How would you react if your family was violated by a trusted government agency? It happens every day ...We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at our shoes.It's 2010, and science has yet to discover how to harness electrical power. Amongst the young people, the music industry is everything you'd expect: ruthless, conceited, avaricious, shallow—save for only one difference: there is no way to amplify the human voice. Doctor John Doe has discovered a revolutionary new process to transform aspiring musicians into Singers. A few are brave enough to risk everything for fame and fortune—but at what cost?

The 1956 Pulitzer Prize-winning story of the Andersonville Fortress and its use as a concentration camp-like prison by the South during the Civil War.

Have you ever wondered how Mary felt being pregnant with the Son of God? This is a short story of her romance with Joseph and her painful story in trying to convince her family that what was conceived in her was of the Holy Spirit.Disciples of the Damned A Biker Vampire SeriesShort story seriesDominic: Season 1 Episode OneAfter more than 200 years of horrific confinement in a steel coffin, vampire Dominic Kollar is released in the year 2012, only to find out that the rules have changed. Bounty Slayers are responsible for keeping Vampires in line.As Dom acclimates to the strange modern world, he discovers that he really likes two things: riding motorcycles and the sight of a mysterious, bewitching lady biker.Aided by an old vampire frenemy, Dom confronts human bikers in order to infiltrate their gang and find the object of his blood lust. As long as he can keep himself fed in this new world of challenges, Dominic Kollar will make a stand, avenge his past and attempt to destroy those who dared to cross his path.A longer short story with 10,800 words

Newt Run is a town that shouldn't exist, a town of artists, drug dealers, miners and steam. It’s a town at the center of a broken universe, and broken universes have the bad tendency to fall apart. In this tale, an old man discovers a book in which he appears to be the central character.Newt Run is a town that shouldn't exist, a town of artists, drug dealers, miners and steam. It’s a town at the center of a broken universe, and broken universes have the bad tendency to fall apart.Newt Run is also a novel, but the world of Newt Run was much too large to fit inside a single book. These short stories, or 'modules', extend this world, probing into its deepest, smallest secrets.In 'Another Bookstore', an elderly man retires to the quiet and solitude of running a used bookstore, only to discover that in one of these books he appears to be the central character.

An alien spaceship touches down in the sage brush near a small mountain town – or does it? It might be a message from Heaven, a futuristic weapons test, Federal surveillance, or just a prank. The town's resident fundamentalist secular humanist thinks he can solve the problem, between changing diapers, visiting his ex-mistress, and trying to come to terms with his own mortality.An alien spaceship touches down in the sage brush near a small mountain town – or does it? Some in the town of Mildred think the spooky apparition is a message from Heaven, a futuristic weapons test, or maybe just a prank. In the view of the town's resident fundamentalist secular humanist, the town has gone nuts, and it's his duty to hold back the flood of crazy ideas while simultaneously changing diapers, visiting his ex-mistress, and tending to his dying cat. Not to mention that's he's recently begun to believe in his own mortality...

Williot senior who managed to succeed in life without help from anyone and this has constituted, as always, his pride. Everything flows peacefully until Williot does not feel able to help but also its reflection in the mirror that sucks in the mirror at home and then on Iianng finds himself living an amazing journey through the prison system of the planets rich in many situations.Part 1 of All the Days of John Mann.Long years after the virus made the leap, the people of England live in scattered communities, the threat of slow starvation and swift outbreaks of the choke darken their days. What is left of society teeters always on the brink of collapse and a rag-tag military barely keeps order.John Mann, preacher and healer, travels the byways plying his trade amongst the old and the sick, keeping to the shadows, always watching the road at his back.John Mann is haunted, the only known survivor of exposure to the virus and perhaps the sole source of a vaccine. But he is hunted by many who would use him, not to save lives but to bring a choking end to those who would oppose them.John Mann now finds himself bound by a promise to track a taken boy, a promise that will force him back out of the shadows, onto the grid, and into a fugitive life once more.John Mann is an outlaw, to be feared and betrayed, and when cornered he will visit a terrible justice on anyone who threatens what he holds dear.

Black Cat Tales: Where the Spiders Dwell and Other Short Stories is a collection of nine spooky (and sometimes mischievous) short stories and flash fiction from Black Cat Tales.Black Cat Tales: Where the Spiders Dwell and Other Short Stories is a collection of spooky (and sometimes mischievous) short stories and flash fiction from Black Cat Tales.This book contains nine stories including:Leaving Giles; where Stephanie is desperate to leave her abusive husband but she's running out of options.Santa's Head Elf; where the shopping centre has closed for the night but horrors lurk behind the colourful shop fronts.Apocalypse; follows Tom as he as he sets out to rescue his girlfriend as a mysterious plague sweeps the country. Where the Spiders Dwell; offers a glimpse of the secret world of the spider.

