These are the stories of three boys living in Texas: one growing up, one dreaming, and one fighting to stay alive in the face of destitution. There is second-grader William, 15-year-old Sam, and 21-year-old Seff, all trying to make their way on their own terms. These stories are told with heart, humor, and an uncompromising look at what it meant to grow up in Texas during the 80s and 90s.These are the stories of three boys living in Texas: one growing up, one dreaming, and one fighting to stay alive in the face of destitution and adversity. There's second-grader William, a shy yet imaginative boy who schemes about how to get back at his school-yard bully, Randy. Then there's Sam, a 15-year-old boy who dreams of getting a 1980 Mazda RX-7 for his sixteenth birthday but has to work at a Greek restaurant to fund his dream. Finally, there's Seff, a 21-year-old on the brink of manhood, trying to survive along with his roommate, working as waiters and barely making ends meet. These three stories are told with heart, humor, and an uncompromising look at what it meant to grow up in Texas during the 1980s and 1990s.The writing of Scott Semegran has been praised by bestselling author / Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Davy Rothbart as "Hilarious, poignant, and twisted." Award-winning cartoonist Emily Flake described the fiction of Scott Semegran as "Funny, sweet, dark, and sad, Scott Semegran's stories create a wholly convincing world of love, loss, and fear. His light touch with heavy subjects is a gift, and his forays into silliness are a delight."Scott Semegran lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, four kids, two cats, and a dog. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English. He is a cartoonist and a writer. He can also bend metal with his mind and run really fast, if chased by a pack of wolves. His comic strips have appeared in the following newspapers: The Austin Student, The Funny Times, The Austin American-Statesman, Rocky Mountain Bullhorn, Seven Days, The University of Texas at Dallas Mercury, and The North Austin Bee. His short story "That Little Devil (Que Un Diablito)" appeared in the The Next One Literary Journal from the Texas Tech University Honors College. He is a Kindle bestselling author. Other novels and books by Scott Semegran include The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood, Modicum, The Spectacular Simon Burchwood, and Mr. Grieves the Book.

A father frantically prepares for his daughter's birthday party only to come across a stumbling block that threatens to ruin the day. A short story by Scott Semegran.Horrified by the violence following Iran's 2009 contested presidential elections, the author, Mojdeh Marashi is reminded of her parents’ ordeal during another disheartening event for Iranian people, the 1953 coup d'état. Saboteur, the first of a series, is told by a pair of white doves who in the tradition of old Persian storytellers recount the event in a hot summer afternoon when a sea of men inThis is a fictional memoir by Mojdeh Marashi, a writer, translator, artist and designer who is deeply influenced by the ancient and modern history of Iran. This story merges the world of magical realism in Persian literature that Mojdeh grew up reading, the reality of the world she lives in today, and the utopia she dreams about.Mojdeh is the translator (from Persian, with Chad Sweeney) of The Selected Poems of H. E. Sayeh: The Art of Stepping Through Time (White Pine, 2011). Her fiction was published in the anthology Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: Women of the Iranian Diaspora (University of Arkansas, 2006). She was born in Tehran, Iran and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1977, and now lives and work in Palo Alto, California. She is the Managing Partner at Blurred Whisper, an Idea and Design studio in Palo Alto, California, which she co-founded in 2002.Mojdeh studied at California College of Arts (CCA) and later at San Francisco State University where she earned her M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts and an M.A. in Creative Writing.

"A fantastic coming-of-age thriller." — IndieReader (IR Approved)2020 Quarter Finalist for Young Adult Fiction — The BookLife PrizeThe summer of 1986. Central Texas. William and his friends should be having a blast. Instead, they are hounded by the Thousand Oaks Gang and their merciless leader, Bloody Billy. William found Billy's backpack. And because of what it contains, Billy desperately wants it back, and he'll do anything to get it. William hatches a plan for his friends to sneak away and hide in an abandoned lake house, except they become stranded on the lake's desolate island without food or water. Will their time on the island devolve into chaos? Will the friends survive and be rescued?The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island is Lord of the Flies meets The Body by Stephen King, the inspiration for the classic movie Stand By Me.A gripping suspense story with adventure and danger, tinged with humorous banter between...

Rogelio enjoyed playing with his friend George in the ditch behind his house. And Rogelio's mother was glad he had a friend to play with until she found out George's true identity. Short story by Scott Semegran. This short story was first published in The Next One Literary Journal, Texas Tech University Honors College - Winter 2003-2004.In a post-apocalyptic world, humans have separated into four factions. Each faction is based off of a historical figure. The four factions are based off of the following figures: William Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Paul Revere. Together they are the Four Orders Opposition, and they are bitter rivals with one another. Each faction fights in a uniquely dangerous way, far different from the fighting styles of their opposing factions. They have been fighting each other for so long that they have forgotten the very meaning of their rivalry. But in the midst of their bloodiest battles, they may need to ally in order to fight off a more dangerous threat than they could have imagined.*Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Historical Fiction.Reviews are greatly accepted! Thanks for reading!

A couple of years ago, I made a pact with my two best friends, Nolan and Jacob. We decided that we would spend the last night before the end of the world partying in my garage. And that's just what we did.A short story by Scott Semegran.Toronto has been decimated by the plague that has ravaged the rest of the world. During the day, the few survivors salvage what they can to survive in the dead city. At night, the things beneath emerge. This short story follows Jacob, one of the few remaining humans, as he attempts to avoid the monsters that lurk under the streets.

