I wrote this little piece some years back for my grand daughter's tenth birthday. It's a story about a girl on the cusp of turning ten, her grandfather, an antique music box and some very special magic. It turned out a little longer than I’d intended, as it happened, but, you know, you get that. --Oh yes. And "She'll be jake" is dated Aussie slang for "It'll be okay", but I'm a bit dated meself.Naomi Boyd, on the run from the law, was shot and left for dead on the street by her good-for-nothing accomplice. Now, as she dies, she is forced to relive a fractured, insane version of her life. Color, her guardian angel, is just trying to make her a good person again. A hippy named Bobby brings forth her untainted desires to expand her mind via drug use. General Deed brings up ghosts from her past and forces her to face her inner demons. And Marry Lauper even makes an appearance and shows her the shortcomings of fast times and loose money. She has to face who she was, what she has become, and who she wants to be all before she dies. Otherwise, she'll be stuck in a hell for an imperfect version of herself forever.

Taking a break from the chilling, suspenseful stories that the 'Tales From The Backwoods' typically offer, 'An Unlikely Angel' is well suited for all ages and remains one of my all-time favorites. I hope that you take the time to indulge in this short read. I am sure you will enjoy. Thank you kindly. ~Backwoods~Taking a break from the chilling, suspenseful stories that the 'Tales From The Backwoods' typically offer, 'An Unlikely Angel' is well suited for all ages and remains one of my all-time favorites. The story takes place during the childhood of Ethan Wolfe, a favorite character from my 'Off Grid' series. I hope that you take the time to indulge in this short read. I am sure you will enjoy. Thank you kindly. ~Backwoods~

Former lover, crazy dreams, smoke, fire and a hot handyman all collide in this must-read novella.To Stephanie O’Hanlon, 40-something workaholic, a blank to-do list is crazy-making. When she gets laid off and rescues a huge, smiling dog from a shelter—a dog her friend insists is inhabited by Steph’s lover from a former life—she discovers the true meaning of crazy.Gabe Fagen, handyman and crazy-in-love with Stephanie since they were teenagers, sees Steph losing her job as the chance he’s been waiting for. But will she notice he’s alive with a mysterious giant dog acting as her guardian angel?

A gorgeous lady spy is sent to kill Sadam Hussein, and when she returns from her mission, she learns that her boss has plans to kill her.Mistaken identity creates problems, but even solves one. This is the first of three books in the Carrie Call Series.Wiki had been enjoying life in the East Indies and the South China Sea. He could speak the local language, so had sailed happily on coastwise craft in the company of Bugis rogues and pirates. But then George Rochester had arrived on the Potomac, and while it had been delightful to get together with his old college friend, it had also ruined Wiki’s current existence.Because of that twice-damned dog....A Wiki Coffin short story, free for happy fans

A plane crash, frostbite, a search and rescue, a fur coat with a heartbeat, wildly passionate dreams, and a couple of armed killers--what’s real and what’s hallucination…? Dawn has no idea, but she’s about to find out.Frozen Dawn is The Prequel to Bloodlines, the first full-length novel in Chrystal Bahl’s Twisted Tails Series. Watch for Blood Ties, the second book in the series, coming soon.A plane crash, frostbite, a search and rescue, a fur coat with a heartbeat, wildly passionate dreams, and a couple of armed killers…what’s real and what’s hallucination…?Dawn has no idea.But she’s about to find out.Frozen Dawn is The Prequel to Bloodlines, the first full-length novel in Chrystal Bahl’s Twisted Tails Series.Watch for Blood Ties, the second book in the Twisted Tails Series...coming soon!

Only time will tell who the traitors really are…Sixteen-year-old Lucinda is getting the home-coming from hell. England is in the grip of the War of the Roses and her tyrant father has promised her hand to a vile man three times her age. In need of aid, she seeks sanctuary with an old childhood friend only to find him accused of treachery and harboring a supernatural secret.Only time will tell who the traitors really are…Sixteen-year-old Lucinda is getting the home-coming from hell. England is in the grip of the War of the Roses and her tyrant father has promised her hand to a vile man three times her age. In need of aid, she seeks sanctuary with an old childhood friend only to find him accused of treachery and harboring a supernatural secret. All too soon Lucinda is caught in a fight that’s not her own but, to be with the man she loves, she’ll gladly take up arms. When you stand at Traitors’ Gate, keep the vampires close, and the zombies as far away as possible!

The Battle of Wakefield, from a Conisbrough perspective. Richard Duke of York makes a rash sally from Sandal Castle only to find that he is facing 20,000 Lancastrians.The White Rose and the Red is a narrative poem in blank verse which describes one of the key battles of the Wars of the Roses, The Battle of Wakefield, from a Conisbrough perspective. Richard, Duke of York, rushes north to prevent the Lancastrian domination of Yorkshire. He visits Conisbrough Castle and then Sandal where he stations his arm of 5,000 men. Unfortunately he is unaware that the Lancastrian army already numbers 15,000 and is growing rapidly.

