bombs, gasmasks, shelters, sweet rationing!life for nearly ten year olds,jake,brains and scrapper, was a bit dicey, but they still had fun - and mischief. their bugbear was jake's granddad, who was always hanging around. he'd been in russia in the first world war and had an unexpected encounter with a refugee. he had kept a secret for over twenty years, which, when revealed, was to cause mayhem.jake, brains and scrapper, three nearly ten year olds, lived their daily life within the constraints of wartime conditions - the bombing, the gasmasks, the shelters, the sweet rationing. Still, the "gang", plus scrapper's little sister, sally, enjoyed life. They collected shrapnel the morning after the air raids, they concocted sweets substitutes to chew on the way back from school, they held meetings in brains' underground air raid shelter, and had the occasional battle with olly stott's rival gang. jake's granddad was a bit if a nuisance, always hanging around them, and behaving strangely, to jake's embarrassment. granddad had been in the first world war, had been sent with his regiment to russia, and had an unexpected meeting with a refugee russian countess, who gave him a precious object to keep. This he did, in secret, for over twenty years before telling the story to jake. jake was overwhelmed, and his consequent actions, led to the loss of the object. The gang, reluctantly aided by olly stott, recovered it, and the unexpected visit to their street by a foreigner led to a happy end.

What secrets does the town dam hold? Paul just wanted a job, he ended up getting more than he bargained for.Jenette Wilkinson is encouraged by her grandfather to make a trip to Europe to discover her northern heritage. She visits a small town in Norway to see a Viking longboat for herself and has a strange reaction when she touches its hull. On a tour she is taken partway up the mountain that dominates the landscape and when she decides, against her better judgement, to revisit its slopes, more takes place than she ever thought possible.Somehow, she is thrown into a nineth century Viking world and struggles with a new culture and identity. Only time will tell whether she is able to adapt as flashbacks of her previous life continue to pose problems.Finally forced to flee the situation, her final decision will have a bearing on the ancestor she had been hoping to find.

Get the inspiration of the angels. They want to guide you to inner peace, love, wisdom and happiness. Interpret the oracle as makes sense for you. Find the angel you need today. Basically, the Angle oracle is a game which helps us toward positive principles of life and strategies of wisdom.As a fealinn, Eilwen has a natural affinty to nature, but when one of the tempermental eagles of Gaspar leads her to a hole the eagle's True-bonded Eaglekin has fallen into, Eilwen puts old animosity aside to try and save him.

When the US Marshals Serial Crimes Tracking Unit comes knocking at Aislinn Cain's door, she is given a chance to use her past to save other people's futures.A new killer is using medieval torture methods to slay his victims. She can give them a glimpse into his twisted world, but not without a cost. If she opens herself, she risks falling into the depths of her own darkness.When the US Marshals Serial Crimes Tracking Unit comes knocking at Aislinn Cain's door, she is given a chance to use her past to save other people's futures. She has survived attacks by two different serial killers and devoted her life to studying the darker side of human history.A new killer is using medieval torture methods to slay his victims. She can give them a glimpse into his twisted world, but not without a cost. If she opens herself, she risks falling into the depths of her own darkness. Can she afford to help, knowing that the cost could be her own humanity?Aislinn Cain's life is a horror story.

On a torrid island, a mother and daughter confront one another over dark family secrets and long hidden animosity. The daughter suffers postpartum depression, the mother denial in the drug use of a son. Will these crises force them apart?Is the Rabbit really cleverer than the Monkey? What is the moral of the story? Like other parts of the world, Mozambique has a rich oral literature of animal fables. Grandmothers still tell them to children, and the children respond in a chorus with the magical word "Karingana!"It would be sad if this heritage disappeared entirely in the face of modernization, so teachers are being encouraged to record it, in English and Portuguese, and hopefully later in its original Bantu languages as well. There is no reason why school children should not use materials from their own culture as they learn to read, thus bridging the gap between home and school. I have seen how students come to life and participate when traditional stories are welcomed into the classroom, so this book ends with some suggestions for ways to do this.

