A Certain Number of Hypothetical Scenarios is a collection of sixty-two flash fiction stories written in a series of Julys between 2010 and 2013. Prepare to expose the inner workings of an illegal pixie dust operation, encounter various not-people personified, witness the assassination of a pet cat, and possibly be eaten by a grue.A Certain Number of Hypothetical Scenarios is a collection of sixty-two flash fiction stories written in a series of Julys between 2010 and 2013. Prepare to expose the inner workings of an illegal pixie dust operation, encounter various not-people personified, witness the assassination of a pet cat, and possibly be eaten by a grue.Each of these stories was picked from the many I've written for Flash Fiction Month, an annual event organised by a sinister multi-headed creature that lurks deep in the core of DeviantArt. The ancient hydra demands a short story be written in every day of July, lest its dark appetite goes unsatiated and its reptilian eyes turn to the surface world. Suffice it to say that each one of these almost 25,000 words has played a part in saving humanity from the end of all things.

The world’s greatest magician has just one chance to pull off an illusion that will save the lives of everyone he loves.The world’s greatest magician has just one chance to pull off an illusion that will save the lives of everyone he loves.Harry Houdini has a talent unlike any other—and it isn't magic. The famous illusionist has escaped death countless times because of his supernatural ability to see potential outcomes. But when a mysterious man running from a deadly pursuer seeks out the magician for help, the only outcome Houdini sees is death. Now in possession of an ancient object that brings danger to its possessors, Houdini finds himself on a chase that extends from the speakeasies of Manhattan to the grand movie palaces of 1920’s Hollywood. But a final confrontation will force Houdini to decide who can live and who must die.Houdini’s Last Trick is the standalone prequel to The Sixteen Burdens historical fantasy series. If you like The Night Circus, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer, then you’ll love Khalaf’s page-turning period-piece adventure with a fantastical twist. Named a finalist for the Black Hills Press Summer Writing Project (2015).Buy Houdini’s Last Trick today to read the story that started Khalaf’s award-winning series!

Love can rescue a lonely heart. Kyle Morgan doesn't want to be rescued, especially not by former beauty queen Sabrina Daniels. Sabrina fires up Kyle's long dormant libido, and it's like a match struck on dry tinder-an explosion of heat whenever she's around. His cheating ex-wife left a bad taste in his mouth about the entire female gender and he doesn't want to get involved again, despite Sabrina's untapped sensuality. Sabrina Daniels, newly divorced from her controlling millionaire husband, is out to build her independence and begin a new life. She's always wanted to be a ranch owner but knows nothing about ranching. Her solution comes in the form of The Rocking M in Dreamwater, Oklahoma. The ranch needs an investor, and she has the money. But if she wants her dreams to come true, Sabrina will have to work alongside handsome-as-sin Kyle Morgan. Yes, he's surly and unpleasant, but underneath his tough exterior, she discovers a man who feels like a failure. Both have firm goals for their future, but love has a way of interfering in the best laid plans.

Return to Partholon in book 2 of this fan-favorite series by #1 New York Times bestselling fantasy author P.C. Cast. After being mistaken for a goddess in the mythic world of Partholon, Shannon Parker now adores her new life. Everything--particularly all the goddess worshipping--is going great...until she's wrenched back to Oklahoma. Desperate to return to the husband and world she loves, but without any magic of her own, she's got to find help. Trouble is, it might take the form of a too-tempting man. And Shannon soon realizes she's being followed by an ancient evil... Sometimes being divine by mistake is a lot easier than being divine by choice. Originally published in 2006

Thirty-six of the most interesting writers in the Pacific Northwest came together for a week-long marathon of writing live on stage. The result? Hotel Angeline, a truly inventive novel that surprises at every turn of the page.   Something is amiss at the Hotel Angeline, a rickety former mortuary perched atop Capitol Hill in rain-soaked Seattle. Fourteen-year-old Alexis Austin is fixing the plumbing, the tea, and all the problems of the world, it seems, in her landlady mother’s absence. The quirky tenants—a hilarious mix of misfits and rabble-rousers from days gone by—rely on Alexis all the more when they discover a plot to sell the Hotel. Can Alexis save their home? Find her real father? Deal with her surrogate dad’s dicey past? Find true love? Perhaps only their feisty pet crow, Habib, truly knows. Provoking interesting questions about the creative process, this novel is by turns funny, scary, witty, suspenseful, beautiful, thrilling, and unexpected.

