The Heart of January Bliss
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I don’t know where she came from. That is the funny thing about being a creator. Sometimes it is not a deliberative process – it just happens. She just happened.

Sure, I was looking for a new comic strip to develop and publish, and I had read somewhere that strips are more often read by men. So, I suppose the idea was that I would come up with a strip that women could enjoy.

Dad’s Style
An Illustrated Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

We always thought of my father as being the most masculine of men. He was fairly big with a square jaw and a strong nose, but people will always say that the features that made him stand out were his bright blue eyes and his huge mop of grey hair.

Karma
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

People like me get used to casual racism. We learn to just nod and get on with it. Asian people are never threatening, or that seems to be what European people think. Many are small like me with poorly developed muscles and have little facial hair. Sometimes it seems as if Europeans think of us as childlike because of it. Certainly, nobody expects us to react with anger.

For Him
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I think that I am smart for a fourteen year old. I mean, I am really good at school, but I think that I know people, and I think that is what being really clever is all about. And I knew my father better than anybody else does, including him. I certainly knew him better than Mom ever did.

I don’t mean to say anything bad about Mom. She died three years ago in a car accident. I was only eleven but that is an age when I think that you understand everything pretty well. I did.

Visited Upon the Father
Following the “Sins of the Son”
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I carry my father’s name. I am Vernon Michaels Junior, just called “Junior” at home. Home was with my mother, as my father had been thrown out years before, and he was actually living in the town where I was going to college, and had a small place near the campus.

My father proudly called me “a chip off the old block”. He said that he got into a spot of trouble at college. He said that he would give the best advice – “Don’t get caught”.

Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
A Short Retelling of History
By Maryanne Peters

Aye, it is a heavy burden to have the fate of an entire nation borne upon your shoulders. More so when that nation has such a fine tradition of bravery and resourcefulness. Surely the Scots are special folk. I only wish that their hero could have been strong enough to live up to the expectation.

Destiny
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

It seems so commonplace today, that to explain to somebody that your father now lives as a woman called Florence is unlikely to surprise people the way it used to.

The Woman He Deserves
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I said it to Hannah: “How can she do that? It is like she is tormenting him.”

It was supposed to be a double date, but Tammy had insisted on bringing a friend. A man friend to make five at the table. Then she spent the whole night playing footsie under the table with Rafe (that was his name), while Jack was right there. I could see it, and I was damn sure my date Hannah could see it too.

But Hannah’s response left me cold.

Skater Girl
A Short Story from my Latest Anthology on Amazon
By Maryanne Peters

A Different Life
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Three Weeks After

Doctor Gillies steepled his fingers. It was not a gesture he did often – not anymore. He had done his stint in general surgery, but now that he had found his niche he understood that he needed to be more empathetic. He was, in the main. But now was the time for plain talking. This patient, Alex, needed to be told.

Family Counselling
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Scene 1 The Consulting Rooms of Dr. M T Shieff

“I am sympathetic to your position, but I also have ethical considerations.” As he spoke Doctor Martin Shieff was thinking about a solution that could accommodate this young man. He liked him. His daily fodder was the anxious and the depressed but here he faced somebody who seemed to be in control, albeit directing his considerable intellect towards antisocial behavior.

Tau Gamma Beta
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Hayley had been all lined up to board with a relative who had a place right near college and I was all set to be in the Pi Theta Kappa fraternity, being a provisional member, but things had not gone right for either of us. What do you do in a crisis? You get drunk.

“I learned something about Pi Theta Kappa today,” I complained. “They are a bunch of arrogant pricks! In particular, that Dylan Hobbs, who seems to be the leader of the pack. He has it in for me.”

Lolita Revisited
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I never thought that this kind of thing happened for real, but there are strange people out there.

I suppose my mother was strange too. She always had a hankering to see me dressed as a girl. She told me that she did it when I was a baby, dressing me in pink just because she liked to hear people say: “What a pretty little girl”. Any chance to put me in a dress for Halloween or fancy dress she always said: “Go as a princess. Let me get you the outfit.”

The Way to Go
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Sex is one of the major drivers of humanity – in fact, it is the first driver. Money and power came later. They are social constructs. Sex is why we exist. We are here because of it, and our purpose is driven by it.

The Purity of Judgment
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

They were about as unalike as two men can be. Milo Laconda was tall and dark, powerfully built and with a swagger and deep throated laugh. He was recently divorced and that had knocked him back financially, but he was up and running again with the business and product that had he had developed – Laconda Plumbing Supplies – suppliers of the “Laconda Flush”.

A Woman’s Work
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I had always wanted to be an artist. I guess I felt that I was creative, but what I really liked was the idea of flicking a little paint onto canvas and selling it for $10,000. It struck me that it could be so easy if I had talent.

Straight
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

The first thing that I did was come straight out and tell my family that I was gay. I guess a lot of guys have real difficulty with this, but at the end of the day you just have to get it over with. You have to be straight. As it turned out, it went well. My Dad was not surprised – in fact, he was almost relieved. It seemed to explain everything about me.

The Editor
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

It was my fourth Marion Potter book and at the end I found my eyes full of tears. It was unusual for me because while I can be as emotional as the next man, I was editing. I was looking for spelling and grammar and inconsistencies. When you are doing that, it is usually hard to get caught up in the story. It should be just words. But they were words that I did not realize had caught me in their web and were now winding me up in silk.

Indian Rapunzel
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

My family are Hindu rather than Sikh but I knew Jasprit as another Indian boy attending our high school a year behind me. But because I took a year off for travel, we started college at the same time.