dog and comes to the realization he’s been hiding from life behind his obsession with jigsaw puzzles.

The eleven long short stories in this collection provide the reader with character-driven drama, sometimes funny, sometimes troubling, and always entertaining.

In the title story “On Rainy Lake,” a couple goes on a houseboat vacation to try and patch up their failing marriage. It takes the challenge of dealing with a huge storm on a big lake to help them decide what to do.

Each of the stories in this collection entertains with interesting characters and provocative storylines and will appeal to a wide range of reading interests.

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Excerpt

From the last story in the collection, “On Rainy Lake.”

It was a loud ‘THUD’ that woke me. Shelia, too.

“What the hell was that?” she muttered. She sounded sleepy but was coming awake fast. I was, too. It sounded like something heavy had landed on the roof. The inside of the cabin was gray with early dawn, but it was light enough for me to see her eyes were wide open, the whites showing. The sound startled her. Me, too.

“I don’t know,” I told her. I was rattled and hadn’t a clue as to what was going on. Then I became aware of the houseboat groaning; shaking and bashing itself up on the shore. Something wasn’t right.

The houseboat had been blown sideways on the shore and the waves were smashing up against it, banging it hard and threatening to damage it beyond repair. I’d heard about these sudden storms and how they could blow up without a moment’s notice and apparently that’s what had happened. All had been calm when we’d gone to bed, but that wasn’t the case now. I silently cursed myself for not having checked the weather forecast on either my phone or the boat’s short-wave radio before we’d gone to bed. Too much on my mind, I guess.

I pulled on my boots and ran onto the deck to take a look around. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Everywhere I looked, the storm was wreaking havoc. I saw a number of pine trees that had been blown over, one leaning precariously on another which was all that was keeping it from falling onto the houseboat. If it did, we’d be trapped for who knew how long. The waves had destroyed the shoreline completely, leaving hardly any beach. The sideways houseboat was jammed up on what little beach and was stuck solid. The wind was howling and the rain was pelting down so hard it hurt. I rushed back inside for protection.

“My god,” I told Shelia, “it’s like a monsoon and hurricane combined out there.” Then I filled her in on what I’d seen.

“What are we going to do?” she asked when I’d finished.

“Let’s call base.”

“I already tried. There’s no signal.”

“Shit.” I went to the sliding glass door and looked out again. Shelia joined me. The rain, which had been buffeting the boat in sheets, seemed to be letting up. The gray pre-dawn was turning a little lighter. I turned to her. “Any ideas?”

One thing I’ve always admired about Shelia was her ability to not let things get to her. She was a solutions-orientated woman, a good person to have in a crisis, and that’s what this was. I’d never in my life seen a storm like I was seeing right now.

She took one more look outside as a branch fell hard on the deck. Then she turned to me and said, “We need a plan. Do you think you can get us off the shore? You could use the dingy to pull us. I’ll drive the houseboat. If we can get unstuck and get out on the lake, maybe we can get back to base.”

It was as good a plan as any, even though base camp at Northern Lights was eighteen miles away. First things first. We needed to get free of the beach. Besides, her idea was way better than what I’d come up with, which was nothing.

About the Author

Jim’s stories and poems have appeared in nearly five hundred online and print publications. His collection of short stories, Resilience, is published by Bridge House Publishing. Chapeltown Books published Short Stuff, a collection of flash fiction and drabbles. Periodic Stories, Periodic Stories Volume Two, Periodic Stories Volume Three – A Novel, and Periodic Stories Volume Four are published by Impspired. Dreamers, a collection of short stories, is published by Clarendon House Publishing. Something Better, a dystopian adventure novella, and the novel The Alien of Orchard Lak is published by Dark Myth Publications. In the fall of 2022, his collection entitled Holiday Stories was published by Impspired, as was his collection of poetry, Haiku Seasons. In February 2023, Periodic Stories Volume IV was published, as was his collection of poems, The Alchemy of Then, both by Impspired. In June 2023, a collection of flash fiction, Dancing With Butterflies, was published by Impspired.In July 2023, his YA novella The Battle of Marvel Wood was published by Impspired. The Zodiac Press nominated his short story “Aliens” for the 2020 Pushcart Prize. His story “The Maple Leaf” was voted 2021 Story of the Year for Spillwords. He was voted the December 2022 Author of the Month for Spillwords. He also reads his stories for Talking Stories Radio and Jim’s Storytime on his website. He lives in a small town west of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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