UPDATE: The winner of the free download is…Shirley Long!

* * * * *

I wondered whether it was crazy to publish short stories, really short stories. This was an experiment to see whether readers would embrace them. I began at the end of January, and I’ve published a new short every week since. I had planned to quit April 3rd—no real reason, just because. However, for me, it’s been very interesting indeed.

People are buying them. And I’m getting more emails from readers than ever before. Most simply want more stories. Some want to see the story they just read novelized. Many had never read me before, but they’ve been gobbling up the shorts, and then moving onto my longer stories. I had hoped that would happen, but I also thought there would be a point where readers thought it was enough. So far, you’ve told me to keep them coming. So, I’m adding another month’s worth of releases, one per week, through the first Friday of May. So be watching for more!

For those of you who didn’t know, Amazon has a new program called Kindle Unlimited. It’s like Netflix for books. You pay one price, $9.99 for a subscription, and then you can download as many books as you can read that month. So for KU subscribers, my short stories are free. They are $0.99 for everyone else.

Here’s information about this week’s new release, Pitch Black. Why corrections officers you might ask? Well, my daughter was one for a while, and the stories she told me tempted me to write

And keep reading below, because I have a question for you, and you might just win a prize!

Passion lights the way for an ex-marine corrections officer rescuing a female CO trapped in a prison block during a blackout…

Note: This 5000-word short story was previously published as part of the HIGH OCTANE HEROES anthology. It may be short in length, but it’s not short in passion! 

Excerpt:

Her bathroom door slammed open.

Still dressed in his uniform, his shoulders spanned the door frame. His short black hair skimmed the upper edge. His dark blue shirt, spattered with raindrops, reflected the stormy color of his eyes as he raked her with a glance. Anger simmered in the glance he gave her.

Her chin shot up. “No, hello darlin’?”

His hand shot out, grabbed her arm and yanked her against his chest. “Fight me.”

Her eyes widened. “What’s this about?”

He gave a sharp shake of his head. “Shut up. Fight me.”

She inserted her free hand between them and shoved at his chest. “Danny?”

“Think you could have fought Draper off if he’d been after you?” he said, his voice a deep, graveled growl.

She swallowed hard against a burning lump at the back of her throat. So that was what this was going to be. A lesson. Proof she wasn’t strong enough, mean enough to be on that barracks floor. “Stop this, right now.”

She pushed again, but he ducked down, shoved his shoulder against her abdomen, forcing her to crumple over him. Then he was backing out the door, striding toward her bed. He shrugged his shoulder, and she tumbled to the mattress, her towel flying open.

Before she could roll over the side to escape, he was on her, his superior weight sinking her deep into the mattress. Covered shoulder to toe by his large body, she could barely breathe. “Danny.”

He shook his head again, a grim set to his tight square jaw. “This ends, Jenn. Tomorrow, you’re gonna accept that transfer. Work in the warden’s office, guard the nurse, whatever, but you won’t be on that goddamn floor.”

“You have no right to dictate to me.”

“Don’t I? Wasn’t my ass on the line tonight?”

“I didn’t ask–”

“You didn’t have to! Dammit, I love you!”

His shout reverberated in the room and had her jaw clamping shut. Bitter tears filled her eyes.

His eyes squeezed shut. Then before she could draw the next shattered breath, he rolled off her to sit at the edge of the bed, his back to her. His shoulders were slumped. “I can’t do this again.”

Contest

I’ve published a variety of genres for these short stories. The two that have sold the most were the first, a cowboy story, One Track Cowboy, and The Pleasure in Surrender, which was a medieval knight story. If you’ve had a chance to read some of the shorties (you can peruse the carousel to sample the covers), I’d love to know what you’d like to see more of. Which story appealed the most to you? Comment for a chance to win your choice of any of my self-pubbed shorts or Wet Down.