Sea Stacks

Arley and Vonnie, two young lovers, witness the revenge one evening of disgruntled farmhand Vern Paquette, but only one knows the reason why.

Carol Wojcik, a Polish refugee, eagerly anticipates a marriage proposal from Tug Neely on Christmas Eve, but will the Polaroidal Moment happen?

Jeff Johansen, adrift in his hometown, agrees to help his new girlfriend Jenna McCauley rescue two Native American children in a hopeless living situation, but gets more than he bargained for.

Ed Grimwald hates dogs. One day his schoolteacher-wife Margot asks him to buy a pet for the kids with horrendous and hilarious consequences.

A young boy, James, is sent to deer camp with his great uncle and learns something far more important than how to shoot a gun.

Larry Thorsen, a teenager, has a chance to inherit a family business, if he will only do one “silly” favor for his desperate benefactor, Charlie Lochting.

Steve attends his high school reunion and learns from class nerd Chuck Wilkowski a secret that threatens to turn his life into his worst nightmare.

Harry Nichols agrees to meet his mother for tea at an exclusive hotel, or does he?

Tommy, with his buddy Obi, and their idol Peanut, sneaks out of the house to shoot pinball, but finds out it’s serious business.

Bakker, Buddy, Flynn, and Ned—four drinking buddies—have been spilling their lives to their bartender, Doc, for twenty years. Now it’s his turn.

In this collection of seven short stories, two novelettes, and one novella, author J. L. Hagen brings to life the people and culture of Loyale, a fictional town poised between two worlds, Upper and Lower Michigan. In turn, humorous, tragic, bittersweet, but always engaging, Sea Stacks fuses the iconic Straits area of Michigan and the rich inner lives and conflicts of those who have touched it—briefly or forever.

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