Showing results by author "Jack Mary" in All Categories

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this volume the Mad Scientist takes centre stage. Naturally the stories come in all shapes and sizes and in the pens of our classic authors the scientists more usually arrive as dark, twisted and evil as they go about their work illuminating humanity as only a mad scientist can.

A woebegone old car, a harried department store clerk, a monosyllabic man in a sombrero, and a train announcer whose line ran somewhere between Orange County and the Twilight Zone are all memorable characters from The Jack Benny Program, and all the products of a single talented throat: Mel Blanc. "The Man of a Thousand Voices" was Carmichael the Polar Bear, who lived improbably in Jack's cellar.

Americans have vivid, colourful and mesmerising imaginations. On the flip side they are equally adept at Realism. In this volume their famed authors explore short stories that bring us up close and personal to reality.

In this collection of short stories some of our most popular and well-known authors are grouped together with an unfortunate tag: dead at 40. These authors are not run-of-the-mill or ten a penny; many are literary leviathans who left enduring works of literature and sadly may have left us many more had they lived. We will never know.

Long ago, there was a saint who lived in a dense forest. He was very kind and had great powers given by God. He used to sermonize the native animals of the forest with his spiritual teachings and teach them about the good life. The animals also visited the saint's ashram to listen to his preaching.

Decades after Wayne Taylor's death, his son-in-law sets out to discover the secrets kept hidden from Wayne's daughter, starting with finding the brother she never knew. His search takes him through the Great Depression, World War II, the 50s, the 60s, the 90s, and present day, as he discovers the pain that etched itself forever into his father-in-law's soul and the one true love that drove every aspect of his life.