Eliot Rosewater—drunk, volunteer fireman, and President of the fabulously rich Rosewater Foundation—is about to attempt a noble experiment with human nature... with a little help from writer Kilgore Trout. *God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater* is Kurt Vonnegut’s funniest satire, an etched-in-acid portrayal of the greed, hypocrisy, and follies of the flesh we are all heir to. *From the Trade Paperback edition.*

“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.” —William Faulkner Absalom, Absalom! is Faulkner’s epic tale of Thomas Sutpen, an enigmatic stranger who comes to Jefferson, Mississippi, in the early 1830s to wrest his mansion out of the muddy bottoms of the north Mississippi wilderness. He was a man, Faulkner said, “who wanted sons and the sons destroyed him.” From the Trade Paperback edition.

What happens when the person who is your family is someone you aren't bound to by blood? What happens when the person you promise to love and to honor for the rest of your life is not your lover, but your best friend? In Truth & Beauty, her frank and startlingly intimate first work of nonfiction, Ann Patchett shines a fresh, revealing light on the world of women's friendships and shows us what it means to stand together. Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and, after enrolling in the Iowa Writers' Workshop, began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work was. In her critically acclaimed and hugely successful memoir, Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy wrote about losing part of her jaw to childhood cancer, the years of chemotherapy and radiation, and then the endless reconstructive surgeries. In Truth & Beauty, the story isn't Lucy's life or Ann's life, but the parts of their lives they shared. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans twenty years, from the long, cold winters of the Midwest, to surgical wards, to book parties in New York. Through love, fame, drugs, and despair, this book shows us what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined. This is a tender, brutal book about loving a person we cannot save. It is about loyalty, and about being lifted up by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest.

In the first of a dazzling series, Mary Jo Putney introduces the Lost Lords—maverick childhood friends with a flair for defying convention. Each is about to discover the woman who is his perfect match—but perfection doesn't come easily, even for the noble Duke of Ashton... Battered by the sea, Adam remembers nothing of his past, his ducal rank, nor the shipwreck that almost claimed his life. However, he's delighted to hear that the golden-haired vision tending his wounds is his wife. Mariah's name and face may be familiar, but her touch, her warmth, feel deliciously right. When Mariah Clarke prayed for a way to deter a bullying suitor, she didn't imagine she'd find the answer washed ashore on a desolate beach. Convincing Adam that he is her husband is surprisingly easy. Resisting the temptation to act his wife, in every way, will prove anything but. And now a passion begun in fantasy has become dangerously real—and completely irresistible.

This short story introduces former college football star turned repo man Ruddy McCann, star of W. Bruce Cameron’s new novel The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man, and tells how Ruddy met his best friend Jake, a lazy but lovable basset hound, during a repo gone wrong. Full of laugh-out-loud humor and thrilling adventure, The Midnight Dog of the Repo Man is a page-turning, delightful short story by the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling A Dog’s Purpose, A Dog’s Journey, and The Dogs of Christmas that shows us that unconditional love is just a tail wag away and can happen upon us when we least expect it. At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Alex and Will have spent months keeping their relationship hidden from their families. Getting caught prematurely causes them to admit their love for each other to their parents. One decision made by Alex's father changes her entire world, shattering her plans for the future. Alex always thought Will was the very air she breathed, but life has a way of causing doubts for the one thing she thought was absolute…their love. Can Will's promise to Alex be enough for her to hold on to or will she find herself moving down a different path that she never imagined for herself? Without You is book one in the Love Wanted in Texas series.

"A book to rival TWILIGHT and VAMPIRE DIARIES, and one that will have you wanting to keep reading until the very last page! If you are into adventure, love and vampires this book is the one for you!" --Vampirebooksite.com (Turned) The #1 Bestselling series! THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, comprising 11 books, tells the story of 18 year old Caitlin Paine, who finds herself uprooted from her nice suburb and forced to attend a dangerous New York City high school when her Mom moves again. Before her new romance can blossom, Caitlin suddenly finds herself changing, into something she does not understand. A love between the races will risk both of their lives, and will force them to decide whether to risk it all for each other...

Revisit the second memoir in Augusten's bestselling trilogy of Running with Scissors, Dry, and Lust & Wonder. You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had two drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting ties, automated wake-up calls, and cologne on the tongue could only hide so much for so long. At the request (well, it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten landed in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey, Jr., are immediately dashed by the grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, something actually starts to click, and that's when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life and live it sober. What follows is a memoir that's as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is real. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a higher power.

