Books - Standalone stories
Night of the Hodag
Trent Iverson has led an interesting life, finding himself not one but two men to call his own. He criss-crosses the United States with his husbands as they hunt the strange and bizarre creatures that lurk unseen, but he feels like he hasn’t experienced as much life as he desires. Things change when he learns that his grandmother has passed away, and she has willed her home and possessions in Three Lakes, Wisconsin, to him.
Not long after he arrives with his husbands, Luke Anderson and Adam Skenadore, the trio discover a potential new creature they must hunt down. The people who live in northern Wisconsin talk about a whimsical creature called the hodag. However, some of the locals believe that the mythical monster has gone from simple mischief-maker to ravenous killer, and they want Luke and Adam to destroy the hodag before anyone else winds up dead.
While Luke and Adam roam the forests in pursuit of the hodag, Trent is going through his grandmother’s belongings and discovers she was a very powerful witch descended from a strong family line of witches. He also discovers he has inherited his grandmother’s powers in addition to her possessions. His newfound abilities put a crimp in both his relationship with his husbands and their ability to track down the hodag as he learns a shocking revelation.
White Christmas in the Desert
Meldrick has not had the easiest year in the world. First, his husband left him for someone barely legal. Then he had to take over the management of the family farm in Chino Valley after his elderly parents were no longer able to tend to it. As if those life events were not taxing enough, his eight-year-old son’s biggest wish for a gift from Santa Claus is to have a white Christmas—in Arizona.
When Evan makes the wish, Meldrick knows he needs to find a way to make it true, knowing that the boy has suffered just as much as he has during the past year. The problem is that Arizona is in the middle of a drought, and the expectation is that there will not even be rain for the holidays, much less snow, but Meldrick vows to find a way to make it happen, and he soon finds a partner in crime through his new ranch hand, Jesse.
Together, Meldrick and Jesse vow to make the Christmas wish come true, even though they have no inkling how to change the weather. As they figure out a way to give Evan what he really wants, the pair find out that the desire for snow is not the only wish that needs fulfilling this holiday season.
Rural Roots and American Rainbows: 50 Glimpses From a Country Boy Into the World We Share
Lee Pulaski was born country, and that’s what he’ll always be. As an author, he’s written twenty works of fiction for people to enjoy. However, he also performs other types of writing almost daily, and some of those items end up in his online blog, Rural Roots and American Rainbows.
To date, Lee has posted more than two hundred fifty times to his blog on an assortment of issues—many times with a wisp of humor in this thoughts, and other times when he’s ready to unleash the hellfire and brimstone. Fifty of his best pieces have been curated and put together in this book as he takes on political parties, bizarre laws, assorted holidays and even his own brethren in the gay “community.”
Read Lee’s thoughts about when Arizona repealed its law that made potlucks anywhere but in the workplace illegal up until a few years ago. Enjoy his recollections about when he saw hot air balloons flying through the skies of Chino Valley. Watch him take on another member of the LGBTQ community who suggests that there is a moral obligation to be vegan. Sit back and observe as he blasts social media after his friend posts an artistic and tasteful photo on Facebook that shows some skin and is shut down. Absorb his views on how political parties have outlived their usefulness and should be dismantled. Of course, there’s also a piece on Lee’s favorite subject—why people are so afraid to call Independence Day Independence Day.
Whenever something has seemed off in the world, whether it’s the police going after little tykes and their lemonade stands or when the Association for Library Services to Children voted unanimously to rename the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, Lee Pulaski has given his views on the matter. Considering himself to be a true country boy, a proud patriot and a card-carrying homosexual all wrapped into one package, his best works from Rural Roots and American Rainbows will make you laugh, make you cry, make you mad and, most of all, make you think.
Hex of the Dragon Fruit
Noridem is a land of magic and mysticism, where anything and everything can happen. The people live under the rule of a benevolent emperor and explore the boundaries of existence. They get their amazing powers and abilities from the dragon fruit, which grows in abundance throughout the land. However, the evil sorceress Nephra has cast a hex on almost all of the dragon fruit, making it toxic to Noridemians and robbing them of their strength, and the king of his health.