Gerhard Self, the dour private detective, returns in this riveting crime novel about terrorism, governmental cover-up, and the treacherous waters where they mix. Leo Salger, the daughter of a powerful Bonn bureaucrat, is missing, and Self has been hired to find her. His investigation initially leads him to a psych ward at a local hospital, where he is made to believe that Leo fell from a window and died. Self soon discovers, however, that Leo is alive and well and that she was involved in a terrorist incident the government is feverishly trying to keep under wraps. The result is a wildly entertaining, superbly nuanced thriller that follows one detective’s desire to uncover the truth, wherever it may lead.

The Jewels of Texas Pearl Jewel Was About To Teach A Lonely Cowboy A Lesson In Love. Cal McCade's world was the open range with no one but himself and his haunted past for company. It was the life of a man with no ties—and he liked it that way, until Pearl, a cultured beauty fresh from Boston with proper manners and fiery kisses, gave him a taste of something he could never have. Diamond, Pearl, Jade and Ruby. The Jewels of Texas. Four sisters as wild and vibrant as the untamed land they're fighting to protect.

The High Druid of Shannara trilogy draws to a thrilling close as a young hero nears completion of his trial by fire, a banished ruler fights for her life in a wilderness of dread, and forces of darkness and lightsquare off in a battle unto death for the right to absolute rule. Prepare to be spellbound by the masterly hand of bestselling legend weaver Terry Brooks, conjuring at the peak of his skills. For reasonsknown only to himself, the King of the Silver River has charged young Penderrin Ohmsford, barely more than a boy, with the daunting task of rescuing his aunt, Grianne, Ard Rhys of the Druid order, from her forced exile inthe terrifying dimension of all things damned: the Forbidding. With the noble dwarf Tagwen and the prodigal elven princess Khyber Elessedil by his side-and with the outcome of the bloody war between theFederation and the Free-born at stake-Pen has accepted his mission without question. But not without risk . . . or sacrifice. Because Shadea a'Ru, the ruthless Druid responsible forimprisoning the true Ard Rhys and usurping leadership at Paranor, has sent her agents and assassins in relentless pursuit of Pen and his comrades. And in securing the talisman he needs to breach the Forbidding, Pen haspaid a devastating price. Now if the Free-born forces-already decimated by the Federation's death-dealing new weapon-should fall, Shadea's domination of the Four Lands will beassured. Nothing short of Pen's success can turn the tide. But Pen's challenge grows greater when he learns that his parents, Bek Ohmsford and Rue Meridian, have fallen intoShadea's hands. He must try to help them-but once within the walls of Druid's Keep, where Shadea's minions and dark magic lurk at every turn, Pen's survival is far fromassured. Yet it will all pale in comparison to the horrors that wait inside the Forbidding-horrors poised to break free upon the Four Lands when the time is right. . . . "Fromthe Hardcover edition."

*Don't miss the epic finale of T. S. Joyce's bestselling Harper's Mountains series* Kane Reeves is being hunted. He has done well to keep hidden all these years, but Damon Daye has finally come to collect on the blood debt of Kane’s father. Damon has sent a great Bloodrunner Dragon after him, and Kane can see his death coming. But his huntress is beguiling and sweet, and Kane is drawn to her in ways he can’t explain. And as he gets to know the sassy beauty, she feels less like the death of him, and more like his destiny. Too bad she’s a Bloodrunner, the mortal enemy of his ancient clan, and on a collision course to end his life. Rowan Barnett has been charged with the protection of the Bloodrunner Crew while the alpha is unable to shift. The problem? The crew has chosen the wrong dragon for the job. She has no trust for her unstable inner monster, and now she’s lost her treasure. But when a mysterious and unlikely hero decides to help her out, she begins to think everything happens for a reason. Dark Kane’s eyes are terrifying, he feels like a beast, and he looks at her like he could just as easily kill her as kiss her, but there is something about him that Rowan can’t resist. Something that’s calling to her dragon and putting them both on a path of mass destruction. And now Rowan will have to figure out how to protect the world from the last Blackwing Dragon, while protecting the man she loves from himself. Content Warning: Explicit love scenes, naughty language, and piles of sexy shifter secrets. Intended for mature audiences.

