Leaves in the Wind is an anthology of stories and poems from the Denton Writer’s League, a writer’s group in Denton, Texas. Only $17.00 plus shipping.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

Moon Wolf
By Joni Latham

The young woman sighed taking one last look at the warm light spilling from the  castle windows onto the ground below. She shivered a little in night air; she would  miss the castle and some of its inhabitants, but she had grown weary of the way they treated her.

Tightening the leather cinch around the last bundle of her belongings, she reached over and then  picked up the horse’s reins from their place around the saddle horn. There was one last thing to do before she left Ondara and the Castle Tanaria behind forever. Leading her horse to the inlet near the docks, they walked quietly along the shoreline. The moon was full, and its silvery rays shone down  on her warming her tired frame.

She stopped, dropped the reins, and then walked toward an inlet until the toes of her boots were just inches away from the water. Standing quietly for a moment with her hands clasped behind her, she stared up at the glowing orb in the night sky. Was there really a lady in the moon, or was it all just a legend? Her father told before he died that she was the daughter of the moon. The Lady was her mother and the stars, her father. It would at least explained why her hair glimmered with the white light of the stars and her eyes shone with the blue of a night sky while both her parents had hair of ebony and eyes so dark the pupils were almost hidden. Whether it was true or not, it was a nice story. It gave her comfort on nights such as these and explained why she was so different from the other children in the castle…

Scorpion
by Shanaz Dass
Scorpion’s sting on tempered lips
So is my wifely kiss
Unmelting ice in your heated palm
Charred flesh has become.
Conquest over will and won’t
Oh, grains of diamonded salt!
Orphans of parents nearby,
Festering, wrenching bile-
Cursed obedience to wedded vows.

Lulu-Bell and the Great Bar-B-Q
by Crystalwizard
I’m so bored, even them tumbleweeds out there blowin’ cross the desert is havin’ more fun! Ain’t nothin’ ta do in this two-bit town, not since ma cousin Lulu-Bell set the whole durn thing on
fire!
Used ta be, this was a right nice town. Had a pool hall, swimmin’ pool and even a Chucky Cheese. Come an evenin’ ya’d find the guys at the pool hall, the teens at the swimmin’ pool and the little kids with their maws at the Chucky Cheese. Sumin’ fer everyone and we did all right.

Now a for I go any further, let me explain’ ‘bout my cousin Lulu-Bell. That gal, she’s got a wild hair  up both sides a her nose and they’s constantly a quiverin’. Normal folks run an hide when she shows up, cause they’s always trouble ‘bout ta happen. She don’t live here, she lives out in the boonies with a bunch a dogs big enuff ta ride on and a mule. She comes ta visit me though, and once in a while I don’t see her truck in time ta hide.
That’s what happened this one night, ‘bout two months back. I was jest settin’ down ta a right nice supper a bar-b-que ribs and tater salad, when the door bell started ringin’. Sounded like some kid was standin’ on ma porch, leanin’ on the thing with stick. Don’t take too much more’n that to announce Lulu-Bell’s presence and I knowed right then I was in trouble…

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