Since Christopher Ransom has been living in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, he has devoted himself to the study of karate. But soon he finds himself threatened by everything he thought he had left behind - a sequence of bizarre events whose consequences he cannot escape.

This is the legendary story of Merlin--from his abandonment by his parents at the age of eight to the discovery of his powers at twelve. Together, these three novels reimagine the origins of the greatest wizard of all time, giving readers a Merlin at once more human and more magical than any that has appeared before.

Humor, agriculture and young love all come together in Joan Bauer's first novel, set in rural Iowa. Sixteen-year-old  Ellie Morgan's life would be almost perfect if she could just get her potentially prize-winning pumpkin to put on about 200 more pounds--and if she could take off 20 herself...in hopes of attracting Wes, the new boy in town. Ninth Annual Delacorte Press Prize for an Outstanding First Young Adult Novel.

In this tale by Atlanta-based mystery writer Julian Cage, the discovery of the months-old corpse of a woman leads Detective Diana Siddal and Inspector Mustapha Alawi to two older men, one a lover and the other something of a mentor. One man loves theatre; the other came to love it. But neither expected what would happen when the woman and her partner tried to raise money for a theatre company.INSIDE — SET FIRE TO THE RAIN: Part Two of UNCENSORED’s Exclusive Interview with Daytime’s Best Actress (And 2010’s Sexiest Woman Alive) Y&R’s Michelle Stafford In Her Most Personal and Honest Interview Ever — “I Felt Like A Failure!” Exclusive: ONE LIFE’s Trevor St. John on Todd’s Arrest For Victor’s “Murder!” Report: Is THE REVOLUTION Being Cancelled? Is GH Safe? GH’s Maurice Benard Sounds Off on JFP, Garin Wolf, Megan Ward, and Cartini! Rumour: Is Billy Miller Leaving Y&R? Find Out! Plus: Is Y&R Already Planning a Tristan Rogers Comeback? Y&R Spoiler: Find Out How Harmony Falls For: Tucker, Neil or Sarge! Plus: A Neil-Ashley Redux? B&B: Katherine Kelly Lang On Losing Her Pre-Nom! GH: The Return of Liason! Plus: More Franco! Why Tyler Christopher Wants to Finish Off GH’s Nikolas For Good! Kristian Alfonso Toronto-Bound! DAYS: Divorce for Sami and Rafe! More On The GH DVR Blackout? Plus: Last Week's Reviews, Unbelievable Blind Items, and Next Week's Cheat Sheet!

When the environment is ravaged by rising sea levels and monstrous storms, America is divided and survival becomes more precious than love.When the environment is ravaged by rising sea levels and monstrous storms, America is divided and survival becomes more precious than love.When seventeen-year-old Nada and Isaac stumble upon a handsome stranger in the woods, their cozy alliance and romance begin to unravel. This stranger promises Nada the impossible in exchange for helping him rescue his sister from a prison in the last corner of civilization in the western United States. But this rescue operation is wrought with complications, including the fact that the girl they are supposed to save is the ex-President's daughter. This mission puts everyone's life at risk, especially Isaac--the one person who has always been there for Nada. Now Nada and her small tribe must choose between a somewhat comfortable existence in the mountains and the chance at a life free of fear and starvation.

The last thing Lexi Givens expects to happen on the beach is her worst nightmare. In two short days, her lfe changes drastically-not necessarily for the better.To overcome the grief of losing her twin brother, the director-husband of a talented but naïve and head-strong young actress persuades her to appear in a one-person show he has written for her, at an old, disused theatre in a small East-coast town. The show bombs on the first night, after she fails to take heed of the advice offered by an unseen, enigmatic member of her audience. As she opts to stick with the direction of her writer-director husband, she puts her sanity and their lives in jeopardy. After her husband suffers a tragic accident, she has only two nights to turn her show into an overnight sensation and avoid further tragedy.As the, now imprisoned, actress recalls her story to a visiting psychologist, the dark and far-reaching consequences of her final night's performance are revealed.

