Disappointed in the myriad of men who have sought her favor, Emily has given up almost all hope of ever meeting a guy who can measure up to her idealized perception of the consummate man. Resigned to the prospect of a life devoid of love and romance Emily degenerates into a social piranha, preying on the weak-willed unchallenging men who fail to live up to her lofty imaginings.Then she meets a....Up to this point in her young life Emily has been terribly disappointed in the myriad of men who have sought her favor. Because of this disappointment she has given up almost all hope of ever meeting a guy who can measure up to her idealized perception of the consummate man. Resigned to the prospect of a life devoid of love and romance Emily degenerates into a social piranha, preying on the weak-willed unchallenging men who fail to live up to her lofty imaginings. To this end she believes that she's mastered everything there is to know about the fine art of manipulation and control. Then she meets a guy who unwittingly manages to slip through her defenses and unlock the heavily bolted door to her heart. But who enters next through this now open door she never sees coming.

Like Isaac Asimov and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. combined. Thought-provoking. Exciting. Sentient cyberts co-exist with Bios. Ninety percent of the Bios live in a fantasy world Inside, ten percent live in the dark reality Outside. One percent of the ten percent are fighting a losing war with the artificial intelligent menace running the planet. Is this the end of the world or the beginning of a new one?"In Makr's Shadow" (formerly Harry's Reality), humans now called Bios could only fail. Harry Bolls and his new found friends make a difference. Harry Bolls sees through illusion and dreams of truth. The worlds of reality, fantasy and Cyber will never be the same. Had the human race rebelled or unified in some way there might have been hope. Now, saving the world rests on a pampered and helpless people who can hardly survive Outside the fantasy world created by the artificial intelligence in charge. Outside, society has splintered. One group wants to co-exist, another wants to be left alone, and one group even worships the artificial intelligence as a god. Harry, the Insider, can see through SensaVision illusions, and has nightmares in a world where that is supposed to be impossible. Is he the one to change the world?What will the world become?"In Makr's Shadow" reads like an Isaac Asimov and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. novel combining, action, suspense and fun. Thought-provoking. Exciting. Shaw's characters are dynamic and real. They are as flawed as humanity with fears, anger, regret and arrogance, yet heroes emerge. All that seems lost, is not lost.

When Tim and Helen Christopher move into their dream home with their young son, Adam, they are visited upon by an elderly woman, who refuses to leave them alone. Adam especially, is targeted. Gradually, Tim and Helen are forced to conclude that their unwanted visitor requires something from them. But what? Could it be their son, or is it something more?The Uninvited is a short story taken from a paperback collection of short stories, entitled, “The Little Book of Dark Tales”, which is available from my website at www.wrarmstrong.com. When Tim and Helen Christopher move into their dream home with their young son, Adam, they are visited upon by an elderly woman, who refuses to leave them alone. Adam especially, is targeted. Gradually, Tim and Helen are forced to conclude that their unwanted visitor requires something from them. But what? Could it be their son, or is it something more?

Film noir finds a new home in the well-chosen words of Howie Good. Contemporary living and loathing are given new life through this treatment.Josh Greenwood and his Mom and Dad are walking their neighbors to the corner of 13th and Jefferson after Josh’s 14th birthday party when a careening motorcycle kicks up a rock that kills Bonnie, the mother. But what if the rock killed Tom, the father, instead? Or the accident unfolded differently and Josh was killed? This uplifting tale of middle class family life in America offers all three stories. In Book 1, Tom struggles to cope with single parenthood and tries to woo Elaine, the neighbor at the accident who has a past with a mystery man. Josh and Max, Elaine’s son who doesn’t know that his real father is “somebody”, interfere and grow up until graduation from high school. In Book 2, Bonnie struggles to save Josh from the influences of her petty criminal half-brother, Mitch. Max reacts very differently to learning the identity of his real father and even with the best intentions and efforts of loving mothers things do not turn out well. In Book 3, Tom and Bonnie’s marriage flounders as they struggle to reinvent themselves as non-parents, Max becomes a real player in his father’s presidential campaign and Elaine… Well we can’t tell you the rest. In Book 4, (surprise!) the original tragedy is averted. How much do we really know about anyone?