From the world’s number-one bestselling crime writer comes the extraordinary new Kay Scarpetta novel.  Massachusetts Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta has just returned from working one of the worst mass murders in U.S. history when she’s awakened at an early hour by Detective Pete Marino. A body, oddly draped in an unusual cloth, has just been discovered inside the sheltered gates of MIT and it’s suspected the identity is that of missing computer engineer Gail Shipton, last seen the night before at a trendy Cambridge bar. It appears she’s been murdered, mere weeks before the trial of her $100 million lawsuit against her former financial managers, and Scarpetta doubts it’s a coincidence. She also fears the case may have a connection with her computer genius niece, Lucy. At a glance there is no sign of what killed Gail Shipton, but she’s covered with a fine dust that under ultraviolet light fluoresces brilliantly in three vivid colors, what Scarpetta calls a mineral fingerprint. Clearly the body has been posed with chilling premeditation that is symbolic and meant to shock, and Scarpetta has reason to worry that the person responsible is the Capital Murderer, whose most recent sexual homicides have terrorized Washington, D.C. Stunningly, Scarpetta will discover that her FBI profiler husband, Benton Wesley, is convinced that certain people in the government, including his boss, don’t want the killer caught.  In Dust, Scarpetta and her colleagues are up against a force far more sinister than a sexual predator who fits the criminal classification of a �spectacle killer.” The murder of Gail Shipton soon leads deep into the dark world of designer drugs, drone technology, organized crime, and shocking corruption at the highest levels. With unparalleled high-tension suspense and the latest in forensic technology, Patricia Cornwell once again proves her exceptional ability to surprise—and to thrill.

From the author's website: "Susan Cooper set this 1964 sci-fi thriller in an Orwellian future of 1980. England is under the power of a lunatic Prime Minister Mandrake, who creates a planned society of isolation that forces people back to their place of origin. Standing against his insanity is anthropologist Dr David Queston, an expert on man and “the tyranny of place.” England has sunk into a nightmare of destitute walled cities filled with a hysterical public overcome with fear; unexplained natural disasters add to Queston’s suspicions that the earth itself is rebelling against man’s attachment to the earth and nuclear presumptions. It is up to Queston and his fellow rootless travelers (including the beautiful actress Beth) to challenge authority and restore hope for the future."

Rejected by the incomparable Miss Milborne for his unsteadiness of character, wild Lord Sheringham is bent on avenging Fate and coming into his fortune. But the very first woman he should see is Hero Wantage, the young and charmingly unsophisticated chit, who has loved him since childhood ... Friday's Child is a typically sweeping historical romance by the queen of the genre, who for fifty years won the hearts of readers worldwide and has found a new devoted readership in the twenty-first century.

What happens between book 9 of the Young Wizards series, "A Wizard of Mars," and the forthcoming book 10, "Games Wizards Play"? Diane Duane answers the question in this volume, collecting together the three canonical works that constitute a "transitional trilogy" between books 9 and 10 -- a 150,000-word extravaganza of untold tales to help keep you going until the tenth book comes out in February 2016. "Interim Errantry" contains: The novella "Not On My Patch", the tale of an unusual Halloween in the Young Wizards' neighborhood, featuring overage Trick Or Treating, suburban zombies, and the Attack of the Killer Pumpkins. The novelette "How Lovely Are Thy Branches", a holiday-themed Young Wizards story in which an alien wizard who looks a lot like a Christmas tree gets the gift he wants most -- decorations -- and a memorable party and sleepover party are disrupted by a superblizzard and an incursion of alien ghosts. And finally, the new original Young Wizards novel "Lifeboats", the tale of a distant world threatened by unavoidable doom, an intervention that takes thousands of Earth's wizards, young and old, into harm's way, and a Valentine's Day that absolutely doesn't go as planned...

In 1558, while exiled by Queen Mary Tudor to a remote castle known as Perilous Gard, young Kate Sutton becomes involved in a series of mysterious events that lead her to an underground world peopled by Fairy Folk—whose customs are even older than the Druids’ and include human sacrifice.About the AuthorRichard J. Cuffari is a contributor for Houghton Mifflin Company titles including: 'The Perilous Gard'Elizabeth Marie Pope (1917-1992) was an author specializing in Elizabethan England and the works of John Milton and William Shakespeare.Elizabeth Marie Pope was born on May 1, 1917 in Washington, D.C., to Christopher Herman Pope and Florence Anna Thompson Pope. In 1940, she received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College, and went on to Johns Hopkins University, where she took her Ph.D. in 1944. She taught English as a professor at Mills College for thirty-eight years before retiring on June 30, 1982. She was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism.Elaine B. Johnson, in her book Contextual Teaching and Learning, fondly describes her memories of studying Shakespeare and Milton with Dr. Pope (pages 50-51). Johnson recalls a teacher who was courteous, humorous, compassionate, lively, and excellent at drawing connections between her students' lives and the moral lessons of Shakespeare and Milton. Johnson also includes the comment that Dr. Pope was "weighed down by a heavy brace on one leg" and was white-haired, indicating that she took courses from Dr. Pope toward the end of her tenure as professor. For Johnson, Dr. Pope was not only an engaging lecturer, but facilitated class discussion with open-ended questions and interest in her students' comments.Her Newbery Honor-winning novel for young adults, The Perilous Gard, is an imaginative retelling of the ballad of Tam Lin set in the latter days of Queen Mary I of England and the early days of Queen Elizabeth I, featuring a strong, independent, clever young heroine, Kate. It also sympathetically discusses remnants of ancient pagan Britain driven into hiding by the coming of Christianity. Many of its themes will be familiar from the Arthurian legends, which are referred to at the opening of the novel.