Joey is one of those whom “Trinity” has titled “Irreverent.” He refuses to worship the evil organization and accept the eternal consequences waiting those who do. Instead, he searches for souls to rescue with his message of salvation. Joey battles his fear, pain, doubt, and faith along his epic journey. It is the situations he encounters that helps give him the miraculous answers.Chaos and evil rule the world. You must bear the brand, or run from the mark and fend for your life. The worldwide organization policing the mark is “Trinity.” Without their brand on your hand or forehead you cannot buy anything of value; especially those things that sustain life. Those not bearing the brand must hide and figure out a way to survive the demonic forces searching them out. “Trinity” is more than an organization. It is a religion that will drag you to Hell. There is no turning back once you have received their brand. Joey is one of those whom “Trinity” has titled “Irreverent.” He refuses to worship the evil organization and accept the eternal consequences waiting those who do. Instead, he searches for souls to rescue with his message of salvation. Joey battles his fear, pain, doubt, and faith along his epic journey. It is the situations he encounters that helps give him the miraculous answers he is desperately looking for. Join Joey as he races the clock that tick-tocks towards the end of time. Watch his fears become a second thought as the final sands of time sifts down the glass of time. His adventures take him through Heaven and Hell. But, the most important path he’ll take is the one leading through the coming hell on Earth. Is this prophetic? Or, is this just fantasy? Will you be like Joey and choose the tribulation? Only time can answer those questions! This story may become the field manual to surviving the predicted judgments and wrath to come. Or, it just may be another fanatical fantasy dealing with the prophetic phobia on the “end of the age.” Either way, the only thing you will lose is yourself in this most captivating adventure. This story is unlike any story ever told.

For an airline passenger, an unexpected wait on the tarmac takes a turn for the strange.Also includes an author's note.Three short stories about irrational emotions between two people.The first story, Deadline, relates on mature student, Andrea, about to bag the ideal boyfriend. Only her tutor Mr. Linton and her late thesis stand in the way.The second story, Outside, enters the disturbed mind of Deke, an ex convict doing community service outside the home of single mother, Elaine. Only trouble is, he doesn't want to leave.And Nice follows the life of Durante, a grant assessor, suspicious of his young girlfriend, Kate, who keeps getting texts from a secret admirer.Three reads to fill spare moments, but leaving a lasting impression.The stories themselves are collectively 10,500 words.

The Second Book of MOSAKrayburn Hollow is a collection of paranormal/fantasy short stories revolving around the same dark night in, and around, Krayburn Hollow. As these three tales reveal themselves, you will find yourself pulled into Krayburn Hollow by the series of events that unfold.The Pond tells of a young boy named Pate who is wandering through the forest when he stumbles upon a mysterious hole of water with a hidden agenda.In Barnabe's Wish, a naïve man comes face to face with a mysterious light during the dead of night. Be careful what you wish for, Barnabe.The Dagger is a tale of murder, deception, and unfaithfulness, with a most tragic ending.

This is a story told from the point of view of a young boy that describes growing up with his twin sister, psychic mother, and his neurotic, supersticious father, and an incident they endured with one of their neighbors that the towns people referred to as The Bird Lady. A very old woman that many accused of being a witch. There is also a black cat that plays a prominent role in the family's livesThis is a story told from the point of view of a young boy that describes growing up with his twin sister, psychic mother, and his neurotic, supersticious father, and an incident they endured with one of their neighbors that the towns people referred to as The Bird Lady. A very old woman that many accused of being a witch. There is also a black cat that plays a prominent role in the family's lives. This is a very odd little story.

Dr. Laslo Reingard unlocks a secret about time which could help all of mankind. He finds himself targeted for death or worse by a self-serving government agency determined to control his discovery. Will Laslo master his newfound power in time to save the one person willing to help him?Hangtime is an exciting new short story from master storyteller Jack Thompson.Imagine you are a teen, riding in her new car for the first time. You let all of your sisters and brother inside with you, exept your crazy youngest sisters. On the the way down the road, the car flips. Everyone's ok, exept the girl that goes flying and gets amniesia. You think, "How on Earth am I supposed to get my sister back?" Well, these DANG Chihuahuas know how.

