The Pond was published in 1905, the first novel of Aleksei Remizov (1877-1957), an important Russian modernist writer and artist who emigrated after the 1917 revolution....

But there on a rusty nail in the Ogorelyshyovs’ submerged fence that divided the Sinichka from the pond there was something gleaming grey in the green moonlit night — one of the demons, a little demon with a face of incorruptible, indignant human integrity and fairness stretches his leg upwards and outwards a long way like a cat and laughs a bitter crooked laugh through his closed lips. Now he knew what new life Kolya has set off into and why Arsenii gave the order for the Finogenovs to be thrown out like a dog onto the street in bad weather, and why all the human misery, enough to make a flintstone crackle, why all the evil fate and calamity and ill fortune and why some are doomed to it and others are free. But did he know? And who is he — a devil, one of the demons or simply a minor demon? A devil, a demon and a minor demon, he knew and he laughed a crooked, bitter laugh through his pursed lips....

A collection of short stories inspired by Kathlamet myths, along with the original myths (sometimes explicated. The tales, as retold myths, are akin to legend and fairy tales, if perhaps rendered from the subconscious of our Wisconsin pioneer legacy....

From: "The Bird-Headed Woman" On an isolated farm near the Black River lived a farmer and his wife who had recently given birth to a child. She quarreled with him because he raged at her in his religion, accusing her of wrongs she had not done to him, and so she left him and took her child to live in the woods where she had found a shack abandoned by loggers. Her husband, alienated by her, began to preach a profound and compelling gospel of sin and the everlasting hell due to sinners, and people from many farms and towns came around to listen to him. She could hear their clamor from the woods where she lived. Like the sound of a train flagged to a sudden halt in the wilderness. Crashing its clashing cars. Seething with hissing steam. At night through the trees she could see the glaring lights of kerosene lamps moving like aural globules upon the lawn and on the porch of the house where men and women gathered to listen to her husband. She went out in the night to listen, leaving her child in the shack, but feared that her child might cry and so went back. The next night she thought: “I will bathe my child in warm wa...

Foreword Introduction to Kathlamet Texts (Franz Boas) Esther: Her Story Myth of Nikciamtca’c (told 1890) The Myth of Perpetual Motion Sun Myth (told 1891) The Story of the Bride Myth of the Swan (told 1894) Catching Sky The Copper is Speared (told 1894) The Fabulous Masked Man and his Faithful Companion: a Tale also Told as “Richard and Beau” or “Dick and Dumb” The Raccoon (told 1891) How to Make a Buck (1) Myth of the Coyote (told 1891) How to Make a Buck (2) Myth of the Salmon (told 1891) Myth of the Salmon (Variant B) (told 1894) Monsters Today (or All the World is Paper) Myth of the Elk (told 1894) The Southwest Wind: Being the True Account & Compilation of the Actual Events of October 8, 1871 Myth of the Southwest Wind (told 1894) The Bird-Headed Woman Myth of Aq!asXe’nasXena (told 1890) Jack and Beulah Rabbit and Deer (told 1894) Topping the Bill Coyote and Badger (told 1891) Blind Granny Goody’s Hairy Lips Panther and Lynx (told 1891) Cecelia and Crab Seal and Crab (told 1891) Adventures in a Wobbling World Myth of the Mink (told 1891) The Berry Girls and their Cookie Kid...

Misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance – Jason Flanagan needs to make restitution for a crime committed fifteen years earlier. Problem is, the moral indiscretion isn’t punishable in any court of law....

An intriguing short story about solving the mystery of the cosmos and the metaphorical identity of Kafka's and Shakespeare's mistress.

Sylvia Mandelstam boasts what a wonderful time she had at the international literary symposium in Moscow. Truth be told, the trip was an unmitigated fiasco not unlike her marriage and personal life. She can lie shamelessly and dissemble to everyone - even Danny O'Rourke, the unassuming mason who arrives one summery day to repair her damaged brick wall. But not indefinitely....

Jerome Spellman, the simple schizophrenic in Grace’s eleventh grade class, acts like an extra in a B-rated horror flick - Night of the Living Dead. Grace prays for a miracle, while Dr. Rosen, the school psychologist counsels, “Think positive but plan for the worse.”...

