A Lead Pill

by R.A. Jacobson

A Lead Pill is the second collection of short stories from a HARD PLACE.Stories of loneliness and betrayal, of false hope and shattered dreams, of gifts and regrets, of love and accidental kindness. Each story follows separate paths that lead to the understanding that sometimes the only solution is a lead pill.All your life you have wanted something but maybe you didn’t know what that was in The Touch.A life of stacked years never knowing that it was all in service to a memory in Service Up.What do you do when life has outlived the reason to be alive in Tired of Living.Finding love in the strangest places can lead to some strange results in Passing it Forward.The desperate do desperate things that they soon come to regret in Haymaker.She wanted the power, she just didn’t want to be used by it in The RefusalHis love of numbers led him to ask for something that turned out to be something else entirely in Adding it up.

204 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 25, 2021

About the author

After leaving the north forests and farmland of Saskatchewan, Rick headed to Calgary and the Alberta College of Art. After 4 years of hard work, he came out confused and somewhat lost. Now what?

Rick has been a bouncer (1 week), he has been a radio switcher (1 night), he worked at the CBC (1 month), he was a stuntman (2 action movies that he never saw, but he’s not alone in that) and he modelled briefly (he was the Jolly Green Giant for a time). Rick has built houses, packed groceries, cut grass and has written four and illustrated nineteen children’s books. He has worked as a painter, a designer, an illustrator and a writer.
Rick has won awards for his work in advertising and publishing, including the Ruth Schwartz Award, the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award and numerous national and international awards including the Toronto Art Directors’ Awards, Communication Arts Magazine’s Award of Excellence, American Illustration Award of Excellence, and the New York Art Directors’ Award of Excellence. He has been featured in Smithsonian magazine, Applied Arts Magazine and in The Artist’s Magazine. His commissioned portraits include Robertson Davies, Margaret Atwood, Christopher Ondaatje, and David Thomson.
His collection of short stories "A Single Round" is scheduled for release Oct 24, 2020. He is currently working on his first novel called 'HARD PLACE'.

Reviews

[B. Colwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book for free and have voluntarily reviewed it. First of all, I am still floored by how good this book was. The characters drew me in from the very first story and the ending tied all the stories together in a way that made it feel "right." The author captured the humanity of the characters and showed that sometimes it's not that someone's evil, or necessarily bad, but that we are all flawed and can fool ourselves into thinking we are doing the right thing. I absolutely loved this book and cannot recommend it highly enough.

[Terri McClean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A loosely contacted series of short stories that show that life doesn't always go as planned. I sat down and read it in one sitting so it kept my interest that long. You can read it bit by bit just reading a story at a time , making it perfect for those ,waiting in line, for the bus, or toilet visits.

[Patty Mele · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book for free, with an honest review freely given. I thought this was such an amazing book that I read it from the very beginning to the very end. I thought the character built up was very well done and this is my opinion. I thought the storytelling was so well done and this is my opinion.