KVSPARROW is the story of a deniable intelligence operation.The setting is Pristina, Kosovo where a dead DIA case officer is receiving communications from his equally dead source. Fearing a career wrecking trap, DIA elects to send a contractor to assess, recruit and, if they are lucky, survive. The action is real, the story is fiction.Have you ever wondered how the shadow wars are really fought? You know James Bond, Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer are dramatic entertainment but still you wonder…what is it like to recruit a spy, evade hostile surveillance, plan an operation or engage in back alley combat? What goes through the mind of an operator as they maneuver their way through the complex factors that govern clandestine and covert operations? How do they think, feel, plan and react to danger? What tradecraft do they really use? And, above all, what kinds of people engage in these dangerous, often illegal, activities and for what reasons?If these thoughts have crossed your mind while skimming yet another novel meant merely to entertain, this may be the book for you. The story is fiction but the tradecraft and action are real, drawn from the author’s experience as a private contractor.The setting is Pristina, Kosovo where a dead DIA case officer is receiving communications from his equally dead source. Is it a come on, a trap set to ensnare another US intelligence officer? Is there an unknown subject willing to continue the work of the murdered source? The placement and access shown by the accurate intelligence provided tempts DIA to investigate. Losing another case officer is a career killer, however, so the decision is made to use a private intelligence contractor. This deniable operator can seek out the new source, assess the viability of recruitment and, if things go bad, die without taking anyone’s career with them.KVSPARROW lets you follow along inside the mind of an operator in one small engagement of the shadow wars.Welcome to the jungle…

Darker than vampires. Hot, immortal passion. A tragic love story.Calli's memory returns when she falls in love with the monster who took it from her. Nycholas wants just one thing before his final darkness falls: three nights with Calli.A woman's memory returns when she falls in love with the monster who took it from her.Calli tattoos her skin to fill the holes in her memory, thanks to an accident that left her mind damaged and empty. But a nasty encounter with a fired employee leaves her in the arms of her unlikely savior: Nycholas, a predatory, serpentine Vesper on the run from his brutal master.Nycholas’ clandestine world holds the secrets to mankind’s origin and survival… but he only wants one thing before his time is up: a few colorful nights with Calli, the fragile, tattooed, human woman he pursued and saved.The more Calli learns about Nycholas, the more her own darkened memories return to her. Despite her haunted past, she loses herself to passion and desire with her immortal captor.Now, Calli must overcome the demons of her past, or allow Nycholas to kiss her memories away and spare her the trauma of loving a doomed immortal. But each choice comes with dire consequences – some that endanger not only herself, but her family as well.

CORPORATE GREED. CORRUPTION. PLAGUE.All was well for the southern city of Nanli -- until a mysterious plague filled the city with fear and agony. Duty bound to discover the cause, Lady Abbess Cara races against time to find a cure only to be caught up in a dangerous conspiracy that may claim her life and the lives of billions for generations to come.It's a quiet day at the Redneck Detective Agency and Twila Taunton is just sitting chewing the fat with her receptionist, LaMercy Howard.A phone call comes in. It's Twila's cousin, Ena."You'll never guess what's going on at the school," she says. "There's a gator in the kids' playground.""So did they call Deputy Billy-Bob?" Twila says."They can't get him, he's out of town.""Okay. I'll go over there and see what I can do," Twila says. She picks up her keys. Her dog, Scratch is at her heels as she takes the porch steps two at a time and heads for her truck...