She paced the room, looking out the window, waiting for the sun to set. She didn't think anyone would be coming over after her father was arrested; it'd be too dangerous to pay condolences to the daughter of a warlock. Still, she couldn't take any chances. She couldn't be interrupted, and she couldn't speak to anyone until the next morning.She paced the room, looking out the window, waiting for the sun to set. She didn't think anyone would be coming over after her father was arrested; it'd be too dangerous to pay condolences to the daughter of a warlock. Still, she couldn't take any chances. She couldn't be interrupted, and she couldn't speak to anyone until the next morning. The last rays of bright red light filtered through the curtain and left Elizabeth in the night's embrace. She opened the jar, read the spell one more time, making out letters under the moon's meager glow, and then set up the candle. She walked around the tiny flame, careful not to put it out, and began chanting, weaving a part of her own soul into the words and feeding it to the fire. “The harm to me is harm to you and all your kin and all your blood.”The flame leaped, grew larger, consuming the wax in half the time it should have. Elizabeth watched the candle burn in silence, watched energy, the soul of fire, glide through the air and hug her body. She sensed the reassurance of the spell, its protection. With a needle Elizabeth pricked her finger and let one drop of blood fall on the flame just as it was about to die. The wick hissed, and the last of the energy that smelled and tasted of vengeance came to Elizabeth.

They paid millions of dollars to take part in a ritual of human sacrifice. They are a nameless brotherhood, a collective of bankers, military men, and corporate executives whose endless hunger has been the driving force behind every atrocity ever committed. Tonight, they are going to cook a world-famous chef in an electric chair on live television.They paid millions of dollars to take part in a ritual of human sacrifice. They are a nameless brotherhood, a collective of bankers, military men, and corporate executives whose endless hunger has been the driving force behind every atrocity ever committed. Tonight, they are going to cook a world-famous chef in an electric chair on live television. Sigmund plans to make a great deal of money from this execution. So why does he feel like the guy strapped into the electric chair is pulling one over on him? Come and Watch a Man Die! is a strange story about living things being more than just meat, the universe being more than just molecules rubbing up against one another, and transcendence through unimaginable acts of violence.

Arin Aye is a collection of short stories from the world of Sacrifices and To Wrestle With Darkness. These stories take place between the first two books, Sacrifices and To Wrestle With Darkness and the last book in the trilogy, Heretics, due to be released in 2015.Deities mix with mortal men in the second season of The Chardon Chronicles.As the sun wanes and winter takes control of Northeast Ohio, the violent struggle between ancient beings and the Wells family unfolds. Tracy Wells takes her place in the family business of collecting esoteric knowledge and defending humanity against a hidden world that controls our nation. The family library tells a story about Western civilization that’s not in history books, and details a natural world that’s unknown to science.Tracy Wells is a senior at Chardon High School. She and her friends Morgan and Chloe begin to discover who they really are. It's a journey that brings them into conflict with parents and teachers, and an old corrupt organization that’s led by supernatural entities.

The Former World: Book One in the Little Forest paranormal mystery series. There’s something lurking beneath the picturesque façade of the English village of Little Forest, something dark and disconcerting, something which the vast majority of the residents are refusing to see…The Former World: Book One in the Little Forest paranormal mystery series. If you’d like to get the next Little Forest novel - Memento Mori - for free, sign up for the mailing list at www.jessicagracecoleman.com. You can also get the first four novels in the Little Forest series for a discounted price by buying the box set of The Former World, Memento Mori, The Exalted and Carnival Masquerade. “Little Forest is the only place I've ever lived, and it's the place where I'm going to die. Tonight.” These are the words of Beth Powers, long-time resident of Little Forest. On the surface, she’s just an ordinary English girl in a typical English village, but appearances can be deceiving… extremely deceiving. There’s something lurking beneath the picturesque façade of the English village of Little Forest, something dark and disconcerting, something which the vast majority of the residents are refusing to see… Fed up with living in the tiny, gossip-fuelled village, twenty-one year old Beth resolves to escape to London with her best friend, Veronica Summers. That is, until something throws a spanner in the works. A rather large spanner. A dead body, to be exact. A dead body found early one morning in the spooky surroundings of the Great Specton Woods. The apparently accidental death of Beth’s work colleague sets off the small community’s well-oiled rumour mill, and Beth soon finds herself in the middle of a bizarre village conspiracy. Potential suspects start appearing in all shapes and sizes – including the handsome new resident, mystery man Connor Maguire, who has conveniently just arrived in Little Forest – and with the police refusing to consider murder, Beth takes it upon herself to investigate. At least it’s a good distraction from the other strange and unusual things that have started happening in her generally boring life; let’s just say that Beth’s work colleague isn’t the only dead person she has to deal with these days. After all, it isn’t always something as innocent as the ghosts of past memories that come to get you… With the help of rather unlikely ally Will Wolseley, Beth delves into the village’s sinister secrets and, in turn, uncovers a terrifying truth about herself that could change her life forever. Unfortunately, she might not have much of ‘forever’ left, as when it comes right down to it, it’s not a question of whether or not she’ll decide to leave her childhood home. The question is whether or not Little Forest will let her go. The Former World is reminiscent of a good old-fashioned English mystery thriller, updated to the twenty-first Century but still relying on the quaint locations of the beautiful English countryside: close-knit villages, local pubs, ancient castles, large, looming forests and magnificent Stately homes. This enchanting rural environment gives Beth the perfect setting to explore the ominous events that threaten to shake up her small village and her life. “Jessica Grace Coleman is one of the most exciting new writers around. Her stories inspire, entertain and mesmerise. An absolute must-read.” - Adam Croft, English author. Jessica Grace Coleman brings you the first novel in the paranormal mystery 'Little Forest' series, setting the stage for the follow ups: 'Memento Mori', 'The Exalted', 'Carnival Masquerade' and 'The Gloaming'. A fan of mystery books and horror writers, Coleman delves into the world of legends and paranormal activity in this supernatural series, leading her own investigation into the fictional fantasy landscape that permeates readers’ darkest fears. The Little Forest series isn’t just concerned with spirits of the dead or other ghost stories, it’s about how we would react if these terrifying spectres actually did come into our world. How would you react?

