They would have liked to know who the John Doe was, but more importantly they wanted to know what he was. And what was his power, the power they did not understand? He could not be allowed free. He was not an ordinary man.They would have liked to know who the John Doe was, but more importantly they wanted to know what he was. And what was his power, the power they did not understand? He could not be allowed free. He was not an ordinary man. John thought he was an ordinary man, but maybe a hollow man, without memory, without a past. That strange power they spoke of - He didn’t quite believe in it, but if he was ever to find freedom, he had to first find his power. He wanted to go home. He didn’t know whether he had a home, whether he had a family, but still, he wanted to go home.

The Anubis Gate is the classic time travel novel that took the fantasy world by storm a decade ago. Only the dazzling imagination of Tim Powers could have created such as adventure.

Some people believe African Americans should receive reparations for 400 years of unpaid labor and crimes against humanity because of slavery. But it's not that simple. It takes a seventeen-year-old high school kid to show two adults why those 40 acres and a mule may never come.Wade Hampton Hamilton is the unsung hero in a classic American novel. A child conceived at the onset of civil distress, he struggles to overcome the trauma of soldiers, abandonment, and near starvation. When his mother disposes of him at Tara, he finds solitude in the land, but he is soon thrust into manhood when he protects his friend from her abusive father. As he follows her across the country to save her from mistreatment, he battles the forces of nature in the Wild West, the wiles of a scorned woman, and his intense desire to maintain his integrity. Bearing the scars of loss and lies, he discovers his ability to break free from the hold of his tormented past, his manipulative mother, and the forces of iniquity that work against him. Still, he searches for peace, forgiveness, and the strength to survive.

This is one good war story, and I recommend it highly." - David Keith of November First PublicationsWWII: A B-17 bomber secretly crewed by American Negros called the “Nobodies” is limping back from an unofficial mission when a seemingly unavoidable tragedy unfolds right inside their plane . . .

Have you ever wondered about your neighbors? A teen learns the terrible truth about the house next door in this comically chilling Halloween frightfest.Have you ever wondered about your neighbors? A teen learns the terrible truth about the house next door in this comically chilling Halloween frightfest.Home alone on All Hallows Eve, Kat Mandu is being creeped out by the family that lives next to him. Why is a child often screaming over there? And what's with those crazy signs in their front yard? Feeling alienated from peers and parents, intimidated by his new pet, he decides to get to the bottom of the weirdness of his neighbors. What he discovers will haunt him. A fun short story that proves you never can tell what might lurk in the house "Next Door". From THE MACABRE MIND OF LORI R. LOPEZ, a collection of thirteen bizarre tales.

Each of us shall experience or perpetrate some wrong in our lives. At the critical stage of reconciliation and healing, it is vitally important that we are able to give others and ourselves the benefit of a ‘second chance’. And if you are like I used to be growing up, you may need to receive a ‘second chance’ many times before you eventually get it right.As a growing child, the one thing that I experienced in abundance was ‘second chances.’ In fact, I’d go as far as to say that without having had my fair share of second chances, my life would have taken a much different course. Second chances were my life saver!Not surprisingly, one of my favourite books was Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Misērables,’ a story that was chiefly responsible for transforming me from ‘Thief’ to that of ‘Probation Officer’ in later life. I was also fascinated by the bible story of Christ telling His followers to ‘turn the other cheek’ in circumstances where it seemed more natural to ‘strike back.’ I eventually came to understand that the instruction of Christ to turn the other cheek wasn’t so that the offender might strike you once more, but to afford him/her ‘a second chance’ not to strike you again.Wherever the fault lies, whatever the character trait requiring changing happens to be or however the behaviour needs improvement, being provided with ‘a second chance’ is essential to one’s overall sense of well being. It may be that losing weight is what is required to getting a second chance at life or giving up smoking or abstaining from alcohol or drugs. One may need to address one’s inappropriate behaviour of aggression, distrust, bullying, dishonesty, name calling or anything which adversely affects one’s life and image. Whatever the unhappy state of being, ‘a second chance’ may be what one requires to either give or receive.‘Sleezy the Fox’ is a book of four stories about the overarching theme of ‘second chances’. On the surface it deals with the immigration of a married couple and their seven children into a strange country, the bullying of neighbours, the ostracizing of offenders from the community as a whole and the alienation that often exists between man and wild beast and beast and wild man!Each of us shall experience or perpetrate some wrong in our lives. At the critical stage of reconciliation and healing, it is vitally important that we are able to give others and ourselves the benefit of a ‘second chance’. And if you are like I used to be growing up, you may need to receive a ‘second chance’ many times before you eventually get it right.

