A humorous short story about the dreaded holiday classic. Retirement is not what Robert expected. His wife feeds him twigs and is afraid of mailbox bombs. If that's not enough a fruitcake shows up on his doorstep. Fruitcakes may be a Southern tradition, but it's one Robert can do without.A humorous short story about the dreaded holiday classic. Retirement is not what Robert expected. His wife feeds him twigs and is afraid of mailbox bombs. If that's not enough a fruitcake shows up on his doorstep. Fruitcakes may be a Southern tradition, but it's one Robert can do without. The Fruitcake, is the first in a series. Look for more, Christmas in the South Tales.

These seven short stories, all previously published in magazines or anthologies, contain magic, monsters, ghosts, history, beer, Scotland, scifi, fantasy, horror, singing, more beer and fun.If you're looking for a taster of William Meikle's work, this is who he is.These seven short stories, all previously published in magazines or anthologies, contain magic, monsters, ghosts, history, beer, Scotland, scifi, fantasy, horror, singing, more beer and fun. This is who he is.

The free ebook version of a new pocket sized collection of short poems by Oliver Delgaram-Nejad.The free ebook version of a new pocket sized collection of short poems by Oliver Delgaram-Nejad. Includes some of the most popular poems from previous chapbook collections "Coffee and Cigarettes" (2008) and "Sentiments" (2011) from erbacce press, as well as new material written over the last year and a half. "Some Poems" explores the present psychological state of the individual, in the midst of an ever modernizing society, and how this may affect the place of nature, culture, and ethics in our nearing future. “Oli is a copiously talented young poet with a generous heart and a mischievous wit which is handled with technical verve. He also happens to be a charismatic reader of his work!” – Daljit Nagra

Selena Ryder wakes up to the terrifying truth that a vicious mythical creature has a vendetta against her. Can she survive this creature?Selena Ryder wakes up one morning to find a note predicting she’ll die on Halloween’s day. She passes it off as an early Halloween prank by her roommate but with each passing day, several creepy and mysterious events suggest that the note she received is anything but a prank.With crazy nightmares that play out verbatim in reality, Selena is forced to search for answers to questions that defile the very core of rationality. With each answer, comes pain, grief, fear... and more questions.As Halloween’s day draws nearer, Selena is faced with the terrifying truth that a vicious mythical creature has a vendetta against her. The scariest part of it all, is that this might not be the first time it has happened.Can she survive this creature?

Adele has always enjoyed her solitude...until her strongest connection to the outside world disappears. With strange dreams and feelings prodding her toward that lost connection, she must decide whether to stay in her comfortable, lonely home or break free and discover what awaits her outside. This captivating retelling of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott" makes you wish for more.FABS Magazine will hit newsstand in a few days. Editor, Mabel Danzo must overcome her fears and travel to Lagos for an interview with masked legendary singer Demuju. A chance meeting with the handsome, unassuming entrepreneur Sean Adeyemo, and the pair quickly became inseparable.With time running out, Mabel enlist the help of her new friend Sean to help facilitate the interview with Demuju. Mabel is stunned; the elusive singer has always been within touching distance.

If you had psychic power what would you do with it? Make money, help people, save them from their lives or……find out.Lying underneath the floorboards of Delphine's home, he watches her. He doesn't know why, he doesn't know anything, but he is compelled to watch. The intimate synergy between someone imprisoned and someone free, but who is trapped in her own dark emotions. This is a story about depression, how tough it is to feel connected and even when there is someone right next to you, how you feel so isolated and alone and helpless.