Evergreedy Squeeze is a wealthy banker, out of touch with the age of austerity. At Christmas he receives visitations from three spirits, who attempt to show him the truth of his situation.Will he heed their lesson?Apologies to Charles Dickens for this affectionate homage to his famous story in his bicentenary year.A group of random strangers are invited to take part in a mysterious lottery with an intriguing premise. Twenty-seven accept the offer.But what begins as an unusual social experiment quickly descends into something much more sinister. The contestants receive more than they bargained for, and the dark side of human nature reveals itself.As the lottery spirals into a life-and-death struggle for survival, Alice Kato is left searching for answers. How far are ordinary people willing to go to win this extraordinary amount of money? Is there anyone she can trust? Is there any way out?And just who exactly is pulling all the strings?Everyone has their price. Most just don't know what it is yet.

"I thought back, remembering the time we spent together. Since the beginning, even though we couldn’t speak to each other, we still loved one another. All we were doing was just finding words for our love." A flash fiction about the meeting of aliens, and the love a man and a woman feel but cannot describe in words.Murder was never so refined… When her holiday on the coast of Cornwall takes a deadly turn, it is up to Drucilla Winterbourne to uncover the dangerous secrets the inhabitants of Blackridge House will do anything to conceal. But can a proper young lady from London society comprehend the dark motives of a killer? Accomplished In Murder is part of a series of historical mystery novellas featuring intrepid Victorian heroines up to their bustles in crime. These works are only loosely connected and can be read in any order. Length: 17,000 word novella (roughly equivalent to 70 pages of a paperback)

sit back, get comfortable and get ready to enjoy seven spooky short stories. From a haunted mansion to a celestial garden, and from a crimean battleground to the trenches of world war one.Erin began drawing dragons on her clothes to hide the stains from free-box finds. Now they are her trademark as she walks the halls of Hamilton High School. She’s puzzled by the actions of the students around her, especially Tony and David, cousins who are constantly fighting. Her own mysteries catch up to her unexpectedly and the consequences will change Erin’s life forever.

A short story depicting the moment two strangers attempt to outrun an attack threatening to wipe out an entire busy city business centre.Lucifer grows restless. A sense of unquiet gnaws at his ether. He seeks something. Something more....Lusting for the power to create worlds and to rule races inferior to his own, Lucifer trains the Malakim in the art of swordcraft, unknowingly preparing them to aid him in his attempt to usurp King Elyon’s throne. Bearer of a sword that can slay a spirit-lord, Lucifer grooms Michael, his favored lieutenant, as his second-in-command. But Michael starts unraveling the mystery behind the secrecy, and is forced to choose between his comrades and loyalty to his King.History and fantasy collide as the ultimate struggle between good and evil rises in this 20,000 word novella, Dawn of Shadows, the first installment in the epic supernatural Christian fantasy, Prophecy of the Heir.

A starship sets off to colonise the planet New Caledonia, little do the colonists realise that the ship has been sabotaged by a weird religious cult. They survive the crash landing upon the planet only to find themselves under attack from both a planet ruled by a megalomaniac who has sent a task force to kill the. If that was not enough the leader of the religious cult has a similar desire.A starship sets off to colonise the planet New Caledonia, little do the colonists realise that the ship has been sabotaged by a weird religious cult. One that believes that the planets outside the solar system are all part of the biblical Eden, and that Man would be committing the greatest of sins to try to re-enter Eden. They survive the crash landing upon the planet only to find themselves under attack from both a planet ruled by a meglomaniac who has sent a task force to kill them, and the religious cult. Cut off from contacting Earth an ex-Marine leads them in a war to win this world for the colonists against two ruthless enemies who will stop at nothing to succeed.

