Let Birds Fly
short stories by
Rhea Thomas
~232 pages, $18.95 (+ shipping)
Projected Release Date: August/September 2025
An Advance Sale Discount price of $11 (+ shipping) is available HERE prior to press time. This price is not available anywhere else or by check. The check price is $16/book (which includes shipping & sales tax) and should be sent to: Main Street Rag, 12180 Skyview Drive, Edinboro, PA 16412.
PLEASE NOTE: Ordering in advance of the release date entitles the buyer to a discount. It does not mean the book will ship before the date posted above and the price only applies to copies ordered through the Main Street Rag Online Bookstore.
Rhea Thomas lives in Austin, Texas where she works as a program manager in the digital media world. Her short stories been published in multiple publications, including, most recently, The Fictional Café and Does It Have Pockets. She spends her free time hoarding books, walking her stubborn labrador retriever, playing games with her sons, kayaking and swimming in rivers, searching for mysteries and writing short stories that explore magical moments in the mundane. She’s currently working on a literary mystery novel.
Rhea Thomas’ debut collection is filled with nuggets of joyful possibility twinkling just below the surface of an otherwise pedestrian marketing agency. Unearthed with deliberate, gentle prose, you will delight in the diamonds in the rough she gifts to the reader. Let Birds’ Fly is a seductive collection of magical possibility sure to entrance anyone who hopes for everyday miracles. ~Angela Bier, Voices & The Accidental Archivist
A collection of short stories from one of the most imaginative minds I’ve read in a long time. Rhea takes working people’s inner thoughts and situations and turns them inside out. You won’t want to miss any of these stories! ~Karen Cutler Drecktrah, author of: Little Ida–The Story of a Family Tree
Let Birds Fly is going to be the most unique and entertaining book you read this year. Filled with familiarity on every page, but flights of fancy that will spark your imagination, author Rhea Thomas will send you on a literary adventure. There is skin that comes off with a zipper, an odd chicken wearing sneakers, a singing avocado, and soles to enrich your soul. Read it, enjoy it…and then read it again. ~Kathie Giorgio, Hope Always Rises and Don’t Let Me Keep You
The Worrymajig
When Amelia tripped on her way out of the office parking garage and ended up sprawled on the sidewalk, a noise came out of her mouth that was a cross between a gasp, a screech and a squawking chicken. In addition to skinning her knees, she broke the heel on her new, cute winter booties. Luckily, she had some back-up tennis shoes in her desk, due to some client freebies, and no one would have noticed her cute boots anyway, because she would be stuck at her desk all day with the mountain of work she needed to complete.
Despite this being only a few weeks into January and the new year, Amelia wasn’t feeling very hopeful this year would be any different from the last. Everyone was so excited about “new year, new you,” and what resolutions they should all tackle: healthy eating, exercise, new hobbies, work/life balance, etc. Amelia’s Facebook feed was full of articles informing her of “10 Ways to Deal with Stress” or “5 Stress Relievers You Need Today.” Someone in the office (Probably HR or Molly, the girl who was nauseatingly healthy) printed out one of these headline-grabbing quick-fixers and posted it in the break room. It was tacked on the bulletin board, right next to “Why Sitting All Day Can Kill You” and “The 138 Health Benefits of Yoga.” Amelia usually ignored these postings on her way to brew coffee or grab an extra energy drink from the never-ending supply in the company-provided refrigerator.
However, a few weeks ago, she was stuck waiting in line for her daily caffeine fix because Richard was filling his mammoth mug. (Seriously, a giant mug that took, like, half the pot to fill or at a minimum, three K-cups. He should really be polite and let the others go first.) She didn’t want to get stuck talking to him while she waited, because all he talked about was numerology, spin class and his paleo diet, so Amelia hovered in front of the bulletin board, pretending to be absorbed in the articles posted. And, well, she ended up actually reading the one about stress.
The number one item on the list of things to reduce stress was to walk. According to this article, walking could improve your mood and self-esteem through the production of feel-good endorphins and actually lower levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. She snorted. Everyone walked. She walked all day, right? She walked to the bathroom, to the break room, to meetings. And she still felt stressed. Her best friend Lori swore yoga was a great stress-reliever, but the one time Amelia tried that, she almost passed out from the heated room and ended up just trying not to toot the whole time or fall flat on her face from her lack of flexibility.
“Annie, I need this statement of work edited right away. Do you mind?” said Stan, one of the C-level suits who never talked to her except when he needed something. He was notorious around the office for getting everyone’s names slightly wrong. Case in point, her name was Amelia.
“Sure, Stan,” she replied. “When do you need it back?”
“Right away! I have a meeting at ten with Gazongas Grill, and I think they’re ready to sign!” He swooped over to the coffee pot as Richard walked away. It would never occur to him that there was a line.
“Okay. I’m going to get some coffee first and then I can get right on it,” she said to his back.
“Great! Thanks, Annie,’ he said, flashing his meaningless smile.
She sighed. It was nine o’clock.
If you’d like to read the rest of this story and others included in Let Birds Fly, order your copy now and have it delivered once the book is in print.
