Surrender - Book 2

Summary

Surrender can mean many things to many people, even animals. In this fictional story, a fairy-tale satire about a Sasquatch (Bigfoot) named PoBo, we learn what it can mean on many different levels. On one level, he is displaced from his family at a young age amid a war initiated by humans. But with an unyielding spirit to be reunited with his kin - and with music being his best motivator, at least at first - the hairy bachelor decides to set off on a dangerous quest to find them.  He knows the journey will be fraught with danger because he knows he and his family are on the endangered list - a constant struggle to survive. But like an adage he once read in a book, “nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he is steadfast to not give up on his goal.  Fortunately, and unexpectedly, he gets some assistance from two animals, one of whom is far bigger in his faith than his physical size. PoBo encounters many obstacles along the way, and his own faith is tested repeatedly as time runs out to fulfill his quest. What he at first thinks is the true meaning of his journey becomes redefined as a desperate yearning to achieve three things: Faith, family, and love.  When we’re broken and we realize we are not in complete control, it’s time to surrender.

©2017 Chris Baum (P)2020 Chris Baum

Keep in the Light

Summary

Standing beside her father and looking into the abyss that had been her second childhood home, Lucky thinks back to her last night at college. It was the night before spring break, and she’d just wanted to go to a party, meet a boy, and maybe find out what he was doing over spring break. She thought that she had plenty of time to make the great life choices that all girls make.  Maybe it was fate, maybe it was a shadow on her soul, she did not know, but it was not her plan to be hunted by a supernatural creature - not her desire to have her friends and family in danger.  Standing beside Kane, her best friend, there was blood flowing down his back. Growing up together on the farm, helping tutor him after his father’s death. Other than her father, Kane is the strongest person she knows. Would that strength be enough?  On her other side, her father. They share a special bond and great loss. They know each other’s pain and the desire for revenge.  It is simple, really. You don’t mess with family. Those thoughts on her mind as she says, "Kill it, Daddy".

©2020 David Musser (P)2020 David Musser

The Amazing Adventures of Risky Roach

Summary

Long ago in the very distant past...there existed an incredible neighborhood of Ant Cows that lived in the Shoobie Doobie jungle of wonder and mirth. The Shoobie Doobie jungle was a place of wonder and mirth, because all the Ant Cows that lived in that neighborhood were always smiling and grinning.  They were always smiling and grinning, because they possessed the most ridiculous and entertaining treasure that any jungle neighborhood ever possessed: four golden jars of yellow mayonnaise.  Why in the world would four golden jars of yellow mayonnaise be such a special treasure?  Well, because the yellow mayonnaise inside these four golden jars is the only mayonnaise in the world that was made from the eggs of Dodo birds and the oil that had been persnickety squeezed from tiny, very hairy berries.  Of course, every creature in the Shoobie Doobie Jungle knows that Dodo birds and very hairy berries no longer exist.  That is what makes their treasure...a treasure.  Then one day without warning, an army of wicked and dreadful dragonflies swarm into the Shoobie Doobie jungle of wonder and mirth. Dicky Dragoon, Lord of the dragonflies, orders his army to take the treasure of the four golden jars of yellow mayonnaise.  Wicked dragonflies just love yellow mayonnaise.  Now the Shoobie Doobie jungle is no longer a jungle of wonder and mirth. Instead of being a jungle full of big fat smiles and toothy grins.... The Shoobie Doobie jungle becomes a dark and dismal jungle of scowling faces and pouting bottom lips. Will the Shoobie Doobie jungle never ever be a neighborhood of wonder and mirth again?   Risky Roach, along with his sidekick Poncho Wada-Pest the Praying Mantis go on an amazing adventure to return the four golden jars of yellow mayonnaise back to the Ant Cows. 

©2020 Richard Campbell (P)2020 Richard Campbell