Showing results by author "Barry Clay" in All Categories

Suspecting that their parents may not approve, seven teenagers decide to consult a Ouija board -- just for fun. The game quickly degenerates into an unexpected encounter with the supernatural in ways they could not have expected, with results that appear as final as they are ambivalent. This novelette is also collected in the anthology "Brushes with the Supernatural".

It is six years after the events of "With Whom I Had Been Speaking." Susan Bachman has changed her name, her employment, and her city. While she has not escaped the memory of the life she led six years ago, she has left the better part of the pain in her past. Even though her life is solitary, she is content. But when a reporter appears unannounced and unwelcome on her doorstep, her new life is threatened. Aware of the danger, she little knows that this reporter has unwittingly begun a chain of events that will one more time change her life forever -- assuming she survives. This novella is ...

Patience Bellamy is a middle- aged spinster who lives an unremarkable life trying to make ends meet until, one day, she comes home to a basket and several packages on her doorstep. Improbably, there is an infant in the basket, wrapped in a blue blanket. A note pinned to the blanket explains that the parents can no longer care for the child. They implore Patience to provide a home for him, and they further warn her against taking the child to the doctor's office. The note adds, she'll understand once she attempts to feed the baby. This novella has also been collected in the anthology "...

The people of Tyemon's land consider the Antrix a myth -- a story to tell around the fire to frighten children. But Tyemon has discovered that, far from a myth, the Antrix is very real. To his sorrow, he also learns that the stories told of her are not as accurate as he would have liked, and he must now deal with the consequences of approaching her. But correcting his mistake may be impossible. Or is it? This novelette has also been collected in the anthology "Brushes with the Supernatural."

Both believers and unbelievers have found the end of the world as we know it to be a fascinating topic. The Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012, and many Christian authors have confidently predicted the future based on their interpretation of the scriptures only to be overtaken by actual events. "How It All Ends" is a collection of chapters from the book "Solid Ground" that explores what we can and can't know from the Bible about the end of the world. Mr. Clay explores the topic of the end of the world with humility where the Bible isn't clear and with confidence in those areas ...

Discover the truth about the government consuming your tax dollars from a now-retired federal employee of more than thirty-seven years. Chock full of amusing (and sometimes horrific) anecdotes (as well as the author's entertaining cartoons), no one who pays taxes and wonders how their money is being spent should miss this book. It’s only one man’s look at one federal organization’s inefficiency, but are the other ones any better? We can only hope. But if they aren’t and if you read this book, you can also chuckle at the lunacy.

Has someone ever told you (generally with a sneer) that the Bible endorses slavery and then asks how you can believe the Bible because of that? In this excerpt from his book, "Solid Ground," Mr. Clay demonstrates that what you've heard about the Bible and the question of slavery isn't quite true and presents a full picture of what the Bible says, and God really wants.

In this novelette, Baron Rokosky is faced with one of the few surprises of his very long life: his castle has been invaded by mysterious intruders who have somehow disappeared. His chief of security urges him to move to a secure location, but the Baron make an unusual decision that will have far reaching and unexpected consequences. This novelette has also been collected in the Anthologies "A Little Bit of Everything" and "Brushes with the Supernatural".

Days ago, Endinara Thorson, the only child of the king and queen of Vaniar, arrived in the kingdom of Sylvanlund to seal an arranged marriage to the Sylvanlund heir, Prince Quentin Bregard. But she now lies in a magically-induced coma, having only a short time to live, and without hope unless the Sylvanlund court wizard, Polongrana, can heal her. But to do so, he must have one of the halves of the RavenDisc, a damaged talisman of arcane energies. One half is too far away to retrieve. The other is jealously guarded by Ulava, a sorceress us of great power, who has no intention of using her ...

The Bible unabashedly states that the entire universe was created when an eternal God spoke it into existence. But what about evolution? How does that fit in, or does it? This excerpt from the book "Solid Ground" discusses how the universe and our world began. Thick books have been written on this topic, but Mr. Clay presents this discussion in a "Reader's Digest" version designed for Christians and non-Christians like who lead busy lives and don't have the time for a larger treatment of this subject.

When young Thomas Packer returns from work to his rooms on the third story of his apartment building, he finds the dead body of a woman and becomes the prime suspect in the investigation of her murder. With evidence mounting against him, his only hope seems to be the rough-edged, hard smoking Lt. Browne, who believes him innocent. But with all the clues leading to him, will Lt Browne's opinion be enough to exonerate him from a capital crime? Winner of the 1984 Samuel Freiburg Memorial Award for Mystery. This novelette has also been collected in the anthology "A Little Bit of Everything" by ...

