PLEd: Beginnings

By Jim Z. Roil

PLEd: Beginnings is a set of stories introducing a few of the main characters of Jim Z. Roil’s PLEd series.

In “Ghoulish Hospitality”, Field Researcher Kael Gene takes on an average assignment for the Speculative Research Institute. Several people have turned up, partially missing, and it is Kael’s job to research the locals and find the creature responsible without causing an outcry among the laymans.
“We’re Not in Kansas Anymore” is the origin story of Sergeant Jim Sheridan. In the Middle East, his convoy is attacked and he is mortally wounded, along with several of his squadmates. His sudden brush with death awakens his true potential, and he sees things he’s not sure are just tricks in his mind.
Mortemer is the main character in “A Hot August Night”. He drives his classic Galaxie down the main strip in Reno, Nevada, and picks up a girl. However, neither Mortemer or the girl are what they seem, danger seeks them out, and Death cannot be stopped.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jim Z. Roil
• Release date: Mar 31, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463106778

Jim Z. Roil

Jim Z. Roil is a novelist with a focus in the Speculative Fiction genre. He is a student in the BFA, Creative Writing for Entertainment program at Full Sail University, and is practicing his art by submitting short stories and flash fiction to various online publications. Roil is a perpetually angry, retired Army medic, sharpshooter, and married father of five. Or at least, one of his personalities is at any given time. He writes whatever he thinks will make someone laugh, anything from the explosive nerd-reaction to a geeky reference, to the empathetic, sadistic chuckle when an anti-hero fulfills his vendetta. He resides in the spaces between the spaces of the dimensions in his head, and his head is (usually) attached to a body that lives (more or less) in the valleys of Montana. You can visit his LinkedIn profile at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-z-roil-b08916126

Book preview

PLEd: Beginnings

By Jim Z. Roil

Text Copyright © 2017 Jim Z. Roil

Cover Art Copyright © 2017 Jim Z. Roil

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Title

Copyright & License

Contents

Ghoulish Hospitality

We’re not in Kansas Anymore

A Hot August Night

Jumping at Shadows (Short Story)

About the Author

Ghoulish Hospitality

Never let the boss tell you that traveling for work will be glamorous. I say this because wherever you go, you will almost certainly be put into a pabulum hotel room that is depressingly similar to the last – and first – one you stayed in. If your bosses use the same hotel group for all traveling employees, you are doomed to stay in the same room, in different cities, unless the hospitality chain changes its room templates. In this rare case, you will see a new room. Over and over. Again.

My job as field Researcher is a rover’s occupation. We study, pursue, contain, study, and if need be, destroy our targets. And then we study them some more. Our quarries usually have at least two things in common. One, they were human once, and two, they became something else.

Several human puzzles with lost pieces appeared near a rural hotel and caught my employers’ attention. They deemed it necessary to do some Research. They decided to call me, the mildly experienced new guy.

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