Ricky Monahan Brown

An aspiring writer of gothic fiction and his wife move upstate when financial crisis hits New York City. Their destination ― a house that was once the height of modernity and the orchard that they establish there. As the couple begin a new life, crisis continues to stalk them. Astrid is slowly consumed by her beloved apple trees. The police are joined by the local community in investigating a headline missing person case, and nothing is quite as it seems. Then, when the pair seem to have established their own personal Eden, they must confront the ungodly powers gathering in the roots of the surrounding forests. Ricky Monahan Brown's Little Apples has all the aromatic flavour of the modern Gothic: sharply tart amid rot and decay. This dark and wry tale explores some of the strangest manifestations ever to be found growing at the heart of a contemporary marriage.

Little Apples

Laurence Klavan

Lowri Larsen

Edition #1 of Novella Express featuring: • Albertine by Laurence Klavan • Little Apples by Ricky Monahan Brown • Black Cat and the Japanese Umbrella by Lowri Larsen Novella Express is a hybrid book / periodical series publishing novellas submitted from around the world. CONTRIBUTING TO EDITION #1 Ricky Monahan Brown suffered a massive haemorrhagic stroke in 2012. Doctors gave him a one-in-twenty chance of a good outcome, where a 'good outcome' would be surviving in a non-vegetative, non-plegic state. The resulting survival memoir, Stroke: A 5% Chance of Survival, became one of The Scotsman's Scottish Nonfiction Books of 2019. Ricky's short fiction has been widely published, including in 404 Ink literary magazine and the Dublin Inquirer. The live literature and music series he co-founded, Interrobang?! won the Saboteur Award for the Best Regular Spoken Word Night in Britain for 2017. A stroke awareness ambassador for the British Heart Foundation, Ricky lives in Edinburgh with his wife and their son. Lowri Larsen is a writer based in Wales. She was awarded a first-class honours MA from University College Dublin. She was awarded a grant from Literature Wales to write this novella. The novella "Black Cat and The Japanese Umbrella" was longlisted for The Reflex Press Novella Award. Laurence Klavan wrote the story collection, "'The Family Unit' and Other Fantasies," published by Chizine. An Edgar Award-winner, he received two Drama Desk nominations for the book and lyrics of "Bed and Sofa," the musical produced by the Vineyard Theater in New York and the Finborough Theatre in London. His graphic novels, "Brain Camp" and "City of Spies," co-authored with Susan Kim, were published by Chizine, and their YA fiction series, "Wasteland," was published by Harper Collins. His Web site is laurenceklavan.com.

Novella Express #1

The day after losing his job in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Ricky suffers a catastrophic haemorrhagic stroke. Fortunately, his girlfriend Beth is nearby. A few minutes later, the unconscious Ricky is wheeled into Brooklyn's Methodist Hospital with a 5% chance of survival, and worse odds of any type of good outcome. Beth begins an eight-week vigil, grabbing an occasional nap on a waiting room floor. Then Hurricane Sandy does to New York what the haemorrhage did to Ricky's brain. Amid the rubble of a battered city, brain injury, and lost jobs, Beth and Ricky start planning for a future together. After all, this is a love story.

Ricky Monahan Brown

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