An anthology of poetry written by young widows and widowers.Climate change has brought an end to liberal democracy and ushered in a bureaucratic totalitarianism as a means of managing the dwindling resources of the planet. In 2054, everything is regulated, from the safety ratings of households to who can live with whom. Richard Croft, an adminocrat working with the Bureau of Parenting, Marriages and Dying, issues - amongst other things - parenting licenses. Claire Monet is a young woman, desperate to have a child before she is deemed too old: twenty-six being the maximum age at which a parenting license will be issued to a woman. When Richard and Claire meet it is deviousness that endures, not rules and regulations. The License is a short and light-hearted sketch of a world we may possibly face in the not-too-distant future: a world utterly shrouded in paperwork and bound by red tape, but where human nature - as we have always known it - still triumphs.

Volume II of the Tarizon Saga, a prequel to the Tarizon Trilogy, The Liberator, Civil War, and Conquest Earth. Chronicles the period directly after Tarizon's cataclysmic super volcanic eruptions that killed millions and left the planet under a shroud of volcanic ash.Thousands of years ago a group of explorers were sent out from the planet Pharidon to find new habitats for their exploding population. After years of searching without success the explorers split up with one finally discovering Earth and the other Tarizon. The Pharidon explorers thrived on Tarizon but as their population grew and spread out over the globe, nations were formed each claiming sovereignty over its populace. Eventually national pride, greed, and envy led to a hundred cycle global nuclear war. Peace only came after a spiritual leader, Sandee Brahn, led a movement to unify the planet and bring about lasting peace. His goal was accomplished at a World Assembly where the Supreme Mandate was written and ratified by all the nations of Tarizon and peace was finally restored. Shroud of Doom takes place thirty-seven years after unification (37 A.U.) The planet's ecology is slowly recovering from the effects of the long war that has killed millions, destroyed most of the planet's infrastructure, and left Tarizon barely habitable. In order for the human population to survive huge domes have been constructed over the cities to protect the inhabitants. Unfortunately, the cities were unable to contain the entire population and millions were left outside the domes to die. Although most did die a few, known as the Mutants, managed to adapt to Tarizon's hostile environment and survived. Like the mutants the two other sentient life forms on Tarizon, the Nanomites and the rhutz were left outside the domes to fend for themselves. Shroud of Doom is the story of the collision of these two worlds which eventually plunges Tarizon into civil war.

Carol and Deena are coworkers at Freda’s Home Emporium. No love is lost between them. The day Deena finds herself traveling on the same lonely back road as Carol, she decides to get rid of her. As Carol careens to her death in her SUV, Deena finds herself in the same fatal predicament. What happens after their deaths is more fascinating than anything that ever happened to them during their lives!After their untimely deaths on Earth, Carol and Deena find themselves embodying alien creatures residing in foreign landscapes. Each does the best she can in her difficult circumstances. Soul-searching fails to deliver any answers. Three times each they are resurrected in the vacated bodies of alien creatures. Six times in total they ponder why. In each situation they wonder if someone, or something, is behind their journeys. Are there lessons to be learned, or is punishment being meted out? Is something testing them, and why? Could this be Judgment, or simply reality after death? Eventually, both women settle into what may be their final embodiments. They carve lives out of the circumstances in which they find themselves until it seems they are to meet again. Will they recognize each other? Will their enmity continue, and if so, will either prevail this time, or will the deaths and resurrections resume? Most importantly, who, or what, is behind these extraordinary events?

A reluctant vacation for two couples quickly devolves into a desperate life-and-death fight when one member of the party decides to cross a galactic crime lord - with apocalyptic consequences...Somewhere in the vast depths of space, a mission has gone horribly wrong. Now a woman is trapped all alone on an alien planet with nothing but her pain and her harrowing memories. At least, she thought she was alone...Lost And Found is a chilling and evocative science fiction short story from Maria Haskins' book ODIN'S EYE. Two poems from Maria Haskins' new collection of poetry 'Cuts & Collected Poems 1989-2015' are also included.