Shots Fired in the Melting Pot is true to its name with six natural enemies living together in a New York City loft. This playful romantic thriller is a delectable experience that will push the boundaries of human emotions and tolerance. Where else in the world can you find a cop and criminal; a celebrity and paparazzi; and a conservative and liberal, all forced to exist in one space?Malicious forces conspire against the stars of a reality television show. As new players reveal themselves and forbidden romances blossom; the game becomes more elaborate than it appeared. Sinister characters raise the stakes after the actors forge alliances, and each of them has something sacred to lose. Shots Fired in the Melting Pot is true to its name with six natural enemies living together in a New York City loft. This playful romantic thriller is a delectable experience that will push the boundaries of human emotions and tolerance. Where else in the world can you find a cop and criminal; a celebrity and paparazzi; and a conservative and liberal, all forced to exist in one space? Every character has a sharp wit and a sharper tongue. Readers will enjoy peeling back the layers of secrets that may leave them awestruck by the depth of their revelations. A timeless ride that is as unpredictable as its diverse characters. This taut novel offers something for everyone.

What is the reality behind life and death? What does it mean to be human? What is the significance of our thoughts and dreams? How do we learn to hope? What is reality, or does it even exist? A Hundred Thoughts is a collection of Rayan Ali’s version of 100 answers to such questions in the form of short poetic phrases and stanzas.What is the reality behind life and death? What does it mean to be human? What is the significance of our thoughts and dreams? How do we learn to hope? What is reality, or does it even exist? All these questions are among the basic things that come to everyone’s minds. And everyone has different answers to them. We all view our lives from a different perspective than others, but in truth, they are only what we make them to be.A Hundred Thoughts is a collection of Rayan Ali’s version of 100 answers to such questions in the form of short poetic phrases and stanzas. Based on multiple topics like hope, love, life, death, it explores the very basic concept that makes us something far superior to animals, that is: Human.

An armchair cosmologist through the three decades of the golden age of astrophysics, I developed my own model little by little, but also with a lot of help from the alternative ideas brought to light by other writers, some of the deeper and harder to sift through writers who nevertheless offer amazingly imaginative visions that are not limited by the accepted theories of modern day science, if theAn armchair cosmologist through the three decades of the golden age of astrophysics, I developed my own model little by little, but also with a lot of help from the alternative ideas brought to light by other writers, some of the deeper and harder to sift through writers who nevertheless offer amazingly imaginative visions that are not limited by the accepted theories of modern day science, if they can posit plausible alternatives. In Hegel's Philosophy of Nature, he said we look into the nature of the physical world around us to examine the nature of god, to better understand the mysteries manifest all around us, to show us more about the mystery that we are made up of; so it's irresistible to look at the pioneering and penetrating visions of the universe from today's space telescopes, and to wonder for the first time in the history of humanity about the sky in ways never imagined.I think when we study the grand visions of cosmologists on what the universe is, how it's made, where it's going, it isn't necessarily about reality; of course it makes efforts to map back to reality, but we are as much studying humanity's imagination as we are the relation of the components of the universe. It's not necessarily a study of the universe as much as it is a study of visions of the universe in mankind, and the changes possible to these visions based on the unprecedented science of today.But one other reason I think the study of the object called the universe is important, though it is admittedly a very different size species of organism than our peers, is the holographic idea that we are all microcosms of the macrocosm; the study of flow has made it clear that there are principles that span space and time in this universe, and from the star to the stellar mass black hole to the super massive black hole and the quasar core of the HLIRG's (hyper luminous infrared galaxies), and right back down to human beings, there is a nature to the flow through time, a presence of grace in that flow, and an all-permeating mystery. The more clues we can get, at any scale, allow us to better model and predict all the other scales, to light up aspects of thick dark reality that were hidden from all the shamans and sorcerers of the past millennia.

