Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Montclair Write Group Sampler 2018
    Montclair Write Group Sampler 2018
    Montclair Write Group Sampler 2018
    Ebook147 pages1 hour

    Montclair Write Group Sampler 2018

    By Hank Quense

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Want to discover new writers? Want to find new voices?
    Here’s how.
    The Montclair Write Group Sampler 2018 is a collection of works from talented writers of all kinds.
    And it’s free!
    The Sampler contains thirty works from the members of the Write Group in Montclair, NJ. It contains fiction, essays, memoirs and poems. There’s something for every reader.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHank Quense
    Release dateOct 29, 2018
    ISBN9780463995327
    Montclair Write Group Sampler 2018
    Author

    Hank Quense

    Hank Quense writes humorous and satiric sci-fi and fantasy stories. He also writes and lectures about fiction writing and self-publishing.  He and his wife Pat usually vacation in another galaxy or parallel universe. They also time travel occasionally when Hank is searching for new story ideas. Other books by Hank Quense Fiction: Gundarland Stories Tales From Gundarland Falstaff’s Big Gamble Wotan’s Dilemma The King Who Disappeared Princess Moxie Series Moxie’s Problem Moxie’s Decision Queen Moxie Zaftan Troubles Series Contact Confusion Combat Convolution Sam Klatze Gongeblazn Non-fiction: The Author Blueprint Series of books is written to assist writers and authors in getting the job done. Creating Stories: Book 1 How to Self-publish and Market a Book: Book 2 Book Marketing Fundamentals: Book 3 Business Basics for Authors: Book 4 Fiction Writing Workshops for Kids: Book 5 Writing Stories: Book 7 Publication date to be announced Links? You want links? Here you go: Hank’s website: http://hankquense.org Hank's Facebook fiction page: https://www.facebook.com/StrangeWorldsOnline?ref=hl Twitter: https://twitter.com/hanque99 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanque/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hankquense/ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3002079.Hank_Quense Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/hank-quense

    Read more from Hank Quense

    Related to Montclair Write Group Sampler 2018

    Related ebooks

    Action & Adventure Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Diary Of A Somebody

      Jun 30, 2021

      appendage. Noun. 1. a thing that is added or attached to something larger or more important. That’s me! The appendage, my whole lovely life: daughter of an MP (Sir John Knott, MP for St Ives, 1966-83, and Defence Secretary); wife of one (Sir Hugo Swi

      3 min read

    • Article

      In Love And War

      Jun 10, 2021

      April 1943 - Krakow, Poland Irena was bent over her needlework, stitching the frayed seam of her skirt when she heard a single gunshot ring out. She jerked and then scowled. After four years of war, she ought to be used to it. Why, the other night a

      11 min read

    • Article

      Add Insult To Injury

      Nov 1, 2023

      ‘He can brighten a room just by leaving it’ Various attributions, including politician Lord Lilley on Gordon Brown ‘What exactly is on your mind—if you’ll excuse the exaggeration?’ American television presenter David Letterman ‘A face unclouded b

      2 min read

    • Article

      His Neighbor’s Wife

      May 10, 2023

      The autumn air was crisp as the Subaru idled in the residential street. Despite the early hour, the Enforcers lined the sidewalks, passive as they fulfilled their obligation. They were there to witness the act and were not to engage with the players

      8 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      La Otra Historia

      Jun 30, 2022

      La Otra Historia
      14 min read

    • Article

      Books

      May 1, 2023

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      His Neighbor’s Wife

      Jan 10, 2021

      The autumn air was crisp as the Subaru idled in the residential street. Despite the early hour, the Enforcers lined the sidewalks, passive as they fulfilled their obligation. They were there to witness the act and were not to engage with the players

      8 min read

    • Article

      Cruel Means, Bitter Ends

      Nov 10, 2021

      “In order for this speech to mean anything to me, I’ll need to dispense with the usual demagoguery and, instead, make an attempt at honesty. With this in mind, there is one thing I have to make clear. I’m not in this race to serve your interests, but

      12 min read

    • Article

      Summer Books Special!

