Joe McLaughlin
Coffee on Your Own Time
Read the new short story by Joe McLaughlin
Young Henry Jameson is working his way through college when he gets sidetracked by the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. Michelle, a waitress at a local diner where Henry eats. She’s everything he’s ever dreamed of, but there’s something different about her -something lurking under the surface.
His greatest fears are realized one night over a cup of coffee when a stranger visits him and warns him that he and Michelle are being targeted by an assassin. As the night unfolds Henry tries to find out who this stranger is, if this threat of danger is real and how this stranger knows so much about them. The truth is more shocking than Henry could imagine and his life is changed forever.
Available now at Amazon.com
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New short stories and books in the works
The Salient
A lone starship waiting for repairs near Earth's moon becomes the center of a major invasion. Two captains, one old and one new, struggle for victory as they each suffer losses.
In a battle against wills, they'll use everything in their arsenal to secure victory. But when one captain goes after the other's girl the game changes.
It's no longer about pride, victory or saving Earth. It's about one Captain's fight for the woman he loves. And he'll sacrifice everything in his power to make sure she's safe.
At Universe's End
Stephen Lawson, a young man in love with his girlfriend Mandy, has just finished his date and is headed home. On the way he noticed a bright light in the night sky. The next thing he knew, he was in a cell on what he assumed was a spaceship that was filled with alien life.
Abducted, tortured and abandoned even by his captors, Stephen is alone. Marooned on desolate planet, he’s forced to fight and die over and over all for the pleasure of the galaxy’s most feared creatures.
His only hope is a sentient computer program that appears to him as a hologram. Over time Grace and Stephen develop a bond. They promise to do whatever it takes to get off this planet and get Stephen home.
Lost Tomorrows
A man will do anything to protect the woman he loves including breaking the planet's highest law. In 2136, Benjamin Hawthorn watches as his wife withers away by a new disease that has no cure.
It was that one fateful day ten years ago on vacation when she became sick. If he could only go back and change those events -make her not take that trip. But unauthorized time travel is against the law and highly policed.
Using time-travel tech scrounged together from the dark criminal underworld he does the impossible and goes back in time to save his wife. In doing so, he sets in motion a chain of events that doom him to remain trapped in an ever-expanding journey as he moves backwards in time.
About the author
Joe McLaughlin is a science fiction writer that lives in Huntsville, AL.
Joe McLaughlin lives in Huntsville, AL. He became a software programmer after attending college and built various web sites using a variety of different software platforms and languages. He was fortunate enough to travel around the United States consulting for Fortune 1000 companies during the Dot-com boom.
In the non-programming world Joe speaks English and a little Spanish. Joe was married in 2005 and has three sons. He wrote his first short story in grade six and fell in love with story writing. He has since written several short stories, the latest of which is now available on Amazon.com. He is currently working on finishing a short story that has turned into a novella.