Rib was a young dragon unable to do anything when his sister was taken by a group of Huskhn men. Now, full-grown, he's determined to liberate her. But suddenly a plague strikes his beloved homeland and he sets out overseas with companions to save both man and dragon. As conflicts arise, Rib may have to choose between the hundreds of people who hardly know him and his very own sister.Gabriel considered the question for a couple minutes before answering. It was something he didn't like to think about. "The Echusian Desert Rangers audited over 45,000 Arreola plants last season. I can't see how there could be over 10,000 less this year.”Ferderand wasn't quick to respond either, he hadn't thought about the blow back on the Echusian Desert Rangers. "I hadn't consider that," he finally stated. The meaning was clear enough to both of them. Gabriel had been an Echusian Desert Ranger last season, and now he was responsible for a purchase that ended up falling short by 15,000 plants. To someone that didn't know him, it could look like a scam. He could be charged with capitalism, one of the few capital crimes in the Confederacy.

Sarah is ready for revenge!Her ex-boyfriend is a tattoo artist and a real rear end. Teaming up with Mary, her Dreamdrifter friend, Sarah embarks on a journey to reclaim herself in this 5,000 word short story.The book is designed to teach English learners and young students about prepositions of place. It is about a policeman wh chases a thief through the streets of Hong Kong. The thief is confident of out running the policeman as he came second in the Hong Kong marathon and considers himself a good runner. Little does he know but the policeman chasing him took first place in the same marathon.

The story is about three boys and their mischievous summer adventures at their favourite pond.Excerpt:My name is Angela Rosarita Tanaka, but you will call me Angie if you know what’s good for you.I needed to get out of Hong Kong. To say Hong Kong cops are humorless bastards would be, well something that’s so obvious that it would be silly to say it. Even if I just said it.If you give a man who owns a fishing boat a big enough wad of cash, he will not ask why you are giving him so much. He will pocket the fistful of bank notes and say the Chinese equivalent of “Where to, Ma’am”? In my case, “where to” was anywhere but here.

This a story for older kids about social bullying and the impact it can have for the victim...and the bully.This is a short story about social bullying. Although the main character is a first grader, the story itself targets older children. I wrote this story as part of a bully-proofing curriculum for my sixth-grade students. It would, however, be appropriate for high school students, too. The story is true. Included with the story are thought provoking written response questions that can be used as-is in your classroom or altered to fit your specific need. Again, this is a serious and perhaps slightly disturbing story about social bullying. It illustrates that not all bullying is intentional, and that social ostracism can sometimes be more damaging than a physical assault.Generally, I write suspense/thrillers, so this story is very different from my usual genre. If you would like to use this story in your classroom, you could easily display it using your classroom computer. If you would rather, I would be happy to send you the word file so that you could more easily print it and the written response questions for your students. If you would like to have a word file, please visit my website at www.sdexter.com and use my contact form for your request.