Existing parallel to Noridem is our world, and in the city of Baltimore, Austin roams the streets, searching for a place to call home. While fleeing a street gang intending to harm him, he falls through a mystic portal leading him to Noridem. It is no accident that Austin is here, however, as he is destined to bring Noridem out of darkness and restore balance to the land—one of the legendary warrior lovers.
To do that, Austin must find a way to control his newfound magic while helping Noridem’s bravest warrior, Blue, find the Genesis Stone, which will break the hex when combined with the Exodus Stone possessed by Nephra. To succeed, they must endure many trials and explore the most treacherous corners of Noridem. In the middle of their quest, new and powerful feelings emerge, and Blue and Austin soon must face two obstacles—true darkness and true love.
Bittersweet in the Shadows
Kaden had little time to live his own life as a high school English teacher in Wausau. His obsession with giving his students a better opportunity to succeed in life had brought him to the brink of a physical and emotional breakdown. So when an old college friend invited him to spend the summer in the countryside near Wittenberg, Kaden couldn’t say yes fast enough.
Not long after arriving, he meets a mysterious stranger in a bar. The chiseled and masculine Avery exudes country. He gushes beauty. It’s an attraction Kaden cannot deny, but he quickly trades one obsession for another when he can’t find Avery the next day. What’s worse, everyone acts like they don’t know who he is.
Kaden knows the village harbors a terrible secret, and his quiet summer turns into a blazing adventure as he tries to find the man who only appears under the cover of darkness. The world he knew to be true will be turned upside down as his search takes him to places both fantastic and cursed. The endgame will be beyond Kaden’s imagining, but are he and his mystery man in the cowboy hat are meant to live happily ever after?
An Eagle River Christmas
Rory Woodward thought he would never set foot in Eagle River again. He left years ago to get away from his family, the Redstones. Now, with word that his grandmother is dying, he must leave his peaceful life as an author in San Francisco to come home and pay his respects. To do so, though, he must confront an overbearing mother, a viciously greedy sister, and the rest of his kin, who are all eager to take the Redstone reputation for benevolence and shove it in the coffin with matriarch Winifred Redstone.
Staber Montana never enjoyed the life of leisure the Redstones have. He has spent most of his life fending for himself while dealing with his drug-abusing, overpossessive mother and alcoholic brother. He has never kept a healthy relationship because his mother would scare away potential mates. More than anything, he wishes he could escape his life.
Rory and Staber may come from two different lives and backgrounds while growing up in the same town, but their paths are about to cross at the most wonderful time of the year. They find themselves drawing closer, but they need to find a way to keep their overwhelming pasts at bay long enough to see if they can create their own Merry Christmas, perhaps the first of many.
Songs of Seduction
It all started with an audition. Whit Harrison was nervous enough, but to have some guy barge into the room when he was trying to try out for a solo in the community choir did not make things any better. Instead of being annoyed with the intruder, however, Whit is quite fascinated with him. He doesn’t have to wait to meet Brock Evans, a fellow music lover who is quite adept with the guitar. Soon, the two men find themselves facing intense feelings for one another, but Brock hasn’t told Whit everything about his past. As he finds himself falling deeper and deeper in love, the level of fear increases as he tries to find a way to come clean without losing Whit forever.
Grandma's House of Waffles
(A play in two acts)
In the mythical community of Folkland, storybook characters carry on everyday lives. In the middle of Folkland is Grandma’s House of Waffles, the home of the famed golden waffle. Hansel performs occasional manual labor, eager to start a new life after being paroled for the gingerbread house incident. Katie Woodencloak, a bitter former princess who never envisioned she’d be a short order cook, mixes the waffles and pours delicious ambrosia. Rounding out the group is Little Red Riding Hood, who serves the golden waffles and faithfully keeps the waffle house running for her absent granny.
