Books and Anthologies
“Joy and tragedy are flip sides of the same coin. If you insulate yourself against the pain of feeling one, you deny yourself the ability to feel the other.” ~ Kelly Grayson
En Route showed you the beginning, now On Scene gives you an insider’s view into the growth of a man and a medic. No longer the idealistic and often arrogant medic he was, an older and wiser Kelly Grayson continues the stories of a career spent serving humanity at its worst – and best. On Scene brings us more of Grayson’s unique blend of humor and tragedy, pathos and profanity, an unflinching look at what it means to be a paramedic. From the elation of restoring a pulse where there was none moments before to the pain of telling a family that their loved one has died, Grayson shows us the power and the passion of being a responder and the struggle to retain his humanity when the tragedy he sees threatens to burn it away entirely.
A small-town cop, a paramedic and a nurse work feverishly to save the teenaged victims of a drunk driving accident. A medic sees himself in the face of an overdose victim and confronts his own demon of addiction as he, a cop and an ER nurse struggle to save just one victim of the opioid epidemic. A medic, a hospice nurse and a physician confront the issue of death with dignity when called upon to resuscitate a terminal cancer patient on Christmas morning. An ER doctor and a medic try to survive the coronavirus pandemic with their health, their humanity and their careers intact, with the help of the therapist treating them.
You’ll read these stories and more in Perspectives, Volume I, a collection of stories told from the unique perspectives of its three authors. These events are not fictional, but they may have happened at different times, with different patients, at different places. Each one of the authors has had patients just like these, in situations just like those described. If you want to know what it’s like to live a day in the life of a paramedic, or a cop, a nurse, or a physician, you’ll enjoy reading Perspectives, Volume I.
It’s the same story. On the same night. With the same people. This is what we do, and working with quiet heroes like these is one of the reasons we do it.
Steven "Kelly" Grayson has seen the best of us at our worst. When hearts stop working, when blood alcohol levels exceed limits we shouldn’t contemplate, when bodies are extricated from car wrecks, he's been there to pick up the pieces, save our lives, and watch us slip away.
En Route is an unflinching look at the heart of a paramedic and the profession that shaped him. Grayson’s touching stories of life and death and the hilarious ones of times in between are here to give us an insight of what happens after we call 911, the ambulance doors close, or even what happens inside the ER when the nurse shows the family to the waiting room.
A cop, a 911 dispatcher and a nurse struggle with the emotional burden of a terrible call, powerless to share the details with their families. A medic, a cop and an ER doctor labor to save an alcoholic from herself. The public safety community is rocked when one of their own dies in the line of duty. A medic, a nurse and a doctor struggle with the aftermath of an unsuccessful resuscitation.
You'll read these stories and more in Perspectives, Volume II, a collection of stories told from the unique perspectives of its three authors. These events are not fictional, but they may have happened at different times, with different patients, at different places. Each one of the authors has had patients just like these, in situations just like those described. If you want to know what it’s like to live a day in the life of a paramedic, or a op, a nurse, or a physician, you’ll enjoy reading Perspectives, Volume II.
It’s the same story. On the same night. With the same people. This is what we do, and working with quiet heroes like these is one of the reasons we do it.
In the Dakota Territory, a U.S. Marshal haunted by his past works desperately to discover who is behind a weaponized smallpox plague and stop an incipient Sioux uprising.
A Serbian policeman, at war with terrorists as well as his conflicting loyalties, races against the clock in Sarajevo to stop the terrorists intent on setting off World War I.
A gifted New Orleans paramedic finds himself embroiled in the bloody drug cartel wars on the U.S./Mexico border, battling a new kind of plague he does not understand.
All three men have two things in common: the archangel that rides shotgun in their heads, and the fallen angel they’re pursuing.
It’s a battle as old as time, with the fate of mankind hanging in the balance.
“Denny’s and IHOP are Waffle Houses for people who can’t fight.” ~ Kelly Grayson
Welcome to Random Synapses: Book 1 of Short Attention Span Theatre. This compilation of short stories and novellas is a gift to my loyal readers who have faithfully read everything I publish online, and for those few diehards who spurn e-readers and faithfully wait for publication of the print version.
In it, you’ll find the exploits of Sergeant Cecil Dundee the combat wombat and his comrades-in-arms, Aloysius Q. Fortenberry the Waffle Haus Sheriff and his fellow W.H.I.S.S.C. operatives, loving odes to Generation X in the cane fields of Cajun country, a few backstories in the Sumdood universe, and more. I hope you giggle as much reading them as I did writing them.
Enjoy.
Kindle Short Stories
Cecil the Combat Wombat
Cecil the Combat Wombat:
The Warrumbungle Campaign
Cecil the Combat Wombat:
Platypus Platoon
He didn’t ask for cartilaginous ass plates, but military science made him a warrior. And late at night when the nightmares come of innocents killed or twerking an enemy to death in a dark tunnel, he tells himself he did it to protect the other wombats in his unit. He sucks it up, soldiers on and does his duty.
