Twenty short stories and three full-length plays celebrating the mighty underdog!
SAMPLE SHORT STORIES
“Forth”
Louis learns early on how politics work against him. Using a time machine to travel back to Williamsburg, VA, in 1776 to even the score… for everyone.
“The Council may, by majority Vote, recall, dismiss, and provide for the immediate replacement of any representative who betrayeth the Public Trust… The Fourth branch of government was open for business.”
“Taming The Paper Tiger”
Archie changes the world by demanding that companies that send junk mail pay residents for its disposal.
“According to this, you sorted, opened, and disposed of 357 mailers from us, which took you fifteen hours at $1,000 an hour,” she said.
“Exactly,” Archie said. “I’d like to be paid now, in small bills, please.”
“You don’t work for us,” she said.
“Yes, I do.”
“Clink”
Captivating Bryonny sells Jacob the antibellum farmhouse he’s always wanted. Was it too good to be true? He’ll find out on Halloween night.
“On the sill, she had scrawled ‘Come to me, Jacob’ in dark crimson. Ghostly wind blurred the reflection. Dread and desire fought in my stomach.”
“Dad Versus The Refrigerator”
Rebecca and Lu are hungry, but there’s nothing to eat. Can Dad help without using too many rhymes?”
“Dad took a deep breath and began to inspect. I see a stash of mashed potatoes. There’s a trickle of pickle and a gram of spam. A flumpkin of pumpkin and a crate-o tomatoes. Near-e-oos a box of Cheerios.”
“Glamour Loch”
A hot summer day sends Lochlyn and Douglas on a search for cool water. They discover much more.
“Swim to the center and float on your back. Relax your body and feel yourself sinking through me to the sandy bottom. When you touch bottom, reach for the portal wheel and turn.”
“Because, Hey, It’s Almost Christmas“
A man goes shopping on Christmas Eve and decides to buy himself an adult gift when he encounters the never-say-die employee of the year.
“Finally, you reach the last item. Your anxiety spikes. In a moment of brilliance, you decide to abandon the purchase, setting the small box on the station’s ledge. As you take out your debit card, a frantic shopper bumps their oversized cart into the back of your station. In the collision, the item slides off the ledge and lands face down on the scanner.
“Super Stud Penis Ring, five dollars and ninety-seven cents!”
“The Dogwood Dell Direction”
Dogs from the planet Canus solve the Richmond, VA parking shortage in a plot to conquer the Earth.
““Exactly,” JD said, setting a mahogany box on the table and pulling out a sample labeled ‘REX 3000’ that shimmered under the fluorescent lights. “Placement is critical, but the secret is ‘Intella-Smell.’”
“Waffling Toward Crispy”
Extolling the virtues of relationships…with our appliances.
“I’ll never fall in love with a food processor, at least not yet, and in return, they will never break my heart. There’s something to be said for a sure thing.”
“Keeping Time”
A would-be victim and a would-be mugger get lost in a philosophical discussion.
“‘My initial intent was to use my gun to hold someone up.’
‘What gun?’
‘The one in my pocket.’
‘Which pocket?’
‘Left.’
‘Hey, are you a lefty?’
‘In some things.’”
“To Hell Strip and Back“
When their insurance company denies a life-saving treatment for their 2-year-old son. A couple buys the grass strip outside headquarters and puts up a toll booth.
““My membership card?”
“Yes.”
“But I don’t have one.”
“You have to request it.”
“How do I do that?”
“The steps are listed on your membership card,” she said.
“If I don’t have one, how can I look up the steps?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but you’ll need to visit our website for self-service. I am only allowed to speak with a customer for so long. I can’t let you monopolize my time.”
“But I’m the only one here.”
“Musculus Theatri“
Theatre mouse Sally leads a tour through Winchester Little Theatre.
” The roles I play are like the parsley that comes with a meal. Not the meal, just a little color.”
“The Hummingbird Centerpiece“
When challenged by a MENSA puzzle. It’s better to know what you don’t know, you know?
Desperate to have their names listed on the Welcome To Winchester sign, Tecumseh and Sherman teach deer to use crosswalks. You trackin’.
“They done studies up at Shenandoah University, and deer are what they call ‘auto-immune,’ which is a fancy way of sayin’ vehicles are invisible to ‘em.”
“We owe it to our four-legged friends to preserve the precious gift of life bestowed upon them,” Tecumseh said. “So we can hunt ‘em down later.”
PLAYS
POETRY
ALBUMS
About the Author
GL Thomas wrote the upmarket business thriller Killing the Corporation and the upmarket suspense novel Breaking the Surface. His fiction draws on a thirty-year career as a healthcare consultant advising Fortune 500 companies and reflects his deep belief in triumph over adversity. A prolific, multidisciplinary creator, Thomas writes as a therapeutic practice, channeling his lifelong lived experience with anxiety and depression into stories and music featuring victorious, unlikely heroes. His portfolio includes twenty short stories, ten stage plays, three alternative rock albums, and one rock opera. He lives and works in Virginia. Find him online at [griffthomasauthor.net].
A healthcare consultant uncovers a web of fraud inside a Fortune 500 company — and discovers that the most dangerous enemy isn’t the corporation itself, but the person closest to him. A taut, upmarket business thriller about loyalty, whistleblowing, and the cost of doing the right thing.
“He had spent thirty years advising companies on how to survive. He never imagined he’d spend the next thirty trying to survive one.”
“The data didn’t lie. People did. And the people who lied best were the ones who’d built their careers on telling others the truth.”
Desperate to have their names listed on the Welcome To Winchester sign, Tecumseh and Sherman teach deer to use crosswalks. You trackin’.
“They done studies up at Shenandoah University, and deer are what they call ‘auto-immune,’ which is a fancy way of sayin’ vehicles are invisible to ‘em.”
“We owe it to our four-legged friends to preserve the precious gift of life bestowed upon them,” Tecumseh said. “So we can hunt ‘em down later.”
An upmarket suspense novel about a man who discovers that the serene lake town he escapes to is hiding something beneath its surface — and that the closer he gets to the truth, the more his own past comes apart. A story about guilt, grief, and whether the light at the end is salvation or a trap.
“The water looked bright enough to swim toward. It wasn’t until he was in it that he realized bright water casts the darkest shadows.”
“She said the town had a memory. What she meant was that the town had a grudge.”
“He had come here to forget. He had not counted on the lake remembering for him.”
“Bright things float. It’s everything underneath that tells the truth.”
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