Larry McPeak has come to the seer's crimson table in hopes of reaching beyond the veil separating the living from the dead. Among those gathered at the table, only Larry doesn't hide his face behind a mask, and he fears the oversight will prevent him from peering into the table's waters. But the seer promises him his turn, and so Larry stares in the rippling cloth hoping to touch the other side.Like all the others who shamble out of the shadows to find the light of the seer's crimson table, Larry McPeak's loneliness yearns to reconnect with lost loved ones. It is Larry's first time seated before the table, and he realizes as the others gather that only he does not cover his face with a ghastly mask. The seer assures Larry that the donning of any mask is not required to gaze into the waters that ripple from the crimson table. The seer promises Larry that he will get his to gaze into the table's vision, to hope that someone waits on the other side to hear his voice whispering across the divide. Larry gazes at what his companions seated at the table call into the waters, and in the end, learns we he too wishes for a mask.

In this ebook, I discuss 18 ideas that are considered common sense by many people or are the conventional wisdom among some people but that are, nevertheless, wrong, including: A good way to deal with terrorists is through drone strikes. We own the Earth. The 2nd Amendment gives us the right to keep assault weapons. Evolution is a fact. The end justifies the means. Jesus Christ is the Son of God.Paolo Manfredi is an affirmed paediatric surgeon who lives and works in Paris. Born in Torre dell'Isola, a town not too far from Palermo, after high school he left Sicily, a land then upset by serious upheavals, to pursue his ambitions. After thirty years, he comes back with his wife and his children to celebrate his fiftieth birthday, and to retrace the steps of a brusquely interrupted personal and civil history. He finds a deeply changed world, and walking on the footsteps of his own past, searching for his Sicily, he finds again his old friends, and with them the emotions he denied for a long time, his cut roots, his childhood places, changed yet still deeply intact. In the nostalgic memory of his past life, Paolo learns to look at the events from the point of view of those who stayed and fought so that the identity of a people wouldn’t be lost.

A story of a magical town and its no less magical inhabitants.That spell was wrong!When three young witches, Electra, Cassandra, and Medea, decided to practice witchcraft, they had no idea what consequences the wrong spell could have. Ghosts that scare the townspeople, and an old witch with an eerie wail are their minor problems.Meanwhile, sixteen-year-old Eric O’Brian is sent to live in a small town called Hollow, which seems to be stuck in the 1800s. Soon he finds out that the beautiful town full of colorful ravines, green highlands, and dense forests, is not an ordinary one: flowers that whisper, a shop that steals the time, and a hanged man coming to life on the Halloween night lead him to believe that Hollow is a mystical place inhabited by witches.After meeting the mysterious girls and befriending them, Eric becomes a part of the world with time traveling, medieval bards, flying brooms, and paintings with parallel reality.Then a murder happens in Hollow...

Hit Points: Gettysburg Generals is a short story about General Grant and General Sherman who must take out the Gray team. To do it they'll need to use plasma rifles, precious drops from previous kills and manage a healthy amount of respawning. Not to mention the fact that they'll need to do something that is almost impossible: work together.Kira has built up a reputation as a transporter and escort. She takes on a contract to work her way into a pirates nest. However her audacity, skill and ability enable her to make rapid progress within the pirate ranks. Does she complete her contract, or turn coat and stay within the ranks. Only time will tell.

