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Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors. or simply 1601 is the title of a short risque squib by Mark Twain, first published anonymously in 1880, and finally acknowledged by the author in 1906. Written as an extract from the diary of one of Queen Elizabeth I’s ladies-in-waiting, the pamphlet purports to record a conversation between Elizabeth and several famous writers of the day. The topics discussed are entirely scatological, notably farting and sex.

Unknown to the humans who hanged innocent people at the Salem Witch Trials, real witches of the hidden race were slaughtered on the belief that they had betrayed the hiddens to the humans. Not one witch survived the genocide, or so it was believed for more than three hundred years. Until one day a girl named Aradia moves to Salem, Massachusetts, and all that changes.Articles and resources from SENG's National Parenting Gifted Children Week. Topics include identifying and recognizing giftedness, the challenges of parenting a gifted child, underachievement issues and twice exceptionalism, gifted minorities and gifted boys and girls, misdiagnosis and depression in gifted youth, advocacy, and parenting supports and resources.Featured individual authors include: Edward R. Amend, Paul Beljan, Lori Comallie-Caplan, Rosina Gallagher, Jean Goerss, Tiombe Kendrick, Carolyn Kottmeyer, Linda Neumann, F. Richard Olenchak, Vidisha Patel, James T. Webb, and Nadia E. Webb

Something strange lurks in a vacuum-sealed bell jar in a wealthy eccentric's parlor, feeding on the unearthly sounds his musical mercenaries create. When suicide attempt survivor Aerie Walker passes his audition, her life takes a major turn for the weird.Aerie Walker should be famous or dead or both by now, just like her idol, bassist Scott LaFaro, who in 1961, at the peak of his fame, died in a fiery wreck in upstate New York. She plays upright bass too, and plays it very well. Won awards and acclaim, but could never manage a living. When her odyssey in professional jazz ends with spoiled dreams and a failed suicide attempt in Tokyo, she retreats to Ithaca, NY where she hopes to pursue a new career in the culinary arts. One night after work, a 'musicians wanted' posting catches her eye. She takes her bass out of storage and to a bizarre jam session in the wilds of Connecticut Hill. She ends up joining the oddest of ensembles, playing atonal, improvised music for a mysterious bell jar, but never in public. Musical alchemy, patron Aaron Levine calls it. The thing in the jar does interesting things to carbon when the right sort of dissonance sends it resonating. This strange 'music' disturbs John and Cindy, the God-fearing couple who live next door, to the core of their souls. The hellish racket seems to draw the oddest creatures out of the forest. Cindy even thinks they might be demons. Pastor Mac, her illicit lover, agrees to intervene, cashing in a favor from an old friend who runs Last Hope Ministries, a commando deliverance outfit specializing in high tech, large caliber exorcisms. When Aaron goes away on business, the band, pining for recognition, brings the show to town, bell jar and all. The gig proves disastrous, freeing the entity in the bell jar, wreaking havoc on the alchemist's designs and nipping Aerie's musical comeback in the bud. But in the process, cuckold John becomes a fan, accomplice and secret admirer of Aerie's. And he alone has the inclination and ability to jam the gears of a potentially deadly deliverance. Sonant celebrates music and nature and the mysteries of the heart, riding the ‘Slipstream’ between gritty contemporary fantasy and magical realism.

Dark Muse allows you to sample pages from the brightest rising stars in indie publishing, from paranormal romance to chilling supernatural tales to dark humor, so discover some of your new favorite authors for free: H.D. Gordon, Krystle Jones, Christie Rich, Dave Ferraro, Kristie King, David Estes, Nancy Straight, Roxanne Kade, Bonnie Erina Wheeler, Megan Curd, Shannon Dermott and John Corwin.Dark Muse allows you to sample pages from the best and brightest rising stars in indie publishing. In this paranormal sampler, you will find content from paranormal romance to chilling supernatural tales to dark humor. Charming immortals and impossible beasts abound in twelve unique stories, so discover some of your new favorite authors for free! Included in this book are samples from H.D. Gordon (Blood Warrior), Krystle Jones (The Scarlet Dagger), Christie Rich (Five), Dave Ferraro (Her Dark Destiny), Kristie King (Anomaly), David Estes (Angel Evolution), Nancy Straight (Meeting Destiny), Roxanne Kade (Therian), Bonnie Erina Wheeler (Fate Fixed), Megan Curd (Bridger), Shannon Dermott (Beg For Mercy) and John Corwin (Sweet Blood of Mine).