      Dec 28, 2023

      Summer Books Special!
      9 min read

    • Article

      Quotients

      May 7, 2020

      Quotients
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Recipe For Murder

      Oct 5, 2023

      A Recipe For Murder
      4 min read

    • Article

      Bless You Father

      Jul 7, 2022

      Bless You Father
      10 min read

    • Article

      Bless You Father

      Jul 7, 2022

      Bless You Father
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      Community Of Peers

      Feb 10, 2021

      After the war, I travelled to a village in the south of the province. It was my intention to vacation for the weekend in an unknown land. I followed a small river that was alternately green beneath the foliage of the forest and blue while it coursed

      6 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Nov 1, 2021

      The afterlife is an infinity of custom shelving, where everything you have ever loved has a perfect place, including things that don’t fit on shelves, like the weeping willow from your parents’ backyard, or an old boyfriend, exactly as he was in your

      9 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      Redux: In Dire Straits

      Jun 26, 2018

      Redux: In Dire Straits
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Inventions of Witches

      Oct 30, 2017

      The Inventions of Witches
      7 min read

    • Article

      Letter To A Stranger

      Dec 14, 2018

      Letter To A Stranger
      3 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of Sanctuary

      Jan 5, 2024

      In Search Of Sanctuary
      16 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Montclair Write Group Sampler 2018

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Montclair Write Group Sampler 2018 - Hank Quense

      Montclair Write Group Sampler 2018

      Published by Strange Worlds Publishing

      Copyright 2018 Hank Quense

      All Rights Reserved.

      Thank you for downloading this free book. You are welcome to share it with friends. This book may be reproduced and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. Thank you for your support.

      ISBN 9780463995327

      Published by Strange Worlds Publishing at Smashwords 2018

      First Publication 2018

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Dedication

      Acknowledgments

      Fiction

      Memoir

      Poetry

      Other Stuff

      About This Book

      Dedication

      (Return to the Table of Contents)

      This Sampler is dedicated to Harriet Halpern, a founding member and indomitable spirit behind the success of the Write Group. Her commitment to the Write Group, based on her philosophy that good writing matters, will always inspire us.

      Harriet’s picture was taken by Lorraine Ash, a Write Group member and published author.

      Acknowledgements

      (Return to the Table of Contents)

      Montclair Write Group Sampler 2018 Staff

      This book didn’t happen by accident. It required a lot of work by a lot of people performing a lot of tasks. Voluntarily! These volunteers and their assignments are listed below.

      Project Director:

      Hank Quense

      Data Manager:

      Eliisa Goldman

      Readers:

      Donna O’Donnell Figurski

      Rose Blessing

      Keith Biesiada:

      Jeneil Stephen

      Mirela Trofin

      Erin Roll

      Nancy Taiani

      reg e gaines

      Ron Bremner

      Elissa Goldman

      Helen Lippman

      Steve Weinstock

      Copy editors:

      Martha Moffet

      Ethel Lee-Miller

      Formatting & Production:

      Hank Quense

      Publisher:

      Strange Worlds Publishing

      The cover was designed by Gary Tenuta, an artist who creates all the Strange Worlds Publishing covers. Visit Gary’s website by following this link: http://garyvaltenuta.blogspot.com

      Our 2018 Sampler cover features tulips photographed at the Avis Campbell Gardens, which bloom next door to the Montclair Public Library (where the Montclair Write Group meets). Photo by Rose Blessing.

      FICTION

      (Return to the Table of Contents)

      Raccoons

      By Ron Bremner

      On those frigid nights, we’d pop up from the subway wind tunnel into the blustery city street, padding past the lamplit haze, chuckling, our blood humming, eager for the ales and the warmth of the table talk.

      We’d leave behind a trail of smoky breath, sailing upward and vanishing, vanishing like the breadcrumbs dropped by Hansel and Gretel, vanishing like those theories, those arguments and conjectures, those powerful words and mystical ideas that would soon leap out onto the table before us. So clear, so near, we never thought to try and catch them, to hold and save them. They were there. They would always be there. Wouldn’t they?

      Inside, the black furnace hummed. Our backs snuggled up against its heat, shivers surging the lengths of our spines. Puff-faced and bleary-eyed, we’d speak loudly, forage each other’s minds for the food of the soul, that naïve socialist optimism, the camaraderie of intellect and spirit so compatible with good bitter ale.

      And as the old man swept the sawdust-covered floor, and the plump cat dozed under the table, we’d pack up our reassured faiths, gather our torn coats and years of rich promise, and set ourselves for the long dark cold path to the subway.

      How little we understood then of the greyish smoke of our ale-worn words, so easily seized and muted by the cold darkness of the night around us.

      (first published in Every Writer’s Resource, January 12, 2014)

      ~~~

      Author Bio: R. Bremner of Glen Ridge via Lyndhurst, NJ, USA, writes of incense, peppermints, and the color of time in such venues as International Poetry Review, Anthem: a Leonard Cohen Tribute Anthology, Climate of Change: Sigmund Freud in Poetry, Quarterday, Paterson Literary Review, Oleander Review, Journal of Formal Poetry, Passaic Review, etc., etc. He has thrice won Honorable Mention in the Allen Ginsberg awards (2016, 2017, 2018), and his latest book is Hungry Words (Alien Buddha Press). Ron invites you to visit his Instagram poetry at beat_poet1 and Absurdist_poet.