Naomi and the Horse-Flavored T-Shirt is a science fiction novel for middle school readers set in a future without gasoline that follows fourteen-year-old Naomi, who, along with her farmer friend, Sammy, searches the paste factory for her father and the town’s missing horses.Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by way of 1984 with a little Coraline mixed in.Endless Ranches is a town like any other town in Texas. Everybody works for the paste company, eats paste for breakpaste, plunch, and dinner, and walks to work. But things were different before the factory came to town and all of the horses disappeared.Fourteen-year-old Naomi knows something is not right, but nobody talks about it. Naomi’s mom changes the subject when Naomi asks about her missing father and one of her teachers disappears after he tells the class about the town’s past. But on her birthday, Naomi’s mother gives her an amazing gift that unlocks the truth about Endless Ranches: her father’s horse-flavored T-shirt. Accompanied by Sammy, a teenaged farmer forced to steal paste so he can feed his brothers and sisters, Naomi uncovers a devious Paste Company plot to subdue the townspeople and raise an army of mindless white people.

“Trick or Treat?” said the boy, in an annoyingly sing-song voice.“It's April,” said Grandma coldly.“And?” offered the boy.And so begins the worst afternoon Grandma Stannard has endured for a long time. A short story based (very loosely) on an old fairy tale“Trick or Treat?” said the boy, in an annoyingly sing-song voice.“It's April,” said Grandma coldly.“And?” offered the boy.And so begins the worst afternoon Grandma Stannard has endured for a long time. People just won't stop knocking on her door, trying to sell her everything, from double-glazing to Jesus. And we won't even go into her sudden vermin problem or the mysterious man in black and white. What in the world is going on?A short story based (very loosely) on an old fairy tale.

Claws and whiskers! A spirit of uncertainty and unrest has settled upon the Cougar village. Cheshire Cougar, the brave and noble Marquis of Cougars, has been brought back from the Battle of Eastern Pass on a travois. The leader of the Cougar clan has lost his ability to smell out those enslaved to the dragon and the Council is scared.Claws and whiskers! A spirit of uncertainty and unrest has settled upon the Cougar village. Cheshire Cougar, the brave and noble Marquis of Cougars, has been brought back from the Battle of Eastern Pass on a travois. The leader of the Cougar clan has lost his ability to smell out those enslaved to the dragon and the Council is scared. Just as the residents of the forest valley are adjusting to the return of the Marquis of Cougars, Cheshire turns the social world upside down by appointing Nurse Leana Longclaw to be his assistant and second in command. Will Cheshire be able to battle his inner demons? Will Leana be able to face her fears? Or will an accidental trip to the human realm make them lose the battle to confession?

The five stories in this book all involve dragons of one sort or another. Some are small and appear to be harmless while others are very large and dangerous. All the dragons have one thing in common – they change the lives of those around them.When Joe buys an ornate box from a car-boot sale, a set of mysterious and creepy occurrences with the box and its contents ensues. An original, creepy, ghost story for Christmas.

ohn Irving returns to the themes that established him as one of North America's most admired and beloved storytellers in this absorbing novel of fate and memory.      As we grow older--most of all, in what we remember and what we dream--we live in the past. Sometimes, we live more vividly in the past than in the present. As an older man, Juan Diego will take a trip to the Philippines, but what travels with him are his dreams and memories; he is most alive in his childhood and early adolescence in Mexico. "An aura of fate had marked him," John Irving writes, of Juan Diego. "The chain of events, the links in our lives--what leads us where we're going, the courses we follow to our ends, what we don't see coming, and what we do--all this can be mysterious, or simply unseen, or even obvious." *Avenue of Mysteries *is the story of what happens to Juan Diego in the Philippines, where what happened to him in the past--in Mexico--collides with his future.

Luke Price and Violet Hayes haven’t seen each other in a couple of months, not since they discovered Luke’s mother’s connection to Violet’s parent’s murders. But when Luke gets into some gambling trouble with the wrong people, destiny decides to throw the two of them together and they head out to Vegas to try and settle Luke’s debt. As Violet spends time with Luke, she becomes torn on whether she should be with him. She definitely can’t deny that her life is better when she’s with Luke and she starts to wonder if going back to Preston was a mistake. Things seem to be going well as Violet opens up more to Luke, but then she gets a call from the detective, not only to give an update on Mira Price and the case, but to give information about some threatening texts she’s been getting. The information is not only shocking, but makes Violet question what kind of people her parents really where and whether she’ll be able to trust anyone ever again.

