A goat who plays professional basketball. A cooking competition where the loser becomes the main course. An online date who looks nothing like her photo. A fresh-faced political intern's unexpectedly bad first day. A submarine dragged to the bottom of the sea by a giant squid. A car-chase that sounds a little too familiar. These are among the twenty-six works in Matt Braynard's first collection of literary fiction. These stories will make you laugh, cry, rage, and think as you travel from foreign worlds to downtown Manhattan to Bangkok to a small room in a hospice. Shorter Stories will keep you entertained with short, quick reads that are perfect as a mental palate cleanser before bed, something to help you stay awake during a boring conference call, or as a replacement for that three-year-old Reader's Digest you keep in the bathroom.