Mary Ann, a teenage African American female in 1950s Pennsylvania starts to realize that a large creature is the reason for the increased violence in her town. She is asked to do something about it when two strangers Nicole and Sean come to her home under false pretenses.The last thing Denise Gasteaux expected was to be dumped by the man she was head over heels for. But that’s exactly what happened and now she’s left to pick up the pieces. So the last thing she’s looking for is R.J. McHansen when all she wants is to forget men even exist. She can't ignore the instant connection between them. But is Denise ready to allow another man into her heart so soon? Find out in Salvage, a States Trilogy short story. Approximately 10,000 words.

Harry Bosch investigates when a lawyer is murdered two nights before the beginning of his landmark trial against the LAPD.

A head injury leaves Christine with a broken mind that is giving her nightmares and visions of murdered girls. And now she has urges to hurt her own children. Before she sinks deeper into insanity she embarks on a terrifying fight to halt the fracture of her mind before it's too late and, in doing so, uncovers the hidden truth behind the dark horrors she is experiencing.Somewhere deep in her mind Christine Marsden is witnessing the murder of young girls.And now she has urges to hurt her own children.After a head injury which left her having nightmares and visions, Christine is convinced that something inside her brain has broken, and that she is slowly sinking into insanity.She is terrified of what she might be capable of. She fears that in losing her mind she will also lose her children and husband.Christine embarks on a desperate fight to try to halt the fracture of her mind before it’s too late, and in doing so, discovers the hidden truth behind the dark horrors she is experiencing.

Unbeknownst to them, both Neal Randolph, 16, and young Detective Delores Sanchez, are drawn into the dark underbelly of the same serial sexual predator. They each have compelling reasons to keep their investigations under wraps, even from each other, but Neal underestimates the adversary and Delores gets drawn into the rapist's arms. Oh Crap! Can either one of them bring this bad guy to justice?Dual plots in which two well intended, but naïve, young citizens are drawn into the world of a sexual predator. Neal Randolph, 16, is desperate to shed the guilt that has haunted him ever since his role in his mother’s death. So when the mother of his girlfriend is raped at the apartment complex at which he works, and he’s asked to secretly right the wrong, he can’t say no. At the same time, Detective Delores Sanchez, a young Latina has gone undercover to stop the reign of a serial offender, but it has driven her straight to her psychiatrist’s window, where high up, and off in the distance, a lone gray cloud appears to be lost. She can relate because far off, in the back of her mind, Delores has a dark cloud of her own. An innermost secret that she has never, ever, ever told anybody. Not her family, nor her friends, nor her priest. Nobody.Although Neal and Delores are drawn into the turf of the same adversary, they each have reasons to keep their investigations a secret. That is, until there’s a body.

Millie’s mum is always getting her words muddled, and this can lead to some pretty embarrassing moments in front of her friends. It’s after one muddled conversation too many that Millie decides that something must be done about her. But what? She needs a brilliant idea. In fact, she needs a brilliantly brilliant idea…Twenty-seven year old George Kelso went to sleep on a cold fall night in Central Park in the city of New York with a suicide note pinned to his jacket. He never expected to wake up; he expected to die from cancer and exposure. Instead, he woke up refreshed and telepathically exchanging thoughts with intelligent genetically engineered ants called jants! At first George felt disappointed that he hadn't died peacefully in his sleep, but he soon felt better than he had felt in months! But what were his new friends the jants really up to and what did giant ticks have to do with it? This short story is the third publication of an ongoing sci-fi/fantasy series of short stories and novellas that chronicle an increasingly unstable world in which nasty natural, technological and mythical forces are unleashed in response to climate change and other human induced problems.

They say something horrible happened that day, but Martha can't remember any of it—not even the smallest detail. They say it will come back to her in time. But someone wants her to remember now. She draws his face, over and over—the face of a dead boy. She can't control her hand. And she can't remember how he died. But she's going to find the answer.

The new world is a strange, and wild place. The natives have told tall tales of the spirits that reside in the dark woods for generations. Many see the stories as nothing more than myths meant to scare the settlers.Still, if you should happen to find yourself walking alone in the woods be mindful of what thoughts you keep in mind. Should you hear some strange, and pleasing melody. Run, just run.The story of a normal student who encounters a peculiar group of girls, called guardians, who are defending the earth from darkness itself, freed from their prison by an unknown force after millions of years of peace. Now this threat seems to be disturbing the peaceful life of humans who are unaware of this new problem, ignoring that their lives might be in danger and could end at any moment. The guardians are now trying to activate again, after years of normal life, and fight to their best the darkness that is threatening the world itself and trying to send it into a new dark era, similar to the one in ancient times when the world was just a dark ball in space with little life in it.

