THE STORY VAULT
Writers tell stories. Sometimes we put them in the form of books. These are mine.
Voices
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The mind is a terrible thing to waste. It is also a terrible place to live. Doubts, fears and paranoid thoughts lurk in the shadows waiting to pounce when you are most vulnerable. Those thoughts whisper words of no escape. But what happens when the mind settles on revenge instead?
From a boy who is bigger than most, but not quite like his father, to a young woman who is battered and untrusting after a brutal assault, to a man whose body is riddled with scars, A.J. Brown’s Voices shines a light into the dark corners of the human psyche. From the voice of the author who brought you Dredging Up Memories, A Stitch of Madness and Cory’s Way.
The Forgetful Man's Disease
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Homer Grigsby is in the twilight of his life. His body is frail, and his brain isn’t as sharp as it used to be. Having outlived his wife and friends, and even his only son, Homer is left with his thoughts on most days. It’s on those days—when he is alone—that Homer’s mind drifts away and the ghosts of the past visit him.
“It’s time to go,” the ghosts say, but Homer resists their calls. Instead, he ventures back in time to a painful memory … and one buried deep in the recesses of his soul …
Dredging Up Memories
In the best of times, loneliness is difficult. At the end of time it can be deadly.
Hank Walker is alone and struggling not just with the undead but with depression that threatens to swallow him. Searching for the family he sent away at the beginning of the rise of the dead, Hank is left to deal with loneliness, desperation, and his own memories that haunt him.
The dead are everywhere. The few people still alive are scattered, and the ones Hank comes across may be more dangerous than the biters.
With an unlikely traveling companion, Hank’s search takes him across the state of South Carolina and to the depths of darkness like nothing he has ever experienced before. Can Hank find his family and survive the biters? Or does he completely unravel in the world of the dead?
A Stitch of Madness
​Madness: extremely foolish behavior.
Imprisoned for the murder of his best friend, Johnny Cleary sets out to tell what happened on the day Bobby “Buster” Lennon died, but are the words he writes true or does the deception run deeper.
Madness: the state of being mentally ill, especially severely.
There is something wrong with Irene. Momma’s dead and a ragdoll speaks to her in a voice that is hauntingly familiar. And what about the stitches, the very things that just might hold Irene together?
Madness: a state of frenzied or chaotic activity.
After an odd stranger pays Robert Wallenger a visit, his world begins to unravel and the past comes rushing back, along with a sickly sweet scent.
There is madness in everyone. For most, the madness never surfaces. For others, all it takes is one thing, big or small, for them to spiral out of control.
Cory's Way
​After his father leaves in the middle of the night, Cory Maddox and his mom, Gina, are forced to start over. Left alone while Gina tries to work her way out of debt, Cory deals with life as the new kid in school with no friends. Fleeing from the school bullies, Cory ends up under an overpass where an old homeless man lives. After being saved from the bullies, Cory and the homeless man, Mr. Washington, become friends.
But things don’t get any easier for Cory. Children are disappearing from around the state, and the bullies haven’t forgotten his escape the first time they went after him. And there is something wrong with Mr. Washington…something terribly wrong.
Accompanied by his only two friends and the unlikeliest of allies, Cory sets out to keep a promise to the ailing homeless man. Will Cory and his friends find a way to keep the promise, or will the journey prove too difficult for them?
Along the Splintered Path
At some point, everyone faces a life altering decision. The right choice can lead to success, or at the very least, happiness. The wrong decision can have a more dramatic and permanent impact, and take you down a dark path to destruction.
Sitting on a roadside curb, Phillip is down on his luck. Homeless, dirty and hungry, he is tired of life kicking him when he is down. His luck is about to change.
Two brothers, maybe not as weary of life, but tired of being broke all the time, take matters into their own hands. A convenience store and a gun in the hands of a nervous person equal a recipe for disaster.
Rekindling a crumbling marriage, James plans a romantic getaway. When things do not go as planned, he leaves and does what every angry man does behind the wheel of a car: speeds. On an icy road in the mountains, anger and speed are a bad combination. With a snowstorm brewing, James must find shelter. A long fall and broken leg makes finding refuge more important. In the middle of the woods sits a makeshift hut, made of tree branches, leaves and packed mud. And what’s inside just might make him wish he were dead.
A young man wrestles with the ghost of his past, an abusive father and a mentally unstable brother. As a last resort, he returns home to confront the evil he left behind. What he finds just may be the end of him.
Climb into the minds of the characters in A.J. Brown’s debut short story collection, Along the Splintered Path. The decision is yours to make.
Southern Bones
Welcome to the South. Recognized for its traditions, beliefs and hospitality. The people are genuine and a helping hand and a home cooked meal are never too far away.
Welcome to the South. Where some traditions are better off forgotten. Where some beliefs are based, not on the Bible, but on what men want you to believe. Where behind the hospitable smiles are angry snarls trailed by the feral snaps of rabid people.
Welcome to the South. Where a house stands lonely on a hill, its owner a man deformed by life. Where children aren’t quite as naïve as they appear. Where the darkest secrets are found within its families, and where dying sometimes isn’t the end. Welcome to Southern Bones, a collection of eleven short stories from the mind of A.J. Brown.
Ball Four
There’s nothing like the sound of a little league ball park. From the dugout chants to the ping of the bat on ball or the heavy smack of a glove making a catch, nothing quite compares to kids playing America’s pastime. It’s the true innocence of the game on display, it’s the real effort to win as a team. Its kids being kids.
Though America’s game is at its best in the Little Leagues, it is also at its most tragic. There’s nothing like losing when your heart is all in. There’s nothing like failure when the game is on the line. But what if winning and losing didn’t matter?
What if it’s a bully getting what he deserves? What if it’s an old ballpark where dreams were once lived out, but now no one plays on? What if it’s a bad pitch or a base not stolen? Or what if it’s just a run short of glory? What if it’s the memory of a game many years in the past?
What if it’s lost innocence?
All We See Is the End
From the minds of A.J. Brown and M.F. Wahl comes two horrific tales of struggle and loss you won't soon forget.
Run For the Flame takes us into a world where an ice age has engulfed everything, driving life underground. The Sanctuary holds the last vestiges of humanity, but its walls are cracking and the ice is slowly encroaching. In their last grasp at survival, the community is forced to send their boys on an all important run for the flame … none have ever returned.
In Purple Haze, a crash landing on an uninhabited planet strands Adira and the surviving members of her crew. Surrounded by a quiet world of blue grass and purple skies, danger lurks within the beauty. Without contact to Earth and light years from home, they encounter a treacherous enemy that threatens to destroy them from the inside out.
Wahl and Brown use their easy styles to draw you in and hold you close. Welcome to their nightmares.