Craphound had wicked yard-sale karma, for a rotten, filthy alien bastard. He was too good at panning out the single grain of gold in a raging river of uselessness for me not to like him -- respect him, anyway. But then he found the cowboy trunk. It was two months' rent to me and nothing but some squirrelly alien kitsch-fetish to Craphound. So I did the unthinkable. I violated the Code. I got into a bidding war with a buddy. Never let them tell you that women poison friendships: in my experience, wounds from women-fights heal quickly; fights over garbage leave nothing behind but scorched earth. Craphound spotted the sign -- his karma, plus the goggles in his exoskeleton, gave him the advantage when we were doing 80 kmh on some stretch of back-highway in cottage country. He was riding shotgun while I drove, and we had the radio on to the CBC's summer-Saturday programming: eight weekends with eight hours of old radio dramas: "The Shadow,"

The story continues...An eagle and an angry grizzly bear. Can they work together to help an injured boy who once saved them?The myth continues with a lonely eagle and a soulful boy. Reunited, but unable to help one another. Only the surly grizzly can help the boy become a hunter. But will he?A middle grade short story.A sequel to The Boy Who Flew With Eagles.

The calling of a monster can appear radiant in its darkness, set against the straight path of nobility.It shows a Indian love, family, friend story. With situations that makes various change..

Everyone knows Sam Krupnik. He's Anastasia's pesty but lovable younger brother. This is Sam's big chance to tell things exactly the way he sees them.  He has his own ideas about haircuts, nursery school, getting shots, and not eating broccoli.  Sam thinks a lot about being bigger and stronger, about secret codes and show-and-tell. Make way for your little brother, Anastasia.  Here for the first time is Sam Krupnik's life story.  What a life!

The Rocks Preparatory School for Boys lived in its own world. 140 odd boys and 16 teaching staff inhabited the school, mostly isolated from the outside world not just by the boundaries but also by the society they formed for themselves. Like all communities, most conformed, but some did not.A story of friendship and loss at a 1960s boarding school.The Rocks Preparatory School for Boys lived in its own world. 140 odd boys and 16 teaching staff inhabited the school, mostly isolated from the outside world not just by the boundaries but also by the society they formed for themselves. Like all communities, most conformed, but some did not.A story of friendship and loss at a 1960s boarding school.See Ian's Smashwords profile for a link to his blog.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

A tale of debauchery, lies and television. A story about booze, drugs, sex, war, money, and burger boxes. A novel about a house. A Pink House that starts off structurally sound and then falls into millions of beautiful pieces.O Goddess sing of how the Pink House wentFrom being fairly clean to state unkempt.A tale of debauchery, lies and television. A story about booze, drugs, sex, war, money, and burger boxes. A novel about a house. A Pink House that starts off structurally sound and then falls into millions of beautiful pieces.If you like this book, please donate to Giving What We Can top recommended charities:- Schistosomiasis Control Initiative- Against Malaria Foundation

The final part in the Closer series...Tammy took in a deep breath and blinked back her tears. “Look at me” she softly said. Dante's beautiful sculpted face looked up at her, his dark eyes filled with tears. Her tiny hands cupped his face, with a fingertip she wiped away a falling tear. “Everything is going to be fine. This is fate” she smiled. “This was always going to happen. Everything we have done or spoken about has led to this. Can't you see?”Can the curse be broken???

This three-act, three-setting play takes place in a rural area where natural gas companies are buying rights to drill in Marcellus shale deposits. The neighborhood leader is a greedy, self-centered lawyer named Duke Desantos. His surreptitious plans succeed until he tries to con the pig farmer, Billy Solomon, into joining his corporation."My life is worth more than a few minutes of anyone's pleasure."Alessandro Lupo (Alex) is a sixteen-year-old gay foster child who has been moved from "home" to "home" in New York City. Isolated by circumstances and by the protective shield he's surrounded himself with, he wanders the streets of the West Village and gravitates toward Stonewall Inn, where the 1969 riots planted the seeds of the gay civil rights movement. Having been raped at his previous foster home, he worries about HIV and about ever being able to enjoy sex. Alex, whose parents had both been Italian, feels his lack of family keenly. As he wanders the city streets, he scrutinizes people who might also be Italian. Alex is short for Alessandro, which means defender of men; Lupo means wolf. But Alex feels fearful most of the time—fear not just of Derek, the other foster teen in his current home, but also of life in general—and wishes for the courage of his 19th century countryman, Giuseppe Garibaldi, with whose statue in Washington Square Park Alex has imaginary conversations.Then Alex meets two people who represent polar opposites: one who validates the low opinion Alex already has of himself; and another who helps him see himself in an entirely new light and teaches him that his life is worth more than a few minutes of anyone's pleasure.

