First published by Sphere 1989, transferred to Warner 1992. Laura never feels as if she fits in with her husband's side of the family. When she stays with them in Cornwall to recuperate after an operation, the unseen presence of his first wife and daughter are ever present to destroy her tranquility.

Mark's POV novella I have lost the man I once was, letting guilt and heartache define who I am. Darkness has controlled me, and one woman has seen what no one else has seen in me, what I do not wish to exist. My hunger for her has driven me to the edge of sanity, but no more. She's about to find out that the Master has returned.

View our feature on Ann Aguirre's Shady Lady.Whenever Corine Solomon touches an object, she immediately knows its history. But the future concerns her more when former ally Kel Ferguson wlaks through her door with a warning for her: the Montoya cartel is coming for her-but they don't just pack guns. They use warlocks, shamans and voodoo priests. And Corine has become enemy number one...

From best-selling author Lisa Hinsley comes this peculiar collection of short stories with dark themes.Mary Rice Somerville wrote this book for her six sons, to capture some of the memories of their old home place in Boone County West Virginia. Its plot is set in the future, which of course we do not really know, and is written from the viewpoint of son Jim who is an Eagle Scout, with badges in the trunk, each one bearing the motto: BE PREPARED!

The first short mystery story in the continuing saga of amateur detective Miriam Obadah, a woman from Ghana who lives in Harlem with her husband, Kofi, and co-wife, Nana. Download the anthology for other good reads. Five of the 11 stories in the anthology appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.Emily Moore’s life will never be the same, especially when you have a magical amulet everyone wants, an enchanted wall to destroy, and follow messages left by her deceased mother. But Emily is far from alone. With the magic implement securing alliance known as the Blackbirds, she not only finds their help, but a connection to them she never guessed. Now in Eutopia, Emily’s Receptor abilities strengthen as she tries to find the Black Abyss—the only place to secure her amulet. What she finds there isn’t what she expected. There’s more to the amulet than just magic and it’s up to Emily to decide what to do with it. Separated from Gabe, Emily is drawn into Eutopia and the inhabitants there—especially an Outlander that is half beast and half human and sworn to protect Eutopia’s wall. With the fate of many worlds in the balance, it is up to Emily to look beyond her own desires, save magic from evil, and do it before it’s too late.

3 Radio Plays 3 Voodoo to Paradise: tropical night, mysterious wooden boat-load casting off for better future.The Sound of Sand: Blind boy’s mighty dangerous venture from sand-castle beach onto the sea.How His Bride Came To Abraham: Enemies trapped in no-man’s land make it paradise.An NPR, WNYC broadcast; a Bob Hope Award winner; a radio-adaptation of oft-produced, twice-published peace play.Radio opens a direct link to the audience’ imagination. Sound alone telling a story is instantly absorbed onto the mind’s creative canvas, and the resulting composition will be personal and intimate to a higher degree than that of any other medium. My first radio assignment was also the first play I ever wrote. Initiated and produced for the National Foundation For The Blind by the Iowa State University Radio Players, it won the Bob Hope Award. The Sound of Sand presents a blind boy’s mighty dangerous venture away from his sand-castle on the beach far out onto the sea on a raft. The second time I wrote for radio, WNYC’s Radio Stage asked me to adapt my stage play Haiti: a Dream and then produced and broadcast it on WHYY and NPR as well. Voodoo to Paradise began when I read a tiny New York Times clipping “wreckage of a wooden boat” on Florida’s coast and instantly “saw” its lost passengers. Founder of Full House Productions in New York, Phil Lee, prompted the radio adaptation and production of How His Bride Came To Abraham so that its battlefield parable of Mid-East peace could reach audiences anywhere. Set in South Lebanon, when a fleeing refugee encounters a soldier wounded by a roadside bomb, irresistible Palestinian and Israeli characters clash, then ignite a passion that heals. A sample of the audio is online at the film's website. The two stage plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing.

Have we got a treat for you! We are thrilled to share * Open and Shut *, an exclusive short story by Alastair Reynolds, today. Step into the futuristic world of Prefect Dreyfus for a fast paced new SF crime story. This is your new SF obsession.

This free e-sampler contains three short stories, one each from Third Person Press's anthologies Undercurrents, Airborne, and Unearthed.This free e-sampler contains three short stories, one each from Third Person Press's anthologies Undercurrents, Airborne, and Unearthed. If you're wondering whether to take a chance on any of these books, this is a great way to find out what kinds of stories you might find inside...

Anthony has never been able to stand up for himself -- that is, not until his girlfriend is in someone else's arms. Then Anthony vows revenge and devises the Plan. It begins with getting a job at the fast-food restaurant where his nemesis happens to be a star employee. But when the Plan is finally in place, will Anthony's hunger for revenge be satisfied? Will he prove he's not a wuss?