After being ostracized from his clan, Rutejìmo searches for sanctuary, encountering Mapábyo, a woman he's dismissed for most of his life. Running for their lives and breaking the rules, together they learn the true meaning of life, loyalty, and devotion. Rutejìmo realizes his mistake in loving the wrong person. Can he find a way to finally prove himself to the one woman who's never doubted him?When the heart must choose between love and lust...Ten years later, still an outsider and pacifist, Rutejìmo struggles with his role in a clan that far from welcomes him. Armed with the necklace from the woman who saved him many years ago, Rutejìmo harbors a childish desire for her. His clan less than tolerates his inexplicable yearning for her. And when he is given the chance, he mistakes his lust for unconditional and undying love for the one woman who doesn't want him, creating a dangerous unrest between him and his clan.After being ostracized from his clan, Rutejìmo searches for sanctuary, encountering Mapábyo, a woman he's dismissed for most of his life. Running for their lives and breaking the rules, together they learn the true meaning of life, loyalty, and devotion. Rutejìmo realizes his mistake in loving the wrong person. Can he find a way to finally prove himself to the one woman who's never doubted him?

A simple account of the journey of a group of people who shared a common vision towards building the iconic ThinkPad.Mutual global wellbeing clashes up against conservative international business-as-usual climate change policies. In a speculated near future, a consortium of High Impact Climate Change Countries opts to leverage geoengineering, the artificial cooling designed after natural volcanic eruptions, when negotiating climate change agreement with the rich countries of the OECD. As drones threaten anyone on the ground with Hellfire missiles, and as the political agenda heats up, the HICCC consortium selects Vince the story telling engineer and Tami the British Bangladeshi paleoclimatologist to inform Canada of their selection as a go between messenger.

With the southern portion of the kingdom in rebellion, the Crown has begun accepting commoners as candidates for its elite fighting force, the Prince's Legion. Tyna decides to ask if they are also willing to take a woman.It’s Volume 4 of TIW shorts! The fourth collection and possibly the last of totally pointless exactly 500 Challenge and exactly 200 Weekend Quickie flash fiction stories/scenes word nonsense (plus a few specials, relays, newsflashes from the TIW blog and collaborations) to entertain you while doing whatever you do when reading. For myself, it was a long and tricky half year in The Iron Writer. Through troubles and difficulties, there was always the TIW Challenge waiting for me.I hope you enjoy these short snippets just as much as I enjoyed writing them, and thanks again to Brian and all the other Iron Writers for allowing me into their community…I wouldn’t.

She lies with him in bed, holding him close. The exhaustion from all the grief finally overtook him, and he had fallen into a restless sleep. But something is brewing inside her, a change in her chemistry, and as she listens to his breathing she'll find out more about the man she loves than she ever wanted to know.On the lavish estate of mogul Bernard Leigh, there lurks a secret. It is the Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age. The war is over, and Leigh House, once a lavish, private home, is now a sanitarium for the wealthy. Florian Valentine Flix, a veteran of World War One, is one of the patients at this health-oriented resort. He has signed himself into this place by feigning illness. But why?Only after a murder is committed on the grounds of the B.S.T. Leigh House, or Beastly House as it is jokingly known as, do the real reasons for Flix’s presence as a patient come to light. Detective Phalen Archer has been assigned to the case. The officer is delighted, and confused, by his old war buddy’s presence at Beastly House. Together, Flix and Archer go after the killer, but will the murderer escape scot free?Beastly House is the first in the Cupid/Archer detective mystery series. Follow these two sleuths as they set out to solve this whodunit mystery!

Abbie and Bendigo Joules, teenagers on a farm in east Texas, share three days canoeing down a creek in the Big Thicket. For Ben, it involves a high school project on memory. For Abbie, it's a chance to spend time with her older brother, doing what she loves the most--canoeing. For both of them, it's a lesson on wilderness living and their connection with the animals that live there.The seventh in a series of fourteen books by Abbie Joules about her brother, Bendigo, as they grew up on their hard-scrabble farm in east Texas. In this episode, Ben uses the excuse of a high school psychology project on memory to justify a three day canoe paddle down Big Sandy Creek in the Big Thicket wilderness. Abbie, who loves to canoe and adores her older brother, needs no excuse. Together they test themselves as they attempt to remember everything they see, and as the days go by the wilderness tests their ability to live off the land. In the end, they learn more about themselves than they ever thought they would, and gain a new appreciation for the creatures they share the world with.