Jerome Spellman, the simple schizophrenic in Grace’s eleventh grade class, acts like an extra in a B-rated horror flick - Night of the Living Dead. Grace prays for a miracle, while Dr. Rosen, the school psychologist counsels, “Think positive but plan for the worse.”...

Pearl Singleton, a forest ranger at the Pemberton Wildlife Preserve, is going to show eighteen year old Shawn Mariano her Osborne Smoke Finder, all six varieties of New England ferns, a beaver dam, and something he never bargained for....

Following his divorce, Dr. Stanley Gilford, chief of cardiology at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, restructured his life on the guiding principle of maximum gain, minimum pain. So what is the well-heeled doctor doing with Ruby, a high school dropout and waitress at the local greasy spoon, and what are his options visa vie the pallid, five year old boy whose damaged heart beats in three-four time?...

A mentally ill man makes a new friend.

A man dies and then reviews his life with god.

A neo Nazi is given a second chance.

A mother and son have a fight.

A man snaps and tries to kill his boss.

A boy hibernates with an owl.

A man in hospital remembers his past.

An unhappy woman invites her family to church.

A man is caught in the act.

* Sixteen-year-old Ned Scoletti is travelling north on a Greyhound bus from Fort Pierce, Florida to Spaulding, Massachusetts, to visit Aunt Josie. Problem is, his mother’s identical twin sister died when Nick was just a toddler. Or did she? * Jesse Caldwell, an auto mechanic, is painfully shy, lives at home and hates his moronic life. Miranda Huffington suffers from a gimpy leg and equally stunted personality. This is not your standard Harlequin romance. * Bartholomew Schroeder, a recent widower and retired plumber, can sweat pipes and fix broken toilets, but, on a weekend excursion to Martha's Vineyard, can he mend a teenage girl's broken spirit? * Maria Santos, who just bought the Breakfast Nook, knows nothing about cross-contamination, pest control, immersion gauges or reduced-oxygen packaging. The new health inspector is every restaurant owner’s worse nightmare, but Maria needn’t worry. She’s got an ace up her culinary sleeve. These are just a few of the situations you will find in this collection of bittersweet short stories, where the characters struggle to manage their lives in a user-unfriendly universe ...

* Lenny slept with Elsie McGivney, a woman so dim-witted she can't make change or hold down an entry-level job. Lenny bedded the chucklehead but got no sex in the bargain. So why is he going back for more? * Bethany Glaspell approached the first-ever meeting with Great-uncle Vern, a man who returned from the jungles of Vietnam with a Hmong bride and warped personality, much as a cat burglar might plan his next heist, telling no one, neither friend nor family, her intentions. * There are five levels of gifted intelligence ranging from bright to profoundly gifted. One in every thirty thousand is 'exceptional', which makes Curtis Stedman, the part-time dishwasher at Nagel’s Bagels, one smart cookie! * Tawana Saunders is writing the great American novel. Problem is, six months into the project, she’s only got a rough draft plus three lousy paragraphs. These are just a few of the situations you will find in this collection of bittersweet short stories, where the characters struggle to manage their lives in a user-unfriendly universe. ...

* A young boy spends a magical weekend with his sister, a former collegiate track star crippled in a freak accident. During the visit he learns a poignant lesson about the resilience of monarch butterflies and the human heart * Mrs. Chowdhary named her youngest daughter after Saint Theresa, the Little Flower of Jesus. Unfortunately, Terry has more in common with Attila the Hun than her nineteenth century namesake. * Marcie Callahan’s parents run around the house in their underwear. They belch and fart and do all sorts of gross and disgusting things. The Callahan clan doesn't have a stitch of class, culture, brains or social graces, which is why Marcie is ready for a change. * Dick wants fun. He has no dog. He has no cat. No Spot. No Puff. But he has a plan. See Dick board the plane. See Dick fly away. Far, far away. Hello happiness! Goodbye Jane These are just a few of the situations you will find in this collection of bittersweet short stories, where the characters struggle to manage their lives in a user-unfriendly universe. ...