Out of print for 20 years, this first novel written by New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper includes a bonus novella, Masquerade, which originally appeared in the anthology Hearts of Gold.

We all have that one person in our lives who we consider "Our Person". Whether it be our best friend, significant other, sibling or parent. Our number one speed dial for when things get low, our biggest cheer leader when we need it the most. The person who above all else, simply gets us the most. The person our life would suck without.An embalmer with sticky fingers gets a tip that he'll never forget.Firelight reveals the ghosts of conscience past.Film noir femmes fatales take on their craziest caper yet in a trip beyond the stars.Horrors crawl from the kitchen sink, only to find itself a monster among monsters.And six other stories full of twisting, turning hidden horrors await in Days of Madness 4.Featuring new stories by Absolutely*Kate, Chris Allinotte, R.S. Bohn, Erin Cole, Park Cooper & Barb Lien, William Davoll, Richard Godwin, Mav Skye, Benjamin Sobieck, Angel Zapata.

A humorous look at the YTS or YOPS schemes of the nineteen seventies by someone who worked in them for several years in what was then Avon County.This book is a comedy, but the reader needs to understand a little of the background of Youth Opportunities as they were known. In the late seventies the Thatcher Government determined for once and for all to destroy the power of the Trade Unions who they felt were holding the country to ransom and to be fair, the majority of people in the country at least half agreed with her. However, what the Thatcherites actually achieved with their monetarist policies was the destruction of the countries manufacturing base, which slid rapidly downhill and has been diminishing ever since. Apprenticeships and other types of trade learning practically vanished overnight as companies cut down on all possible expenditures and then went to the wall in droves, buried under an interest rate that finally topped out at eighteen percent as Thatcher determinedly pursued her policies.There is no doubt that this did severely curb union power. However, it also removed the livelihood and job opportunities of thousands upon thousands of school leavers. This was especially true for the less able kids who had relied on jobs in the manufacturing industries. And so in Avon County, now vanished from the face of the earth, ACYOPS was invented, (Avon County Youth Opportunities Scheme), to give these unemployed kids something to do. The idea was that they should be paid a minimum wage by the state and placed with kindly employers who would teach them the ropes in return for their prepaid labour. In other words free workers from the government in return for giving them real world experience. Some, the more able, were put straight with employers. The rest were first of all put with Supervisors in groups to learn such skills as building and painting and decorating. They practiced on community halls, church halls and other buildings whose owners were very happy to have the work done, however slowly, for only the cost of the materials.

Captain Chatir of the mersoldier Third Brigade must overcome her years-long unrequited love and defend the merrealm of Zurolind against human attackers.Seeing ghosts is so passe anymore. A whole cottage industry of capturing and publishing them in a blizzard of mediums and outlets has exploded in popular culture. Even speaking to them has had the whole eerie mystery sucked right out of it by reality show mediums What if the dead desperately needed something other than communion with the living though? What if there were consequences for ignoring them? Deadly consequences. How much or who would you sacrifice to avoid their demands?

