Distant Rumors

16 excellent short stories from William Gensburger that cover the many aspects of life and death.

Stories include:

• The First and Final Thing

Simon Pratt was supposed to have died six months ago. Not only isn't he dead, but he's perfectly healthy despite having given away all his wealth and living off the land in the mountains of Idaho. Now what?

• The Black and Yellow

He's waging a one man war against a beast of an enemy in his own backyard; will he defeat the wasps or will they kill him?

• The Cat Lived

The cat was dying, along with his marriage.

• Ceremonial

The law says that at age 50 male members must undergo the rite of Ceremonial, a grand old party before you're put to sleep. Can the law be broken or changed?

• The Unfinished Man

Who cleans up after the superheroes? Fred does. And this is his story.

• Just a Little Death

Returning to his boarding school, now as a housemaster, David must come to terms with a tragedy from his past, now affecting one of his new students.

• On Deck

He's watched her every day. At a skate park where she watches her sons, he sits and enjoys her life, almost making contact but too fearful to do so.

• The Hollow Sky

Robert Yamato lives in Japanshu, a self-contained world where people live in body-sized cubicles, where work is the gold standard, and where love and sex is forbidden without approval. The only problem is that he has fallen in live.

• After the Leaves

Post-nuclear war, a family struggles to cope with the aftermath.

• The People Apples

When you die your soul goes into the apple tree in the cemetery, at least that's what the groundsman tells you.

• A Limited Point of View

Grandy is only two levels from the top, in a society where your business level dictates your status. The only problem is, while the current company president is out to die, the man who will succeed him is young and fit and Grandy will have no chance to become president. Unless..

• A Different Kind of Peace

She's waited out her father's illness, dreaming of being able to leave and join her friends. What will it take?

• All Things Are Fine

Hadley Verona's unfortunate life results in a hospital stay on his birthday where he must face life and death and decide what will make him happy.

• One Moment in the Sun

Three young friends in the 1980s on the Venice Boardwalk, California, facing a weekend and coming across young Arnold Schwarzenegger. A period piece and reflecting on their lives and how they change over the next thirty years.

•The I, Isozooid

A free-thought story of one man's discovery that his life had been a lie, and how it has affected him.

• Fire on a Different Mountain

The baby was dead, yet she had to carry it to term. The pain inflicted upon them both may well tear apart their relationship. But will it?

“Engaging, happy, sad, interesting, wild . . . it made me want more!” ~ Jill Herredia

“A master of short stories!” ~Dusty Hitchcock (verified Amazon purchase)