OTHER SHORT STORIES
by Carole Nelson Douglas
(None of these stories have either Midnight Louie or Irene Adler in them.)
Story |
Book(s) where found |
| Alice Holds the Cards |
First Lady Murders1999, edited by Nancy Pickard |
| Catch a Falling Angel |
Angel Christmas1995, edited by Mary Balough |
| Christmas Magic |
Dreamspun Christmas1994, edited by Marilyn Campbell |
| Cold Turkey |
Wild Women1997, edited by Melissa Mia Hall |
| Dirty Dancing |
Mystery's Most Wanted1997, edited by Mystery Scene Magazine Malice Domestic 41995, edited by Carolyn G. Hart Death Dance2002, Edited by: Trevanian Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, fifth annual edition1996, Mystery Scene staff |
| Lawn and Order |
Deadly Housewives 2006, edited by Christine Matthews |
| Night Owl |
Past Lives, Present Tense1999, edited by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. |
| Scrogged: A Cyber Christmas Carol |
Death By Dickens2004, edited by Anne Perry |
| Shadows of My Father |
Fathers & Daughters1999, edited by Jill Morgan |
| Special Surprise Guest Appearance By . . . |
Murder By Magic2004, edited by Rosemary Edghill |
| Strangers in a Strange Land |
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Biblical Mystery Stories2005, edited by Anne Perry |
| Sunset: A Monologue in One Act |
Marilyn: Shades of Blonde1997, edited by Carole Nelson Douglas |
| Texas Bound |
Forever Texas2000, edited by Mike Blakely and Mary Elizabeth Goldman |
| Those Were Pearls That Were His Eyes |
Much Ado About Murder2002, edited by Anne Perry |
Alice Holds the Cards
by Carole Nelson Douglas and friend Jennifer Waddell.
Written about Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Teddy Roosevelt and cousin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This is interesting in that "First Lady Murders" implies a murder mystery, but I didn't find any murder in this story. There was espionage, however. Alice tries to catch a spy; there was no spy caught, but one suspected. Leave it to CND to do things different from everyone else. Still, it is well written and humorous about a woman who doesn't really care about standards society sets for her or in being a "lady". Self willed, I guess you'd call her, smoking, playing poker, and dressing in trousers. I enjoyed the story.
Catch a Falling Angel
This story involves the death of one Adrian Ashworth, aka Lord Heathford, who is somewhat bad, but not bad enough to go to Hell. Certainly not good enough for Heaven. He comes back to earth in another time (1995) as Adrian Lord, a rock singer, to try to be bad enough to get into Hell. There are angels involved, here, including dark angels.Christmas Magic
A romantic fantasy, Melody Johansen buys an old watch, and steps back in time one hundred years. Not sure whether she is dead or alive, or how to get back into her own time, like a ghost, no one can see or hear her. She goes to her home and finds it looking different, a man is using her room now. Gradually her invisibility goes away and she affects the family living there. The watch she bought is still with her, she finds out who owned it and ends up back in her own time, back in her own clothes. The watch is no longer available in her own time, but the Christmas tree from a hundred years ago is so she tries to buy it.Cold Turkey
Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories,
seventh annual edition , 1998, edited by Ed Gorman and Martin
Greenberg
A nurse disassociates to treat a patient and saves another victim.
Dirty Dancing
Linda, a 50 year old widow, goes to an office party and ends up dancing with a guy who does push dancing, a cousin to slam dancing. She is humiliated since she knows nothing about this kind of dancing and ends up falling down, the guy pulls her back up and keeps dancing. This sort of dancing should only be done with people who have practiced it and know what they're doing. She decides to tell the jerk off, so that he doesn't end up hurting the next woman he dances with. He, however, is hard to find, so she ends up playing detective. Everyone tells her to forget him, there's nothing she can do about it anyway. Or is there? Very good ending.
Lawn and Order
A mother in law is relegated to an over the garage loft, her cat is poisoned (accidentally?) and her son's wife is always criticizing her, won't let her do anything useful, and is trying to convince her to go to a home for older people. Everything is about show in this upscale neighborhood. The mother brings a little life into this neighborhood, and death helps a little.Night Owl
Introduces an interesting topic of 'blended' souls. Dr. Chimera, is the first, the souls of a happily married couple are blended into one person. Perhaps one of them died first and the technique was used on the other. It involves taking DNA from one person and somehow inserting it into the brain of another. Dr. Chimera spoke in the combined voices of tenor and alto.The story is about an autistic girl, Athena, whose caretaker tries to help by using 'soul blending' to bring her out of herself into the real world. The DNA from Florence Nightingale is used with mixed results.
This story was hard for me to understand. Perhaps if I had more experience with autism or knew more about Florence Nightingale, I would have enjoyed it more.
Scrogged: A Cyber Christmas Carol
A modern version of Dickens' Christmas Carol - Scroggs is certain that Marlowe was murdered, but how can he prove that it wasn't suicide?Shadows of My Father
Non-fiction: CND recounts memories of her father
Special Surprise Guest Appearance By ...
A great Halloween story. In Las Vegas, an attractive black woman magician, Majika, has an amazing illusion. An older magician, her former mentor, offers her a million dollars if she will tell him how she does it. She agrees, if he will be in the act.
Strangers in a Strange Land
An interesting take on the angel's visiting Sodom and the rescue of Lot
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Sunset: A Monologue in One Act
A monologue while Marilyn Monroe puts on her makeup.
For more info, see the Other Books page.
Texas Bound
Non-fiction: Carole Nelson Douglas recounts moving to Texas from Minnesota
Those Are Pearls That Were His Eyes
World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, fourth annual collection, 2003, edited by Ed Gorman and Martin Greenberg
Title is taken from Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2., indeed, the characters are taken from The Tempest and also The Merchant of Venice. CND's language skills are brilliant, Shakespeare himself would be proud of her. Written as a short play, Antonio is killed, but by whom? The monster Caliban? Leave it to Portia aka Balthasar to discover.