The 9th Inning

The Continental League is dying, unable to compete with the "Big Leagues." In a game that will decide who goes to the final Championship Series, the Cowboys and the Jets face off, for one team their last game ever. The Jets, the dominant team in the league, and their ace, Jack Sevan, are resolved to win the Championship one last time. In The 9th Inning we go inside the minds of the players, with the entire novella covering one batter during a crucial sequence in the 9th inning. The Jets have a slim lead and Sevan is determined to finish the game. The manager, the catcher, the base runners, are all thinking what they must be ready to do, depending on each pitch. In between pitches we learn about the player's backgrounds and history; how they got here and what they hope and fear will happen after the league ends. The story unfolds from several viewpoints, down to the climactic final pitch. In The Prey we meet Andrew Jones, who has agreed to be hunted, to the death, on an isolated island, watched by millions of global viewers! The reward is a million dollars for the wife and child he has treated badly. But once the concept of death comes close at hand, Andrew isn't sure he's willing to die, million dollars or not. Tired and hurt and unarmed, Andrew must find a way to save himself from the Hunter. In The Blue Blouse we take a quick journey through the lives of two people who fall in love, but cannot be together. They maintain a long-distance, on again, off again friendship. Tied together by memories, they are never far apart in spirit, until the fickle fates insist they will be together, even if for only a short time. The Kids is a light-hearted romp into a quiet neighborhood that is disrupted when the kids find a creepy treasure buried under a mound of dirt they are playing on. Two of the kids become heroes when they must save their neighbor who has been set upon by ghouls trying to find what else may be buried under the mound!

E. R. (Gene) Wytrykus retired after over three decades as an auditor, and took up creative writing as a retirement hobby. He has published, through Wheat Field Publications, a book of short stories, a combination of fiction and non-fiction, called "By The Short Hairs", and several novels: "The King of Coins", which used Gene's interest in numismatics and an incident during his years as an auditor, to form the basis of this story of international intrigue; "The Money Run", which used Gene's job with the Army in Vietnam in the late 60s as the basis for this mystery (Gene has also written a screenplay adaptation of "The Money Run"); "A Stone to Roll", a story of three people who are drawn into each other's lives at a time when all are going through personal crises; "The Girls of His Dreams", the mystery of a grieving man whose dreams back in time present him with the possibility of saving his fiancé, who was killed in a bizarre robbery; and his newest book, "The 9th Inning", which includes a novella of that title, and three short stories. Gene lives in Lincoln, CA. with his wife who is a published author in the field of bariatrics and dietary issues.