A short, episodic, tongue-in-cheek story based on the Time Meddlers series. Thirteen-year-old Matt Barnes, while searching for his time-travelling father, stumbles into a canyon maze on Mars, and makes a grisly discovery – not for weak stomachs. Is this a strange twist of evolution - another species colonizing Mars - or a prediction of their fate?Thirteen-year-old Matt Barnes, while searching for his father, a scientist trapped in quantum foam, ventures onto the red planet. He and his faithful, though reluctant, companion, Sarah Sachs, stumble through a canyon maze and make a grisly discovery - perhaps a strange twist of evolution. Things go downhill from there. After all, Mars is a planet with an unbreathable atmosphere and hurricane-force winds where your blood might boil. The perfect place for a summer vacation, or a short disastrous adventure. Will they escape the maze, and will they stop arguing long enough to survive their next deadly encounter?

This book contains six of the eighteen fairy tales from Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book (1889). The stories have been rewritten sentence by sentence to make them accessible to 21st century American children. The 6 stories include Toads and Diamonds, Beauty and the Beast, Snow-white and Rose-red, Why the Sea is Salty, Felicia and the Pot of Carnations, and Hansel and Grettel.This book contains six of the eighteen fairy tales from Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book (1889). The stories have been rewritten sentence by sentence to make them accessible to 21st century American children. The 6 stories include Toads and Diamonds, Beauty and the Beast, Snow-white and Rose-red, Why the Sea is Salty, Felicia and the Pot of Carnations, Hansel and Grettel.The great beauty of Andrew Lang’s Blue Fairy Book, originally published in 1889, is that it brought together many different fairy tale traditions. There are stories written by Charles Perrault and Mme d’Aulnoy, collected by the Grimm brothers and Asbjornsen and Moe, and translated from the Arabian Nights. It is a very rich collection of fairy tales.However, the stories are written in a language that is outdated and in places inaccessible to modern American children (and even their parents). To remedy this problem, I have thoroughly edited half of the stories contained in Lang`s book, keeping the stories as intact as possible, while revising every sentence so the stories can once again be read with pleasure by children.

Three years after a decimating virus has left mankind on the brink of extinction, two brothers must move past their hatred of each in order to survive. But in this new world, surviving means having a little faith - faith in each other, faith in themselves and faith in what can't be seen. Perhaps most importantly of all, faith means being able to follow their third brother. The one with a gift.Great. Another novel of dystopian freaking fiction?Not really...In a moving tale about a world trying to regain its humanity, master storytellers Dan McNeill and Kevin Morton tell the story of a band of misfits out to save the world. River's Rising is the thrilling first episode of the four part World Down series - the series that proves not all dystopian fiction needs to be entirely dystopian.Three years after a decimating virus has left mankind on the brink of extinction, two brothers must move past their hatred of each in order to survive. But in this new world, surviving means having a little faith - faith in each other, faith in themselves and faith in what can't be seen. Perhaps most importantly of all, faith means being able to follow their third brother. Their older brother. The one with Down syndrome. Their brother Po has a gift.When they realize what that gift is, it will lead them into a journey of discovery where the stakes couldn't be higher. On one side are the Elected - five god-like beings with super-human powers whose plans for global dominion seem next to certain. Opposing them is suicide.On the other side are the mythical 19 - travelers with their own powers who haven't been seen in years. Tales of their exploits during the dark early days of the outbreak are told in whispers. Hope that the 19 will ever be found is growing dim.But Po and his gift may turn that all around.World Down: Episode 1 - River's Rising. Finally, dystopian fiction without dour characters or kids with crossbows. Finally, dystopian fiction that's fun.

A random collection of poetry for free reading. There are 22 "normal poems", as normal as poetry can get, anyway. There are also two short story poems; read them with a lyrical lit. Since, I always felt they were more poetry than writing, they are included in here. I hope you have a wonderful time reading.Raul is a prince and the leader of his father's army. When he attacks an evil wizard he is transformed into a bear. Searching for a way to return to his human form he meets Juanita and falls in love. See what happens next in this short story.

Nine very short (and very disturbing) tales, all of them with peculiar protagonists...Collection of nine short stories. A future world, an exorcism, a bank robbery and a fight for survival are some of the tales inside this book. But beware: their protagonists maybe aren't the same way as they pretend...Now, you can listen them at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keUT7kWAUFc

Ever imagined bullying? Imagine that ten times worse, and all over a school. Then a town. There's organised and not organised bullying, and even meetings every Friday. How do the kids survive in this bully filled school? Why don't you read on and find out? Go on! Part One.High School is almost every single Primary School child's worst nightmare. A huge school, unfamiliar people, and very tall Year Elevens! But what also gets on the list is Bullying. So, a school where there is organised bullying, not organised bullying and a literal Bully Network that meets up every Friday after school seems like a horror movie compared to your usual name calling. But how do the kids survive in this school? Why don't you read on and find out? Part One.

