Links and Recommendations

• If the chocolates in the Storybox make your mouth water, you can find (and buy!) them at www.sabinochocolates.com.  Sabino Chocolates is a family-owned and operated gourmet chocolate shop and one of many of the local treasures which make Tucson, Arizona the fantastic city it is.  Many thanks to Dianne and family for letting us use their gorgeous chocolate images.

• Expert, friendly advice for ‘The Architect’ was kindly provided by Jonathan Howe of
  www.bonhuntarchitecture.com.  Everything that is technically correct about the architecture profession in the story is thanks to him and the rest of the wildly implausible details are ours (and we plead poetic license).

Back Covers

THE MANAGER

Sam squeezed her eyes shut: she didn't want her face to give anything away. She'd worked out the timing - with five days left, if all went to plan, he would have a date arranged with Nikki by the time she left. If she understood Nikki correctly, then Nikki would do the rest after that. So no harm in hanging on to him to the last day. She could indulge herself right up to the end; it shouldn't do any more damage than had already been done.

At least, that's what she had been telling herself.

As a tourism consultant, Sam is used to organising other people's lives. But when she becomes involved with a shop manager in need of a make-over, her obsession with his age and her urge to interfere threaten to destroy everything.

51 pages • 23,124 words • Copyright © Skye Phillips 2012

SLEEPING BEAUTY

There were noises everywhere: shouting from the battlements, dogs barking, the scurrying of feet, and the roar of a crowd all talking at once.

Landek withdrew at once, taking his sword and retreating to the farthest reaches of the room.

The princess sat up and looked about her. At last she spoke, in the formal tongue. "Sir, I thank thee. Thou hast released me from my stone prison. I am in thy debt."

He stared at her, his hollow eyes filled with revulsion and hatred.

Everyone knows the story: on her sixteenth birthday Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger on a spindle and falls asleep for a hundred years, a deep enchantment that can only be broken by the kiss of a prince. But what if a kiss isn't enough? And what if the prince is a bad-tempered, impetuous hothead?

23 pages • 10,297 words • Copyright © Skye Phillips 2012

THE ENGINEER'S HOUSE 

The house or the girl, the girl or the house – they are so intermixed in my mind it is difficult to separate them.

But I guess if I begin anywhere it must be the house, the Engineer's House, for if not for the house, I would have not known about the girl, and had I not met her, this story would not have taken place -- or at least events would have unfolded so differently that they would be unrecognisable to me now.

When the Cox family, including gentle Daisy, serious Rose and wild Ryll, move into the crumbling Victorian Engineer's House, their presence starts an explosive chain of events which cuts to the heart of corruption in the city, and to the heart of a young man volunteering at the museum next door.

36 pages • 15,258 words • Copyright © Skye Phillips 2012

ARCHITECTURE 

Caitlin sat alone on the sofa in her Brixton house, surrounded by boxes.

Just over a year ago, Bradley had barged into her life, uninvited, for the fourth time. Just over twelve months, and the ripples of the disturbance created by him had cost her her job, her house, and her relationship.

How much change could one person cope with all at once?

And yet, all this was nothing, nothing compared to what he had put her through in the past...

Career-focussed architect Caitlin has spent twenty-two years trying to forget him - but when Bradley pushes his way into her life once again, he forces her to deconstruct the complex layers of their history to its very foundations. Architecture is an intricate and moving story about the power of forgiveness and the tenacity of love.

58 pages • 26,378 words • Copyright © Skye Phillips 2012

THE EYE IN THE MIRROR

Suddenly she realised that they were completely and utterly alone.  So alone, they might be the only two people in existence.

He had thought she was more or less a treat for him ... Or was it the other way around?  She looked at him appreciatively: the stuff of fantasies.  And why not?  After all, this was her dream.

Laura laughed out loud.  It was a dream.  And there were absolutely no rules in dreams.

Life on Earth might be on the edge of collapse, but Laura has her own worries: a snarky sister, a mischievous toddler, a Machiavellian soon-to-be ex-husband, and a black hole in her right eye which turns out to be a portal to another world.  But is it the world's answer to every problem, or just worlds of trouble?

92 pages • 40,453 words • Copyright © Skye Phillips 2012

THE SANTA FE OPERA

"Lena tried to kiss me tonight" Dylan confessed to his wife, Rachel, as he prepared for bed.

If Rachel was shocked, she didn't show it.

"I have to say, it really took me by surprise" he continued, pulling back the sheets and crawling into his side of the bed.  "I've not treated Lena any differently to any of the others, but none of them ever tried that before.  Of course I didn't kiss her back, but I hope I haven't given her the wrong impression."

What he didn't mention to his wife was how strong the desire had been to kiss Lena back.

Dylan is a good man, a dedicated teacher, a talented musician, and a loving and faithful husband, but he has a lot weighing on his mind, including what to do with a student who simply won't take no for an answer.

65 pages • 26,036 words • Copyright © Skye Phillips 2012

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH  (coming soon)

She considered a moment.  She could flee, but that would leave him to deal with it by himself.  Would it attack as soon as it was no longer mesmerised by the end of the stick? She wavered, undecided. Finally she realised she would have to do something; he wouldn't be able to wave that crutch forever.

Moving very carefully, she found a heavy stick and placed it within arm's reach.  Then, very slowly, she took off her shirt.

"As much as I'm flattered" he whispered dryly,  "now is probably not the time."

Then, in one swift motion she threw the shirt over the cobra's head and clubbed the shirt -- with the snake underneath it -- with the heavy stick, over and over, until it was covered in blood.

On location in the Phillipines, hard-working advertising executive Kiko Taylor is beside herself with frustration at the irreverent, lackadaisical photographer Hugh Spenser and the womanising subject of the shoot, rugged adventurer Zane Maverick.  Then a terrible accident forces her to trust her life to the very last man on earth on whom she would ever have chosen to depend.

Copyright © Skye Phillips 2012