      PAST PARDON Excerpt

      By Virginia Ashton

      Prologue

      Three carriages stood at the edge of the meadow in the gray dawn light. The surgeon remained inside his carriage huddled in his great-coat against the morning damp.

      Viscount Heyden leaned against the side of his curricle, lazily smoking a cheroot. Edward Torrance, the challenger, had already tried each pistol, checking their weight and sighting down the barrels before he made his choice. The pistols were a matched set made especially for the viscount by Manton, one of the foremost gunsmiths in England. Heyden had wounded enough men on the dueling field to know either pistol would do for him.

      His second, the Honorable Harry Carlyle, swiftly loaded the viscount’s pistol as Geoffrey Hastings slowly and methodically loaded the other. When Geoffrey finished, he nodded to Edward. Torrance moved forward and took his pistol. Viscount Heyden threw down the stub of his cheroot and picked up his weapon.

      Both men made their way across the field. Carlyle had already paced the field digging two spots in the grass with his pen knife. They stood on their marks facing each other, fifty paces apart. Both men wore dark coats buttoned to the throat with no hint of white shirting or silver buttons to present a target.

      The viscount sneered at his opponent, impatient to be done. He had no notion why the young man before him had picked the quarrel, but, no man who named him cheat could go unpunished. Out of deference to his uncle, the duke, who held the purse strings, the viscount generally made certain to wound, rather than kill, but the boy’s public accusation had cut him to the quick. If his shot killed Edward Torrance, so be it. It made little difference. Carlyle would back him against the Hastings boy, if it came to a trial, but it would never come to that. He was a peer of the realm and the heir to a dukedom after all. Edward Torrance, on the other hand, was a country gentleman with no standing in society.

      Both men stood calmly waiting for the handkerchief to drop.

      ~~~

      A man leapt from the hackney coach with a quickness that was surprising in one so large. He tossed a coin to the jarvey, and made his way up the steps to the house. The knocker's staccato raps echoed through the silent square like gun shots, but the man kept up the incessant drill until someone finally came to answer.

      It was a young footman who opened the door, too young to be much good in the face of the giant he found on the doorstep. As the man pushed himself inside, driving the boy backwards before him, the butler came up the stairs, pulling his morning coat on as he came.

      I must see the earl. It's most urgent, the stranger said to the elderly servant.

      His lordship is still abed. I should think, the butler replied with cold formality.

      Then, wake him, man. The matter is urgent. There's no time to waste!

      I cannot think his lordship would know anyone of your ilk, the old man snapped, as he pulled the cord for reinforcements. If it were not for gross negligence, you would never have gotten in the door, the butler went on, turning his gaze on the hapless footmen.

      The stranger was steps ahead of the servant. Before you summon the troops you'd best hear me out. Master Geoffrey's involved himself in a duel, and if I can't get his lordship’s help to stop it, there's going to be the devil of a row.

      These words gave the old retainer pause. Raising a hand to stay the progress of the two footmen entering the hall behind him, he turned back to the stranger, his face stiff with disapproval. You may wait here. I will ascertain if his lordship will see you.

      Before he could put a foot on the stair, a key was heard in the front door lock and a gentleman in evening dress stepped into the hall. Evelyn Ardsley, Fifth Earl of Dorne, was a tall man in his mid-thirties. His face was long and thin with a square jaw and steel gray eyes, framed by black locks, graying at the temples. He was a Corinthian who followed the dictates of Brummell in terms of dress. His black coat fit like a second skin with a white brocade waistcoat, a lawn shirt, an intricately tied cravat and no ornament but a small diamond stickpin at his throat and his quizzing glass to relieve the austerity of his outfit. He quickly took in the scene in the hall. The earl said nothing, but one eyebrow rose as he noted the ill-kempt stranger, while he calmly handed his hat, cane, and gloves to the footman.

      Rather early for visitors, wouldn't you say, Hills? he said, with cool urbanity.

      I beg your pardon, my lord. This person insists he must see you.

      Indeed, his lordship said, lifting his eyeglass. Have I your acquaintance, sir? he went on, raking the man from head to foot with a look.

      Few were able to withstand his lordship's glass with equanimity, but the man before him paid no heed to the perusal.

      Oliver Bascomb, m’ lord. At your service. I'm sorry to disrupt your household at such an hour, but as I told your man here, your ward has involved himself in a duel. And, if you can't help me stop it, sir, I don't know who can.

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1