Whitman’s uniquely revealing impressions of the people, places, and events of his time—with a brilliant new introduction by Leslie Jamison, author of the bestselling *The Empathy Exams*. One of the most creative and individual poets America has produced, Walt Whitman was also a prolific diarist, note-taker, and essayist whose intimate observations and reflections have profoundly deepened understanding of nineteenth-century American life. Specimen Days and Collect, first published in 1882, is a choice collection of Whitman’s uniquely revealing impressions of the people, places, and events of his time, principally the era of the Civil War and its aftermath. On page after page, a vast panorama of American life unfolds, and with it rare glimpse of Whitman as poet, empathetic observer, and romantic wanderer. From his years as a wartime nurse in Washington, D.C., come touching glimpses of the dead and dying in military hospitals, memories of Abraham Lincoln, and vivid impressions of the nation’s capital in a time of great crisis. Whitman’s travel yields memorable recollections of Boston, the Hudson Valley, a walk through Central Park, Niagara Falls, the City of Denver, and more. Along with the famed essay “Democratic Vistas,” there are scenes from the poet’s childhood, touching tributes to songbirds, wildflowers, friendship and freedom; impressions of the music of Beethoven, reflections on a last visit to Emerson, the deaths of Lincoln and Longfellow and the painful process of aging. Deeply felt and vividly expressed, Specimen Days and Collect is a richly rewarding experience, a rare excursion into the mind and heard of one of America’s greatest poets—and the America his poetry so richly commemorated. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Ari Johnson wishes adjusting to living with her boyfriend was her only source of excitement and anxiety. She wishes a lot of things. But then wishing was what got her here in the first place. Ari chose to be a Guild Hunter. She wanted to hunt dangerous Jinn and destroy them before they could harm innocent people. But now that Ari is a member of The Guild, she finds herself in the impossible position of hunting her ex-best friend – human-turned-dangerous sorcerer, Charlie Creagh. As Ari struggles to come to terms with her duty, an ancient Jinn and his companion want revenge on her for using the command of the Seal against them; the White King refuses to give up on his quest to resurrect Lilif, and Asmodeus isn’t done toying with her. When Ari can take no more, rushing to the Sultan Azazil’s side to demand of him the favor he owes her, the events she sets in motion will not only alter everyone’s lives, it will kindle a darkness that will shake the realms to their very core.

Where is Lara Mayhew? Lara, a congressman's media assistant, suddenly quits her job—and disappears on the way to her Washington, DC, apartment. Novice FBI agent Meg Murray, a childhood friend of Lara's, gets a message from her that same night, a message that says she's disillusioned and "going home." To Richmond, Virginia. Meg discovers that she never got there. And bodies fitting Lara's description are showing up in nearby rivers… Could she be the victim of a serial killer? Meg is assigned to work with special agent Matt Bosworth, a hard-nosed pro in the FBI's unit of paranormal investigators—the Krewe of Hunters. They trace the route Meg and Lara took more than once in the past, visiting battlefields and graveyards from Harpers Ferry to Gettysburg. Places where the dead share their secrets with those who can hear… As Meg and Matt pursue the possibility of a serial killer, they find themselves in the middle of a political conspiracy. Is there a connection? And who—besides each other—can they trust?

When Mari accidentally overhears that Trystan is in love, she can't believe it. He's pining over some girl that doesn't know he's alive. The confident swagger and endless stream of girls is a facade. It conceals his loneliness and hides how messed up he's really become trying to flee from a life that's battered him to his core. Trystan tries to figure out how to make it clear how much he loves Mari, but every insincere kiss and every broken promise haunts him, because she knows them all. Now, Trystan has to prove to the one girl he's actually fallen in love with that she's not just another conquest. Mari has no idea who Trystan loves, but she can tell that whoever it is has captured his heart entirely. Soon Mari sees the man behind the mask, the guy that Trystan tries so hard to hide. Everything about him is appealing, and too hard to resist. In a moment of desperation, Trystan uploads a love song he wrote for Mari, but before he can show it to her, the video goes viral. Everyone wants to know who he is, and the only thing shielding him is an anonymous account name and some thick shadows hiding his face. Tyrstan realizes that the consequences of revealing his identity will be disastrous. Everything he's tried so hard to hide will be exposed. It's a secret that is impossible to keep and the only girl who he wanted to hear it will never believe him. The Secret Life of Trystan Scott is an addicting romance with lots of tension and steamy kisses. The story is told in 20,000 word segments. Each book is another episode, building on the previous. The books in the TRYSTAN SCOTT series will get hotter as it progresses and cross from YA into New Adult by the end of the series.

