The Clock Whispers: A Collection of Short Stories

"Time, consumer of all things"
Ovid, Metamorphoses, AD 8

The Clock Whispers contains seven short stories centered on the importance of time. In "David's Cocktail Hour," an elderly gentleman finds himself in a life-and-death negotiation for more time. "Cleopatra's Needle" examines a man's life choices when he learns he has been granted more time than he can imagine. "Johnny's Sundial" documents the ramifications of bad decisions made by a person with a little extra time on his hands. "Jake's Hearing Aids" reveals the failure of a widowed husband to use his remaining time to make things right. "Billy's Bar and Grill" details the "Happy Hour" conversations at an establishment where time can be put to excellent use or foolishly squandered. The book's final two stories, "Tom's Ring" and "Tessa's Sweater," show how, for some things, there is never a good time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Besides The Clock Whispers, Robert Lerner has published four works of fiction: Contemporary Folktales, The Cinderella Vessel, An Accidental Prophet, and Dog Park Diaries. Lerner has also authored four nonfiction books that interweave ancient Roman business practices with the modern workplace, including a newly released work on ancient Rome's wealthiest citizen, The Entrepreneurial Thinking of Marcus Crassus. The three others-Entrepreneurship and Ethics in Ancient Rome, Career Turbulence, and Customer Acquisition Strategies-were published as part of Multi-Media Publications' Lessons From History Series. Lerner is the retired CEO of a multinational computer services company.