book details

Book: TALES TO COUNT ON by S. R. Mallery

categories: Book, Gothic, Twist Endings, History, Revenge, Childhood Memories, WWII Spies, Spousal Abuse, Paparazzi, Magic Photographs, Young Love, The French Revolution, Short Stories

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S. R. Mallery

about this book: SYNOPSIS: Like twist endings? From 500 words to 5,000, S. R. Mallery's new short story collection, TALES TO COUNT ON has them and much more! From a battered women's shelter to magic photographs; from PTSD fallout to sisters' tricks; from WWII spies to evil vaudevillians; from the French Revolution to celebrity woes, these stories, arranged in ascending length, will remind you that nothing is ever what it seems!

What's with this Word Count idea, you might well ask? The average reader certainly doesn't give a hoot about that, although sometimes the number of pages can be important. After all, if you're looking for a quick read at the beach or in between airplane stops, you're probably not going to grab a 400-page book. But for the average writer, the Word Count can be essential. It can make or break a short story submission, a Sunday Op-Ed, or a newspaper article. It can even turn the gentlest author into a raving lunatic. So, by presenting these stories in ascending order, here is my eclectic tribute to the author's plight: The Word Count.

As for this cover, designed by Travis Miles, I was asked to give him some vague images---I thought of a door opening to nowhere in particular since there are so many twist endings in this collection, and he took it from there.

This is the perfect book to take with you--for a waiting room at the doctor, killing time until your kids get out of school, enduring a boring business meeting, you name it ... Unlike a long novel that you've put down for a couple of days, you will never lose track of the characters...you'll always know where the story begins and where it ends!

Here is what they are saying:

• "Brilliant...I stand in aw of S. R. Mallery's ability to cobble something riveting out of so few words..." — Dianne Harman, The Coyote Series, The Cedar Bay Cozy Murder Mystery Series

• "Poetic, starling, S. R. Mallery's TALES TO COUNT ON will stun you into silence by the outcome of these inventive stories and their elegant endings with a twist." — D. K. Cassidy, Spilt Milk, Curious Reality