This ordinary or perhaps extraordinary story was happening in the publishing of the newspaper "The Horn"; although with the same success could happen in any other publishing.A plane crash, frostbite, a search and rescue, a fur coat with a heartbeat, wildly passionate dreams, and a couple of armed killers…what’s real and what’s hallucination…?Dawn has no idea.But she’s about to find out.Frozen Dawn is The Prequel to Bloodlines, the first full-length novel in Chrystal Bahl’s Twisted Tails Series.Watch for Blood Ties, the second book in the Twisted Tails Series...coming soon!

The Varieties of Erotic Experience blends the sacred, the profane, the urbane and the humane into a tangy literary cocktail.In an American city of old churches and ambitious pagans, death comes calling for an elderly woman -- a bit ahead of schedule. God takes a meeting or two, and the eternal questions arise. A funeral becomes a party, a son inherits a home with an uninvited guest, an iron lady is in the house, and they need more burgers down on the Weber grill.[Author's note: this small work emerged from an early version of the novel that became "The Bad American." This e-version restores considerable material that was excised from the print version published in February 2013.]

Love, love, loveI don't believe itIf you ask me againI could leave itIt's a lieThat someone once startedTo tell the innocentAnd the brokenheartedSo why even tryA four letter wordSo venomous, a curseOf all untruths, the worstOh why, oh whyIt is Senior Sergeant Gordon 'Laney' Lane's last day at work before retirement. He has had a full life of watching changes occur with not only the police department, but in his life; not all of which are good. He is walking the beat he used to walk, back in the day when cops used to 'walk the beat,' in the rain, remembering his life to that point.'Laney' has an appointment. An appointment which, to him, will right a wrong; a serious wrong. He will avenge a life lost too young, that must be done, on this his last day.

Nikolai’s story as said to the High Council as recorded by the Recorder to the group. His story told to religious order of the High Council believing in that group as their god deity on planet Aire.Lucessa, Doella’s daughter, is obsessed by her scientific work, so much so her family worry about her preoccupation and lack of social graces. They ask their matriarch Doella to intervene and she agrees to take her Varan to meet her family. Doella of course knows what her daughter is struggling to achieve, and why, and why it is for her to find. The wondrous Black Ship, freed from time and space, takes them to Varan and Doella’s family. Here she sees why the Varan rejects her mother and family, The Varan race have followed similar inflexible patterns for many millennia. This is different from her home planet Astras, where no one sees one race as superior. Lucessa meets, the poet Ralse, someone at first glance so unlike her, for on Astras there is little time for art. They find love as she tells him why she must complete her dreams…

A dead body. Weird crystals. A mysterious secret. After defeating the Moriartys, Amanda thought she'd put her troubles behind her. But she didn't reckon on the earthquake that changed everything. Now she must make a choice: learn to work with her nemesis or let disaster befall the detective school.If only Sherlock Holmes's great-great-grandson weren't such a dork . . .There’s a new student at the Legatum Continuatum School for the Descendants of Famous Detectives and Amanda is supposed to work with him. Scapulus Holmes is a descendant of the great Sherlock and he’s crazy about her. Unfortunately she thinks he’s a dork and would rather die than have anything to do with him.But when the kids discover a dead body encrusted with strange living crystals, Amanda realizes she needs Holmes’s help. If the crystals fall into the wrong hands they could be used for nefarious purposes, and only he knows how to protect them.Can the detectives keep the bad guys from learning the crystals' secrets? It would help if they could figure out who the dead body is too. Only if Amanda and Holmes can find a way to work together can they prevent a disaster, and it isn’t looking good.

'Neve Uncovers the Ultimate Truth of All Things' tells the tale of a little girl with some big concerns, left to ponder upon them in the familiar confines of her local library. Although her world is in an increasing state of turmoil, she finds comfort and meaning in the books around her.'Neve Uncovers the Ultimate Truth of All Things' was written as part of an anthology by our local writer's group, with proceeds going to the local library branch. As part of this anthology, it is written as a celebration of libraries, and books in general. 'Neve Uncovers the Ultimate Truth of All Things' tells the tale of a little girl with some big concerns, left to ponder upon them in the familiar confines of her local library. Although her world is in an increasing state of turmoil, she finds comfort and meaning in the books around her.