When a strange old man slowly shuffles in front of a suburban house, the quiet neighborhood is turned upside down. A short story by Scott Semegran.Nankichi Niimi is undoubtedly one of Japan's most highly regarded writers of fantasy fiction. Book 3 of Tales from a Japanese Dreamland is an introduction to Niimi's writing through one of his most famous children's stories. Mama fox only wants the best for her little one, so when the cold winter arrives and her precious boy needs some mittens, then she knows what she must do. The only problem is that she is afraid and her legs won't take her any further. So her son must go on his own. The highlight of this delightful children's story is the beautiful description of the foxes' journey through the snow covered woods during the middle of the night.Buying Mittens is also available in Books 2 & 5 of the series Tales from a Japanese Dreamland.Nankichi Niimi was born Shohachi Watanabe in what is now Handa City, Aichi Prefecture, on July 30, 1913, with the year 2013 marking 100 years since his birth. It was recently estimated that over 60 million people have read Gon the Fox which he penned at just 17 years of age. Although Niimi went on to write a large number of poems and short stories, such as Buying Mittens, Grandpa's Lamp and When the Thieves Came to Hananoki Village before his death from tuberculosis at age 29, Gon the Fox is undoubtedly the most famous and well-loved of all his works, and perhaps the most famous Japanese children's story of all time. About Little J BooksHi, my name is Paul and I started Little J Books because I personally wanted to be able to read more of these kinds of Japanese stories in English, especially in ebook form. By putting these stories into an ebook format they will be available for anyone to access anywhere in the world, forever. If you know of any other Japanese stories like these that it is hard to get your hands on (because they are sold out or just too expensive), please let me know.

Humorous yet uplifting at the same time. By the novel's last page, readers will be longing for more. — BlueInk Reviews (Starred Review) This is the story of J. D. Wiswall, a sincere young man from a small town, who joins a state government agency in a data entry department comprised of quirky clerks. Quickly endearing himself to the diverse group in Unit 3, J. D. learns his coworkers have a pact to share the $10,000 prize if they win a cost-savings program for a suggestion that could save the government money, in turn helping them rise above their own personal struggles. A multimillion-dollar cost-savings suggestion is accidentally discovered by J. D.'s supervisor, the goof-off alcoholic Brent Baker. This lucrative discovery catches the attention of crotchety Governor Dwayne Bennett, a media-hungry demagogue, who turns the coworkers of Unit 3 into props for his selfish political reasons. The publicity surrounding the clerks piques the interest of a newspaper reporter,...

A father watches his daughters lovingly care for a squirmy gang of caterpillars. When they morph into butterflies, the girls witness the true meaning of life... unfortunately. A short story by Scott Semegran.Jazz, Season One, Episode ThreeInjuries from the fight with the organ binder forced Jazz to use the Not Now Stone. Now the clock’s ticking. She has less than twenty-four hours to get out of Clowntown and back to her office to scrub the stone in her pickle jar of Soul-lution or she’ll suffer every injury the stone ever healed four-fold. The good news is that she only has seven more block to go to reach the hover-rail, the bad news is that a gang of clowns lays between her and that train. Hoping to avoid a pointless fight, Jazz takes refuge in the one building the Clowns haven’t vandalized, she’s going to discover that there’s a very good reason the goblin gangs left this house alone. Even if she manages to overcome the house’s horrid occupant, she still have to face the clowns, and time, for her, is quickly running out.

Recently divorced and his writing career in shambles, Simon Burchwood's life is a complete disaster. He reluctantly finds work as a computer support technician and resigns that his career as the next great American novelist will never come to fruition. When he learns that his ex-wife abruptly moves to Dallas with his children, he embarks on a crazy road trip with a nerdy coworker and a hitchhiking punk rock girl and discovers the inspiration he desperately needs for his new literary masterpiece. Take another trip with the one and only Simon Burchwood.From Kindle bestselling writer and cartoonist Scott Semegran, The Spectacular Simon Burchwood is for fans of literary fiction with a touch of magical realism and a dose of dark humor. This is the second book in the Simon Adventures Series which includes The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood, The Spectacular Simon Burchwood, and Sammie & Budgie."Simon is starting to understand something, and his luck literally...

On his way to New York to celebrate his impending literary success, Simon Burchwood is the prototypical American careerist: arrogant, egotistical, narcissistic. But a quick detour to Montgomery, Alabama to visit a childhood friend sends Simon on a bizarre journey, challenging his hopes and dreams of becoming a famous writer. The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood is a character study that delves into the psyche of a man who desperately tries to redefine himself.Simon is certain he is on the brink of literary stardom. Yet this brief sojourn in Montgomery challenges his haughty façade—and the "meteoric rise" that has continually eluded him. Expecting adulation from his childhood friends during his layover in Montgomery, he's instead met with indifference. Ready to finally leave his troubled past behind and move on to greater things, he invites his friend Jason—whose marriage is on the verge of divorce—to join him in New York. They quickly embark on a...

A BESTSELLING, AWARD-WINNING NOVEL"Engaging and fun, with wonderfully crafted characters." — Derf Backderf, award-winning and bestselling creator of the graphic novel My Friend Dahmer"Sammie & Budgie is instantly absorbing, its affable narrator hooking you with wit and whimsy, then reeling you into the boat, where larger revelations await. Scott Semegran is a lively, vivid storyteller, and this book will delight readers of all ages, while leaving them with plenty to ponder about their own lives. I loved this book!" — Davy Rothbart, author of My Heart is an Idiot, creator of Found Magazine, and contributor to public radio's This American Life"Illustrated throughout by Semegran, this book is the author's best... An unconventional, beguiling, and endearing family tale." — Kirkus ReviewsFrom Kindle bestselling writer and cartoonist Scott Semegran, Sammie & Budgie is a quirky, mystical tale of a self-doubting IT nerd...