MichaelParkesAuthor author

Gnomes and Knights : A collection of short stories both whimsical and heroic by Michael Parkes

Gnomes and Knights is a book in two parts. Gnomes is a whimsical collection of short stories about Fredrick Jerome Kopillus Gnome and the beautiful garden he calls his home. He's a magical critter who lives in Gertie's garden along with the other denizens, including a mole, a squirrel and a very sassy ant queen. Fred and his friends get up to all sorts of adventures and shenanigans while protecting the garden and venturing into the surrounding areas, like the garden of Gary Gremlin and the forest beyond the fence. With rhyming and magic and whimsy, Gnomes will have you spellbound with delight! Knights is the second part of the book, a tale of a nervous squire becoming an initiate of the Knight's Order and venturing out on a quest to fulfill his dream and his duty of serving his king. At the behest of his king, he sets out to aid the kingdom of Kyrbor in combatting the evil they face. Through cleverness, leadership and courage, Nathan the Knight overcomes obstacles and becomes more confident as he gains allies, helps those he meets along the way, and ultimately faces the cause of the problem head on.

Cheryl by Michael Parkes

A sudden tragedy. A family torn asunder. A woman disillusioned with the formerly comforting, now cloistering, confines of suburbia. Cheryl Decker's life is forever changed by the death of her eldest daughter, as are the lives of her husband, Scott, and surviving daughter, Melinda. Spiraling into multiple addictions, her level-headed best friend Beverly and the chaos loving fellow addict Matilda each comfort her in their own unique ways. Navigating blackmail, PTA meetings and her own demons, Cheryl is forced to do worse and worse things in the pursuit of appeasing crazed blackmailing divorcees, her dead daughter's mystery contact, and discovering why her daughter leapt off the balcony. How well do you really know your neighbours? The suburbanites of Cheryl are sophisticated on the surface, but beneath that thin veneer, there are addictions, hedonism, and ever more sinister predilections... A dark, though at times humorous, story that captures the grim side of living in the "perfect" suburb where not everyone is as prim and proper as they appear to be, nor are they nearly as moral. Contains possibly disturbing scenes and substance abuse.