Alfred C Martino

Waiting For A Friend is a stage play about a fifty-something-year old man who is confronted by the unexpected visit of his best friend, who died tragically when they were kids in high school. The man must come to terms with his lost youth and innocence, and the unstoppable passage of time, while a painful but heartfelt conversation with his teenage friend puts into perspective a life cut short versus what it means to have lived a full life.

A short story bubbled up from the grim and violent mean streets of 1990's Los Angeles, as the protagonist explains, sweat from the Southern California heat dripping onto his Glock, "I have never murdered, and I have never been murdered. But, I have dreamed of both."

Set in the mythical Wild West, an aging cowboy contemplates the passage of time, while vividly recalling a life's defining moment with Fiona Dresden, an older woman of his youth, and making his across the endless plains.

* Jr. Library Guild Selection

* YALSA's List of 'Best Books For Young Adults' Nominee

Pinned follows Ivan Korske and Bobby Zane, two high school seniors, as they embark on the most important winter of their lives in a quest for the New Jersey state high school wrestling championship.

Ivan Korske is the pride of Lennings, a rural town tucked away in the farmlands of western Jersey, and the odds-on favorite to be crowned state champion in the

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Kyle Saint-Claire is everything Jonny Fehey wishes to be: a star on and off the soccer field, a brain, and one of Millburn High's most popular students. Jonny unhappily accepts his lesser social status-but then he scores the winning goal in the county soccer championship and everything changes. Jonny is invited to a victory party with the in-crowd, and alcohol flows freely as toasts are raised in his honor. But in his moment of glory, a classmate...

Rio, a place of beauty, excitement, and wonder. A place where you are free to dance until your feet ache and sing until you can no more. A woman and her mother experience this and more during their visit to Brazil's most famous city.

A Day At The Beach is about a man, overwhelmed by the stress of his job, who reluctantly takes a day off to sit at the beach. There he meets a little boy who changes the man's perspective about enjoying the simpler moments of life.

Rio de Janeiro, a place of beauty, excitement, and wonder. A place where you are free to dance until your feet ache and sing until you can no more. A forty-something year-old woman and her mother experience this and more during their visit to Brazil's most famous city.

In this short story, a traveling businessman settles into yet another motel room. This one just like every other one. Same dull curtains. Same faded wallpaper. Same stale stink. As the world moves on in a rush outside the motel door, he assesses his caree

Imagine for a moment, you meet a slick stranger at a Manhattan bar. You're drunk. You talk a lot. Without you realizing it, he's learning about you. Your desire for money and women. By night's end, he makes you a million-dollar proposition to cause a drunk-driving accident. Sounds crazy to you? Maybe, maybe not. You're out of work. Bills are piling up. You owe your bookie six grand. But mostly, you're twenty years removed from being the high school...