He’s Cecil the Combat Wombat, and he’s seen some shit, man.
​
Primary rule of leadership: get the right man for the job.
Or in this case, the right woman.
After the Battle of Wombeya Caverns, Cecil the Combat Wombat and his detachment of covert subterranean marsupials are given a new tasking; infiltrate and shut down a clandestine uplifting lab in the Warrumbungle region that is responsible for engineering savage honey badgers and Tasmanian Devils. It's a mission rife with peril, and Cecil and platoon sergeant McMurtrie soon discover that there are some tunnels where even a wombat may fear to go.
But the enemy didn't count on Cecil's secret weapon: Herpestes javanicus sapiens, the uplifted mongoose.
Move over Rikki Tikki Tavi, because these ladies are about to show the world what real courage is all about.
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Serving with distinction in the military may earn you medals and promotions, but it also earns you more headaches. The reward for a job well done is more work, and our hero Cecil is discovering that as the new project officer for P.U.S.S., or Project for Utilization of Sentient Species, the Australian Army’s newest effort to integrate uplifted animals into combat and support units. Not only does he have to ride herd on a force of felonious wombats and a detachment of deadly mongeese, the newest addition of uplifted Australian indigenous species may prove to be his biggest challenge yet or just the remedy for ARM’s latest threat.
The action is bloody and the stakes have never been higher as Cecil and his cohorts stand up… Platypus Platoon.
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Cecil the Combat Wombat:
Wombat Prime
Long before Sgt. Cecil Dundee and LCpl. Ian McMurtrie there was the first uplifted wombat, a warrior who clawed, fought and scratched his way up the chain of command in the Australian Army. Before he was Colonel Brian Lee Gnad, he was once a proud member of the E4 Mafia, and his skill, leadership and bravery earned him a place of legend in the Australian military.
He was a lootin', shootin', riggin', diggin' combat wombat, and his men called him Wombat Prime.
​
Scattered, Smothered and Spellbound:
Battle of Waffle Haus 814
Ever been to Waffle Haus at 3:00 am and... wondered... about some of the specimens of humanity observed there? Well, there's a good chance they weren't human at all, but thanks to the good graces of Faerie, all supernatural creatures look more-or-less human while they enjoy their scattered, smothered and covered hash browns. They don't always get along, though, and sometimes it requires extraordinary men and women to keep the peace.
There's a new Sheriff at Waffle Haus, and he's not going to take any guff from the clientele.
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Scattered, Smothered and Spellbound: Siege of Waffle Haus 1347
I'm Aloysius Q. Fortenberry, Sorcerer of the Seven Clans, Senior W.H.I.S.S.C Operative, Sheriff for the Texas district. You may remember me from Battle of Waffle Haus 814. W.H.I.S.S.C. stands for Waffle Haus Internal Supernatural Security Corps. We're charged with keeping the peace among the supernatural community that patronizes our diners, and to never EVER let the secret out that not everybody you see at Waffle Haus at 3:00 am is drunk, stoned, or inbred. Some of them look that way because they're not human at all.
Some days, it's easier to maintain operational security than others. We rely on powerful Faerie glamour and happy W.H.I.S.S.C. operatives to keep the secret, but when both of those things fail, the feces can strike the thermal agitator. On those days we gotta get creative, because the #1 Rule is: Don't scare the straights.
After all, everybody is welcome at Waffle Haus.
​
Scattered, Smothered and Spellbound:
They Call Me Tully
They call me Tully, and I was the first Waffle Haus Sheriff. I've been policing monsters, mixing pancake batter and scrambling eggs since the whole thing began. Nowadays my job is senior recruiter for WHISSC, the Waffle Haus Internal Supernatural Security Corps.
It's challenging work. The labor pool of folks capable of holding their own against rowdy Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, Werewolves and the odd Ghoul or Wendigo ain't exactly deep, but I've got an eye for talent. A WHISSC operative has to be a formidable fighter and above all, have good diplomacy and conflict-resolution skills.
This is Waffle Haus, after all. Everybody's welcome here.
​
Halfling for Hire
It ain't easy being the only private dick in Edgebottom. It's even harder when you're a halfling. It's not all epic quests and plundering troll hoards, you know. I spend my days drinking ale and puttering about town and my nights recovering stolen property, finding people who don't want to be found and whatnot. It's all rather mundane, really. I share the odd pint and a pipe with the local Waffle Haus Sheriff, and he steers business my way when he can.
Like the books say, we halflings have a talent for going unseen if we wish. As the movie said, I've got a particular set of skills, skills that make me a nightmare for people who... well, you get the idea. If I do my job right, the Big People never notice me. And if I don't... well, that's when I put my faith in my friends Mr. Browning and Mr. Hornady. Generally, it's a pretty easy way to make a buck; not dangerous or adventurous or anything.
