Short Stories - Fiction

Off we go into the wild blue yonder... with Henry M. Schmidt as your pilot. He presents a collection of stories with a flying theme that range from those giving an unsettling feeling they could be all too real - to ones so humorous they make you wonder if his cockpit compass is still pointing due North... Fasten your seatbelt and enjoy your flight of imagination!

Mystical Tales of the South is comprised of a collection of myths, legends, and folklore situated in Western North Carolina. This is Patricia’s 3rd collection of short stories.

Learn about the traditions and local myths of Fontana Lake’s man-eating monster, the Boojum of Swain County, or the Healer of Tuckasegee, and much more.

Discover the mystery behind the Brown Mountain Lights, the Clurichaun, and the birthing of the Smoky Mountains. Grab a cup of coffee and settle in for an eye-opening experience.

Magic under the Willow Tree is a short story written by Verna Humphrey. This is her third published story.

Dreams occur within our sleep and sometimes our dreams are motivated by things that trigger the subconscious mind. Sometimes, our dreams can be manipulated, in which this case is of manipulation through magic. In this story, set around New Orleans, unseen forces are at work within the dreams of two people. The reader can only imagine how these unknown forces will span across time and affect this couple.

Henry M. Schmidt has written a variety of stories about people that will enlighten some readers and entertain most. He writes about those folks who wander aimlessly thru life not thinking about having a purpose or a plan for success, and others that do.

There are stories that show the best side of individuals and some that can’t hide the fact that there are unfortunately those who are beyond saving and lead dangerous and often sad lives. The struggle to just get along with society is an ongoing fact of life... some succeed while others are almost certain to fail.

He hopes you will understand and accept the honest feelings that he has included in each and every tall tale about life.

Our first story is called White Shine of Appalachia. Take a journey, with our nameless narrator, through the towns of Baconton, Georgia to Rabun Gap, Georgia. Our narrator struggles with domestic violence, moonshining, and a somewhat voluptuous school teacher accused of sleeping with her husband. The ATF and DEA are hot on her husband’s trail for attempted murder. She now must a make a decision in order to survive her husband’s rampage, which ends in the mountains of Appalachia.

Our second story is called Small Town Girl. A young divorcee, Gwen, is trying to make a new life for herself. Gwen leaves the only life she has ever known to take a job in another state. Unforeseen events bring about some twists and turns, and Gwen has to face her past once again.

By: Patricia H. Graham

Hillbilly Tales from the Smoky Mountains includes several short stories based on the folklore of the Appalachian Mountains. Before the time of cell-phones, computers and television, family members would gather on the front porch and offer up stories through simple oral traditions. These stories were to provide simple forms of entertainment to their children. With each generation, the stories become more elaborate and creative. These yarns became known as Appalachian folklore. Mountain people have always led a difficult life; but how they dealt with their struggles is a unique perspective on Appalachian people.

Also, in this book you will find a small section on mountain medicinal treatments and hillbilly proverbs, which were carried over from mother to daughter down the family line. Knowledge of apothecary, or also known as mountain medicine, was necessary to treat family members who became ill while the local doctor was away visiting two towns over. Most importantly, no decent self-respecting mountain folk would ever go unprepared without offering up advice to help their fellow neighbor. Wise sayings or hillbilly proverbs go hand-in-hand with mountain medicine and is given to anyone who might need guidance in their daily life.

The second part of the book includes a special story written by one of the original descendants of the Crowe Family, Ms. Verna Humphrey. This short piece of fiction centers around a light romance based right after the end of the Civil War. The setting takes place in Green Cove and it presents a time of struggle and death while a young girl, Charlotte, struggles to regain her birthright during these trying times. When a young lawyer enters upon the scene, Charlotte’s interpretation of birthright takes on a whole new meaning. Now she must make some hard decisions that will alter the course of her life.

When we die we are just dead. Are we? We never come back in spirit much less reincarnated. Do we not? Of those of us who have had spiritual personal experiences some will admit to it and others will not. Why not? There are those who believe, those who are in doubt, and those who do not believe and that is the end of it for them. In these pages we also expose a spiritual center as the ultimate in charlatanism. We have some touching moments when a non-believer suddenly believes. More is revealed when a group of students are presented with the smiling face of one of their own who has already passed on. Dearly Departed Blessedly Returned deals with these issues. The revelations may shock and challenge...

Sunset Memories is a compilation of easy reading short stories. It will reawaken memories for everyone... some good and perhaps a few sad ones.

There are themes to the stories that have been taken liberally by the author to bring back musical times from our past.

Hopefully, those romantic days and nights will leave the reader with a warm feeling for the characters involved, and perhaps you may feel similar to one of them yourself.

Please enjoy the remembrances...

The reader will find an assortment of tall tales that are both realistic and of pure fantasy.... It is the author’s hope that you read all of the material and find for yourself those that ring a certain bell within your own self being.... there is plenty to analyze if you care to and many more that are for the pure sake of reading pleasure.

Enjoy those that leave you with a smile on your face, and peruse those that make you think about the possibilities of them being likely to happen in the near future.

This book is a work of fiction based on experiences of my younger days as I remembered them. Friends surrounded me through my life. The friends of my youth were a joy worth more than all the gold in this world. A simple playground filled with laughter and joy. Relationships fueled by respect, love, and knowledge where loneliness has no part or place in life. Some of my childhood friends are no longer living, yet their spirits are as real as our memories. When we have a memory, no one is completely gone. My prayer is in some small way I leave a happy memory with those whom I have the pleasure of knowing and this book opens the vault of their memories as well as the memories of any person who reads it. Joy and laughter are keys to the universe. God is happy when his creation loves and has compassion for each other.

Set in Mississippi, David and Other Stories is a collection of interwoven stories about boyhood and adolescence, and the ghosts of poverty and child abuse that follow the author into adulthood.