In a bizarre post-apocalyptic Africa, Chadwick Giles, a recent arrival from the north countries, navigates his way through social strictures, a mutant uprising, and a cultic religious revival, learning to create art from love and life. Giles discovers that there is much to gain through loss, though the rewards are nothing like those he expected or desired.Chadwick Giles is new to Ngome, having travelled from the cultured north countries to a bizarre post-apocalyptic Africa to assume new employment as an artist for an expatriate entomologist. There, at a masked ball, he meets the mysterious and carefree Emile Beckwith. His discoveries in this new land expose the underside of a society embroiled in conflict and intrigue. Try as he might to remain aloof, he soon finds himself in the midst of the war between the colonial authorities and an uprising of human mutants and four-armed apes that may or may not be associated with a mystical fly-cult, a war that threatens to change him and his art forever.Forrest Aguirre's short fiction has been published in over fifty venues including Asimov's, Postscripts, Exquisite Corpse, and Gargoyle. Forrest's work has received several honorable mentions in various Year's Best anthologies and his fiction has been a finalist for the StorySouth Million Writers Award. He has won the World Fantasy Award and was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award for co-editing the Leviathan 3 anthology.

When Steven and Henry are told that the untimely death of Henry's father, the former CEO of the company that they both work for, may not have been an accident they find themselves with more questions than answers. Could the newly appointed CEO have been responsible? To find the truth, the future of the family business and the lives of those at the top could all be at stake.Granger woke up in a hospital with amnesia and a strange acting wife. The only thing he could remember was his eyes staring back at him. For some reason he felt his past creeping up on him. He wanted answers and everyone, even the good doctor, was avoiding his questions. How can he handle his past and his new future? How can he combine them and make everyone happy including himself? This is the last installment of the Letting Go series.

When a UFO crashes into the sandy world of Evon, Roym Rosyth and his family must do all they can to evade the senseless transformations befalling anyone who becomes caught within the influence of the alien technology. With the number of safe havens disappearing as quickly as he can get to them, Roym can start to see that not only is his own survival coming into question, but that of his species.When a huge, mysterious spacecraft crashes into the sandy world of Evon, Roym Rosyth, his family, and those they meet in the midst of the swelling chaos must do everything in their power to evade the swift and seemingly senseless transformations befalling anyone who becomes trapped within the expanding influence of the alien technology. With the number of safe havens disappearing as quickly as he can get to them, Roym can start to see that not only is his own survival coming into question, but that of his species.

A thief extraordinaire and general rapscallion teams up with his old partner in crime, an intelligent woman of humble upbringing and excellent swordsmanship, in order to escape the wrath of a vengeful inspector.The first installment in a series of thrilling tales of high stakes Victorian adventure, The Viatic of Thaddues Moon is a story of exhilarating heroics and narrow escapes. Thaddeus Moon, thief extraordinaire, finds himself trapped in a prison cell beneath the streets of Victorian era London, with nothing to aid him but his wit and a friend on the outside. Things are not going well for Thaddeus, who quickly finds himself at the end of his rope, or more accurately, on his way to that of a hangman. When a sudden explosion tears through the walls of the cell, his interrogation at the hands of a vengeful inspector comes to an abrupt halt. With his old partner coming to his rescue, the duo must outrun and outsmart the police as they rush to the docks and the ship that can carry them to safety.