One day, Grandma returns after losing all her money in Las Vegas, but what she hasn’t mentioned is that she also lost the deed to the waffle house to a seemingly innocent sheep. However, that sheep turns out to be none other than Mr. Wolf, Folkland’s shifty building inspector, who plans to leave public service and take over the waffle house in the hopes of learning the secret recipe for the golden waffles. Red and the other employees must figure out how to get the waffle house back into Grandma’s hands before it’s run into the ground!
(To get the rights to this play, contact Lee Pulaski directly.)
Zachary Gagewood Mysteries
As American as Apple Pie
Gresham’s annual Applefest is its biggest event of the year, and it brings out the best—and worst—in the residents of this tiny Wisconsin village. This year’s festival is expected to be the biggest yet, and that means the apple pie contest will determine the reputations of numerous bakers, housewives and others. Before the contest is over, however, one of the judges will be dead and cold.
When one of Gresham’s most prominent—and reviled—citizens suddenly dies while judging the apple pies, all signs indicate someone tried to poison her. That theory is quickly thrown into doubt when the medical examiner can find no trace of poison. When it seems like the investigators have given up on finding the truth, local bookstore operator Zachary Gagewood must find out who the killer is before someone else falls prey to an apple pie!
Death by Order of the Queen
The Lonesome Pine Ballroom was once a grand fixture in the village of Gresham, but the jewel of the community has since decayed, prompting its resurrection and renovation. To accomplish that, one hundred thousand dollars needs to be raised. Although a controversial notion, local bookstore owner Zachary Gagewood thought of bringing into the normally strait-laced community a pack of drag queens to entertain, amuse and pick up a few coins for the renovations.
It seemed like a good idea in the beginning—until one of the most outspoken critics in the community is found dead, the heel of a stiletto embedded in his forehead.
With the future of the Lonesome Pine in jeopardy, Zachary knows he must find out who the killer is, knowing full well that anyone capable of killing once could strike again, and in the process, assassinate any hope of restoring Gresham’s pride and joy. The question is, to which dress-wearing man does the shoe fit?
Murder at the Teddy Bears Picnic
“If you go into the woods Saturday, all of Shawano County will hear your cries, because that will be the day the great Patches Sinclair dies.”
The annual Teddy Bears Picnic is the highlight of the year for the children of Shawano County, more so than Easter egg hunts or visits from Santa Claus. Besides being a celebration for the end of summer and an opportunity to break the record of the number of teddy bears at one gathering, the children get to party with Patches Sinclair, a beloved seven-foot teddy bear. However, bear hunting season seems to have arrived early in northeast Wisconsin as Thad Sheppard, the man inside the bear, is found dead in the woods with a knife in his back, no head on his shoulders and a love note composed in hell.
Zachary Gagewood must determine who hated Thad enough to want him dead—two vengeful ex-wives, clown and magician competitors jealous of the bear’s acclaim, loan sharks, even a young man who claims Thad is his father. However, when Zachary’s beloved, Newell Krueger, decides to play the role of Patches so the picnic can continue, he fears his boyfriend could end up being the next bear to be hunted down in the woods.
When Beef Jerky Met Cherries Jubilee
Love endures, and when it’s the subject of an art exhibit, it can be a truly beautiful thing. When Anne Marie White Eagle achieves her dream of opening an art gallery in Gresham, she knows she needs a knockout exhibit to bring people out in droves. She crafts a show featuring Osgood and Muriel Reimer, known for their familial backgrounds in the beef jerky and cherry industries but even better known for a beautiful marriage lasting more than 56 years.
Anne Marie’s dream dissolves into a nightmare when the elderly lovebirds are found dead shortly after opening night, with indications their love might not have been so eternal.
Zachary Gagewood, eager to help his dear friend salvage what’s left of her ambitious gambit into the arts, looks into the deaths and discovers that there are others with plenty of reasons to off Shawano County’s most enduring couple—a granddaughter who feels oppressed and her nonconformist boyfriend, a store owner harboring a lifelong secret, or even jealous extended family members. Can Zachary figure out who would want to end the most beautiful love affair ever?
