Afghan Love Potion
Former All-State football star Curt Jordan returns home from his final tour in Afghanistan with a glass eye, a scarred face, and a badly damaged psyche, only to find that nothing in Burnsville is the same. Afghan Love Potion follows Curt as he deals with the scars on his body and soul, and as he is forced to face the harsh realities that people change, dangers live inside our minds and next door, and that he has just signed up for his most dangerous tour of duty yet.
Bayou
Moe Horwitz is a Mafia hitman in Philadelphia who’s tired of the cold, the snow, his lonely life, and killing men for money. Trouble is, he doesn’t know how to get out of the life. Then the big boss in Philly sends him to Miami on the last passenger train with orders to a hit for the Miami boss. Moe quickly discovers that this job may well turn out to be far more than he, or anybody else, bargained for.
Last Train to Miami
Moe Horwitz is a Mafia hitman in Philadelphia who’s tired of the cold, the snow, his lonely life, and killing men for money. Trouble is, he doesn’t know how to get out of the life. Then the big boss in Philly sends him to Miami on the last passenger train with orders to a hit for the Miami boss. Moe quickly discovers that this job may well turn out to be far more than he, or anybody else, bargained for.
Looking At Kansas
A fentanyl epidemic is sweeping his county, an ex-con has sworn to kill him, and Sheriff Davis Wells’ own passions are running wild.
Into the Wilderness
Dave Wertz is undergoing a middle-aged crisis. On the back side of fifty with no job and an unhappy marriage, he pulls a Kerouac and goes on the road, and back to his hometown of Frankfort, Kentucky. Dave hopes familiar surroundings and a childhood friend can help him find a sense of safety and belonging. Instead, he stumbles into a state government corruption scandal, meets a cast of strange characters who haunt the streets of Frankfort, and stumbles across Jennifer, a lost, teenage girl who needs help, but won’t listen to him. Dave’s old friend is not the man he remembered and his hometown has changed.
Violets for Sergeant Schiller
Karl Schiller, a popular German poet, finds himself in Paris when Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated. Within days, Schiller is called back to Germany, then rushed into the front lines of the German army as it violently advances across Belgium and France in a frantic push to capture Paris and win the war.
The White Jamaican
Frank Quick arrives at his office one day to find a glamorous blonde waiting for him. The blonde hires him to find her missing husband, only she forgets to tell Frank that her missing husband is in deep trouble with two sets of mobsters who are also looking for him. The White Jamaican is a step back in spirit to the detective noir novels of the 1950s, fully of bad guys, smoking guns, and a femme fatale you’ll never forget.
Echoes of Loss and Belonging
Buy On Amazon Howard R. Wolf’s Of Two Lives On The Lower Golan is the story of a wondering Jewish American grandfather’s journey to Israel to maintain a close relationship between his daughter – who has made Israel her new home – and her family, especially her first born son, David, whom the grandfather helped […]
About Chris
About Chris Chris Helvey is an award winning short-story writer, a poet, and a novelist. The author of more than a dozen novels and multiple short-story collections, Chris’ latest novel, Afghan Love Potion, was recently released by Wings ePress, and is available in both paperback and e-book formats on Amazon. A founding member of the […]
Book a Coaching Session
Book a Coaching Session From basketball stars to Olympic athletes, top performers use a coach to help them achieve success. To be your best as a writer you also need a coach, and the good news is the Old Writing Coach Chris Helvey is back. Whether you’re writing poems, short stories, or novels, Chris can […]
Dancing On the Rim
Buy On Amazon Mexico can be a dangerous country to go fo good times, as Paul Hampton finds out in a hurry. In less than 24 hours, the wealthy American has barely escaped being murdered while on a drinking spree. When he starts to sober up he finds he’s hungover, broke, and locked away in […]
Yard Man
Buy On Amazon Judas Cain—a lonely man simply trying to survive The Great Depression—suddenly stumbles into a job he doesn’t want, falls in love with a prostitute who doesn’t love him, and incurs the wrath of the most dangerous man in Mississippi. Then World War II explodes! Michael Jennings, author of Ave Antonina, writes “Judas […]
One More Round
One More Round contains stories by published between 1977 and 2015. Collected together for the first time anywhere, these 19 stories reveal the revolving artistic journey of one of America’s unique writers.
Bittersweet Blues
Changed forever by his service in the Vietnam War, Ray Zahn finds that living with his parents in his old home town is no longer an option. So early one morning, Ray buys a ticket, boards a bus, and heads east. Bittersweet Blues shares Ray’s journey as he searches for purpose, salvation, and a way forward. Sad and sweet, this novella may bring to mind the works of writers like Kerouac, O’Brien, and Carver.
Snapshot
“A quick, satisfying read with a beautiful otherworldly feel; highly recommended for fans of John Steinbeck.”
Claw Hammer: A Gathering of Stories
“These stories will gnaw your fingers and squeeze your viscera. Don’t tell Mom what you’re reading. She’ll worry.”
Rogue Wind (Coal City Review)
Buy Here This issue of Coal City Review contains “Rogue Wind,” a Chris Helvey story written from a female point-of-view.This issue of Coal City Review contains “Rogue Wind,” a Chris Helvey story written from a female point-of-view. Where to Buy Coal City Review
On the Boulevard
A chapbook of hard, honest poems from a gritty writer facing the world as it truly is.
Whose Name I Did Not Know
“Writing with his unique American voice Chris Helvey delivers a real winner. Whose Name I Did Not Know speaks to all readers with its straightforward prose about a floundering man’s darkly honest search for an elusive truth.”
Trajectory Journal
I also maintain a website for Trajectory Journal, the semi-annual literary journal that I edit and publish. Just go to trajectoryjournal.com to check out the Editor’s Choice stories, poems, and photography. In addition to purchasing copies of Trajectory there, you can view the kind of work we are interested in reading and learn how to […]
Purple Adobe
Set in the solitude and silent beauty of America’s desert Southwest, Purple Adobe is the story of people who have stepped off, or been thrown from, life’s highway and into a dark and seldom side of life.