It is a story about robin Ruby and Dimond the kitten who are best friends and the adventures they go on through the seasons. Camilla Louise wrote this story when she was 6 ½ years old. The Robin and the Kitten 2 is currently a work in progress.We hope your child will enjoy reading it as much as our daughter enjoyed writing it!Long before written history, when mankind was still spreading across the globe, one island was home to a race very similar to mankind. The People followed five spirits, one for each tribe: Earth, Metal, Animal, Plant, and Sun. As mankind spread and came to The Isle of Light they threatened to upset the delicate balance The People held most dear. So the High Priest of Airon, god of the sun and chief of the spirits, called together the kings of the five tribes.The Roses of Airon tells the story of how The People come together to work powerful magic to save their realm from invaders, and from dark spirits that threaten to consume them.This is the prequel to the upcoming series The Rose Garden by Casia Schreyer.

Edin is a simple man. He follows the rules put forth by the gods of Ilmarinen. When he meets a mysterious woman, Edin begins to make choices that affect the future of his world. He unknowingly helps to create a prophecy that will change everything. It is the beginning of the end.Edin is a simple man. He follows the rules put forth by the gods of Ilmarinen. When he meets a mysterious woman, Edin begins to make choices that affect the future of his world. He unknowingly helps to create a prophecy that will change everything. It is the beginning of the end."Edin" is a prequel to the "Ilmarinen" series. Learn how Edin helps to create the Ilmarninen prophecy and get a glimpse of the world and its inhabitants. Check out "Serenity" for the other side of the story.

In 2013 the IPMA Agents with the help of a pair of adolescents and the Northern Water Sprite tribe's princess, Qanik, ousted Jack Frost and his entranced Yeti Henchmen from the hostile take-over of Santa Claus' workshop and saved Christmas. But what did they do about Jack? Find out in this short "extra" story by P. Edward "Eddie" Auman.Delve still deeper into the lore of the Faerie Folk and the world of the IPMA (Institute for the Preservation of Magic Artifacts) in this short bonus story by P. Edward Auman. While this story adds to the details of "The Yeti Uprising" (a popular free novella from Eddie began under the NaNoWriMo contest for 2013) it provides a few other Easter eggs towards understanding a few of the faerie folk races, including Water Sprites, Alvens and the part-faerie-mostly-human, Santa Claus himself.Looking to get just a taste of what the IPMA and Auman Faerie Folk worlds are all about? This is a quick short story, fun to read with the family for a little mischievous enjoyment. Afterwards, try the first part of the story, "The Yeti Uprising," and follow up with a heart-warming read of "The Old Silk Hat: A Frosty The Snowman Prequel" for your holiday celebrations. Then join the IPMA family for the "Troll Brother" series of books and their associated short stories and novels, featuring the Goblin Queen.

One year ago, Jack warded the small fishing village of Anyok, Alaska against an ancient creature that feeds on anything it can find in the frozen tundra. He returns only to find that the men he entrusted with maintaining the wards have ignored his warnings and put the whole village in danger. Now, with no means of fighting back, they must band together to defeat the creature and survive the night.Watched by a ceiling camera inside the Florentia Moenia casino in Macau, teleoperator Clarity Nice joins the woman watching her, videographer Plum Bailey, in a live dealer gambling room broadcasting over the internet. Plum leads Clarity with her on board Heir Force One, the plane of Sheik Haroun Al-Najib, known colloquially as Hari, after offering to him the luxurious ring made by the firm Mauboussin, brought by Clarity to Macau, which points to an ancient sorority identified by a symbol known as the 'incomplete triangle'. Rejected by his family, known as the dumbest human loss-making machine of the Emirates, Hari likes to wear shabby clothes, which include a sweater with growths patched with puffs of woolfiller, ripped jeans, worn out brown leather shoes with one of the soles open, and housing several white pebbles.A golden bachelor with a solid reputation of lacking qualification and being indecisive whatever he does, Hari has not decided to marry, and is confused by all the women around him, who want to be near him in order to enjoy the affluent lifestyle of 'HDH', His Dumb Highness, as everyone else but himself thinks of him. Hari does not care about failure, and sees it as something inherent in business and in general.Seen as a nuisance by his family for their business, because of his loss making business blunders and repeated incompetence, his list of achievements including only failures and money losing ventures or trades, Hari heads for the Caribbean to sort out his love life and make his first dollar on his own. His plane lands in the British Virgin Islands and he gets a job as waiter in a terrace of Tortola. After an unfortunate tip to a tourist on a penny stock which fails, Hari is fired from his job, and becomes jobless again.Sheik Hari is a sociable guy, who trusts himself when someone else tells him he is rich. He is rich, but someone else always ends up managing his money, either his family or his retainer Hakeem, a man who resents all the fortune around him, and seeks a chunk of all the money thrown away by Hari's disastrous forays into business, trade, or investing.After an email sent by error by Hari results in the landing of a consortium of journalists investigating the Sheik and the holdings of his company, Clarity helps Hari sort out some of the problems arising out of the unwanted notoriety. The mess created by Hari includes a scandal called Scrub Leaks, involving the Sheik's family assets and other powerful members of the elite, and a money laundering charge by the BVI financial services commission, which leads Hari's girlfriend to leave him. As a result of the mess, Hari, and Clarity, are arrested and are led to jail in Tortola.Stuck with Hari in jail, awaiting a trial which the authorities want as example of their compliance with laundering legislation, Clarity will have to find an ingenious way to leave jail and the island, to elude the charges against them by bringing to the police commissioner those who tampered with the Sheik's account in Tortola. Lacking any local allies, the only way for Clarity out of Hari's mess, is to strike a deal exchanging favors with Plum, who is seeking a valuable list of connections owned by the Sheik, in order to reach the sorority headed by an older woman, Lady Mulham, which brings to their members an explanation of 'completion', in particular the completion of its symbol, the incomplete triangle. (This is the regular banana humor version of the Shabby Sheik)