Everyone seems to be after the dreamweaver. Zoe might be able to manipulate minds and walk through dreams but she has little control over what happens in the real world. On the run from her ex-lover and the sinister Department, she finds herself facing the greatest challenge of her life. She doesn't just have to succeed in dreams - she has to succeed in reality too. This is the third and final book in the Dreamweaver series.

Her people conquered, Coruna turned to piracy. Her luck has run out. Captive and forced to lead her enemies back to the land of the alien Xanthi in a quest for power. Sea-monsters, danger, sorcery and worse await this bravest of women. The trap she cannot escape from is the intelligence and beauty of the sorcerer Chryseir, her enemy, but a love she cannot deny.A Gender Switch Adventure.Readers of Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steel, James Patterson and Nora Roberts will enjoy this fast-paced international thriller.One spectacular financial scheme. One woman alone against the world. Young, beautiful, and yearning for love, Heather Bancroft meets the "perfect" man...and is lured into a game in which she begins to make more money than she ever imagined. Betrayed by her own innocence, she loses all that is dear to her and discovers that she has been mercilessly used. Defeated and broken, but surviving with sheer persistence and ingenuity, Heather emerges from her trying ordeal, determined to punish the ruthless man who destroyed her life. Her thirst for revenge takes her halfway around the globe, to the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean, where her nemesis secludes himself in obscene wealth that he's gained from the financial ruin of others. Heather is playing for the highest stakes in a lethal game. Only one man loves her - he's handsome, confident, and just as determined as she is. Only one man can stop her - a criminal mastermind who is intent on her destruction.From Jayne Lockwood ReviewsThis is another enormously enjoyable read from Mr. Wells. Heather is young, beautiful, living and working in New York City. There she gets involved in a dangerous game which seems to be the answer to all her financial worries. AND she meets her perfect man. Life is going swimmingly until she loses everything and has to claw it back, pitting her wits against an elusive millionaire whose get rich quick schemes have resulted in the ruination of countless other people. There is intrigue, tension, international travel, glamour, gleaming yachts, designer clothes, beautiful women, peril on the streets of Paris, murder and sex. It's all in there, a luscious mix of Sidney Sheldon and Shirley Conran, updated and fresh enough to stand tall in the 21st century. I could not put this book down. It was a huge amount of fun but more than that, it has stayed with me and is definitely one I will be recommending to anyone who wants a more than just a sexy romp through a millionaire's playground.Reviewed by David Savage, What's Good to Do Magazine A story of money, greed, scams, revenge and love! A 24 year old PR assistant, Heather Bancroft, is one of the people caught up in an elaborate scam. She starts to receive strange emails predicting the outcomes of things she can bet on...and these bets take her around the world to Japan onto Istanbul... A very well-written series of books where the pace does not let up from Book 1 to the final pages of Book 5. Filled with twists and turns that grab your attention and keep you reading...suspense and thrills and keeps you on the edge on your seat wanting more. A highly entertaining read, it has to be one of the best stories I have read in years.

Like most teenagers, Rouge is trying to figure out who she is and what she wants to be. When a terrible incident happens just before school starts, Rouge is determined to get to the bottom of it. No matter the cost.Like most teenagers, Rouge is trying to figure out who she is and what she wants to be. With little knowledge about her past, she has questions but has never tried to find the answers. Everything changes when she befriends a strangely intoxicating family. Siblings Grace and Michael, appear to have secrets which seem connected to Rouge. Her hunch is confirmed when a horrible incident occurs at an outdoor party. Rouge may be the only one who can find the answer.An ancient journal, a Sioghra necklace and a special mark force life-altering decisions for a girl who grew up unprepared to fight for her life or others.All secrets have a cost and Rouge’s determination to find the truth can only lead to trouble…or something even more sinister.