Sleigh Bells and Slain Belles
It’s the most wonderful time of the year in Gresham, where the newly restored Lonesome Pine Ballroom is finally ready to host its first event, the Gingerbread Ball. The event, put on by the Gresham Ladies Society, is a chance for adults to leave the children with babysitters and spend the evening in formal wear and celebrating the reason for the season—the Christmas Campaign for Coats, which makes sure all the children in Shawano County are warm for the winter.
Things turn icy when Lena Andrews, the village’s Christmas princess, is found dead following the ball in her bed. Sleeping next to her is Joshua Callahan, a detective with the sheriff’s department and nemesis to Zachary Gagewood, the local bookstore owner and resident sleuth.
Zachary decides to put past slights aside in order to find the real killer. The prospects of Joshua’s innocence grow dim when a second woman he’d been intimate with, a former beauty queen, also turns up dead. With the help of an old friend, can Zachary be Joshua’s personal Santa Claus and give him the greatest gift of all—his freedom?
Creampuff of the County
It’s fair time for Shawano County, and that means the Fairest of the Fair, Victoria Pennington, is hitting the streets to hype up the longest-running county event. It also means the mild-mannered Fletcher Burgess is preparing the fair’s tastiest treat — creampuffs. Tensions are high at this year’s fair because Fletcher’s daughter, Janet, believes she was robbed of the Fairest honor due to the Pennington family’s enormous donation to restore aging fair buildings.
The friction hits fever pitch when the Fairest eats a creampuff for a television commercial promoting the fair and dies immediately after taking a bite of the beloved confection. Fletcher, who personally served the puff, is believed to have killed Victoria to avenge the injustice his daughter suffered.
While officials are trying to quell local fears about safety at the county fair, Zachary Gagewood tries to clear Fletcher’s name and find out who really wanted to send the Fairest of the Fair to her maker. The question is whether Zachary can sort through the fluff and identify the murderer before someone else falls prey to a killer confection.
A Murder Shatters Peaceful Valley
The residents of Caroline, nicknamed the Peaceful Valley, has eagerly anticipated the arrival of hometown superstar Astrid Stone. She is on a national tour with fellow singer Ruth Phillips, who escaped from a fundamentalist polygamist compound, and is trying to raise money to help other young women and men to escape from cults and supremacy groups. The community hopes the concert will be the start of a new spring tradition.
Those hopes are dashed when Astrid disappears before the concert starts, and a burned body is found inside her obliterated car. Ruth is afraid for her own life when the murder looks like members of her former cult carried out the dark deed, and superstitious townsfolk fear Ruth’s former ties to fundamentalists may have sparked the resurrection of the Posse Comitatus, a dark chapter in Shawano County’s history that took root in a nearby village.
When two more people are found dead, it becomes clear to Zachary Gagewood that someone is trying to sow seeds of fear and hatred in Caroline. To find the killer, though, Zachary will need to figure out if the deed was carried out by one person or a sinister organization.
Murder at the Frybread Contest
The village of Gresham is hosting a frybread contest where area tribes compete for bragging rights by showing who can make the tastiest piece of golden bread. The Menominee, Stockbridge-Munsee and Ho-Chunk tribes take part in the contest each year to commemorate Native American Heritage Month and honor the women in the three tribes. However, turmoil boils over when the committee organizing all the festivities opens up the contest to other tribes, non-natives and even men.
The tenuous situation gets worse when the gentle TImothy Lockhart is found dead, leading tribal leaders to point fingers at each other and at certain residents of Gresham. To add insult to injury, most of the contestants also received threatening messages prior to the first murder, creating the fear that someone else could be next.
Is it one of the contestants? One of the protesters who believe making frybread is a tradition forced on natives by white men? Zachary Gagewood knows he has no time to lose, especially when the killer sends him a note, vowing that Timothy is only the first to die...
Quoth the Raven
Zachary Gagewood has seen his share of dead bodies in the time that he’s lived in Gresham. It seemed like many of the big events he attended seemed to end abruptly due to someone’s tragic death. It never happened with anything he planned for The Literary Barn, his cozy bookstore nestled in the heart of Gresham... until now.