"Mommy Is Sick" is a short story about a young girl dealing with her mother's terminal illness. She shares her wishes and fears while trying to make the best of the situation.Many people think that the only good story is one that is voluminous. I beg to differ. There is beauty in simplicity. There is elegance in conciseness. This book is a compilation of 50 one-hundred word stories, dealing with a variety of topics, from day-to-day life to the great works of literature. I hope that these stories will inspire you and challenge your imagination in 100 words (more or less) in the same way a book three times its size might!

A romantic game of chicken-and they're both too stubborn to flinch. Lucy Fairchild, lawyer and heiress to the Fairchild fortune, has just had the worst day of her life. Her father has found the perfect man for her to marry. Yes, she's thirty and single, but that doesn't give her father the right to run her life. She'll choose her own husband-someday. Jake Dalton is struggling to make his fledgling construction company a success. Ever mindful of his father's derogatory comments that he'd never amount to anything, he's spent his entire life trying to prove he's not a failure. From their first meeting on a construction site, verbal sparks fly. Their argument escalates into a dare for a date-and the game is on. Lucy thinks Jake is the perfect fake boyfriend to parade around in the hopes of getting her father off her back. Jake is amused by the chance to annoy both Lucy and her dad-he doesn't intend to take the dating thing seriously. But the heart is a fickle thing, and not above playing dirty. In their quest to prove something-to each other, or maybe to themselves-they find themselves building a case.for love. And suddenly all the rules have changed. Warning: This book does NOT contain hot monkey lovin', threesome action or anyone swinging from the chandeliers (sorry 'bout that). It does contain sexy romancin' on a trampoline under the stars, fun one liners, a dog named Rascal and a smokin' hot construction worker named Jake that the author is convinced you're going to fall madly in love with. She dares you to read it.

A quintessential American family is pulled apart by war and the rapidly changing tides of society in Jack Kerouac’s captivating first novel Published seven years before his iconic On the Road, Jack Kerouac’s debut novel follows the experiences of one family as they navigate the seismic cultural shifts following World War II. Inspired by Kerouac’s own New England youth, the eight Martin children enjoy an idyllic upbringing in a small Massachusetts mill-town. Middle son Peter, a budding intellectual and promising athlete, most strongly feels the lure of the future. When war breaks out, the siblings’ lives are interrupted by military service; their parents must sell their house after the family business goes bankrupt; and Peter, eager to see the world, voyages overseas as a Merchant Marine. After returning home, Peter is drawn to the kinetic energy of New York City and the progressive, bohemian ideas springing from its denizen young poets, writers, and artists. His new friends are fictionalized versions of Kerouac’s contemporaries: Allen Ginsberg (as Leon Levinsky), Lucien Carr (as Kenneth Wood), and William Burroughs (as Will Dennison), and other members of the Beat Generation. Seen by Peter’s parents as hoodlums and junkies, the Beats challenge conventional American ideas of everything from authority and religion to marriage and domestic life.

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians is the first adventure in a fantasy series for young readers by the #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson. The fast-paced and funny series is now available in deluxe hardcover editions illustrated by Hayley Lazo. On his thirteenth birthday, foster child Alcatraz Smedry gets a bag of sand in the mail-his only inheritance from his father and mother. He soon learns that this is no ordinary bag of sand. It is quickly stolen by the cult of evil Librarians who are taking over the world by spreading misinformation and suppressing truth. Alcatraz must stop them, using the only weapon he has: an incredible talent for breaking things. "In this original, hysterical homage to fantasy literature, Sanderson's first novel for youth recalls the best in Artemis Fowl and A Series of Unfortunate Events." -VOYA

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Flowers in the Attic and My Sweet Audrina series, now Lifetime movies, comes a haunting new novella featuring a mysterious, highly intelligent teenaged girl as she struggles to survive high school and understand her place in this complex, sometimes dangerous world. Corliss is not like other girls at her Los Angeles high school. Incredibly intelligent, shy, and a loner, she has difficultly in fitting in. What’s worse, a clique of girls is out to get her after she refuses to take drugs with them, leading to a violent confrontation. When Corliss is unknowingly drugged, her entire life is turned upside down and no one—not even the handsome valedictorian who had agreed to go out with her—looks at her the same way. Will she be able to return to her high school or is there another path she can take? And where will it take her?