Blind Date is a spectacular and erotically charged psychological novel that shows Jerzy Kosinski, author of Being There and The Painted Bird, at the height of his power. George Levanter is an idea man, a small investor, an international playboy, and a ruthless deal-maker whose life is delivered in a series of scorching encounters, each more incredible than the last. From Moscow to Paris, from a Manhattan skyscraper to a California mass murder, Blind Date is a dizzying vision of life among the beautiful people and the thrill-seekers.

Beware! Dangerous secrets lie between the pages of this book. OK, I warned you. But if you think I'll give anything away, or tell you that this is the sequel to my first literary endeavor, The Name of This Book is Secret, you're wrong. I'm not going to remind you of how we last left our heroes, Cass and Max-Ernest, as they awaited intiation into the mysterious Terces Society, or the ongoing fight against the evil Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais. I certainly won't be telling you about how the kids stumble upon the Museum of Magic, where they finally meet the amazing Pietro! Oh, blast! I've done it again. Well, at least I didn't tell you about the missing Sound Prism, the nefarious Lord Pharaoh, or the mysterious creature born in a bottle over 500 years ago, the key to the biggest secret of all. I really can't help myself, now can I? Let's face it---if you're reading this, it's too late.

From this “master of the genre,” Christina Dodd, comes three suspenseful short stories of this “remarkable, mesmerizing series”(Library Journal starred review) set in the quaint—and deadly—coastal town of Virtue Falls… THE LISTENER: Misfit and computer security expert Cornelia Markum hacks into a text conversation between unidentified Virtue Falls residents … and realizes she’s stumbled into a murder plot. THE RELATIVES: When relatives invite themselves to visit a wealthy couple’s Virtue Falls home, events take an unexpectedly dark—and fatal—turn. LOVE NEVER DIES: A murder committed. A love lost. A ghost haunted by his past. Only one woman can right all the wrongs… If she can survive the night… A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT includes previously unpublished extras from the full-length suspense VIRTUE FALLS, the alternate conclusion of acclaimed action-filled adventure OBSESSION FALLS and an excerpt of the newest Virtue Falls thriller, BECAUSE I’M WATCHING. These previously published Virtue Falls short stories are also available for purchase as singles.

It is 1670 and Simon Fronwieser is in the town of Oberammergau to bring his seven-year-old son to boarding school. As he bids his boy a tearful farewell, news comes of a shocking murder: the man who was to play the part of Christ in the town’s Passion play has been found dead, nailed to the set’s cross. As there is no doctor in town, Simon is brought in to examine the body. The opportunities to spend more time with his son and to investigate the murder quickly convince him to stay. Soon he is joined by his father-in-law, Jakob Kuisl, the Schongau hangman, and the two begin piecing together the puzzle of the actor’s death. Was he murdered by a jealous rival? Are the recently arrived and unpopular immigrant workers somehow involved? Or is it a punishment from God for the villagers’ arrogance in trying to schedule the play four years earlier than prescribed by ancient custom? Once again it looks like it is up to the Kuisls to unravel the mystery and bring a town’s dark secrets to light.

It is 1974 and the country is still struggling to come to terms with the Vietnam War. In the small town of Conners, Georgia, Darcy has just started high school, her older sister Adel goes to weekend dances at the local Army base, and their mother tends her beautiful garden–the biggest and best in town. But Darcy’s world is soon changed forever when her mother goes to Atlanta for tests. The diagnosis is not good–breast cancer. There is so much Darcy wants to talk to her mother about: the war and what happened to the soldiers who were there; the feelings she is having for the new (and troubled) boy in school. But she can’t. So she finds solace in her mother’s garden. There she can help the flowers her mother planted bloom. From the Hardcover edition.

Wherever Chelsea Handler travels, one thing is certain: she always ends up in the land of the ridiculous. Now, in this uproarious collection, she sneaks her sharp wit through airport security and delivers her most absurd and hilarious stories ever. On safari in Africa, it's anyone's guess as to what's more dangerous: the wildlife or Chelsea. But whether she's fumbling the seduction of a guide by not knowing where tigers live (Asia, duh) or wearing a bathrobe into the bush because her clothes stopped fitting seven margaritas ago, she's always game for the next misadventure. The situation gets down and dirty as she defiles a kayak in the Bahamas, and outright sweaty as she escapes from a German hospital on crutches. When things get truly scary, like finding herself stuck next to a passenger with bad breath, she knows she can rely on her family to make matters even worse. Thank goodness she has the devoted Chunk by her side-except for the time she loses him in Telluride. Complete with answers to the most frequently asked traveler's questions, hot travel trips, and travel etiquette, none of which should be believed, UGANDA BE KIDDING ME has Chelsea taking on the world, one laugh-out-loud incident at a time.