Harvey Stanbrough was born in New Mexico, seasoned in Texas and baked in Arizona. For a time, he wrote under five personas and several pseudonyms, but he takes a pill for that now and writes only under his own name. Mostly.
Harvey is an award-winning writer who follows Heinlein’s Rules avidly. He has written and published over 60 novels, 8 novellas, and over 200 short stories. He has also written 16 nonfiction books on writing, and he’s compiled and published 31 collections of short fiction and 5 critically acclaimed poetry collections.
To see his other works, please visit HarveyStanbrough.com.
For his best advice on writing, see his Daily Journal at HEStanbrough.com.
This 5-story collection includes 4 short stories and a novelette. All are westerns. Four are historical and one is contemporary. The contemporary one also has a touch of magic realism. Enjoy!
This 10-story collection is all psychological suspense. Some of these storie are humorous, some perhaps a bit frightening, and at least one is somewhat lascivious. All delve into the human psyche.
This 10-story collection runs the gamut from the hokey to the humorous, the wannabes to the would'a-beens, the chilling to the childish to the deadly serious. There are 8 stories from Harvey and 2 from his borderline psychotic persona, Eric Stringer. Come along for some fun.
The mob boss wants to test a rookie driver and maybe teach him a lesson too. How to Get the Boss Out of Harm's Way 101. Surely nothing will go wrong. Surely.
Charlie Pilsen is on the top of his game and the top of the world as an outlaw in the 1880s Texas panhandle. He'll visit with his only living sibling, then hit the score that will make him wealthy for the rest of his life. Then it all begins to come unraveled.
Is Time, like Space, a maleable factor? With Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle disproven and set aside, the way is clear to test the Theorum of Interspatial Travel Through Miniaturization and Recovery (ITTMAR). And Adam Trenton is ready to pick up where the first Traveler left off. The Guide’s calculations are precise, so the trip should be routine. But it isn't. It's far from routine.
Superiors order a Border Patrol captain to stand down regarding gun shipments across the border. But when he receives a hot tip from a contact regarding a gun-runner, he sets up an ambush with a few friends. But nothing is what it seems. Manuel Vallejo is not hauling guns. He is there to deliver a chilling personal challenge. And Arizona Ranger Dale Crowley has no choice but to accept.
In this intense short story, when Basilone Thompson's fight manager dies, a new manager shows up to take his place. The Big Bass can hardly believe his good fortune. His rise through the ranks is meteoric. But is anything ever quite what it seems?
In this frantic short story, as opening credits roll and Matt Dillon sets up for the opening showdown, gunfire sounds in the front yard. What do you do? Probably not what this guy did.
Many of us wish it were a month ago or a year ago, but of course, with the stipulation that we know then what we know now. But what would it really be like to know then what you know now? Actually, there are some very good reasons time works as it does.
This is an intense short story. As man lay dying in the hospital, he thinks back over his life and his twelve children. He has divided them into two groups, The Needy Greedy gang and the good kids. By the end, he comes to some new conclusions.
This is a political spoof. A career politician gives an inspiring campaign speech, sort of, and has the audience eating out of her hand, until something wholly unexpected but richly deserved happens.
In Agua Perlado, even with his children grown and heading off to college in Mexico City, Wes can still sit a good horse and ride wild in a just cause. His draw hasn't lost any speed or his aim any accuracy. Will the final Talbot in the family line turn out to be a good guy or a bad guy? Will he remember the role Wes played in his early life? Will it matter?
An American expatriate takes a chance wandering the streets of a foreign town. He's looking for a contact for a local Resistance group who needs help. These are men who go to the war most days and stay home with their families on other days. These are men who are called on when other men simply will not do.
What happens to the earth when we're attacked by aliens from outer space? Independence Day? But what if they don't come in space ships, ray guns blazing? What if they are much smaller than the millions of mibrobial creatures we breath in every day? And what if they're deadly on contact?
Johnny's about to get luckier than he's ever gotten. And with the new girl in school, a leggy wonder who sends his imagination to places it's never been. When he finally gets her alone, she's even more than he hoped for. Up to a point.
Two officers stop by a party to ask the revelers to quiet the music and they do. But one officer, a new guy on the force, is flirting with one of the partygoers. Or is she flirting with him? Perhaps Julie isn't quite the nice girl she seems to be. Perhaps Dave isn't what he appears to be either.
Charley Bradstreet is a snappy dresser. For a mob guy, he also has strange ideas about how women should be treated. He's always been loyal, but some things go beyond what he's willing to accept.
When a hit man is recalled from Chicago to meet with a high-ranking politician, his new client, he suspects nothing. But should he? Maybe he should have considered her record.
Johnny Trimble rides his cayuse into a western town, on a mission to replace the sheriff. The sheriff isn't all that he seems. But then, neither is Johnny.
He wanted to take a very special "directed immersion" deep into Mexico for his senior trip. But he got considerably more than he bargained for. Come along and see what you think.
What happens when two writers head out for a camping trip in the Gila River Lower Box wilderness? Well, they have to eat. But neither of them eats alone. Each has a full array of characters from which to draw when necessary. Come along and see what happens when these two stop in at the El Charro Café for a bite of breakfast.
Everybody needs friends. But friends come in all shapes and sizes. When World War II aviator Archibald "Packy" Burkhalter seeks out a long-lost friend, he gets a great deal more than he bargained for.
This story, also the first chapter of the forthcoming tenth novel in the Wes Crowley series, opens at a funeral that is very important to Western Z Crowley. In fact, it's one that will change what's left of his life forever. Come along on a last blast as Wes sets out on a vengeance trail.
