A collection of short stories
Featuring Mona Lamar from my first novel, Sketches from the Heart of a Texas Artist, and her love interest Antoine, a San Pedrano carpenter, born and raised on the island—this collection of stories follows the couple through a myriad of events illustrating the pulse of San Pedro from the back alleys, off the beaten path… the places the tourism board doesn’t want you to know about.
This is the real San Pedro.
you really can’t make this stuff up…
except for the things that I did
The Trade Wind Breeze
Click here to read the story (18 minute read)
Mona Lamar and her significant other, Antoine, travel to a property on the north side of the island so they can have a break from the hustle around town. As Mona settles into her new studio space she realizes that her art is darker than it ever had been. Something was pulling her from her typical vivid, tropical landscapes. Was it the mosquito laden jungle that she was surrounded by, causing more discomfort than she could handle, or was it something else... something in the trade wind breeze?
What Happened to Javi?
Click here to read (15 minute read)
A down on his luck, petty drug dealer has just hours to pay back his boss for a bag of cocaine that he had fronted him. After finding a wet drop, he felt like he had finally been blessed with a changing tide. As he rushes to find a buyer for the drugs, a vendetta from the past resurfaces and he seals his fate with every call he makes.
Jungle of Shallow Graves
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Antoine, being eaten alive by a mistake he made at sea that cost his mother her life, was ready to take his own. He sailed to a jungle on the north part of the island where the sicarios discarded bodies after drug deals gone bad, a place where no one would ever find him. What he ran into made him question everything he thought to be true.
The Carpenter’s Son
Click here to read the story (18 minute read)
When Antoine’s estranged baby mama shows up with their eleven-year-old son—to drop him off so she can move back to Honduras alone, Antoine’s wife, Mona, is forced to step into the role of ‘stepmom.’
Fearfully, Antoine disappears, and Mona follows her intuition and attempts to foster a relationship with the young boy. Stakes rise when she falls victim to neighborhood drug crime and in a moment of pure terror, her efforts prevail.
The Broken Rosary
click here to read the story (14 min read)
The loss of her grandmother’s rosary sent Mona into a spiral of self-pity, frustrated that she had carelessly dropped it in the sand after drinking one too many beers. When the rosary resurfaces around the neck of a Honduran fish cleaner, Mona’s desire to reclaim the symbol of her faith became her mission until she learned why it might serve the fish cleaner far more than it had been serving her.
Blue
Click here to read the story (18 minute read)
A west coast yoga instructor travels to San Pedro for an extended vacation and falls for the guy everyone warned her to stay away from. Entranced by his Creole swagger, she ignored her friends’ advice. “I can change him.” She convinced herself, and it seemed to be true… until it didn’t work.
Into the Deep
Click here to read (25 min read)
Antoine has spun in a downward spiral. Engulfed in a PTSD episode that he refused to find help with, Mona began to seek a relationship with a local dive instructor. Innocent at first, he offers to teach her how to dive. But as they grow closer, his eyes begin to tell her stories about the past. Suddenly entangled in the throes of darkness, Mona has to decide where her loyalty lies.
There’s a saying in Belize: if you don’t listen, you’re going to feel.
click here to read (20 min read)