Flushed

After living in the shadow of his older brother, Ivan Wells knows his place in life. Never one to take responsibility for his actions, he spends his days eking a living by playing poker at the local casino.Ivan is comfortable with his lot, until a long-forgotten woman from his past reappears.Hurtling into a heady relationship with the mysterious Sonya Lewis, Ivan's existence takes on new life. But then his ex-wife shows up, with news that makes it difficult to turn her away.Torn, Ivan finds himself faced with complicated decisions. Will he finally learn to take control of his own destiny? Joseph has been a horror fan since the age 12, when his mother bought him a copy of Stephen King's The Dead Zone, so we have her to blame. His first novel, written at the age of 13, was a direct ripoff of this book but he has since found his own voice. He says his greatest moment as a writer was giving his mother nightmares when she read the opening chapters of a novel he wrote at the age of 15.Joseph's first published story was called As in Life, So in Death and since then his short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies such as Masters of Horror - The Anthology, Dark Things II, Death Be Not Proud, Christmas in Hell, and Dangers Untold, among others.