When Fred Dorflinger and his wife Carol visit their friends Alan and Loretta Hostetter and their 10 children, they expect a quiet, calm weekend. What ensues instead is a calamity of unexpected visitors, clumsiness, unforeseen events, and a very dangerous bowl of spinach dip. To say more about this short novelette would be to spoil the surprise. Winner of the 1983 John T. Ruhl Memorial award for humor. "I have seen people howl with laughter when Barry Clay reads this story aloud to his friends, but I really, really wish he would have spared me the acute embarrassment and not printed this for...

"When your children are young and they do things like biting each other, stealing each other’s toys, and attempting to swindle their younger siblings out of their meager life savings, it seems as if they will never become snotty teenagers, much less old enough that your state has decided they are responsible enough to drive. But it happens." And so begins the short Kindle edition of "You Drive me Crazy," true accounts of one family as the adults attempt to teach their four children to drive. And they did it successfully! All four children are now mature, responsible adults who have been ...

Since commissioned by the archangel Gabriel, Christian evangelists Dakota and Emily Peterson's floundering marriage has not prevented them from providing supernatural healing and spiritual counseling to those who flock to their meetings. But a couple approaches them, providing an opportunity that only God can foresee, if they are simply willing to obey Him. This short story is also collected in the anthology "Brushes with the Supernatural."

Melissa Nelson understands that she is being unreasonable. Her husband is no doubt correct when he says that teenage boys, bored in the rural community that is their new home, are moving the scarecrow as a prank on their new city slicker neighbors. But as she looks out in the field of corn and sees the scarecrow looking at her, she can't convince herself that she is being irrational. Is she losing her grip on reality? And then a neighbor informs her that the scarecrow is indeed more than it seems .... This novelette has also been collected in the anthology "Brushes with the Supernatural."

Family. Faith. Fantasy. For generations, the kingdoms of Vaniar and Sylvanlund have been at war over the mineral-rich mountainous region between their two kingdoms. Sylvanlund has proposed a marriage between the only children of their monarchs, a marriage that will end the war and the loss of lives it has meant for both kingdoms. The king and queen of Vaniar accept the proposal and begin negotiations, but someone with unknown motives has begun machinations – machinations of incredible sorcery – to prevent the marriage from occurring. Or so it appears. Identical twins Ian and Tad ...

Ten years have passed since the Princess Endinara, now queen of Sylvanlund, was saved from a mystical illness by an unlikely band of men and women, led by Quentin Bregard, the man who is now her husband and joint monarch. Ian and Tad Tomulson have both married, as has their sister, Vanessa. Like Quentin and Endinara, they are raising their children in the relative calm of the two prosperous, peaceful kingdoms in which they live. The sorcerer Dovar and his evil sister, Ulava, are dead, and the RavenDisc halves are safe with the former sorcerer’s apprentice, Mok Halim. Or so they think. For...

In this novelette of the near future, clones are grown for replacement parts. On rare occasions, some clones are even used as new bodies for those influential or rich enough to obtain them. Susan Bachman is a Clone Tank Nurse who, abruptly, is forced by circumstances to reexamine everything she's ever known about clones and the comfortable life she leads. This novelette has also been included in the anthology "A Little Bit of Everything" by Barry Clay and in the book "Speaking".

World War III and the Uncivil War have left the city of Richmond devastated, and the United States is not much better. Homeland Security is the only entity left between order and chaos, and Christopher Owens holds a coveted position as a Homeland Security agent with all the perks that accompany government service. But Chris’s chosen life is soon to be upset in ways he would never have expected: he is assigned to a mission that has little chance of success with a partner he does not trust – a mission that will force him to leave the only life he knows. It could not get much worse than ...

"There is probably no more enjoyable treatise for a believer to write in a book on doctrine than the one that describes our salvation, its nature, and how we can be saved." This is how Mr. Clay begins this except from his book, Solid Ground. Mr. Clay addresses the question "How can you be saved?" along with " What might prevent you from being saved?" With great pleasure springing from a faith that has lasted for over 50 years, Mr. Clay explores how we are saved, and with great sorrow he explains what prevents people from being saved. If you are believer, this title will provide you with a ...