Author: Ruth Newell
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: 2018-12-02
Total Pages: 159
ISBN-13: 9781790615230
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Tales of Half Truths is a collection of fifteen short stories spanning the gamut of human emotions and literary styles, spinning the reader through the centuries. From historic fiction to science fiction, this collection of short stories brings an eclectic cast of memorable characters to life--pirates and warrior queens, snipers and sultans, defrocked priests and grandmother nuns, sages and surfers. Covering topics of lost love, betrayed trust, renewed faith, slavery, postpartum depression and post-traumatic stress, alcoholism and abuse, the author pulls the reader into each story with descriptive imagery and engaging dialogue. The collection leads off with Espoused, a love story. Born in Boston and raised in an Irish convent after the death of her parents, Adeline returns to America to claim her inheritance. Accompanied by her uncle, former schooner captain to Kamehameha's, the young beauty voyages to Hawaii where she catches the eye of Sheamus Campbell, heir to a sugar dynasty. As Campbell's dark past resurrects after the death of his daughter, he flees unexpectedly, leaving his love-struck bride in the doting hands of the Earl of Suffield's fourth son, Clement Sanborn. Shooting Stars is a story about entangled love in which Paul is stuck on Dian, who is dating Vance, who jilted Tessa. Just as things are about to possibly unravel, tragedy strikes. Happy Hour is a romantic short story about frustrated and non-requited love. Whereas in the story, Molokai, middle aged Chesapeake Bay outrigger canoeist, Margaret draws from her Hawaiian upbringing when her longtime lover, Eric, abandons her. The tides turn for Eric when his other woman gets the baby bug. Meanwhile, back on the island, Margaret's younger sister, Lanna, works at their grandmother's spiritual healing center when not otherwise entangled with world class extreme surfer, Fitz.In Apache, White Feather sits perched in the canopy, high above the La Tho River, with a $30,000 price on his head. A platoon of Vietcong snipers had been stalking him for days. His scope, however, was set on a small, thin woman pacing in the shadows of her houch. Valley of the Moons introduces Luke, a Marine recently returned stateside after his second tour in the Middle East, hits the trails on the Channel Islands trying to muster the courage to tell his father, a career Marine, that he won't be reenlisting. Meanwhile, his weathered father, recently retired, contemplates how to live with himself, knowing the things he's done in the name of Freedom.The sic-fi short story, The Cataclysm, opens with Aerospace maverick, Hal Buchanan, tearing through the upper stratosphere along with the 3d Space Experimentation Squadron, looking for signs of life on Earth. Mountains had come crashing down while continents collapsed, and the seas surged over cities, swallowing civilization. The poles had shifted and life for the few who survived would never again be the same.Mystery abounds in Stepping Stone, Lily, a tenant in a farm hand house located on a colonial estate, lives quietly with her plants and tropical killer fish. She is an unimportant person living an uneventful life. Then, she finds a set of iron keys that open a hidden box containing old letters written by a young woman, chosen hundreds of years before as a mail order bride by one of Maryland's legendary pirates who had built a mansion on the cliffs of Whitehall. During the restoration of the historic site, the current owners discovered a secret passageway studded with gold galleons but have yet to find the keys.The final story, Prince of Passion, follows Javier who disappears when his childhood sweetheart dies. He is found a few days later standing over the dead body of her estranged boyfriend, self-proclaimed Don Juan, Jose Cassavante. Only, it wasn't him who had pulled the trigger.