Shauna's birthday brings little to celebrate this year. Her mother is dying of an illness that has baffled doctors. What she cannot grasp is why her mother is indifferent to her own mortality. When Shauna discovers a strange locket in her mother's room, she learns the truth behind her mother's health. What seemed to be indifference was something much worse.This novel is based on a true story about a man who will stop at nothing to prove his undying love for the precious woman in his life. Unable to cloud her of happiness, he repeatedly fights for her survival even though she constantly chooses other infatuations over him. In the end, a decision must be made where two precious lives hang in the balance. Find out what true love means while reading this romantic love story that will bring you to tears.

Dave Shaw is a young man with a big dream. Come with him on his journey inside the secretive world of professional soccer as he tries to make it at his hometown club.Dave must confront the dark side to the beautiful game. The one the rest of us never see. The professional contract and big time beckoned for Wolston's teen hotshot. Until it happened. A serious ankle injury turns the striker's world upside down. Now he must convince Rovers' tough academy chief, Rob Duncan, he deserves a scholarship and that once-in-a-lifetime chance to pull on the shirt of the team he’s adored for as long as he’s loved soccer. Dave has 90 minutes to prove he can be part of Wolston’s future in the biggest match of his life. But above all he needs to convince himself he still has what it takes to survive in a cut-throat world where only the very best ever get a shot at stardom.

This poetry book has a total of 18 poems. They are all about love and hate whether it is in our everyday life or in the relationship that we are in. Every poem is different with a different meaning behind them.This poetry book has 18 poems about love and hate. In a relationship and in life nothing is perfect. There are always good and bad moments no matter how hard you try to make things perfect life is full of ups and downs. Not every page of this book is about love and not every page is about hate but about both. Every page is different with it's own unique story behind it, and just like life this book isn't perfect either.

Steven Cross, a man from a small town in Colorado goes climbing to the nearby mountains. As a result of a sudden and strong earthquake, several rifts open in the ground. From one of these, a mysterious light drifts toward the surface. Giving in for his curiosity, the young man descends into the narrow hole. What he finds down there changes his life forever.Steven Cross, a man from a small town in Colorado goes climbing to the nearby mountains. As a result of a sudden and strong earthquake, several rifts open in the ground. From one of these, a mysterious light drifts toward the surface. Giving in for his curiosity, the young man descends into the narrow hole. What he finds down there changes his life forever. A hidden, underground alien civilization opens up in front of him and holds him captive. During his adventures, secrets are revealed like how humankind was created, and a danger which could wipe the human civilization from the face of the earth.

Mustapha is a young man selling hummus in the medina of the city of Meknes. A rival opens her hummus stall opposite his and soon steals away most of his customers. Convinced she has a secret ingredient he can never discover, Mustapha intends to end his life. His rival saves him with a highly unconventional proposition.Mustapha is young and unmarried. He works diligently, preparing and selling hummus from a stall in the medina. One day Annisa, a newcomer to Meknes, offers him a proposition: marry her and she will share with him her secret recipe for outstanding hummus. She is nearly old enough to be his mother and he dreams of a young bride who will give him many sons. Naturally he declines. Soon Annisa, who opens a stall opposite his, has taken most of his customers, who are convinced she has a secret ingredient that makes her product superior to his. Mustapha cannot discover her secret and cannot continue to survive selling so little hummus. He is about to hang himself when he is rescued by Annisa, who is willing to give him her secret if he won’t end his life. The question is, is Mustapha wise enough to accept her gift?