Episode 12, Nanotroopers. After the Engebbe disaster, the Corps wants to equip all troopers with personal ANADs. But the only Engebbe survivor has brought back an unexpected menace; it corrupts the new ANADs as they are loaded. Only Johnny Winger can defeat the threat but he has to fight off an alien swarm on a new battlefield…his own mind. He defeats the menace…but he ends up changed forever.Episode 12, Nanotroopers. After the disaster at Engebbe, where an entire detachment save one survivor was lost, Quantum Corps decides to forge ahead with a plan to equip all nanotroopers with personal ANADs. But the Engebbe survivor has unwittingly brought back an unexpected menace…and there was another survivor unknown to the Corps. As the Symbiosis Project gets underway and troopers are modified to receive their ANADs, an alien master nanobot corrupts the embedded devices as they are being loaded. Only Johnny Winger has gone through this procedure before and he knows only he can pilot a rescue ANAD to stop the spread of this new alien swarm. But he winds up being attacked himself, by the disassembled remnants of one Lieutenant Dana Tallant, Bravo Detachment commander and once a love interest for Winger, once thought to have been consumed at Engebbe. Tallant is now an angel herself, a swarm of disembodied nanobots and she quickly insinuates herself into the troopers being modified. Only Winger can defeat this new threat but he has to engage it on a new battlefield…his own mind. He manages to win a difficult victory but he winds up changed forever…and the Corps’ project to build blended man-machine warriors through symbiosis with ANAD takes on a whole new meaning.

For hundreds of years, mankind has wondered if we were alone in the universe. That question has been answered.Aliens abduct a group of people to study what makes us tick. in two weeks, the fate of humanity will be decided.Do they come in peace or to exterminate us?We live in a strange world, filled with strange people. It's also a fast paced world. So indulge yourself with the perfect remedy to all the speedy weirdness with this collection of humorous short stories. Follow the internal turmoil of a man struggling to eat a living dessert. Journey to the hidden depths of the deep sea with some pretty awful parents and an even worse child. Finally, watch a couple of door to door salesmen cross the line of appropriateness. Be ready for the unexpected and the wacky. Be ready for a lot of leg.

When Cory is sent to stay with Meredith and her parents, he is sure it will be a disaster. But Meredith's father has a boat and it takes the two of them on magic adventures where things don't turn out quite as they expected.An unscrupulous, greedy lawyer, blunders into Christmas with the wrong attitude, in this lighthearted romp. A nitwit lawyer, and maybe the Grim Reaper, usher Fenrick through a series of humorous, life threatening events. They and a loved one make him confront his "heart condition," leading to a change of heart.Genre: Comedy, Christmas StoryLength: NovellaThis story contains some language and themes that some would find objectionable for themselves or for children under 13.If you liked Scrooged, A Christmas Carol, The Nightmare Before Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Family Man, and Mr. Destiny - people needing a change in their life - you might like this story.

This Book which has 40 differently titled Poems is actually Part 14 of the Book titled – You die; I die – Love Poems ( 1600 pages ) .Poems symbolizing the immortality of love and at times its fickleness. Parekh takes the reader through a paradise naturally embellished with the ingredients of eternal romance and its sporadic failures. As they say life and death are two sides of the coin, similarly with every true anecdote of love there also comes fretful divorce—a thing which has been most sensitively described throughout this great collection of poems for the heart. Written and dipped in each ingredient of his passionate blood, Parekh comes out with startling revelations about the truest of love stories and their failures. Each verse has been delicately intertwined with a boundless aspects of relationships, romance, cheating, betrayal and goes on to prove that Immortal Love towers over every shattered heart. A start to finish with some of the most heart-rendering love poems ever, this makes a great collection for ever true lover breathing and desiring to be loved on earth and beyond. This collection of poems aims at perpetually uniting every heart on this Universe in the spirit of Immortal love and friendship. Because these are the two quintessential ingredients to lead life till its last breath. Irrespective of whatever color, faith or religion, it is only the rainbow of love which can transform the ghastliest monsters and perpetrators of humanity into peaceful lovers. Therefore this book inexhaustibly endeavors to speak and preach the language of love even after its last embossed alphabet.

