M, short for Michell, is your average horse crazy girl, until a drastic event interrupts her life. With the approach of summer and freedom, will school end with a mystery unsolved or will M find within herself the strength to figure out not only the mystery at hand, but how to forgive the hardest person to forgive, herself. Will the change upon daybreak bring freedom or a girl on an altered path?This is a short story of a newly-wed couple that goes through challenges that no newly-wed couple should ever go through. Secrets and choices has made an impact on their marriage, without them even knowing it. This is a true love story, where wedding vows is taking literally. Think again about your wedding vows - will you really live them and do them when push comes to shove?

Kirel is a confused young man, almost convinced he's a worthless failure. Sylvan is a confident, self-assured musician with no doubt at all of his own worth. What happens when a mutual love of music brings them together?Kirel is a confused young man, almost convinced he's a worthless failure. He'd been Lord of a fine estate, until he was deposed and divorced all at once. He'd been a trader's escort, until he'd all but died of boredom. He'd tried his hand as a caravan guard, until he had to kill a man. Then Kirel discovered Scholastica, a strange town filled with scholars, students, and horses, Kirel's lifelong passion. In between classes and work in the stables, a snatch of better-than-average music drifted across the night air, drawing Kirel into a life-altering encounter with a young Bard, forcing Kirel to learn new ways of thinking and to wonder, at long last, just who he really was. Why did his armor bear the royal crest of a far-away kingdom? And what was he going to do with the rest of his life?

Predicting the fallout from a new power source, a lone scientist now lives in solitary companionship with his final creation, watching the world pass by through glass and sorrow. Living day to day in their shelter against the outside horrors, they await the end of the world.From #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author comes a heart-pounding adventure of love, loyalty, and survival.A gifted 7-year-old boy and his teen siblings are ripped from their peaceful lives—kidnapped by a sinister organization determined to get back at their father. But when their plane crashes an ocean away in the bear-infested jungles of South China, the mysterious motive behind their abduction is the least of their problems, and they must lever every ounce of their courage and wits to survive the wilds and escape the ruthless drug lord who is hot on their heels. Can a gifted child learn to kill in order to save his loved ones?An “international thriller with soul.” Ideal reading for fans of Michael Crichton, Clive Cussler, James Rollins, Brad Thor, Dan Brown, Matthew Reilly, Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, and Vince Flynn.Important Note: This 130-page novella features the characters and continuing story from the #1 Bestselling “Brainrush” Thriller series. It is a complete story unto itself, compiled from books four and five of the series, “Brainchild” and “Smoke & Mirrors.” If you’ve read those full-length novels, then you’ve already read most of the contents of this novella.

These poems twirl their skirts as they explore bi-cultural identity, growing up, a young mother's struggles, and the limits of language. Half Guatemalan and half Anglo, the speaker worries about "black-topped boys with butterscotch skin" who whistle at her, but loves how flowers "explode into curls of crepe." She doesn't understand Spanish or why tragedy jabs into our lives, but still she sings.Along with pieces called "breathtaking" by Naomi Shihab Nye, these poems twirl their skirts as they explore bi-cultural identity, growing up, a young mother's struggles, and the limits of language. Half Guatemalan and half Anglo, the speaker worries about "black-topped boys with butterscotch skin" who whistle at her, but loves how flowers "explode into curls of crepe." She doesn't understand Spanish or why tragedy jabs into our lives, but still she sings.

A reporter comes upon a forbidding looking structure while traveling through the Southwestern United States.Look around you. Do you like what you see? Are you satisfied with our political leadership, with the business class, with all those who have their hands on the levers of power? Are you content with the current order of the world? Perhaps you aren't. Perhaps you are quite definitely not satisfied. In fact, when you think about the myriad of serious problems that humanity currently faces-- climate change and the ongoing wholesale destruction of nature, economic stagnation, growing inequality and disenfranchisement, ethnic and social discord, armed conflicts and the nationalistically-fueled threat of greater bloodshed to come-- you are filled with despair, and anger. Despair, because with every passing day these issues seem to be growing more grave, more intractable, more pressing. Anger, because those who are responsible for guiding us toward a better, more sustainable world, for creating the conditions in which justice, prosperity, and opportunity might flourish...are not. Our leaders are failing us, of this can be no doubt. But beyond their failure lies an even greater burden of accountability. Like it or not, this the world we have made. In the future its achievements and missteps will be laid at our doorstep and no one else's. So if we don't care for the direction things seem to be heading in, it is up to us, the people, to change it. That's what this story is about: people taking the reins of the world back into their own hands to create a better society, one strong enough to last our time, and worthy of bequeathing to our children. And yes, the story is also about dragons, as well as a very special kind of magic! Read this tale if you cannot help but feel that somehow,somewhere, civilization-- the whole kit and caboodle-- has taken a wrong turn. Read it if you believe that neither the system we live under now nor its human proxies will ever be capable of putting us back on a truly democratic, sustainable path. And read "The Dragons" if, despite the undeniable gravity of the challenges facing us, you still have hope, and wouldn't mind coming by just a tad more.