Presidential Agent, written in 1944 is the fifth in the magnificent and epic eleven book Lanny Budd Series written by Upton Sinclair and covering the period of 1937 and 1938. Upon publication, Viking Press issued a statement that the books were related but could be enjoyed independently. I disagree. As I have previously noted, I read the third book, the Pulitzer Prize winning Dragon's Teeth first and it lived up to the awards and recognition it received but I was convinced that one had to start at the beginning to fully appreciate the series. And so I did. I read all eleven books in about six weeks and have reread World's End, Wide Is The Gate and Presidential Agent again. Presidential Agent begins with a chance encounter Lanny has in New York with his boss at the Versailles Treaty. When Lanny is nineteen years old he is hired to assist a college Professor, Charlie Alston with the geographical aspects of the remaking of Europe after the dissolution of the Ottoman and Austrian Empires following the end of World War One. Professor Alston, one of President Roosevelt's closest advisors and a "fix-it" man introduces Lnnny to President Roosevelt and Lanny has many confidential meetings with FDR and becomes Presidential Agent 103. The meetings are brought to life in such a way you feel yourself in the room with them as they discuss the coming storm in Europe. Lanny sounds the alarms to the coming of Fascism and Nazism and the fall of the democratically elected government of Spain and the rape of Abyssinia by Mussolini. All of the terror brought by Franco, Mussolini and Hitler is financed by rich and powerful industrialists and financiers. Their reasoning behind supporting these onetime skid row bums is to ward off the Red Menace or Bolshevism. These European plutocrats are more fearful of the Reds than surrendering their freedoms to Fascism and Nazism. Lanny's secret wife Trudi has been kidnapped by the Gestapo and the insuring efforts by Lanny to rescue her are riveting and as daring as the rescue of Alfy from Franco's dungeon in Spain and the attempt to rescue Fredi from the Gestapo in Dragon's Teeth. There is a conspiracy Lanny is privy to involving the "200" families of France to over throw the French government, known as the Cagoular's or hooded men. The Plutocrats of France are determined to make nice with Hitler in the hope of retaining their wealth and avoiding another war. They believe order of the German variety is the only solution to the corruption of the various French political factions or even worse, the Bolsheviks. There is also much intrigue in England and France between the wealthy, the diplomats and the politicians. The powerful in England want to believe that Hitler will be content with regaining the territories that were predominantly German people prior to the Versailles Treaty. Hitler has demanded Austria, Czechoslovakia as well as Poland. The Munich agreement is reached in which Engla

Agent Sam Ryan has had enough. She wants out, and she wants out now. She's sick of putting up with Gabriel's crappy attitude, sick of seeing nothing but paperwork and the inside off her small office. But most of all, she is sick of feeling lonely. It's time to take control and get a life outside of work. But Stephan, the man in charge of the SIU, isn't about to let her go easily. Offered the choice between guarding a clone and probable enemy of the country, or remaining stuck in her shoe box, Sam reluctantly accepts the former, even though she suspects Stephan is using her as bait to draw out the elusive and dangerous Sethanon. Gabriel is relieved to discover he's finally shaken Sam as a partner, until he learns her new assignment is guarding Wetherton, the clone replacement of a government minister. Both he and Stephan know Wetherton could only have come from one place-Hopeworth. The military base has been involved in DNA experiments for decades and was more than likely the place where Sam was created. But there is a growing likelihood that the military base is also the home of Sethanon himself. Determined to protect her, Gabriel is quickly drawn into the mission. All too soon he discovers the connection between he and Sam is far deeper than anyone could ever have imagined. As the assignment begins to unravel around Sam and her past begins to reveal itself in her dreams, she fights to stay alive because the military wants their creation back. And the only person standing between her and them might well be the enemy of all mankind.

A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier. Scrupulously recording her steps down the path Providence has set her upon—from child to determined young adult to loving mother—she shares the turbulent events, both joyous and tragic, that molded her, and recalls the enduring love with cavalry officer Captain Jack Elliot that gave her strength and purpose. Rich in authentic everyday details and alive with truly unforgettable characters, These Is My Words brilliantly brings a vanished world to breathtaking life again.

Is this journey's end . . . or just the beginning? Toklo, Kallik, Lusa, and Ujurak have finally reached the Last Great Wilderness, the legendary bear paradise they've been searching for. But while his companions think they've come to the end of their long journey, Ujurak feels a deep unrest. Is this truly where they're meant to be? In the Last Great Wilderness, one by one the bears begin to remember their true natures. Toklo feels the urge to hunt caribou and mark his territory as a brown bear should, and Kallik feels the pull of the ice within her. It's only Lusa, happy just to be in the wild, who fears the day when her friends will leave her to follow their own paths. As the bears adjust to this new life, disaster strikes. The friends are forced to venture into the world of the flat-faces to save the life of one of their own. Once there, the end of their journey seems farther away than ever, as a new path spreads out before them.