Huge amounts of international aid money are being stolen by those at the heart of the political establishment. Ex politician, Jim Smith, threatened and harassed into fleeing abroad for accusations of fraud secretly returns to renew his campaign. An epic thriller covering events in the USA, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia about a stubborn man refusing to fit into any stereotype.After making public accusations that high level government bureaucrats and politicians were involved in criminality through organised theft of International Aid money, ex businessman and newly elected Independent Member of the UK Parliament, James (Jim) Smith, rapidly becomes a political outsider. Hounded and ridiculed by other politicians and sections of the press for naivety, for making accusations without proof, for his lack of political finesse, untidy appearance and blunt, no-nonsense style, he then endures a deliberate campaign of harassment clearly intended to silence him. Sure the campaign to stop him is being orchestrated and funded from somewhere, he flees abroad to escape the stress and publicity and ponder on what to do.For three years, he lives alone in a remote part of Thailand struggling to come to terms with his bitter incursion into politics while devoting himself to painting and Buddhism. But he is also determined to renew his campaign and, with help from an English businessman, Jonathan Walton, a Dutch 'mole', Jan Kerkman and an ex Irish newspaper reporter, Tom Hanrahan they uncover evidence of massive fraud netting millions of Dollars and Euros from charities and international aid funds at the heart of the political establishment. The mastermind is a strange and elusive Italian calling himself Guido who uses threats, blackmail and computer hacking technology to run the vast, fraudulent network.With the danger to Kerkman and Walton increasing, Smith secretly returns home but knowing they will face the same problem as before. As he explains at a secret meeting in Amsterdam, "We are asking a complicated political and bureaucratic system designed to protect itself from self investigation to do just that - to investigate itself, prove the existence of massive internal fraud and then act."But it is the US Government's intervention and determination to deal with fraud associated with its own US Aid programme that provides the manpower and resources that Smith and his colleagues need. With a US Senator, Colin Stafford, driving the political agenda and the FBI providing resources, more evidence is gathered and the international law enforcement agencies and Interpol are finally involved."All I ever wanted was to say something about the distribution of wealth and the worship of money as the answer to human happiness," Jim Smith explains to Senator Stafford. "Money has never meant much to me other than as a measure of my contribution to society. But it is wrong that people in positions of power and trust abuse their positions and steal vast sums from the public purse. But make no mistake, they are powerful. They already have money and resources but they are out to make even more. Security is what keeps them out of sight. Politics and bribery is what shuts mouths. Threats and fear of repercussion is what keeps people in their place. Finding those at the top might not be difficult but they are protected by a reputation of dignity and status that has been deliberately constructed to make any accusations from outside look absurd and inconceivable. I tried the accusations route and I was the one made to look absurd. That's why I went away but I always planned to return to renew my campaign. We will probably show the whole system is at fault and whether we can do anything about it in our own small way I don't know, but I'm damned sure the millions of honest, hard-working tax payers out there would support us in anything we do. That is where our strength lies."Arrests begin, but as Kerkman and Hanrahan close in on Guido at a villa on Lake Como the Italian provides yet one more surprise. An epic thriller covering events in the USA, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia about a stubborn man refusing to fit into any stereotype.of a successful businessman and a modern politician.

The jouney to beyond begins from within. Ryan Hayden lives the life of a typical teenager with a penchant for astronomy, except for the speculation that his family was abducted by aliens when he was a small boy. What long-term effects might this incident have on him? And who will he seek to help discover the truth about the Phantoms of the Moon?Ryan Hayden lives the life of a typical 17-year-old boy. But as a consequence of a tragedy that mysteriously separates him from his family, the boy struggles with his identity and purpose in this world. He slowly begins to discover things about himself that makes him different from his friends, which ultimately delivers him to a startling revelation about his past. The terror of Ryan's life culminates in a battle that wedges his very soul between the elements of this world and beyond.

Visiting Liverpool? Doing the Beatles thing? Then check into the Hard Day's Night Hotel. Chances are you'll come across the one and only Billy Shears, be able to share the dreams he had twenty years ago today. There's one thing for sure, he's guaranteed to raise a smile... and maybe one or two tears.A sampler of short stories taking place before and connected to SCALE-BRIGHT in chronological order. Chinese mythology retold from the time of humanity's creation to contemporary Hong Kong. "The Crows Her Dragon's Gate" (first published in BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES, 2013. Ed. Scott H. Andrews). The story of Xihe, the mother of suns, when she was young and the world was new: how she met her husband, lost herself, and found it again. "Woman of the Sun, Woman of the Moon" (first published in GIGANOTOSAURUS, 2012. Ed. Ann Leckie). Houyi rose in heaven, bow and arrow in hand: the hunt was her joy, the slaying of demons her delight. But most delightful was a serving girl called Chang'e. "Chang'e Dashes from the Moon" (first published in EXPANDED HORIZONS, 2012. Ed. Dash). Chang'e has been a prisoner on the moon while the world turns and cities rise. For centuries Houyi has looked for a way to free her wife, and now she has found it in a distant grand-niece: a young mortal woman named Julienne.