The 10 Steps in Creating Your Dream Lifestyle will give you the tools you need, and in time you will find a way. Know your why, manifest it and intensify it. Understand what you want (this process now), then determine and be flexible with your how.You will discover the secrets to how thousands of men and women before you have created their definition of a dream lifestyle. Wealth, health, happiness, freedom and true fulfillment are the desires of many, however not many will ever experience these feelings in abundance in the long term. As you read through this book and hang onto every word in anticipation, you will find the answers you seek, as a simple, pragmatic philosophy even a child could follow. Many people who read this book will do so with great interest, and yet will not act upon their findings. In fact, many people will start to read this book, but never finish it. Will that be you?

A bartender, Charlie Grifter, is taught the 'tricks of the trade' by a pool tournament champion, Big Milwaukee, shortly before his demise.Dr.s William and Eloise Cairnby embark on an historical research visit to Bouchart abbey, hoping to uncover more of the truth behind its demise. Following a freak storm lasting two days, a forgotten large communal grave situated in the abbey grounds was uncovered by a landslide. After helping to recover the skeletal remains of countless bodies, William ventures into the abbey and encounters Lady Arabella, who takes him somewhere he thought it was impossible to go. Can he survive the shock and fulfil Lady Arabella’s hopes for eternal rest?

The night cycle falls on the mining planet of Caledonia. Only minutes away from the sundown Colonel Maser must embark on a rescue mission, racing against time and harsh oncoming conditions as the only native inhabitant of the planet starts to surface from their nests.The night cycle falls on the mining planet of Caledonia. For the human residents of the planet, it means 50 days of dark and unnatural cold where every single base locks down until the dawn. Only minutes away from the sundown Colonel Maser must embark on a rescue mission, racing against time and harsh oncoming conditions as the only native inhabitant of the planet starts to surface from their nests.

The epic Hrwang Incursion saga continues in Book Two: Hrwang. In episode 1, Confined, Eva accompanies the Lord Admiral to his home planet but doesn’t receive the reception she expects. Trapped in her worst nightmare, any hope of saving the Earth is lost. She also loses hope of saving herself...If you enjoy episode 1 of Hrwang, don’t forget to look for Bernard Wilkerson’s other books on https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/wilkerb007 or www.amazon.com/author/bernardwilkerson.

An intergalactic conflict inspires disobedience from one of The Ichouli, creating a hidden Tribe of Humans who are imprisoned for many millennia inside a dead world. This is a simple tale of one girl's dreams to escape that world and see what The Sphere has to offer.A story from "The Chronicles of John Alkali".A young man on the brink of adulthood evaluates his choices for the future. A father who has little time for him, a best friend who still hasn't begun to take life seriously, and secrets about his past that remain mystery. Ascension Day is here. What happens after that is up to Ovid.

We're continuing our tradition of providing great stories, and this issue we've got some war poetry, some transdimensional rock creatures, and a nice supernatural western. Because why not?I was having dinner at the Daily Sunrise when I was suddenly cast to State Street in Schenectady, with the date being 1937. Within a few hours I was being interrogated by a librarian, a police officer, and a detective. Everyone seemed as puzzled as I was as to what had happened. Eventually, I discovered that Professor Collins of RPI had been at the bottom of it all. This is a time travel story that will amaze you.

Dawna Pearle is a journalism major and works for the Sacramento Bee. She gets an assignment in Pasadena, California, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But this job is much more than a provincial story. Surprisingly, global warming, glacier melting in the Arctic, and global industrialists all collide in Dawna's assignment!Modern soon-to-be college freshmen Melanie Geyer discovers she has the rare and amazing ability to Jump - time travel - between two times other than her own. One is Victorian England, the other a space station orbiting a devastated Earth far in the future. As more and more complications come to light, Melanie finds herself faced with an agonizing choice.An 11,000 word digital exclusive from Loyalty Press and Karen Lofgren, author of the urban fantasy Imagine Someday and the epic space opera saga The Souls of the Stars.

On his meanderings, photojournalist Tom meets a little girl who plays alone in the park. First intrigued by her strange character, then worried for her safety, he accompanies her home, though she never allows him to follow the very last bit to her house. Then one day he misses their appointment...Dignity and Reason have suffered much stress and misery because of their cousin Guiles, his daughter Prevarica, and the rest of the Leasing family. Now Guiles leaves Dignity the responsibility for bankrupt and neglected Founders Grove park, and it will take miracles—and a really good lawyer—to get him out of this. As for the Leasings, when they land in terrible trouble, old Ambassador Grace advises Dignity and Reason to try to save them, and he offers the prospect of help from Heavenite secret agent Patience Orchard. The question is, would the cousins rather just be rid of the Leasings?