The Open Road Blog

May is National Short Story Month and to celebrate, Open Road Integrated Media is sharing short stories by famous authors all month long on our blog. Be sure to share what you think on Twitter using the National Short Story Month Hashtag: #storymonth12

Check out all of our short stories here.

Before he was a novelist David Corbett worked as a private investigator in San Francisco where he was involved in some of our nation’s most notorious criminal cases. David Corbett’s novels have been called a “New York Times Notable Book,” “San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book” and included on ...

For today's National Short Story Month feature, Open Road celebrates Edna O'Brien, an award-winning Irish author of novels, plays, and short stories. She has been hailed as one of the greatest chroniclers of the female experience in the twentieth century, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review has described her as "a storyteller, an Irish storyteller, one of an ancient traditions of storytellers, people who tell the truth."

O'Brien is the 2011 recipient of the Frank O’Connor Prize, awarded for her short story collection Saints and Sinners. She has also received, among other honors, the Irish PEN ...

Mother's Day is tomorrow!

In celebration of this special day, we invite you to read "A Visit with My Grandmother" from memoirist Joyce Maynard's essay collection, Domestic Affairs.

Witty and insightful, Domestic Affairs is an extension of Joyce Maynard’s celebrated, widely syndicated newspaper column of the same name that ran from 1984 to 1990. Each essay gives an unfiltered look at the ups and downs of family life and a remarkable window into the challenges of modern motherhood. Topics range from babysitter woes to family visits to coping with a child’s burgeoning independence. These collected writings represent nine years’ ...

Today’s featured excerpt comes from Out of My Later Years by Albert Einstein. Out of My Later Years is a deeply personal work from one of the most brilliant minds in history. In this inspiring essay collection, Einstein addresses the topics that fascinated him as a Nobel Prize–winning theoretical physicist, philosopher, and humanitarian. In the excerpt below, Einstein describes the emotional conflict he feels as a physicist—involved in a scientific discipline that made weapons of mass destruction possible—and as a German Jewish émigré in America witnessing the effects of World War II on his people.

Read a sample of Einstein’s ...

May is National Short Story Month and to celebrate, Open Road Integrated Media is sharing short stories by famous authors all month long on our blog. Be sure to share what you think on Twitter using the National Short Story Month Hashtag: #storymonth12

Check out all of our short stories here.

“Anybody settling down with a Garfield book is in for a good time.” —The New York Times

Brian Garfield, a widely acclaimed master of thriller writing, is the Edgar Award–winning author of over seventy novels. Described by Newsday as “a scintillating, talented writer,” Garfield has sold more ...

To continue our celebration of National Short Story Month, we are excited to share this powerful story—"How Can You Tell Me"—from Eileen Pollack's collection, The Rabbi in the Attic, released as an ebook today from Delphinium Books and Open Road Integrated Media.

In an age of minimalists, Eileen Pollack is a writer of rare generosity. The women and men in The Rabbi in the Attic are complex, vivid people to whom something happens. Like most of us, these characters are struggling to understand what they have gained and lost by abandoning the passions and moral certainties ...

Camilla Läckberg was working in Stockholm, Sweden as an economist when a creative writing class inspired to write her first crime novel.  Six bestselling thrillers later, Läckberg’s books are quickly finding an international audience that has fallen in love with Scandinavian fiction. Läckberg’s third novel The Stonecutter, released in the US for the first time on Tuesday, is a suspenseful tale of shattered innocence that begins with the horrifying discovery of a child’s body in a local fisherman’s net.

You can read a sample of Läckberg’s The Stonecutter here on the blog. You can also grab a longer sample ...

May is National Short Story Month and to celebrate, Open Road Integrated Media is sharing short stories by famous authors all month long on our blog. Be sure to share what you think on Twitter using the National Short Story Month Hashtag: #storymonth12.

Check out all of our short stories here.

“At 40 Edward Bunker was a hardened criminal with a substantial prison record. Twenty-five years later, he was hailed by his peers as America’s greatest living crime writer.” The Independent

Not every crime thriller comes directly from the heart of one of America’s most notorious prisons. Edward Bunker, ...

May is National Short Story Month! In support, Open Road plans to share two short stories each week for the entire month.  We are launching this effort with "Training a Heavyweight," a story from F.X. Toole's Million Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner, released in ebook form today.

“The stories are written sparely and derive much of their power from their authenticity,” says the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Indeed, "Training a Heavyweight" bears a strong sense of authenticity, as it is written from the intimate perspective of a trainer—discover what it takes to work with ...

For today's Science Fiction Spotlight, we feature Peter Lerangis, a bestselling author of middle-grade and young adult fiction whose novels have sold more than four million copies worldwide. His first series, Watchers, deals with unexplained phenomena: parallel worlds, time travel, cloning, androids, and soul-upload.

Watch how Lerangis explains how he relates to “outsiders” and then read an excerpt from Last Stop, the first title in the Watchers series. 

Today Open Road Media celebrates the birthday of Gertrude Chandler Warner, author of the beloved children’s book series The Boxcar Children.

Born in Putnam, Connecticut, in 1890, Warner dreamed of becoming an author. But in 1918, as male teachers were being called to serve in World War I, Warner was recruited to teach first grade. While teaching, she developed the idea for the Boxcar Children. The stories were perfect for children, although critics thought her books encouraged children to rebel. 

The series, which was originally published in 1924, is now available from Open Road in ebook format for a ...

Today marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Erskine Caldwell (1903–1987), the author of twenty-five novels, numerous short stories, and a dozen nonfiction titles, most depicting the harsh realities of life in the American South during the Great Depression. Although his graphic realism and unabashedly political themes earned him the scorn of critics and censors early in his career, by the end of his life, he was acknowledged as a giant of American literature. Learn more about Caldwell's life and work from Monday's archival photo feature on Caldwell.

Open Road Media highlights Tobacco Road, Caldwell’s bestselling, controversial classic: ...

In honor of Women’s History Month, Open Road Media highlights French author Simone de Beauvoir, and her message of freedom for oppressed women.

Existentialist philosopher, intellectual, and skeptic, Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) began her writing career fueled with ideas for what would become greatly influential metaphysical and socially analytical works. Raised and educated in Paris, de Beauvoir turned to philosophy while at university, and soon began observing and theorizing about the suppressed role of women in society. She published provocative work on feminist subjects, speaking out on behalf of her fellow women.

De Beauvoir became the longtime lover of fellow ...

Today’s featured excerpt comes from Fear of Flying by Erica Jong. A literary sensation when first published in 1973, Fear of Flying established Erica Jong as one of her generation’s foremost voices on sex and feminism. Nearly four decades later, the novel has lost none of its insight, verve, or jaw-dropping wit.

Read a sample of Jong’s Fear of Flying here on the blog. You can also grab a longer sample for your readers via Apple, Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Today’s excerpt comes from Other Women, Lisa Alther’s bestselling book about the power of self-examination. In the world of the novel, this comes through an intense patient-therapist relationship, but in life it comes in all forms. As we continue to commemorate women’s history month, this piece encourages us to consider the value of ongoing self-discovery.

View the excerpt from Other Women below. If you are moved by this selection, please consider sharing it on Facebook.

Buy Other Women: Apple | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Sony