Trigger Man poses the question: Are world-changing figures merely happenstance or puppets of a greater, entirely mysterious, plan? Jesse Avery finds himself unwittingly sunk in this dilemma after coming into the employ of the diabolical Aldo Sautin. But when he's contracted to kill a young girl he has to dig far back in his memory and brutal history to decide which side of the line he will walk..Trigger Man is the story of a thief on the cusp of the Apocalypse. After a disastrous childhood he falls in with a gang of juvenile delinquents and learns a mysterious curse of visions he's had since birth may have fostered a great talent.He comes to the notice and subsequent employ of the evil Aldo Sautin, a once small-time hood himself now reaping the benefits of his ruthlessness. Under this man's tutelage Jesse is soon trapped in a much deeper pervading evil than he ever knew existed. Because Sautin wants him to kill a child. A flurry of recurring and disturbing visions convince Jesse that he is a 'trigger man,' one of a great number of people who unknowingly steer the course of human history. Not the famous, but the necessary. Men like Nicodemus who prepared Christ's body for interment, women like Eva Braun who comforted Hitler during the hellish siege by the Russians on Berlin. And all of these, Jesse finds, are destined for an ultimate Moment of Decision, a time when the 'trigger' must be pulled.

Not all ghosts are scary. In fact, some are just misunderstood entities looking for something missed in their mortal life. Such is the case for the ghost of four-year-old, Samantha.After years of careful saving, Charlotte and her four-year-old daughter, Becky, believe that they have finally moved into the old Victorian house that is their dream home. But after their first nights in the new house, Charlotte has cause to wonder if their dream home has turned into a nightmare. One after the other, strange occurrences lead Charlotte to believe that there are more than just the two of them residing in their new home, and it is now up to her to protect them from the unknown by uncovering the mystery of Lost Innocence...

Blazing Star Books brings you this story where spiritual guides—loved ones from the past—whisk Katie to an astral plan of ultimate knowledge. She embraces the journey, encountering famous historical masters and grabs the opportunity to ask important questions. But something is missing…and it is Katie who stumbles on the answer. This is The Perfect Place..or is it?Come to a Spiritual Plane Where Endless Knowledge Can Be Acquired Just By Being There.The Perfect Place is a supernatural plane of existence where knowledge is literally in the air. The place truly seems perfect—with no evil or need—only the pursuit of learning. What question would you ask Plato given the chance? Could one find the answer to a crucial inquiry from the sage words of Benjamin Franklin? What would Dr. Seuss say about the 21st century? Would Alexander Graham Bell like cell phone texting? Katie and her three spirit guides enthusiastically explore this Perfect Place of Knowledge. They encounter important and obscure historical figures in their search for answers. Actually talking with legendary people is a wonder Katie is amazed to experience. The spirit companions—loved ones from Katie's own past—have extraordinary powers, whisking her through a supernatural portal to experience the Place of Knowledge. But time is running out for the Place due to the flaw Katie has stumbled upon. Only one person or spirit will be chosen to determine the fate of the Perfect Place. Who will it be?

