HARD NO

Accord, Saskatchewan, is the kind of town where everyone knows your name, your business, and the worst thing you’ve ever done. Beyond its last streetlight, the roads run straight, the nights run long, and wanting something badly enough can be more dangerous than whatever waits in the dark.

In these stories from the world of Hard Place, the hopeful and the damned chase love, fame, escape, revenge, and second chances. A severed head has a story to tell. A dream woman becomes a nightmare. A forgotten lover keeps returning. A red-winged blackbird calls from somewhere it shouldn’t, and a ride down a familiar road leads someplace impossible.

Some of these people bargain with the devil. Others bargain only with themselves. The distinction is smaller than they imagine.

Darkly funny, violent, and unexpectedly tender, Hard No. is a collection about desire, consequence, and the terrible distance between what we ask for and what we receive.

In Accord, every road eventually comes to a crossroads.

The answer should have been no.