Ellie Cohen is living her dream. A great job at an exclusive Mayfair art gallery, loyal mates, loving family, and really, really good hair. Well, there’s the famous rock-star father who refuses to acknowledge her and a succession of ‘challenging’ boyfriends, but nobody’s perfect. But when a vengeful ex sells Ellie out to the press, she suddenly finds herself fighting to keep her job, her reputation and her sanity. Then David Gold – handsome, charming but ruthlessly ambitious – is sent in to manage the media crisis . . . and Ellie. David thinks she’s a gold-digger and Ellie thinks he’s a shark in a Savile Row suit, so it’s just as well that falling in love is the last thing on their minds . . .

The retelling of Jane Austen?s novel Mansfield Park from the point of view of Edmund Bertram?by the author of Mr. Knightley?s Diary and Captain Wentworth? Diary. At ten years of age, Fanny Price came to live with Edmund Bertram and his family at Mansfield Park. Far from the brat Edmund expected, Fanny became his closest confidante and dearest friend. But when the fashionable Crawford siblings? Henry and Mary?come to town, they captivate the Bertram family. Henry embarks on a scandalous flirtation with Edmund?s sister, who is already betrothed to another, while Edmund is enchanted by Mary?s beauty and wit. But when it appears that Mary is not all she seems to be, Edmund will turn to the one woman who has always been at his side to find the happiness he deserves?Fanny.

To Have...When Devil, the most infamous member of the Cynster family, is caught in a compromising position with plucky governess Honoria Wetherby, he astonishes the entire tom by offering his hand in marriage. No one dreamed this scandalous rake would ever take a bride. And as society mamas swooned at the loss of England's most eligible bachelor, Devil's infamous Cynster cousins began to place wagers on the wedding date....And To HoldBut Honoria wasn't about to bend society's demands and marry a man "just" because they'd been found together virtually unchaperoned. No, she craved adventure, and while solving the murder of a young Cynster cousin fit he ill for a while, she decided that once the crime was solved she'd go off to see the world. But the scalding heat of her unsated desire for Devil soon had Honoria craving a very different sort of excitement. Could her passion for Devil cause her to embrace the enchanting peril of a lifelong adventure of the heart?

The third and final chapter of the Shift saga. This is part 8 of the Silo Series, which began with Wool. The third and final chapter of the Shift saga. This is part 8 of the Silo Series, which began with Wool. All three Shift books will be collected in an Omnibus edition. Reading Order: 1. WOOL (5 parts) 2. SHIFT (3 parts) 3. DUST (TBD)

The first book in Brian Lumley's bestselling Necroscope series, Necroscope: The Lost Years Vampires never rest, and neither does Harry Keogh, the world's greatest vampire hunter, the Necroscope, the man who can talk to the dead. Right now, he's desperately searching for his wife and son, who disappeared in the midst of Harry's war against the undead monsters that plague mankind. Others will to carry on that fight until the Necroscope has been reunited with his beloved family.But it's not that easy to leave the vampire war behind. The bloodsuckers know that the Necroscope is their deadliest enemy and will do anything to destroy him.Harry struggles to locate his missing family, not realizing that he has become a pawn in the battle between two powerful vampires. When one has slain the other, the Necroscope will be the next to die.

Reading Order: 1. Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue 2. Molly Fyde and the Land of Light 3. Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions 4. Molly Fyde and the Fight for Peace In the highly anticipated conclusion to the Bern Saga, Molly and her friends are reunited while two wars erupt and collide. An entire universe hangs on the actions of Parsona's crew, and not all of them will survive.

The Adventures Of Joel Pepper By Margaret Sidney