The Last Appointment: 30 Collected Short Stories

Published by: Munn Avenue Press
Release Date: November 16, 2021
Pages: 170
ISBN13: 978-1735210872
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An emotional spellbinder from the Amazon bestselling author of NOT SO DEAD

The Last Appointment: what happens when a writer discovers that her made-up stories not only predict the future, but put her life and the lives of those around her in mortal danger?

Zombie Phone: A couple enjoying a first date at an upscale D.C. restaurant discover an abandoned iPhone in a planter next to their table. The phone is on and a stranger is listening.

Love in the Park: a true story of the heart-rending discovery of a lost Super8 film found 50 years later.

Heaven+: a strange new streaming service appears on the author’s ROKU. Dare he subscribe?

These are only a few of the 30 mysteries, thrillers, suspense stories, personal reflections, biases, strange twists, rants, love, death, dreams, and memories in this collection of short stories and essays.

"Charles Levin stretches his writing muscles in this collection of short stories, personal tales, and thought-provoking essays. As punchy and to-the-point as his novels, this is a selection easy to pick up and put down anyplace, making the perfect book for on-the-go readers. I was amused and fascinated by turns, and greatly enjoyed seeing another side of Levin's work."
—Jo Niederhoff, San Francisco Book Review

Get your copy of The Last Appointment for an emotional adventure you can’t put down.

Preface

Mysteries, thrillers, suspense, personal reflections, biases, strange twists, rants, love, death, dreams, and memories are all contained in this collection of short stories and essays written over the last few years—pre-, post-, and during the pandemic.

The title story, The Last Appointment, is brand new and has never been published elsewhere. Some stories have appeared on my blog and others have disappeared from that ephemeral space.

Most of the stories are short reads, which pretty much matches my attention span. Feel free to open the collection anywhere and cherry-pick at will, although I do recommend you read the first story first. It will give you a flavor for what’s to come and maybe put you in a magical frame of mind.

Otherwise, the experience of reading these stories is up to you. After publishing four full-length novels and spending time with some of my readers, I found that everyone brings their own life experiences to bear and embraces or reacts to stories in their own very personal way. Some aspects of these tales may resonate with you and others will blow by or even repel you.

Whatever your experience, know that my primary mission is to entertain and then maybe ask or tease you with some big questions. Personally, I enjoy reading for fun, but it always adds more to my enjoyment when I can learn something along the way.

Years ago, I remember watching an episode of that warm and folksy travelogue, On The Road, with Charles Kuralt. He captured endearing tales of ordinary people doing extraordinary things all across America. Over twenty years starting in 1967, he stopped in every state with his CBS bus and interviewed a diverse group of people. I was quite young at the time, but I was struck by one particular interview. He spoke with an undereducated man who had taught himself to read and over decades amassed an extensive library. It was somewhere in the South. I tried to track down the details, but this was pre-YouTube and pre-Internet. If you can find that episode, let me know.

Anyway, in the man’s modest home, Kuralt asks this avid reader and book collector how he reads. The man answers that he is a very slow reader because, “I likes to ponders as I reads.” Being a slow reader myself, I could identify with that.

So I hope you will slow down, enjoy, and ponder as you read The Last Appointment.

– Charles Levin, November 2021