The tenth part in the Apollyon's Saint series. The suicidal writers society continues to torment Gabriel as he tries to return to humanity. Upon his return, Gabriel finds himself imprisoned by Templars, and sent on a ship to the Vatican where he meets the descendants of Salem.Whether they are spirits of the departed or figments of an overactive imagination, ghosts are a staple in fiction. Storytellers have portrayed ghosts as scary, friendly, or annoying across many genres. Now, eight authors offer their own interpretations of ghosts through a collection of short stories that will appeal to fans of horror, fantasy, or young adult fiction.“Deathwatch” by Katie French - Teenage sisters Charlotte and Georgie stumble into a robbery, and their normal life gets flipped upside down. Worse, when the clerk kills one of the robbers, his face is covered in a supernatural swarm of bugs. Charlotte must be hallucinating. It's the only explanation for the terrible things she's seen. Everyone calls the clerk a hometown hero, but Charlotte's not so sure. Then a dead girl appears in her mirror with clues to the truth, and Charlotte learns there's more horror to this world than she ever expected.“Tides” by Sarah Dalton - Andrea wakes with sand on her feet. She is sleepwalking down to the sea every night, but remembers little more than a vague recollection of a boy who lives on the beach. With an absent father and a mother who would rather walk along the coast than look after her daughter, Andrea struggles to get by. She’s haunted, but from a memory, or a spirit?“Shadowspirit” by M.A. George - On a good day, Henta Mourngard is stalked by dreadspirits and netherphantoms, a living magnet for creatures of the afterlife. On a bad day, she finds herself communing with a demon of the underworld—worse yet, interrogating one—in a desperate attempt to track down the shadowspirit who has been her guide since infancy. Demons don’t take kindly to interrogation. And the search for a missing shadowspirit leads to places the living daren’t tread (lest they no longer qualify as living). ‘Tis unfortunate for Henta that today is not a “good day”. “The Little Girl” by Jamie Campbell - Sixteen-year-old Penny is moving house… again. Starting out in a small town, she is hopeful this time will be the last. As long as the little girl doesn’t follow her, she will be rid of her past hauntings. The only problem is, the little girl won’t let her go and now she is about to grow stronger than ever before.“The Ghost Below” by Ariele Sieling - White Rabbit gets sent to run cables in the bowels of the spaceship as a punishment. While working, she discovers that the ship's ghost might be more than he seems.“Slave Runner” by H.S. Stone - Malika and her sister are captured by slave traders but receive an unexpected gift of freedom when their captors encounter a deadly gathering of ghosts. The sisters escape to a nearby village, where they learn that the new sanctuary isn’t as safe as they thought it would be, and ghosts aren’t what they most need to fear.“Farewell Ohana (A Ghostly Mini-Wave)” by Sutton Shields - Maile Lahela is under attack by someone in the Kauai Camp for the Curiously Creepy. When she awakens one morning unable to see, her peculiar, yet loyal friends decide it’s time to escape the institution—something that’s never been done. But before they can leave, Maile has a mission of her own…one that could cost them their lives. Farewell Ohana is a short, fun-filled, emotional prequel to the events occurring in Overfalls, Wave Two of The Merworld Water Wars series by Sutton Shields.“Ghost Girl” by Susan Fodor - Zoey Saunders has her future mapped out, but an accident brings her life to an untimely end. In her new state of being, Zoey feels compelled to seek justice for her death and bring healing to her family who have become a shadow of their former selves. But what constitutes justice and will getting even ever be enough to replace the life she lost?

The whole world knows who DI Markland Garraway is - the detective who proved without doubt that life continues after death.Now he's back. Although retired from the police force he finds himself reluctantly drawn into another supernatural mystery, which once again appears to defy all logical explanation.The whole world knows who DI Markland Garraway is - the detective who proved without doubt that life continues after death.Now he's back. Although retired from the police force he finds himself reluctantly drawn into another supernatural mystery, which once again appears to defy all logical explanation.The case of a man: once missing, now returned, but who is strangely different.Garraway's investigation takes him on a journey where the unimaginable proves to be real, and where those around him seem to challenge the impossible.

Chased from an Austrian cliff-top castle by an angry mob armed with pitchforks and torches – where can a zombie run to for safety?Hunted down by a headmaster with a silver-bullet-loaded rifle – what’s a boarding school matron-turned werewolf to do?Weary of jumping out from behind pyramids, half-heartedly cursing tourists – how’s an ancient mummy to fill his time?Chased from an Austrian cliff-top castle by an angry mob armed with pitchforks and torches – where can a zombie run to for safety?Hunted down by a headmaster with a silver-bullet-loaded rifle – what’s a boarding school matron-turned werewolf to do?Weary of jumping out from behind pyramids, half-heartedly cursing tourists – how’s an ancient mummy to fill his time?The answer is found at the ancestral home of vampire Victor Romanoff, located on a remote island in the Eastern European country of Mortavia. Here, a motley assortment of B-movie monsters, ghosts and more find refuge and retirement - until the castle is threatened by a greedy property developer. How can the residents see off the threat without resorting to their old ways?