Justine Avery

Point Blank: A Short Tale of Macabre Family Faults

If you can't stand the pressure... ask your mother to stop pointing the gun at your head. Steven is a writer, by all accounts of self-proclamation. But no artist can be expected to work under serious pressure, especially not when the pressure consists of his own mother indenting his tender skull with the muzzle of the pistol held in her hand. Suddenly, it's write or die for Steven. He better tap a ...

Category Humor
It Gets Easier: A Short Tale of Comical Catastrophe

He'd never guess that his very courage to commit could be the cause of his own downfall. Jake's loved and lost, suffered failed relationships and felt real sorrow, but the new girl in his life may just be the one to finally put an end to that life. His girlfriend Samantha is sweet and kind, full of joy, and the kind of girl Jake can be perfectly content sitting in complete silence with. It's so co ...

Category Humor
The Post-it Note Affair: A Romance Novelette of Love Lost and Found

Emily wants what every woman does: to have it all. Is that too much to ask? Emily really can't complain. She's married to a wonderful man, her high school sweetheart, who still dotes on her as he did when he first laid eyes on her. They have a beautiful home together, and they each enjoy successful careers. On the outside looking in, Emily has what any woman would be perfectly happy with. But it's ...

Earth Inherited: A Short Tale of Planetary Plague & Astronomical Affliction

Nothing sets the tone for the day like learning your home planet has just changed ownership. Today is a day like any other on Earth. People wake and work. Minds plug into electronic devices. Social networks spark with spontaneous brain sputterings. A woman primps. A man scratches his balls. Humans relate, congregate, procreate. And news anchors across the globe offer an ounce of vital information ...

Category Science Fiction
The One Apart: A Novel

Only one obstacle stands in his way of enjoying a normal life. He remembers—every life he's lived before. Tres is about to be born... with the biggest burden any has ever had to bear. He is beginning again—as an ageless adult trapped in an infant body. He and his teenage mother face life filled with extraordinary challenges as they strive to protect, nurture, and hide how truly different he is. Bu ...

Category Science Fiction
Last Shot: A Short Tale of the Absurdity of Life and Death

Today is the perfect day to die. Bernard is the type of man that accomplishes all that he sets out to—and easily. He's intelligent, hardworking, and completely unfamiliar with failure. His only complaint—the singular source of the inner anger bubbling within him—is that no one else in the world recognizes that. It's time to force them to. Bernard's had enough. Enough of the complete absence of res ...

The Darkness: A Short Tale of Uncommon Daring & Ultimate Defiance

Everyone's afraid of the dark. Now, there's a reason to be. Lux and his younger brother Lunam enjoy the full freedom of the simple life and all the childhood adventures offered by growing up in a small village in a picturesque glen. Life is tranquil, peaceful, and just about perfect—except for one formidable fact… Every day is followed by night. And, with the night, comes the DARKNESS. Slowly shro ...

Category Fantasy
Almighty: A Short Tale of Omnipotent Proportions

When a staunch atheist is introduced to the Lord Almighty in the most casual—and childish—way, it's not the end of the world. It's a Tuesday. Bradley Michaels is just another man ending just another workday at just another job. He can list the usual complaints, can point his finger at the usual causes, and he can go about his routine as if one day is absolutely no different from the next. Until Go ...

Category Humor
Out There: A Short Tale of the Weird and Wonderful

It's a day just like any other day... until something utterly unfamiliar suddenly lands in your back yard. Susan is the epitome of the happy housewife, contentedly conducting her daily ritual of cleaning her home and keeping everything just as it should be. Wrapped up in her own little world within those familiar walls, she hardly notices the altogether different arrival in her own back yard. She ...

Category Fantasy-Urban