Nicole Blake, Goes to one of Tony's end of the school year parties, with her boyfriend, of six month. One minute they're in love and the next minute, Nicole is walking out of the party, fazed, in tears, and alone. Find out what happed to Morgan and Nicole's love, when Tiffany, the Ice Queen of Crescent View Academy sets her sight on Morgan.Before Nicole and Mandy discover what was really happening at Crescent View Academy, there was something that triggers they're suspicion. A series of suspicious incident, like every hot guy in school, breaking up with their girlfriends and hooking up with some very unusual girls, the kind that have been known to have gone around the block a few times. Nicole, not really affected by the sudden burst of breakups, heads out to Tony's end of the school party with her boyfriend Morgan. The guy she's not only in love with, but has also been friends with since they were kids. Find out what happens that has Nicole leaving the party, alone and in tears.Short pre-release, of the upcoming book Never Ends

An odd young man is smitten by an antique store clerk. During one of his awkward attempts at wooing her, the young man comes across a book on the 1915 San Francisco Pan-Pacific Exposition that will overturn his notion of reality and inspire him to join forces with a secret organization hell-bent on proving that the sun is not a star.Inspired by real life and ripped from the daily headlines, ‘Core Values’ is a parody of a 1950’s drive-in movie sci-fi thriller. Charles Henry Brubaker is the other guy. Everything bad happens to poor old Chuck. When everything is going well, that is not the true test. It's when everything and everyone is against you. It's what you do then. That is the measure of a man. In this framework tale, using a series of short stories, scenes and vignettes, the author explores what it is like to be marginalized in an already corrupt environment, both natural and social. A dark comedy.

At the start of the Empire, Obi-Wan Kenobi must preserve the Jedi legacy ... and not be found by Darth Vader. After the events of Episode III, Obi-Wan Kenobi finds himself adrift in the galaxy . . . with Darth Vader on his trail.

2065: In a world that has rediscovered harmony with nature, the village of El Modena, California, is an ecotopia in the making. Kevin Claiborne, a young builder who has grown up in this "green" world, now finds himself caught up in the struggle to preserve his community's idyllic way of life from the resurgent forces of greed and exploitation.

What happens when two exes, who can’t stand each other, end up stranded alone in a cabin on Christmas Eve? Sometimes what begins as a disaster can turn into a holiday miracle!

Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. But nothing can prepare them for the surprises in store when Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, spins out of control.

Leaving a dying Earth behind them, the remnants of humanity head towards their new home on a distant planet. However, they never reach it, instead crash landing on a barren and hostile planet that no human was ever meant to survive on. With no water, and no hope, they must find a way to keep the human race alive in the wastelands of Icarus.Leaving a dying Earth behind them, the remnants of humanity head towards their new home on a distant planet. However, they never reach it, instead crash landing on a barren and hostile planet that no human was ever meant to survive on. With no water, and no hope, they must find a way to keep the human race alive in the wastelands of Icarus. Mackenzie Miller leaves behind the only life she knows to join the Diviners in their search for water, wandering directly into the greatest dangers Icarus can offer. There’s more to worry about on Icarus than just dehydration. When Mackenzie learns what truly lurks in the deserts, dying of thirst is the least of her concerns.

As president of Paranormal Addicts Anonymous, Stella’s got no time for popular guys. Especially the surfers who hang at Shoreline’s beach—they think flashing a sand-sprinkled, tanned chest is enough to get any girl. But when surfer-hunk Damien Capernalli crashes Stella’s PAA fieldtrip to a haunted bed and breakfast, it may be time to rethink her priorities.As president of Paranormal Addicts Anonymous, Stella’s got no time for popular guys. Especially the surfers who hang at Shoreline’s beach—they think flashing a sand-sprinkled, tanned chest is enough to get any girl. But when surfer-hunk Damien Capernalli crashes Stella’s PAA fieldtrip to a haunted bed and breakfast, it may be time to rethink her priorities. ...And what’s with that wolfish gleam in Damien's eye?

A kid discovers he's the Emperor of the Supernatural World!A kid who discovers he's the Emperor of the Supernatural World!12 year-old Max has never felt like he belonged at school or in his family. But one day, he is whisked away to a supernatural world where he discovers the very features that make him unique help him survive and even to claim his birthright as the Emperor of Occultoria, the government of the Supernatural World. With his wits, some magical abilities and some friends to assist him, Max must reunite all the rebellious parts of the strife-ridden Occultorian Empire to restore the balance of and keep the peace between the Natural and Supernatural Worlds.His first task is to force the Queen of Purgatorio into submission. As Max steps into the eerie land of wailing ghosts, he discovers that part of growing up means being courageous and confident - even when he doesn’t feel it. An inspirational story of growing up, belonging and believing in yourself, the Crown Prince of Occultoria is the first in a children’s coming-of-age series that combines elements of mystery, adventure, fantasy, thrillers, romance, magic, enchantment and the supernatural.