The Exquisite Rush

<p><em>In a special thrift store where shoppers can buy past experiences two friends discover that not all memories can be shared. </em></p><p><em>A married couple decides to meet at the site of a past tragic event to make one final decision. </em></p><p><em>To make it to the overseas wedding planned by his fiancé a man with a terror of flying enlists a life coach a couples counselor a hypnotist and even a flight simulator. </em></p><p> </p><p>Whether you like thrillers or romance there’s a story for you in this anthology. Sci-fi absurdist drama voodoo noir—they’re in here. You probably hold every genre in your hands.</p><p>We took the winning short stories from the first nine years of Portland’s Mini Sledgehammer 36-Minute Writing Contest and selected the best 36 of them.</p><p>What’s Mini Sledgehammer you ask? It’s a quirky writing contest that incorporates four writing prompts and a 36-minute time limit. All writers are welcome from published professionals to newborn novelists and when the time is up they read their stories and the judges select a winner—all right there on the spot. There’s no time to hesitate second-guess or hold back.  </p><p>Exquisite pressure is what these writers experience and as the stories in this anthology demonstrate pressure makes diamonds.</p>