Loren David Marsh

Night to be Gone

Omer and Carine move restlessly from place to place and keep their heads above water with tournaments at the pool table. Both are on the run from their past: Omer as an African refugee, Frenchwoman Carine as an ex-junkie who was in danger of sinking into the drug scene. Now the couple have ended up in Berlin, where Omer senses a big coup: he wants to challenge the notorious billiards player Sultan to a tournament. With the winnings from this match, he and Carine could finally move on and perhaps even fulfill Carine's dream of opening a beach bar. But things turn out differently, because the shady Sultan has also devised a plan to pull the wool over Omer's eyes.

Invitation to a Suicide

Raised in an insular Polish immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn where he's destined to become a poor baker like his father, Kaz Malek attempts to steal from a Russian mobster and run away with the girl of his dreams, Eva. Not cut out for a life of crime, he ends up with a $10,000 debt to the mobster who threatens to kill his father. Unable to pay or face his father's death, Kaz comes up with a novel plan: he'll hang himself and sell tickets to the show. He is surprised to find, however, that the mobster as well as the neighborhood are extremely supportive of this idea... not to mention his father. But even if he can sell the tickets will he really go through with it? By the time this dark comedy reaches its surprising conclusion, Kaz learns that sometimes embracing death is the only way to a better life.

Mission

Marvin, a young aspiring writer from New York, moves to California to write a novel. He ends up rooming with a chaotic, bohemian musician named Jay. Marvin finds himself inexorably drawn into the vibrant youth culture of San Francisco's Mission District as both Jay and himself watch their worlds disintegrate. They discover that each has a lot to learn from the other. Mission is a coming-of-age story casting a spotlight on a place and time, moments before artistic aspiring types yielded the Mission to the dotcom entrepreneurs.