One way to shut up an obnoxious, loud-mouthed, male chauvinist pig. That's all I'll tell you. Click the blue below to see why. Here it suffices to say that the story is short and free. Why read a summary when with little more effort you can read the whole thing? If you can't spare a moment more, you shouldn't be wasting time reading fiction anyway. Go back to work!"One can not judge a book by its cover." So we are told. But a cover is usually the only thing a reader has to base a judgment on. Smashwords tries to aid readers by providing summaries, one short, one long, for each book it distributes. For non-fiction this works well. But this, it seems to me, defeats the whole purpose of fiction. After all, one reads a story to find out what will happen. It’s the uncommon twists and turns that make a story interesting. But if a summary has told all this beforehand, what fun is to be had in the reading? Therefore, no summary of the present short story is given. It's short and it’s free! So read the whole thing and see if you like it. I ask you to do this because I think it is the best book judging method. To find fiction you like you must first read around enough to learn something of the style and stories of different authors. Then you can judge books, not by their cover, but by the your opinion of the writer. I'd like to help you do this. The present short story is one of several which I will make available free at Smashwords. Read a few (or all of them) and decide if you like them. It won't cost you a dime. If you like them, you can then purchase some of my not free (but still inexpensive) longer stories. All these stories are of one particular kind. To reflect this similarity all have the same cover picture, the Kitty & Rose shown above. So after you’ve read a few, you can, in fact, judge them by their cover. The common theme of the Kitty & Rose stories is human sexuality. This is not unusual. Most fiction concerns sex in one way or another; ranging from romances so sedate and demure an extraterrestrial could never know sex is at the root of everything described, to erotica so unrestricted even an extraterrestrial might blush. Kitty & Rose stories are in the middle of this range. All deal with human sexuality, but none do so explicitly. Rather, they are seemly. The dictionary gives three meanings for seemly: Attractive or agreeably fashioned; Decorous or conventionally proper; and Appropriate or suited to its purpose. With respect to appropriateness, seemly sex stories range from the humorous to the inspirational, but all concern human sexuality. So they are clearly appropriate. These stories are also seemly in the decorous and conventionally proper sense. For, while they treat sex candidly, they do not do so graphically. There is nothing pornographic nor erotic in any seemly sex story. Of course, different persons’ opinions about this may differ. A few consider frank pornography decorous. At the opposite extreme are those like the abbot of the monastery where the great biologist Gregor Mendel did his epochal research. This abbot thought Mendel’s studies were decidedly indecorous because they involved the sex of pea plants! Finally, there is the principal sense of seemly, attractive and agreeably fashioned. Like every author I exert my every effort and ability trying to make these stories seemly in this regard. But like every author, I must await your determination of the degree of my success. Since both of us will be pleased if you find them attractively seemly, I very much hope you do.Happy reading!BobbyBP.S. This is Kitty & Rose short story 10, uploaded 2-27-17.

This is the second edition of the free short fantasy, sci-fi and horror story e-zine Bad Moon, this month featuring dragons, near future antics in a broken Europe, a special featurette excerpt from the excellent gaslight romance novel Berlintoxication, another reworked Grimm tale, a sci-fi love story, seeing as how it's just been Valentine's Day and everything, and more!Evan has a good job, good friends, and very little to worry about. In fact, none of the people who live in the village have much to worry about, really. When was it then, that the impulse to shake the tree became so pervasive? Was it really a sense of social responsibility? Was there really a debt owed to those who had no voice? Aren’t they the same people who don’t care enough to speak up? He has too much at stake to take overt risks or public positions on the proposals for new development projects, it is too hard to pluck the ones that will really hurt from the ones that are really needed. His position as a biologist with the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s endangered species division gives him an insight to the upcoming plans. He knows what’s coming, and he knows who is behind it - he just needs a champion to fight for the cause. The village is a tight knit group, they have known each other for along time, long enough to know each other well, long enough to know what each other is capable of, and what they are capable of tolerating. Evan knows very well what Desmond cares about, and what he doesn’t. He understands what his best friends want and what they feel obligated to do, and he understands the difference. But this time it may be worth pushing the line, it may be worth risking friendship for principle. What he needs is a fresh candidate, what they all need is someone who cares enough to step up. . . or someone who really doesn’t give a damn what anyone thinks- that might work just as well. Since they don’t have the perfect candidate, they will have to create one. Goodenough for Government!A humorous and honest peek into the real lives and relationships of modern men, Boiled Frogs with Mock Toast is about taking the time to notice what is going on in the face of the overwhelming boredom of responsible living. It is the story of what happens when we squeeze leadership from reluctant friends, ask for them to express opinions that we know we will disagree with, and create expectations where they never existed. It is the story of those who care, and their influence on those who don’t.

A collection of gothic, romantic, dark, horror, and some other poems.It’s 1987. Dane Morrison, a middle-aged ad agency sales rep, meets an enigmatic street rose salesman during a hot summer in Houston, Texas. As Dane learns more about the Rose Man, Dane’s dreams and reality become a hellish playground for the unearthly vagabond. And as Dane soon discovers, where love and hope are found, the Rose Man walks…The Rose Man is an early, award-winning story from critically-acclaimed horror author, Terry M. West. Thought lost until it was found on a recovered computer drive, The Rose Man presents one of Terry M. West's most unique horror characters. This story is presented with an introduction from the author as well as story notes.