In the future, psychic abilities such as telepathy, clairvoyance and psychokinesis have begun to appear in a new generation. Jane possesses these abilities, but knows the danger in using them is real. When she encounters a non-human entity by the name of Max, he warns her that she is being pursued by a dangerous man who has ties to a secretive committee.Jane has always suppressed her dormant paranormal abilities: telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis. The only significant thing that she connects them to is a devastating accident that occurred in her childhood.Amidst the stirrings of an approaching danger she cannot articulate, a distantly remembered spectre from her past — a non-human entity by the name of Max — returns with a warning: a dangerous man is pursuing her.Now, the walls she had so carefully erected around her psychic abilities begin to crumble as she is forced to defend herself against this new intruder.

Love, Eternal is a short fairy tale about the power of love.Logan and Jacqueline's love draws the ire of an evil witch who grants the two of them eternal life, but with a price. They will live out eternity apart, never again to feel love's embrace.Can they break the curse?The year is 2250.Post holocaust.Humanity's once expansive civilizations have been laid to waste, a victim of their own innovations, desires and foolhardy concepts of progress. The first cataclysm was an ideological war between factions who, although adhered to largely the same principals and structure, were separated by a rift in mythology and scripture. This was syntax, not semantics. However, those at the top knew that this rift was simply a front, since the real situation concerning mankind was that of overpopulation and the dwindling of resources. As it is politically incorrect to fight wars based on the simple principal of supply and demand, increasing extremism on both sides and the polarizations of the so called ideologies were pumped to the masses as the sole reason for their respective struggles.Despite this lack, technology continued to advance on both sides, spurred on by the real and present danger of being subjugated and persecuted should the other side win. Atrocities piled on top of atrocities and a complete ban on communication meant that the separate civilizations eventually no longer considered the other side as human.However, the war was not the cause.To sustain the ever increasing need for resources, scientists had long since pulled out the safeguards and checkpoints that regulated the progress of technology. Thus, a combination of genetic mutations, caused by medical advances that cured diseases through altering DNA and rouge nano-machines that had also evolved, mechanically as opposed to biologically, to wreak havoc on the balance of nature and topple of human being from the top of the predatory pyramid on Earth.Now the expanses of the globe had been rendered largely uninhabitable. To step outside of a protected zone, sealed off by the massive infrastructure projects that isolated humans with their own air, food and water from the majority of the planet would mean certain death.But there was still war.

London in the early months of WW2. When a pawnbroker’s assistant is wounded by a gunman wearing a gasmask it looks like a simple case of a bungled armed robbery, but the more Detective Inspector Hawker looks into it, the more confusing it becomes. A red-headed soldier, a missing gun, a dead cat, an empty violin case and a damaged violin are only a few of the threads that have to be unwound.London in the autumn of 1939: the early months of World War 2. Hitler has just conquered Poland, but life in London continues much as it did in peacetime, albeit a little more restricted since the introduction of petrol rationing. No bombs have been dropped on the city as yet, but the population go about their daily business under the constant threat of German air raids, and a blackout remains in force at night. For Scotland Yard and the criminal fraternity, however, it is business as usual. When a pawnbroker’s assistant is wounded by a gunman wearing a gasmask, it appears to be a straightforward case of a bungled armed robbery, but as Detective Inspector Hawker of the Flying Squad proceeds with his investigation, the more facts he uncovers the more confusing the affair becomes. A red-headed soldier, a missing gun, a dead cat, an empty violin case and a damaged violin are only a few of the threads that have to be unravelled before he can wrap up the case.

Two Children and their yellow Labrador ‘Scoot’ take up with an old farmer by the name of Gil Bateman who lives just down the road, When they go missing the sheriff suspects the farmer of taking them, but Gil Bateman has his own ideas as they frantically search for the two missing children.**Please review this book**She hates snow… he’s a champion skier.He dumped her by text…Now she’s taken a job on the ski fields…How is Elaine Swift going to deal with a chance encounter with the glamorous champion skier from her past?(A contemporary romance short story of 3000 words from Alison Stuart)

A young prince runs away from his home to avoid the throne, but is soon sucked into his true destiny; saving all of Magentara from the great evil that has surfaced.Long, long ago, a land of great wealth and power flourished, as its citizens were blessed with a unique magical ability. But they soon misused this magic in great wars that ravaged their world. As punishment for such wickedness, monsters were sent to roam the land and the people’s powers sucked away. The return of magic was promised, but it was far off.Now Michael, the reluctant high prince of Jenoth, finds himself forced into a quest to recover that magic and to restore his people’s once great civilization. Assembling an unlikely band to accompany him on his journey, he faces the greatest challenges ever known to himself or his kind!

While cleaning the attic in her inherited old house Suzi finds a secret room containing a shelf full of mysterious items and a shrine dedicated to a murder trial from decades ago. The room also contains a booby trap, a spell that compels her to don the long-dead witch's skin like a garment.A slightly different version of this story appeared in Tales Of The Talisman, Vol.4 #4, Apr. 2009.Interstellar Anthropologist Fortis Plimick surveys the mysterious planet which is truly alien, though everything seems rather mundane. He chooses to stay, enjoying the completely different life there, until he has to leave or die. But the spirit of the place never leaves him.