An old friend that Zachary grew up with, Grady Bergner, has become a successful published author, and he is eager to come to town when Zachary invites him to The Literary Barn for a reading of his latest novel, Raven’s Wrath. However, the two old friends quickly turn sour when Grady gives an all-too-frank opinion about Zachary’s first manuscript. Before the two can make up, however, Grady ends up dead, with one of Zachary’s bookshelves crushing him.
Zachary is absolved of the crime when it’s proven he was far enough away from Grady, but the bookstore owner is still rattled about cold-blooded murder being committed at his own business, so he sets out to find yet another killer. Is it the literary agent who was draining Grady dry? The woman who claims the story for Raven’s Wrath was actually hers? The mystery man who followed Grady to town hoping to meet his favorite author? Whoever it is, the killer could be planning to take out Zachary next!
Dine Out and Die!
Gresham is growing and coming into its own as a tourist destination. The addition of several new restaurants has prompted the village board chairwoman, Felicia Bellwether, to create a new event—Dine Out and Shop in Gresham—that will turn Main Street into a gigantic outdoor cafe for several nights and give visitors a chance to sample the many tastes of the community, from Sigrid’s German and Italian fare to the Turkish cuisine from On the Mediterranean to Native American frybread and other dishes.
However, like many well-laid plans in the village of less than six hundred, the event turns competitive, with some restaurateurs taking aim at others with words and deeds. Before the knives can come out, though, a beloved religious leader’s expiration date is pushed up at the first night of Dine Out and Shop, leading to fingerpointing and fear that home cooking might be a safer meal choice than Gresham’s cuisine.
Zachary Gagewood, the local bookstore owner and designated community sleuth, knows he needs to find out who poisoned the meal, but with his pending nuptials to his fiance, Newell Krueger, and the threat of Newell’s sister stopping the wedding, will he be able to track down the killer before other victims fall face-first into their meal?
A Cure For Hunger trilogy
A Cure For Hunger
Benjamin Carpenter is a practicing witch from an ancient clan. Thomas Nighthawk is his lover, a 300-year-old vampire who longs to be human. The two of them have been together for eight years and love each other deeply. Unfortunately, their physical love is hampered by the instinctive bloodlust in Thomas' psyche, where the approach of orgasm unleashes the demon within.
When Benjamin hears about someone who has developed a cure that carves out the demon while preserving the man, he knows he needs to do whatever it takes to get the magic potion to bring his beloved new life. However, the cure-keeper does not want to be found, and other forces of darkness want to keep the cure from spreading. Will Benjamin's quest to bring Thomas back to life actually get them both killed?
A Cure For Hunger II: Howl of the Wendigo
Change can be good, except if you’re a powerful witch like Benjamin Carpenter. The code of the Itzhak clan, intertwined with the Moonbeam caste of magicians, dictates witches will inherit one, and only one, power from each parent. However, a harrowing night in the woods near Sedona causes Benjamin to manifest another power his mother had, the power of teleportation, creating concern that his destiny might be taking a turn for the worse.
However, Benjamin’s new power is the least of everyone’s problems after one of his closest friends, Ivan Salazar, starts developing a carnivorous, insatiable hunger and turns into a rare creature—the wendigo. As the monster starts to consume his body and attempts to destroy his soul, it will take the unrequited love for another man to keep the wendigo at bay.
The second book in the A Cure for Hunger trilogy welcomes back 300-year-old vampire Thomas Nighthawk, the beautiful gypsy shopkeeper Kenda Ravenwood, and werewolf Todd Kesseldorf. With Benjamin, these denizens of the supernatural will have to figure out who is causing Ivan’s frightening transformation while trying to avoid the vicious attacks of an extremist bounty hunter.
A Cure For Hunger III: Darkling in Abeyance
Benjamin Carpenter would do anything for the people he cares about. He risked his life to find a cure for vampirism to make his lover mortal. He penetrated the veil of darkness to rescue his best friend when he transformed into a wendigo. Now Benjamin’s the one who needs help.