**The “smoldering heat, epic romance, and awesome action” of Nalini Singh’s *New York Times* bestselling series continues as two Arrows find themselves caught in a chilling conspiracy that spans all three races…** Awakening wounded in a darkened cell, their psychic abilities blocked, Aden and Zaira know they must escape. But when the lethal soldiers break free from their mysterious prison, they find themselves in a harsh, inhospitable landscape far from civilization. Their only hope for survival is to make it to the hidden home of a predatory changeling pack that doesn’t welcome outsiders. And they must survive. A shadowy enemy has put a target on the back of the Arrow squad, an enemy that cannot be permitted to succeed in its deadly campaign. Aden will cross any line to keep his people safe for this new future, where even an assassin might have hope of a life beyond blood and death and pain. Zaira has no such hope. She knows she’s too damaged to return from the abyss. Her driving goal is to protect Aden, protect the only person who has ever come back for her no matter what. This time, even Aden’s passionate determination may not be enough—because the emotionless chill of Silence existed for a reason. For the violent, and the insane, and the irreparably broken…like Zaira.

From New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger comes the stunning sequel to Prudence. Rue and the crew of the Spotted Custard return from India with revelations that shake the foundations of England's scientific community. Queen Victoria is not amused, the vampires are tetchy, and something is wrong with the local werewolf pack. To top it all off, Rue's best friend Primrose keeps getting engaged to the most unacceptable military types. Rue has family problems as well. Her vampire father is angry, her werewolf father is crazy, and her obstreperous mother is both. Worst of all, Rue's beginning to suspect that what they really are... is frightened.

Matilda “Wheezer” Choi, the asthmatic who can fly and kick butt courtesy of her nanobyte-enhanced inhalers, loves pro wrestling and hates anything “girlie.” Maybe that’s because she grew up with six brothers—or maybe it’s because her home life has become a battle zone in the conflict between her parents. Unfortunately for Wheezer, when a former member of NERDS turned villain gets extensive plastic surgery in order to become a cheerleader, Matilda must swallow her pride to successfully infiltrate the squad. The newest supervillain, Gerdie Baker, assisted by the criminal mastermind Simon, has created a device that opens portals to other worlds, which she and the other cheerleaders have been pillaging. But the alternate realities are starting to get awfully close together, so it’s up to Wheezer and the NERDS to stop the cheerleaders before the worlds collide.

Tyler Campbell is rescued from having his butt handed to him by Jessica, a courageous biker bartender with gorgeous ink. Jess is a single mom, her life taken up by raising a son and keeping away from her ex. Tyler is the first man who’s truly looked at her in a long, long time, the first to make her remember what passion is. Though she recognizes that Tyler’s a playboy, she sees something else in him, a pain he’s kept hidden from all, even his close-knit family. Jessica doesn’t believe she’ll ever have anything with Tyler, but when she needs help, she risks all by seeking him in a little Texas town called Riverbend.

The seventeenth-century philosopher-statesman Francis Bacon famously declared that nothing had changed the world more profoundly than three great inventions: gunpowder, printing and the compass. What he didn't know was that the Chinese had been successfully using all three long before the West ever 'invented' them. And yet it was another 300 years before a remarkable man called Joseph Needham embarked on his lifetime's work which would finally set the record straight. Inspired by a wartime mission to occupied China, he wrote a twenty-four-volume masterpiece, chronicling the nation's astonishing history of invention and technology over five thousand years. In 'Bomb, book and compass' Simon Winchester tells the story of Joseph Needham, his magnificent book, the passion that inspired it, and the remarkable rise of the Chinese nation that continues to this day

How could I have been so stupid? Anastascia had told me that Brock was bad news but I'd never dreamed what he was capable of. First Reed, then Brock. Was my taste in men really that awful? When Piper Black finds out the truth about her first encounter with her boyfriend Brock Michaels, she's devastated, but things only get worse when a familiar face shows up at the wrong moment. With her life in shambles, Piper is given the opportunity for a new start... back in Philadelphia. Will her luck change if she moves back? And what will it mean being in the same city as the one man who's never left her mind? In this penultimate installment of M.S. Parker's sizzling Sinful series, the intrigue is hot, but the passion is even hotter.