That is, until she walked in...
Things That Go Bump In the Night
Every kid has felt them, the nameless things that lurk in the dark, hiding in the shadowy corners of you bedroom as you sleep, daring you to stick out an arm and a leg, let the blankets hang off the edge of the bed, leave the closet door open... anything.
Scary movies are nothing compared to a kid's imagination in the dead of the night when they hear a strange noise. Mostly it's just like your parents say; it's the wind, or a shadow cast by a toy, or the drapes blowing in the breeze.
And sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's the things that go bump in the night.
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Call of the Rougarou
When the blood moon rises and awakens the rougarou, good Catholic boys gotta do what they must, and it's more than following the rules of Lent so they don't become no rougarou themselves. You gotta have a brave and true heart, and a helluva lot of firepower.
And sometimes, even that ain't enough.
​
The Nosferatu Interrogative
The current WIP a short story about a vampire who exacts revenge on the high school English teacher who ruined his life.
Or does he?
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Story Title Twelve
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Kelly Grayson Elsewhere
Gravestones
Fourteen stories of surviving and healing from PTSD. Fiction has the power to give us an escape from where we are, and an ability to envision where we could be. None of these are easy stories, but all offer hope, and healing, for those who need to see a path through the fog of pain.
Winter Wings
Twenty-one tales of hunting, fishing, and trapping make this volume of stories big enough to hold a drink in one hand while you read it. Tales range from side-splitting hilarity to poignant musings on dogs too good to be true. Fully illustrated, each story is accompanied by a picture of the critters, landscape, or events within. Tide yourself over until the next hunting season with stories of how it was, and is, when you're out in the wild testing the wiles of hunter versus prey.
Homecoming
Something about the rugged individualism of the cowboy strikes a chord in us all. A certain romanticism exists in the feeling that cowboys inhabit a simpler world; one that’s clearer, brighter and makes more sense than our day to day existence.
Cowboys have a certain reckless reputation and that doesn’t fade away when you move them into space and onto alien worlds. Men and women who face hardships and rope a living out of an unforgiving landscape without waiting for orders from a distant authority. They do what needs to be done and take care of their animals, their people, and themselves.
Join us for ten more stories about cowboys who have headed for the stars and distant planets.
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Sprite
Come for the laughter, stay for the next generation's induction into the ancient art of hunting for the table. Twenty tales of hunting, fishing, trapping, and wilderness adventures will remind you why what was once practiced for survival became a sport, and is coming back around as people remember why we respect the creatures that keep us alive. For one thing, it's the pratfalls that come along with all the serious notions. You can't help but laugh along with these stories of how it went wrong in the most hilarious of ways!
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Sumdood Chronicles: Side Quest Malta
Malta. Alchemists, Saints and Heroes have all made their way to this place, defended its walls, and added to its ranks of ghosts and lore.
Besieged, battered, and bombed, this archipelago has seen every tide of war, turmoil, and more than a few bits of piracy. It's also been the land of courage, resilience, and grace under fire.
Ten authors have set out to bring you tales of the ghosts of Malta past, present, and future. Open the pages and meet the ancient guardians, ghost cats and inter dimensional spies that will be your guide...
Sumdood Chronicles: Siege of Malta
Malta. An island full of history and mystery. Conquered, invaded and defended through every age, it’s a place that inspires the very best and the very worst humanity has to offer. Join these authors as they explore Magic and Mayhem, Saints and Demons, battling over the legendary island of Malta.
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Castle Doctrine
Everybody loves the femme fatale; the tough-as-nails dame with the smoky voice and the legs that go on forever – almost as much as they love the cynical gumshoe with the strict moral code and the tiniest soft spot in his heart.
Hard-boiled detective fiction – America’s gift to literature – was introduced to the world in the middle of the Roaring Twenties, allegedly reached its height in the 1950s; and if you listen to the pundits, died out with the pulp magazines.
Hogwash. Hardboiled detective fiction lives on in its offspring: the roman noir, film noir, neo-
noir, Mediterranean noir, and last – but certainly not least – cyberpunk.
Join these 8 authors as they explore the world of the hard-boiled detective and the dames they love.
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A Father's Promise
There's a question every parent faces and dreads; what would they do to protect their children? What lengths would they go to in order to make sure their children survive? And how would they avenge them if they couldn't?
Or All Will Burn contains stories that explore these questions through space, time, and species. Join these 11 authors as they dive into the depths a parent will go to for their children.
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Inside Me Are Two Wolves...
Come on, guys! Furries? ME??? Anyway, made ya' look and I will not judge if you clicked that image hoping to be led to a purchase link. Well okay, I will judge, just a little...