Short Story Collections
Illustrated Short Fiction of William H. Coles 2000-2016
A collection of thirty-three award-winning short stories, two graphic novels, and a novella, each about one-of-a kind characters solving serious problems in challenging settings. Each short story is illustrated by one of six artists commissioned for the story. More info…
The Necklace and Other Stories
Nine short stories about American life, unrequited love, familial distrust, and unfair parental control, and a novella where cultures clash and humans survive with caring and selflessness overcoming the default of violence and destruction. More info…
The Short Fiction Of William H. Coles 2001-2011
Award-winning short stories of characters facing moral decisions that stretch their lives to mirror who they are and what they might become. And a novella, set in New Orleans, that pits and adulterous, deeply-in-love couple against society, family, and themselves as they struggle to regain self-respect and acceptance among threats of violent revenge. More info…
Facing Grace with Gloria and Other Stories
Facing Grace with Gloria and Other Stories was a finalist in The Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, 2010. Twelve award winning stories.
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The Illustrated Fiction of William H. Coles 2000-2012
The award-winning fiction of William H. Coles including fourteen short stories, five short shorts, a novella (The Surgeon’s Wife), and a novel (The Spirit of Want). Color illustrations enhance each story, and the variety of stories in the collection provide hours of pleasurable reading. More info…
Novels
Tour of Duty
Tour of Duty is a fiction novel-literary and historical–set in France, 1960-1966, at the height of the cold war and written with strong characterization, conflict, and dynamic plots. Major characters are Miles Ballard, a physician drafted and eager to succeed in providing best care for his patients who frequently clashes with military demands and morality; Ingrid Stern, wife of Ballard’s best friend, seeking truth about lost relatives and the Holocaust; Alyce Read, a newspaper journalist documenting capture the suffering and ruination of Holocaust victims and survivors. Read More…
McDowell
An admired and lauded surgeon climbs to the top of his profession. But his callous and questionably moral determination angers colleagues and friends who vow to destroy him. He becomes a member of the President’s cabinet when a personal family tragedy presents him with a dilemma that leads to a felonious crime. When his world of wealth and privilege collapses, only time can reveal if he rebuilds his life to garner always-desired esteem. Read More…
Guardian of Deceit
Darwin Hastings is seventeen and his dying aunt sends him from Pittsburgh to New York to a new guardian, a famous wealthy football player. He is excited and afraid; he wants to recapture the love he knew with his parents before they died and become a doctor like his father. Read More…
The Spirit of Want
Lucy MacMiel, a beautiful, successful lawyer, marries a doctor colleague of her father, but falls in love with a client–a dynamic, TV evangelist–accused of sex with a child. She loses the case and is disbarred and her family and her profession disown her. Read More…
The Surgeon’s Wife
Mike Boudreaux, as a trauma surgeon Chief of Service, must discipline an impaired surgeon performing unnecessary and dangerous surgery for the obese. He is Boudreaux’s former teacher and mentor, and Boudreaux falls in love with his young, beautiful, New-Orleans-socially-prominent wife. Read More…
Novella
Sister Carrie
Two orphaned sisters, facing a future of want and loneliness, quarrel when the older sister, responsible for her dependent teenage sibling, repudiates her sister’s affair with a political activist–older and unacceptable–she bonds with on the internet. Can adolescent love ever transcend innocently ignored incompatibility to evolve into a valued family relationship in rural southern America? Can a sister forced into a role of a surrogate parent convince her sister to denounce her attraction for a rouge male religiously, socially, and historically unsuited for marriage without a destructive severance of duty and caring? Read a sample…
Books on Writing
The Art of Creating Story
The Art of Creating Story, by William H. Coles, is sn educative volume with essays about the process of creating fictional story; interviews with authors, editors, publishers, and a Pulitzer Prize winner on the writing process; and original short stories that illustrate concepts and techniques of storytelling in prose. More info…
Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer’s Guide
Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer’s Guide, by William H. Coles, is an essential guide for every writer of fiction. LEARN: Character, Narration, Structure, Dialogue, Point of View, Writing in Scene, Drama (Conflict-Action-Resolution), Humor, Revision. More info…
Story in Literary Fiction
Story in Literary Fiction: A Manual for Writers, by William H. Coles, is a succinct and clearly written reference for fiction writers. Principles and guidelines for writing present the essence of creating a memorable story. More info…
Literary Story as an Art Form: A Text for Writers
This textbook helps writers become the best storytellers possible. Part I provides clear, useful ways of structuring and writing a great literary story. Part II takes a sample of an original short story created for the text and details options and choices in writing the story from beginning idea to the last revision. More info…