From the internationally best selling author of BAD ROMEO, BROKEN JULIET, and WICKED HEART comes an anthology of sweet and sexy novellas featuring beloved Starcrossed characters such as Ethan and Cassie, Liam and Elissa, and Josh and Angel; as well as the gang from The Grove. Have Yourself A Sexy Little Christmas: An Ethan and Cassie Novella Ethan and Cassie’s first Christmas with the Holt family should be nothing but jolly. Sure, Cassie’s a mess trying to impress her future in-laws with the perfect casserole, but when an unexpected blast from Ethan’s past shows up beneath the tree, the season gets a whole lot more serious—and sexy. The Naughty List: A Liam and Elissa Novella After being apart for months, Liam and Elissa are making up for lost time on a secluded island, where they think they’re free to explore each other’s bodies in peace. But when it turns out their Christmas sanctuary isn’t as deserted as it first seemed, their Christmas dreams turn into a nightmare. Happy, Horny New Year: A Josh and Angel Novella When the gang from the Grove gets together at a lavish New Year’s Eve party, it’s like no time has passed. Except Elissa and Josh are dating Hollywood royalty, Jack and Zoe have been hooking up in secret, Connor’s new girlfriend wants to murder Cassie, and Erika’s mystery man has everyone talking. Before midnight, shocking revelations are made, industry tongues are wagging, and the poor mistletoe is ready to pass out from overuse. No matter how you're spending the holidays, BAD ROMEO CHRISTMAS is sure to heat up your festive season this winter.

When a rogue Mogadorian meets up with a mysterious amnesiac in Santa Monica, he knows that there's more to this guy than meets the eye. In fact, he might just hold the key to everything. In I Am Number Four: The Lost Files #4, discover what has happened to one of the people with information crucial to the Garde coming together to fight to save Lorien—and Earth.

For Cassie and her Circle of witches, it's hard to imagine life in New Salem getting any worse. A band of powerful witch hunters is targeting the group, determined to destroy them one by one. And Cassie's half sister, Scarlett, won't rest until she has a spot in the Circle - even if she has to kill Cassie to get it. The Circle's only hope against their enemies is Cassie's father's Book of Shadows - an ancient guide to the world of dark magic. But Cassie soon discovers that opening the book has grave consequences. Cassie's drawn in by the book's sinister spell, and it starts controlling her emotions and impulses, unraveling her relationship with Adam as it takes over her life. Cassie fights against the darkness inside her as the threats against the Circle grow. But once evil is let in, she may never escape. . .

One of Carolyn Wells' more well-known novels, The Mystery Girl is a fascinating read considered a classic by some and definitely worth taking the time to read.

The Gringos By B.M.Bower was a much loved American author who wrote novels, fictional short stories, and screenplays about the American Old West. A classic tale and a wonderful addition to any collection.

Will finds out the his glasses hold special powers -- and learns about the true meaning of Christmas.This is one of a series of stories that I wrote for Joey, Will, and Erin. This one is my favorite.

Social networks... friends... love...Simon Parker, a hacker, is about to make a few tricky decisions that are bound to change his life dramatically. But Simon is determined to go at any lengths for the sake of friendship and… love. Even to live without social media or even… to destroy them.The dimensions are in chaos, magic is illegal, and water is a rare commodity. Kyrin is running from the law. As a magic user, she’s marked for death, and as a run-away from the Shadowmere, she’s hunted as a weapon. Shifting between dimensions is all that’s kept her alive.On the brink of being caught by the Shadowmere, Kyrin stumbles into a dimension devoid of the drought and seemingly untouched by the wrath of the Consortiums. In this dimension she finds a people innocent of the evils of the universe and naïve to the worlds surrounding them.Lord Alric has ruled over his kingdom for 15 years under the direction of their god, Sithias. Before his time, the gods fought, and evil was removed from the lands. It isn’t until Kyrin arrives that he’s even considered that evil may still be among them, or that the long-dead use of magic may still be around.