An ancient prophecy claims that he has been ordained to bring about the end times, an act he couldn’t begin to imagine himself capable of. However, he is developing new powers at an alarming rate, and the forces of both good and evil are rising up to lay claim to him, not caring about the path of destruction they create in the process.
With time literally ticking away until the apocalypse arrives, Benjamin’s friends—vampire lover Thomas Nighthawk, gypsy practitioner Kenda Ravenwood and comic book store owner Ivan Salazar—are ready to do whatever it takes to keep the end times at bay, but are they prepared to kill him to prevent him from fulfilling his destiny as the Bringer of Darkness?
The Colors of Love and Autumn
The Colors of Love and Autumn
Shilo David, still stinging from the lengthy and bitter breakup with a previous lover, flees to the quiet woods in Eagle River, Wisconsin. There, he hopes to find solace amongst the color of the trees and foliage, and possibly rediscover his inspiration and creative spark. He winds up finding much more.
Jeffrey Layton, who has lived in Eagle River for many years, is also on the rebound after losing a boyfriend. However, his mate was taken from him by cancer. Jeffrey’s apprehensive about leaping into another relationship for fear that his next true love will also be snatched from his grasp. Then he meets Shilo.
Together, the two learn love is an emotion to be embraced, not spurned, and it’s possible to find the person you’re meant to be with, even when the cards are stacked against you. Shilo learns it’s sometimes necessary to kiss a few toads in order to find your prince, while Jeffrey discovers he has it in him to love another while still caring for those who have left. In this tale, love has no boundaries, and not even the changing hues of the leaves in the forest can compete with the beauty of true happiness.
The Second Season
Shilo David and Jeffrey Layton return in this sequel to The Colors of Love and Autumn. The two of them beat the odds to find true love, with the falling leaves in the Wisconsin woods to guide them.
However, the colorful leaves have long since vanished, and Shilo and Jeffrey must face a new stage in their relationship. The lovebirds return to Eagle River after a vacation to find Jeffrey's home burned to the ground. The news is particularly chilling when it's discovered the fire might be deliberate. With little alternative, they decide to live together in Shilo's house, but they quickly discover that loving each other under one roof is more challenging than they expect.
Despite this uncertainty and the veiled threat that stalks them in the dead of winter, one question must still be answered. Is their love strong enough to survive the ultimate step—marriage?
About the Author
Meet Lee Pulaski
Living in the real world was never a long-term plan for Lee Pulaski. He spent many a day imagining bold adventures and playing them out in the quiet countryside of Chino Valley, Arizona. Still, he never could have imagined at the time that the dreams and worlds created in his mind would someday be in print form.
Having learned how to read at age 3 1/2, Lee also loves to read as often as possible, enjoying mysteries mostly, although he'll read any good story. He took a particular interest in fantasy adventures, which might explain why he liked writing about adventures with the Easter Bunny when he was in the first grade. That eventually led to him writing a number of plays in middle and high school involving mysteries, another genre Lee enjoyed in his youth. One of his plays was produced by his high school during his junior year.
Lee first got published in high school, but it was for a very different type of writing. He found a talent for writing about the news and telling compelling feature stories about people, and his talent for photography has helped to bring those stories to look. Lee’s still a working journalist today.
Despite seeing his name highlighting stories several times a week, Lee still yearned to see his name on the cover of a book. He was inspired to write his first novel in 2006 after he spent a vacation camping with family during a particularly breathtaking autumn, where the reds, oranges and yellows were on full display. It turned into a beautiful romantic story called The Colors of Love and Autumn, which Lee published through Torquere Press in 2008 as an e-book. However, that wasn’t enough for him, as he still wanted to see his book in print, so he made the plunge two years later to self-publish.
Since then, Lee has written a sequel to The Colors of Love and Autumn, a mystery series set in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, other fantasies and other romance novels. His novels are available in paperback and e-book formats, and his first hardcover novel came out in 2019. Now twenty books in, Lee is still writing—and still in the pursuit of new worlds and new dreams.