A Love Story – 1949, the Harts Range mica fields north east of Alice Springs in Central Australia: difficult conditions, demanding work, hard times generally, a seemingly worsening situation … and Christmas approaching...."Th' man who wrote it was presumably fine t'do," ah remarked, indeavo'in' t'imitate mah companion's processes. "Such paper c'd not be bought unner ha'f a crown a packet. It is peekoolyarly strong an' stiff." "Peculiar--dat be de real wo'd," said Holmes. "It be not an English sheet at all. Hold it down t'de light. Man!"...The story is an unique version of Conan Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia" created with the help of Dialectizer. We bet you've never read before Sherlock Holmes talking Jive or Doctor Watson talking Redneck. This version will help you to look at "A Scandal in Bohemia" from an unexpected angle and to appreciate it more. No offense to people who talk featured dialects intended.

Marty Humphrey has trouble finishing things. He just dropped out of college, and previously, a European backpacking adventure was abruptly cut short, when he became morbidly homesick on the flight across the Atlantic. Maybe the mystic-minded Rose O'Donnell can help Marty sort things out.Bob Astor is a Quality Assurance agent working at Vartan Inc. Lately his days have been stressful, to say the least. Butting heads with upper management has put his career on life support. A surprising change in circumstance has Bob going on a business mission to the moon city, Langrenus. On the way, he meets one of the delegates on board the Starbird, a desperate man with a dark past and a very dangerous secret. Through a mysterious series of events Bob finds himself in the middle of an interplanetary crises that no one knows about. These secrets could change - or destroy - all human life on Earth. The key to the answer of the crises is on the Red Planet, Mars. It's up to Bob, the burnt-out Q. A. agent to rise to the occasion and stem the dangerous tide coming from beyond the solar system.

After returning from a disappearance of seven long years without a trace, Charles Smithson is brutally murdered. The question is by whom. The suspects range from a group of desperate men who were allegedly chasing him to obtain secret information the victim possessed, to members of his own family. Detectives Carson and Brown must unravel the mystery that led to the young man's demise.After disappearing for seven long years without a trace Charles Smithson suddenly reappears one day after he was found unconscious on a hiking trail in the Mission Hills area of San Diego, California. He has a bizarre story to tell about desperate men who are following him and wish him dead. They will stop at nothing to get their hands on secret information he has in his possession. When he ends up dead under mysterious circumstances there is a virtual laundry list of suspects.Detectives John Carson and Charles Brown are assigned to the case and must unravel the tangled mystery that led to the young man's demise.

A collection of some of my original poetry, organized under four genres, Nature, Love, Reflective and Spiritual. It serves as a sort of poetic journey in which I attempt to take the reader with me to a journey beyond reality, through the world of philosophy, love, spirituality and descriptive poetry.Poetry is a universal language, that walks beyond everything. It takes the mind to a beautiful realm, free from all sorts of worries that haunt us in reality. Poetry is food for the soul, because as humans, we need respite from the tremendous materialism all around nowadays. In this small book, I try to take the reader with me on a journey to a realm of poetry, where we enjoy hope, faith, spirituality, philosophy, love, natural beauty together.

Lyon is a little lion, and he is handsome, smart, and well behaved. Everyone likes to play with him and everyone wants to be like him. But there is something special about him that makes him different from everyone else, and it makes him quite unhappy. So what is it about him that makes him special and different? And how he is going to overcome this problem?The fourth in a series of fourteen short stories by Abbie Joules, chronicling the young lives of her and her brother, Ben Joules, as they grow up on a dairy farm in east Texas during the 1940's and 1950's. In this story, a barnyard calico cat befriends Ben, and together they embark on a journey of discovery about unlikely friendships and deep, unrealized emotions. The cat, which becomes known as Fish-Cat, chooses a farm pond catfish as a companion, and the relationship changes the way Ben views the world.

A young soldier with magical abilities searches for a missing squad and finds a new, unexpected threat."And The Wolves Danced" is a Short Story of Fire and Stone. This short story features Esset, a summoner of fiery creatures and one of the main characters of the novels of the Stories of Fire and Stone. The events take place before the first novel, creating a fun teaser-story for would-be or already dedicated readers!The story follows Esset and his squad as they search for a previous patrol that went missing. In that search, they come across a new threat - a threat they can't afford to ignore.A noblebright fantasy story.