Big Joey Barbosa has decided to invite his long time colleague, Nick Leonisi, in on a very special deal. A new, previously untapped business venture. But maybe Nick has a different venture in mind. Come along for the ride.
A hard-working detective with a great sense of humor follows a would-be kidnapper into a dead end. But is it a dead end for the perpetrator or for the detective? Come along and find out.
At 8 years old, Jonathan Kirski escaped the second purge of the Jews. But he is ashamed he didn’t die alongside his father.
Now the lunar colony needs an extract from human bones to sustain its construction. To punish himself, Jonathan has chosen to mine the bones of his people in the Siberian fields.
The bodies don’t decay.
The faces are always there.
But Jonathan is prepared.
Are you?
H. Clement Moore is a highly successful businessman who pays a price for his success when his wife admits having an affair. After some thought, he adjusts his priorities. He's on his way home early for the first time in ten years to set things right before he loses her forever. What could possibly go wrong?
All good fiction is character-driven. Learn where to get story ideas and how to write a hook and an opening. Learn how to write captivating settings, scenes and endings. Replete with examples and containing two extremely important writing exercises, this concise book is all you need if you want to learn to write character-driven fiction.
What is the price of a broken heart? When we're very lucky, it's nothing more than lessons learned. When we aren't? Well, suck it up and get over yourself. But that's a story for another time.
Three boys on the verge of manhood are hurrying along a two-rut path in a line of refugees. They encounter an old man sitting alongside the road on a rock. With safety several kilometers to the west and an enemy column advancing only a few kilometers from the east, what is he doing there? To top it off, he's blind. What begins as a game for these young teenage boys becomes much more serious.
In one possible future there is a game show called The Suicide Watch. With teen suicide rates soaring so high even the government can no longer sugar-coat them, that same government teams up with their Hollywood pals to find a way to make money out of the deal. After all, sensational beats tragic, eh?
In this intense, funny, terrifying psychological suspense short story, Eugene and Christopher are at odds about only one topic. What to do about the dead maid on their hotel room floor.
The clearing. It was beautiful. It was remote. It was a perfect setting for magic and romance and the plucking of young, ripe, forbidden fruit. And it was a graveyard.
In this psychological short story, Mr. Wilson appears to have misplaced his mind. But then, why would he appear normal around a pretentious doctor who has completely alienated him? Well, if he could be anymore alienated than he already was.
A man can be nice to a woman without any thought of having sex with her, right? And vice versa? That's Pamela's theory, but will it hold in the presence of a tall, nice, very handsome man? On the night before the finality of her wedding?
In this crime suspense novel, someone is wining and dining women, then feeding them to alligators. But a very special group of people have banded together to stop this person and others like him. Fairly soon we begin to get a clear picture of who the killer is, and even why the killer is on this rampage. What we don't know is how he will eventually be stopped. And by whom.
In this intense short story, the narrator relates a story to his friend about being kidnapped by another mobster. A strange and ironic look at those who live and die by treachery.
This is not your typical Christmas story. The unnamed speaker is unnamed for a reason that becomes clear later in the story. But what he has to say is more interesting than who he is anyway. Why won't he get in the Christmas spirit and just go along? And what's he doing with that shovel?
The Wes Crowley Saga contains every original novel from the Wes Crowley series in order, as well as the original book covers. This is effectively an electronic "boxed set" of ten novels. The Saga spans almost 30 years. It chronicles the adventures of Wes from before he joined the Texas Rangers until he ended up a hero in Mexico.
Not long after Wes Crowley is promoted to corporal, as he's leaving the Amarillo Inn one morning, three bank robbers back out of the bank across the street and directly into his lap. Not a good place to be when you're on the wrong side of the law.
This is a silly short story about a pompous ass who believes himself hopelessly lost in the Amazon Rain Forest. He allows his thoughts to run before he meets up with a group of natives. Then things get very interesting.
In Book 9 of the 11-volume (and counting) Wes Crowley saga, life, love and peril continue. What do a would-be Comanchero from the old days, a much younger man Wes once saved from a life of crime, and a gambler and professional killer from Georgia have in common? Maybe a desire to harm Wes in ways from which he might never recover. Then again, maybe they'll be surprised.
This short story is excerpted and adapted from the novel Leaving Amarillo, the fourth novel in the Wes Crowley series. Western Z Crowley has left the Rangers and is searching for his errant lifelong friend, Otis "Mac" McFadden. As he's riding from El Paso to Las Cruces late one night, would-be banditos are lying in wait. Wes solves the current situation in a manner not entirely expected.
In this intense psychological suspense sf short story, paramilitary fireman Jim Schofield and his men have been tasked with destroying a rebel headquarters. The insertion and the job itself go smoothly enough. The extraction? Not so much.
I can't write an adequate description for a 10-story collection in so few "characters," but Smashwords is too anal to let the book through unless I fill this space so let me just say YES, ENOUGH ALREADY. I KNOW NOT TO PUBLISH A NANOWRIMO BOOK HERE, OKAY? So how about take down the stupid shield already? Jeez, I mean Seriously? Okay, I think maybe that's enough.
five short stories for the price of two.These are five intense short stories. This short description apparently was too short to get into the premium catalogue so i'm adding this. If Smashwords were realistic, I mean how do I compact a description of a five-story collection without just saying it's five stories? I can't even give just the titles in this stupid space. Seriously, lighten up a little