The original poetry--dulcet and dissonant, supercilious and super-silly--of the eighth graders in Mr. Stewart's English classes.Watreon is on the brink of war. A fact that has eluded Ryhan until days before her sixteenth birthday. Drought has crippled her village and made it nearly impossible to live in. Angry and confused by what their king’s lust for power has done to their land, her family is forced to leave the only home she has ever known. Packed and ready to venture into the unknown, everything changes the night before they are set to leave. Ryhan discovers a secret that her mother has been hiding from her. Not only was she one of five girls born under a shooting sapphire star, but she possesses the elemental power of fire and is part of a prophecy about the coming war. Setting out to find the other daughters she leaves her mother and father for a journey she never expected. Along the way she faces the challenge of learning and controlling her powers, experiences love and heartbreak, and struggles to accept the life she is destined for. All the while testing the peace keeping limits of Evangeline, whose elemental power of spirit is used to bridge their powers and keep the five of them connected. Together they cross an ocean to seek out Alexandra, Lillian and Victoria. Battling evil forces at every turn, they race to meet with the magical council to start training. Each girl wrestles with the reality unfolding before them and the choices they will all be forced to make. Overwhelmed with expectations, they hope that their powers of earth, air, fire, water and spirit are enough to defeat their enemies and save not only themselves but all of Watreon.

Two street kids from enemy gangs fall in love while struggling to save their dance club from demolition.Welcome to the world’s only independent society of teenagers. In D-town, there are three genders—guys, femmes, and in-betweens. And there are three rules:1. Keep your blood to yourself. 2. Agreements between gangs are binding. 3. The Dance is safe space. The Dance, D-town’s all-night dance club, blasts a techno beat 24/7. The loud music protects the street kids from the sonic pulses the Global Government uses to control people’s moods. D-town is the only place on earth where people are free to feel their own emotions, and The Dance is its heartbeat.When the Global Government announces plans to demolish The Dance and turn it into a recycling center, two street kids from enemy gangs team up to stop them.Aidan is an in-between, a member of the middle gender. Lawson, on the other hand, is all guy. Aidan belongs to the pacifist, celibate Bee gang and follows the teachings of the Buddha. Lawson is a Real Dealer, a militant anarchist who doesn’t seem to believe in anything except violence and instant gratification. The two gangs don't mix, but after Lawson saves Aidan from one of the frequent beatings Bees endure in D-town, Aidan can’t stop thinking about him.The demolition sign brings the pair together to save The Dance, but their attraction might just destroy D-town before the wrecking ball does. That is, if the spies who have infiltrated the gangs don’t beat them to it.

A rather ordinary day on the USS Magic Carrot turns rather special when Captain Andy's happy talk dinner is interrupted by something that must be explored.It started off as just another normal day for Captain Andy of the USS Magic Carrot. After entering his log he was hungry and wanted some happy talk. But a strange alarm interrupts his dinner, sending him and some of his crew on a strange, albeit short, adventure.

Three dogs (Daisy, Violet, and Keela) narrate their life experiences as they have humorous adventures.Aidriana has had a rough life. She is smarter than others her age but doesn't cope well with difficult situations. After waking from a terrifying nightmare filled with the deaths of so many around her, she finds herself tormented by the dream. When she starts to notice similarities in her life that are just like her nightmare, she fears that she has had some sort of premonition. Living in fear and paranoia, Aidriana struggles to hold on to her sanity and spirals in and out of strange visions and blackouts. Nothing is what it seems and Aidriana is left to figure out what is real and what isn't. Sometimes living in denial is the best way to remain sane.

An eerie narrative of lost love, Serendipity tells the story of Jake and Rebecca, two colleagues in the Peace Corps who fall in love but ultimately choose their careers over their relationship. After Rebecca's untimely death, Jake inherits her house in rural Kentucky and goes to live there to confront the ghosts of his past...and his present.An eerie narrative of lost love, Serendipity tells the story of Jake and Rebecca, two colleagues in the Peace Corps who fall in love but ultimately choose their careers over their relationship.After Rebecca's untimely death, Jake inherits her house in rural Kentucky and goes to live there to confront the ghosts of his past...and his present.Hair-raising and tantalizing, Serendipity was originally published in the Eureka Literary Magazine in 2004, but is now newly-revised and available in e-book format for the first time.

Dr. Treekenstein gets a government grant to save the trees. Little Jimmy and Woodpile battle Dr. Know, Dr. Treekenstein, and Little Jimmy's ex wife's best friend in an epic adventure to save the earth from extinction in the year 3 428 127 P.C. (Post Computer)Dr. Treekenstein gets a government grant to save the trees. Little Jimmy and Woodpile battle Dr. Know, Dr. Treekenstein, and Little Jimmy's ex wife's best friend in an epic adventure to save the earth from extinction in the year 3 428 127 P.C. (Post Computer). Written to be a short and fun parody of the media, worship of science, and environmentalism.