Ricky Barnes is a young mechanic who happens to have a crush on a 300 foot teenage girl with an atomic bomb for a heart. Her name is Jenny, and she's Earth guardian angel against the giant beasts called Titans. But for Ricky, she's the girl he loves more than anything else in the world. But how could he ever get up the courage to tell her?For almost sixty years, Earth has faced an unprecedented menace from the giant monsters known as Titans. Whether spawned from atomic radiation, extraterrestrial spores or awakened due to environmental upheaval, these behemoths are dedicated to eradicating the human race from the face of the Earth. Their one and only hope for survival rests with the Atomic Woman, Earth's guardian angel, and the courageous men and women of the elite task force known as A.T.O.M. Together, they have battled the Titans for three generations, but the burden weighs heavy on them all. For Ricky Barnes, a young mechanic, the weight is two-fold, as he struggles to do his job, and deal with the complications of being in love with the latest Atomic Woman, Jenny. When the girl you love is 300 feet tall and has an atomic bomb for a heart, do you dare risk breaking it?

Lucy is an intern for the Secretary of the Environment who has been having an affair with the Prime Minister.Lucy is an intern for the Secretary of the Environment who has been having an affair with the Prime Minister. As the affair is about to become public knowledge he dumps her unceremoniously by text message, just as she is about to jet off with him on a trip to Italy. Furious and alone she vents her anger in this one-act monologue.

After seventeen-year-old Russell Whitford confronts and kills a rabid dog, he seeks to prevent the news from reaching the dog's owner, whose hair-trigger temper is well-known in the small town of Riley, AlabamaAfter seventeen-year-old Russell Whitford confronts and kills a rabid dog, he seeks to prevent the news from reaching the dog's owner, whose hair-trigger temper is well-known in the small town of Riley, Alabama. Russell can count on silence from two of the three witnesses who watched him hack Hector Graham's Bloodhound to death, but the third, Michael O'Brien, isn't like the other two. His allegiance isn't as fixed as Russell would like it to be.When the Centers for Disease Control arrive in town, and dogs begin running away, and gun shots start ringing out in the dead of night, Russell's summer goes from bad to worse. All he wants to do is play his piano and guitar, maybe walk his dog every now and then, not have the weight of the universe hoisted upon his shoulders.

Once every one year and fourty-three weeks (Or one year, fourty two weeks and six days if it is a leap year) along with a near death experience Christina is able the make the journey to Hell. There she will find those suffering eternal tormend based on their sins on earth, along with her close friends Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus Christ and the fallen one himself, Satan.'What if Satan is lonely?"'Christina's Inferno' tells the story of Christina, a young linguistics student who once every one year and fourty-three weeks (Or one year, fourty two weeks and six days if there is a leap year) along with a near death experience Christina is able the make the journey to Hell. There she finds people suffering cruel and everlasting torments based on the sins committed during their time on Earth. She makes the journey down the circles to the darkest depths to find her friends Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus Christ, and the Prince of Darkness himself Satan.Along the way she encounters the harshness of everyday life for the damned and those who watch over them.Follow Christina as she looks at an old depiction of hell inspired by 'The Divine Comedy' and looks upon it with modern eyes and a contemporary perspective.

You’re walking down the street, all alone, in the dead of night. Darkness swallows everything around you except for the one streetlight that illuminates a small patch of the sidewalk. You begin to get the feeling that something is following you, so you start moving faster. You don’t run but you quicken your pace, just to be safe. That’s when you hear a low growl...You’re walking down the street, all alone, in the dead of night. Darkness swallows everything around you except for the one streetlight that illuminates a small patch of the sidewalk. You begin to get the feeling that something is following you, so you start moving faster. You don’t run but you quicken your pace, just to be safe. That’s when you hear a low growl that makes all of the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up. You turn around, regretting the decision immediately, to see a bear standing before you about to swallow you whole. Ha. I’m just kidding, that would be ridiculous…it’s really a werewolf. My life hasn’t changed: I hunt down horrifying monsters, that haunt you in stories and your dreams, and kill them, then I look for the next monsters terrorizing people and kill them too. It is a dazzling lifestyle. But now there are ancient creatures no one even knew existed rising from the depths of who knows where. Whatever the monsters are gathering for is going to happen soon and it is not going to be pleasant.I might be able to stop the horror that is coming to us, but I might not. I guess the only way for you to find out is to read this. Beware, however, for my stories are not for the feint of heart.This book is a collection of short stories that were originally posted on my blog. You can visit there, cjpikebooks.wordpress.com, for more hunting.