The devil’s daughter, SALEENA, and her boyfriend, IZZY, elope to earth and seek to overthrow her estranged brother, SIMON CLASH, but he is not going out without a fight.The the devil has been manipulating their feud to advance his agenda to draw out a sword-wielding champion of humanity called the HOST.Legend says the Host will emerge when humanity plunges into hopelessness and despair.The devil’s daughter, SALEENA, and her reaper boyfriend, IZZY, elope to earth seeking to overthrow her brother, SIMON, as the devil’s heir apparent on earth, but Simon is not going without a fight. The siblings discover the devil has been manipulating their feud for his agenda to draw out a sword-wielding champion of humanity called the HOST. Legend says the Host will emerge when humanity plunges into hopelessness and despair. NATHANIEL, the man responsible for delivering a magic sword to the Host, hopes that is soon. A drastic rise in demon activity on earth means one thing: humanity is running out of time. Saleena and Simon unite, but it may be too late—not only for the devil’s offspring, but for humanity too! The future of humanity hangs in the balance, and Nathaniel is determined to thwart the devil’s plans and find the Host.

Marilyn Willkie had been advised by her grandmother that the best way to a successful marriage was to marry the boss. Her dad, on the other hand, said that love was of paramount important in any marriage. Her boss, Bernie Ralston asked Marilyn to marry him. She said no. This story gives the explanation of why she couldn't say yes to Bernie but did say yes to another person.Yon 'fore the now, the then was a'here. The beasties, an' ghoulies, an' ghosties ran freer.Amok an' away, we hid from the day. Runnin' at night, we doled out our fright. Twas not of our own strife; we were spoken to life.I be one o' the beasties what goes bump in the night!Are our nightmares things of fantasy and imagination? Or does that which we dream of become real? What happens to a small girl when her nightmares do become real?A short single.

Short Story Press Presents Dead Shot Clock by Blaise MarcouxLittle does the average person know that the government bartered a treaty with the demons. Every year, five teams of fourteen-year olds, each from a different continent, must play basketball with the demons in a game that will decide whether humanity stays safe... or another hellish invasion begins. This follows one such team's game.Short Story Press Presents Dead Shot Clock by Blaise MarcouxYears ago, Mayan demons invaded Earth, first with zombie foot soldiers, then in person, forcing humanity into submission. Without warning, the demons retreated to their realm, with most of humankind bewildered as to why.Little does the average person know that the government bartered a treaty with the demons. Every year, five teams of fourteen-year olds, each from a different continent, must play basketball with the demons in a game that will decide whether humanity stays safe... or another hellish invasion begins. This story follows one such team's game.• Jacob, the team's captain, has a violent fit alone in the team's practice gym's locker room. His skin grays, he has seizures, and his organs rot before he manages to stave off the symptoms with a self-administered injection of an unspecified solution. • He joins his impatiently waiting team and gets on the bus headed toward the annual game. The other players are introduced: Emma, Carlos, Daequan, Deandre and Dewayne, and Eric.• The team meets Colonel Rodriguez. He explains the treaty with the demons and the team's role in defending Earth along with a quick brush up on the demon's history with the Mayans. During his presentation, he lets slip that humanity has reclaimed some of the zombies from the demons using antidotes. Jacob uncomfortably stays silent. • The team is escorted to the court where they will play the demons. In the locker room, Jacob reencounters evidence of his earlier episode and starts changing into a zombie again. He antidotes himself just in time, but the team knows his secret now and decides not to let him play the game with them. They leave him alone in the locker room. • At halftime, the team returns battered and bruised from the first half. Humanity is losing by ten. Eric is dead, killed by a demonic flagrant foul. Jacob's teammates beg him to play, a request he quickly accepts. Jacob fights alongside his teammates to even the score. The clock ticks down, almost at zero. Humanity cannot tie without consequences. A demon eyes Jacob malevolently as the boy stares down the basket. Jacob's skin goes pale. Will he score the winning basket, saving humanity? Will the demon rip him to shreds like it did Eric? Worse yet, will Jacob succumb to the monster inside him and let down his team for good? What happens next when all the world has is a Dead Shot Clock?

The destinies of four Planets are pulled together by fate. Persephone, is to be the home for five hundred new world colonists, Orion, was settled by colonists one hundred years ago, New Earth is under attack by space pirates, and the people on Genesis are dying. Four planets that rely on one man, only Tyler Burrows can see them through their ordeals, five if you count Earth.Two Aldebran spies steal the latest technology from Earth and leave a trail of bodies behind them as they escape. Two government agents are on their trail but are almost killed just as they get close. Tyler Burrows is called in to try and retrieve the technology and find those responsible for the murders that accompanied the theft. If that isn`t hard enough he must also face up to space pirates, a homicidal computer and a mad planetary leader.

In the cycle of life, Death and Destruction can be a necessary thing, but what happens when one of the key players refuses to play?In a Web-only exclusive, Ms. Sonnier releases a never before seen tale from the point of view of the beings we all fear, but who can be surprisingly just like us.In the cycle of life, Death and Destruction can be a necessary thing, but what happens when one of the key players refuses to play?