Sometimes miracles happen. Sometimes in the most unlikely ways...13-year-old Tony Willis has a rare form of cancer that's killing him slowly. Doctors predict the boy only has weeks or days to live. His parents don't know how to deal with him or his debilitating disease. Kids at school think he's a freak. Not only is he dying; he is completely alone.Soon, Tony seeks refuge from the world at the local graveyard. He decides to live out the rest of his days here, where he actually feels welcome. But something unusual is about to happen to him--something extraordinary that no doctor can begin to understand. This short, coming-of-age drama (about 25 pages) is meant to inspire and give hope to people who are in short supply of it these days. I only ask that those who read it please leave a rating and review. Thank you and enjoy!

A '50s diner, a dime novel series, and a secret identity. This is Gary's life.Have you ever read a book and thought, "gee I'd really like to know more about all those background characters!" Well we here at Team Pop Culture thought of that; because we're awesome, and we've got you covered. Behold, the Everything Sucks series! All of these short stories are stand-alones, and will make sense even if you haven't read the novel "Pop Culture Sucks, Manifesto of a Vampire" (*cough* it's a great book though *cough*)The series will either introduce you to, or expand on, various characters from the Pop Culture Universe. You'll get peeks at things like: Iris's time in the Underground Gary's life in the late 1940's Stitch, the Speakeasy barkeep And many all new charactersSo whether you're familiar with these guys or not, this is a series you should check out!

Empty Glass======== An empty glass spoke about charity;"Give him water, and give her tea." He looked transparent and unblemished,even though he had really nothing to give. He spoke so well and convinced everybody,they filled him with their hard-earned money.Copyright, Ronnie Ng 2011-2012 Shooting Star=============i have never seen in my lifea shooting star passing byright in front of my very eyes.but i heard that it quietly arrivesinto the hearts of hopeful cries;just like the effect of a butterflyfrom somewhere distant and quietthat indirectly wakes me up at night. like a shooting star in a random flight,i don't know what i should do with my life;i'm still awake in the middle of the night,looking for a reason to keep up the fight.The wind came to me and tried to recitea poetry in a language that i can't write;just like a shooting star which prophesiesa future that may only happen after i die. in the mystery of the universe so infinite,the shooting star is just a flame of light.a passing brilliance in the blink of an eyewill not change the darkness of our nights;a few moments of glory within my lifetimecouldn't help to make the wrong things right.i haven't found my purpose and i'm really tired,like the star is shooting and doesn't know why. when the shooting star didn't come by sunrise,it angered the folks with big prayers on standby.i have given up hope even though i haven't tried.it's just like a fairy tale to let children find delight;it's just a superstition to help keep our hopes alive.i should be thankful enough that i have still survivedin this crazy world where many others are deprivedof their basic rights, suffering alone to cringe and die. ~by Ronnie Ng (11th Dec 2011)...

Evil lurks in the small town of Greer Springs, lying in wait for its next victim. Excited to fulfill a lifelong dream, nothing could have prepared Gene Mason for the horrors his family faced when they moved into a house with a dark and deadly past.Many of the situations portrayed in this story were inspired by actual events told to the author.Includes bonus story - Sacrificing SoulsBoding Evil – It WILL find you!Evil lurks in the small town of Greer Springs, lying in wait for its next victim. Excited to fulfill a lifelong dream, nothing could have prepared Gene Mason for the horrors his family faced when they moved into a house with a dark and deadly past.While Boding Evil is a fictional story, many of the situations portrayed were inspired by actual events told to the author. Some will say the events depicted in this book are merely objects of a fanciful imagination, but for those who lived through them, the events were quite real.Included with the purchase of this book is a FREE bonus story titled: Sacrificing Souls.