The Sins of Acheryn tells the tale of the cataclysmic fall of a vanished empire. As the legendary Kings of Acheryn moved to consume the nations of the ancient world, her pride and violence rose to the thrones of heaven. At the pinnacle of her power, three judgments would punish the greatest empire of a world now lost to myth and time. (Short Story. Approximately 4200 words).Percival Ratham is not a nice man. This bothers him not at all, as niceties interfere with getting what he wants. And what Percival wants now is a meal to surpass all others. And Percival gets exactly what he wants.One in a series of short stories by Shawn McDaniel that explore the dark thoughts and desires we hide behind thin masks of civility and humanity.

This is Part 2 of DIANE D The Musical Drama, a sequel to DIANE D In The Headlines and DANGEROUS DANA A Suspense Thriller. It is a suspense, drama, psychological, thriller about a family owned Charity and Entertainment Organization. This story involves 3 generations of the Diaz-Davidson family. The family's Charity and Entertainment Organization performs shows around the country and the world.In Part 2, Diane D gets in trouble by her family. The following day, she goes inside her family's office, goes to the telephone and secretly threatens her lover's girlfriend right over the telephone, blaming her lover's girlfriend for calling her family up causing all that trouble for her. Diane D also goes man-hunting for a date for a High School Dance she is suppose to appear at and perform. When one of the men finally agrees to be Diane D’s date, his wife finds out about it. The man's wife goes and looks for Diane D. When she finds Diane D inside a church, she angrily confronts Diane D! She then pays a price for it. Diane D and her family appear at an elementary school one night so that Diane D can perform for a charity case there. After Diane D’s singing performance inside a crowded auditorium is over, a chubby little 9-year old black boy named Marcus approaches her. He brings Diane D to a private area in the school and tells Diane D that there is no charity case in the school. He confesses to Diane D that there was never a charity case at the school that the entire charity case was all a hoax planned by him and his older brother. He tells Diane D that he and his brother tricked her and her family into thinking that there was a charity case at the school just so that she can appear there and perform. Diane D becomes shocked when she realize that there was never a charity case at the school. She is shocked when she realize that she and her family had been tricked into coming to the school. She starts to become sad. She then becomes angry. She then goes CRAZY and terrorizes and harms the little boy right inside the school! The little boy pays a price for tricking Diane D and her family.

Dignity and Reason have suffered much stress and misery because of their cousin Guiles, his daughter Prevarica, and the rest of the Leasing family. Now Guiles leaves Dignity the responsibility for bankrupt and neglected Founders Grove park, and it will take miracles—and a really good lawyer—to get him out of this.Dignity and Reason have suffered much stress and misery because of their cousin Guiles, his daughter Prevarica, and the rest of the Leasing family. Now Guiles leaves Dignity the responsibility for bankrupt and neglected Founders Grove park, and it will take miracles—and a really good lawyer—to get him out of this. As for the Leasings, when they land in terrible trouble, old Ambassador Grace advises Dignity and Reason to try to save them, and he offers the prospect of help from Heavenite secret agent Patience Orchard. The question is, would the cousins rather just be rid of the Leasings?

Sipe’s job: drive the crime throne heir from California back home to Seattle. The double cross: Sipe’s unaware Connie is willing to sacrifice anyone to get out of the family business for good. Sipe’s reality: betrayed, wounded, looking down the barrel of a little blackmail courtesy of the teenager that just discovered him unconscious in the tiniest of tiny Oregon towns.Sipe’s job: drive the crime throne heir from California back home to Seattle. The double cross: Sipe’s unaware Connie is willing to sacrifice anyone to get out of the family business for good. Sipe’s reality: betrayed, wounded, looking down the barrel of a little blackmail courtesy of the teenager that just discovered him unconscious in the tiniest of tiny Oregon towns. Tiffany’s deal: Sipe helps her locate a missing friend or the faked boob-grab pics make the rounds. The local less than honorable law enforcement...her slightly crazy uncle...Little Creek’s the kind of place the wrong kind of stranger can disappear – forever.The Lipless Gods. A noir-tinged portrait of broken families, teen prostitution, green energy, and of course, anger management challenged Olympic athletes and the mobsters who love them.

A compilation of poems about life, death, and the in-between.The story The Green Eyed Monster is about a mother who is dealing with her horrible envious son and how conflicted she is with how trapped she feels but also how much she loves her son. Another good story is about a lunch break with the three popular but viscous cousins Gloria, James and Gregory or Lust, Gluttony and Greed. These stories are a unique twist on the sins with a fun narrative for each.