DEEP-SPIRE is a prequel novella to the Palâdnith Chronicles Epic Fantasy series - a tale of duty, choice and self-discovery.Belythna Arran is a sorceress. She is one of the Sentorân, an order charged with the protection of Palâdnith - a land that has seen too much blood-shed in its history. She pledged, at the age of thirteen, to dedicate her life to the Sentorân - but as the years pass she begins to realise that the walls of Deep-Spire, the order's stronghold, have become a prison.Once, powerful and respected, the order has fallen into stagnation. The rulers of Palâdnith no longer seek their council, and the people view the sorcerers with distrust. However, the greatest threat to the Sentorân, and everything they stand for, comes from within.Riadamor, an ambitious young sorceress, rebels against the order. Her act is a catalyst for a series of events that bring the Sentorân to the edge of doom.Belythna, who entered the order at the same time as Riadamor, struggles to come to terms with a changing world, and her place in it. As Deep-Spire edges towards war, she must decide who she really is, and where her loyalties lie.

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time In this book, the author of Seven Gothic Tales gives a true account of her life on her plantation in Kenya. She tells with classic simplicity of the ways of the country and the natives: of the beauty of the Ngong Hills and coffee trees in blossom: of her guests, from the Prince of Wales to Knudsen, the old charcoal burner, who visited her: of primitive festivals: of big game that were her near neighbors--lions, rhinos, elephants, zebras, buffaloes--and of Lulu, the little gazelle who came to live with her, unbelievably ladylike and beautiful. The Random House colophon made its debut in February 1927 on the cover of a little pamphlet called "Announcement Number One." Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, the company's founders, had acquired the Modern Library from publishers Boni and Liveright two years earlier. One day, their friend the illustrator Rockwell Kent stopped by their office. Cerf later recalled, "Rockwell was sitting at my desk facing Donald, and we were talking about doing a few books on the side, when suddenly I got an inspiration and said, 'I've got the name for our publishing house. We just said we were go-ing to publish a few books on the side at random. Let's call it Random House.' Donald liked the idea, and Rockwell Kent said, 'That's a great name. I'll draw your trademark.' So, sitting at my desk, he took a piece of paper and in five minutes drew Random House, which has been our colophon ever since." Throughout the years, the mission of Random House has remained consistent: to publish books of the highest quality, at random. We are proud to continue this tradition today. This edition is set from the first American edition of 1937 and commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of Random House. From the Hardcover edition.

Though one of the best-known books in the world, Pinocchio at the same time remains unknown—linked in many minds to the Walt Disney movie that bears little relation to Carlo Collodi’s splendid original. That story is of course, about a puppet who, after many trails, succeeds in becoming a "real boy." Yet it is hardly a sentimental or morally improving tale. To the contrary, Pinocchio is one of the great subversives of the written page, a madcap genius hurtled along at the pleasure and mercy of his desires, a renegade who in many ways resembles his near contemporary Huck Finn. Pinocchio the novel, no less than Pinocchio the character, is one of the great inventions of modern literature. A sublime anomaly, the book merges that traditions of the picaresque, of street theater, and of folk and fairy tales into a work that is at once adventure, satire, and a powerful enchantment that anticipates surrealism and magical realism. Throng with memorable character and composed the the fluid but inevitable logic of a dream, Pinocchio is an endlessly fascinating work that is essential equipment for life. In this new translation by Geoffrey Brock, the prizewinning translator of Cesare Pavese, Pinocchio finally has an English rendering worthy of the inspired original. This edition features an introduction by Umberto Eco and an afterward by Rebecca West.

“The blood-song rose with an unexpected tune, a warm hum mingling recognition with an impression of safety. He had a sense it was welcoming him home.” Vaelin Al Sorna, warrior of the Sixth Order, called Darkblade, called Hope Killer. The greatest warrior of his day, and witness to the greatest defeat of his nation: King Janus’s vision of a Greater Unified Realm drowned in the blood of brave men fighting for a cause Vaelin alone knows was forged from a lie. Sick at heart, he comes home, determined to kill no more. Named Tower Lord of the Northern Reaches by King Janus’s grateful heir, he can perhaps find peace in a colder, more remote land far from the intrigues of a troubled Realm. But those gifted with the blood-song are never destined to live a quiet life. Many died in King Janus’s wars, but many survived, and Vaelin is a target, not just for those seeking revenge but for those who know what he can do. The Faith has been sundered, and many have no doubt who their leader should be. The new King is weak, but his sister is strong. The blood-song is powerful, rich in warning and guidance in times of trouble, but is only a fraction of the power available to others who understand more of its mysteries. Something moves against the Realm, something that commands mighty forces, and Vaelin will find to his great regret that when faced with annihilation, even the most reluctant hand must eventually draw a sword.