MORTAL RECALL For Sam Ryan, life began at age fourteen. She has no memory of her parents or her childhood. In a decade of service with the State Police, Sam has exhausted the resources of the force searching for clues to her identity. But all mention of her family seems to have been deliberately wiped off the record. Everything changes the night Sam’s missing partner resurfaces as a vampire . . . and forces her to kill him in self-defense. Now Sam is charged with murder. Suspended from the force, and with no one left to trust, Sam accepts some unexpected help from Gabriel Stern, a shapeshifter who conceals startling secrets. While investigating the circumstances surrounding her partner’s strange behavior, Sam discovers that Garbriel’s been involved with a dangerous organization that’s planning a war on the human race. More immediate, someone is guarding the truth about Sam’s past—someone who’d rather see her dead than risk her knowing too much. To stay alive, Sam must unravel the threads of her past—and find out not only who she is but what she is.

Contacto es la única novela escrita por el astrónomo estadounidense Carl Sagan, uno de los mayores divulgadores científicos del siglo XX. Galardonado con el premio Pulitzer por Los dragones del Edén, Sagan es además el aclamado autor de Cosmos, * el libro de divulgación científica m�s vendido de la historia, el cual inspiró una aclamada serie de televisión estrenada en más de sesenta países. * Contacto, premio Locus 1986, desarrolla una de las constantes en la trayectoria del autor: la búsqueda de inteligencia extraterrestre y la comunicación con ella a través de sondas espaciales. En 1997, el director de cine Robert Zemeckis llevó esta historia a la gran pantalla, en una película protagonizada por Jodie Foster y Matthew McConaughey. Tras cinco años de incesantes búsquedas con los dispositivos m�s sofisticados del momento, la astr�noma Eleanor Arroway consigue, junto a un equipo de cient�ficos internacionales, conectar con la estrella Vega y demostrar que no estamos solos en el universo. Empieza entonces un trepidante viaje hacia el encuentro m�s esperado de la historia de la humanidad, y con �l Sagan plantea magistralmente c�mo afectar�a a nuestra sociedad la recepci�n de mensajes de una civilizaci�n extraterrestre. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION At first it seemed impossible - a radio signal that came not from Earth but from far beyond the nearest stars. But then the signal was translated, and what had been impossible became terrifying. For the signal contains the information to build a Machine that can travel to the stars. A Machine that can take a human to meet those that sent the message. They are eager to meet us: they have been watching and waiting for a long time. And now they will judge.

Samuel Johnson is in trouble. Not only is he in love with the wrong girl, but the demon Mrs. Abernathy is seeking revenge on him for his part in foiling the invasion of Earth by the forces of evil. She wants to get her claws on Samuel, and when Samuel and his faithful dachshund, Boswell, are pulled through a portal into the dark realm, she gets her chance. PLEASE NOTE: This book was published by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK as HELL'S BELLS. The titles are different, but the books are the same. Please spread the word!

All Patrick O'Brian's strengths are on parade in this novel of action and intrigue, set partly in Malta, partly in the treacherous, pirate-infested waters of the Red Sea. While Captain Aubrey worries about repairs to his ship, Stephen Maturin assumes the center stage for the dockyards and salons of Malta are alive with Napoleon's agents, and the admiralty's intelligence network is compromised. Maturin's cunning is the sole bulwark against sabotage of Aubrey's daring mission.