ABOUT THIS EBOOK The stories selected for this eBook came from a variety of sources. All the stories were either scans of books I own or in digital format---pdf, rtf, txt and/or HTML 1.0 files. I converted, cleaned-up and re-formatted all the stories contained in this eBook to better suit an eBook reader. I “test” my final epubs on a Nook Color and an iPad2 to ensure the best possible reading experience; however, not all eReaders are the same and don’t always display epubs in the same way as others. This is especially true when it comes to the Table of Contents (ToC), images within the epub and the display of the book cover. I adhered as much as possible to the original punctuation, spelling and sentence structure in each story. Many of these stories were written with a very specific structure and style that may seem odd when presented in an electronic format. I found this especially true in the way many characters’ dialogue was written. Please understand, in an effort to preserve the author’s text, some words, structures etc. may seem like errors that I missed while creating this eBook for you. No words or text of the authors’ original works were omitted or altered; each story is word-for-word as presented in the original source file. If you find errors, or run into any difficulty with this eBook please feel free to contact me through Bolt. Finally, it is my sincerest wish that you have the best possible reading experience with this eBook. Flyboy707 October, 2011 ABOUT THE AUTHORAlgernon Henry Blackwood was born on march 14, 1869 and was an English short story writer and novelist. Blackwood was one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He was also a journalist and a broadcasting narrator. S. T. Joshi has stated that "his work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's" and that his short story collection Incredible Adventures (1914) "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century". Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (today part of south-east London, but then part of northwest Kent) and educated at Wellington College. His father was a Post Office administrator who, according to Peter Penzoldt, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious ideas". Blackwood had a varied career, working as a milk farmer in Canada, operating a hotel, as a newspaper reporter in New York City, bartender, model, journalist for the New York Times, private secretary, businessman, and violin teacher. Throughout his adult life, he was an occasional essayist for various periodicals. In his late thirties, he moved back to England and started to write stories of the supernatural. He was very successful, writing at least ten original collections of short stories and eventually appearing on both radio and television to tell them. He also wrote fourteen novels, several children's books, and a number of plays, most of which were produced but not published. He was an avid lover of nature and the outdoors, and many of his stories reflect this. To satisfy his interest in the supernatural, he joined the “Ghost Club”. He never married; according to his friends he was a loner but also cheerful company. Jack Sullivan points out that "Blackwood's life parallels his work more neatly than perhaps that of any other ghost story writer. Like his lonely but fundamentally optimistic protagonists, he was a combination of mystic and outdoorsman; when he wasn't steeping himself in occultism, including Rosicrucianism and Buddhism, he was likely to be skiing or mountain climbing.” His two best known stories are probably "The Willows" and "The Wendigo". He would also often write stories for newspapers at short notice, with the result that he was unsure exactly how many short stories he had written and there is no sure total. Though Blackwood wrote a number of horror stories, his most typical work seeks less to frighten than to induce a sense of awe. Good examples are the novels The Centaur, which climaxes with a traveller's sight of a herd of the mythical creatures; and Julius LeVallon and its sequel The Bright Messenger, which deal with reincarnation and the possibility of a new, mystical evolution in human consciousness. Algernon Blackwood dies on December 10, 1951. He was 82 years old. The stories selected for this eBook came from a variety of sources. All the stories were either scans of books I own or in digital format---pdf, rtf, txt and/or HTML 1.0 files. I converted, cleaned-up and re-formatted all the stories contained in this eBook to better suit an eBook reader. I “test” my final epubs on a Nook Color and an iPad2 to ensure the best possible reading experience; however, not all eReaders are the same and don’t always display epubs in the same way as others. This is especially true when it comes to the Table of Contents (ToC), images within the epub and the display of the book cover. I adhered as much as possible to the original punctuation, spelling and sentence structure in each story. Many of these stories were written with a very specific structure and style that may seem odd when presented in an electronic format. I found this especially true in the way many characters’ dialogue was written. Please understand, in an effort to preserve the author’s text, some words, structures etc. may seem like errors that I missed while creating this eBook for you. No words or text of the authors’ original works were omitted or altered; each story is word-for-word as presented in the original source file. If you find errors, or run into any difficulty with this eBook please feel free to contact me through Bolt. Finally, it is my sincerest wish that you have the best possible reading experience with this eBook. Flyboy707 October, 2011 ABOUT THE AUTHORAlgernon Henry Blackwood was born on march 14, 1869 and was an English short story writer and novelist. Blackwood was one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He was also a journalist and a broadcasting narrator. S. T. Joshi has stated that "his work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's" and that his short story collection Incredible Adventures (1914) "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century". Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (today part of south-east London, but then part of northwest Kent) and educated at Wellington College. His father was a Post Office administrator who, according to Peter Penzoldt, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious ideas". Blackwood had a varied career, working as a milk farmer in Canada, operating a hotel, as a newspaper reporter in New York City, bartender, model, journalist for the New York Times, private secretary, businessman, and violin teacher. Throughout his adult life, he was an occasional essayist for various periodicals. In his late thirties, he moved back to England and started to write stories of the supernatural. He was very successful, writing at least ten original collections of short stories and eventually appearing on both radio and television to tell them. He also wrote fourteen novels, several children's books, and a number of plays, most of which were produced but not published. He was an avid lover of nature and the outdoors, and many of his stories reflect this. To satisfy his interest in the supernatural, he joined the “Ghost Club”. He never married; according to his friends he was a loner but also cheerful company. Jack Sullivan points out that "Blackwood's life parallels his work more neatly than perhaps that of any other ghost story writer. Like his lonely but fundamentally optimistic protagonists, he was a combination of mystic and outdoorsman; when he wasn't steeping himself in occultism, including Rosicrucianism and Buddhism, he was likely to be skiing or mountain climbing.” His two best known stories are probably "The Willows" and "The Wendigo". He would also often write stories for newspapers at short notice, with the result that he was unsure exactly how many short stories he had written and there is no sure total. Though Blackwood wrote a number of horror stories, his most typical work seeks less to frighten than to induce a sense of awe. Good examples are the novels The Centaur, which climaxes with a traveller's sight of a herd of the mythical creatures; and Julius LeVallon and its sequel The Bright Messenger, which deal with reincarnation and the possibility of a new, mystical evolution in human consciousness. Algernon Blackwood dies on December 10, 1951. He was 82 years old. Markie is a successful hitman who has it all. He's tough and in demand and to the crimelords who run San Francisco, he's considered number one. Tommy Brown is a young, clean-cut arms dealer from Boston. He has built up a good reputation for being reliable. But a dark cloud hangs over their criminal relationship and now Markie's past is about to catch up with him.Markie is a successful hitman who has it all. He's tough and in demand and to the crimelords who run San Francisco, he's considered number one. Tommy Brown is a young, clean-cut arms dealer from Boston. He has built up a good reputation for being reliable. But a dark cloud hangs over their criminal relationship and now Markie's past is about to catch up with himA short crime story by Richard Quinn, an aspiring crime novelist with a passion for the retro crime novel. Ash's sister was one of those women who somehow always seem to connect with the wrong blokes. Harold was perhaps the cream of the crop as far as bludgers go, or more precisely, the bottom of the barrel. But when Harold comes up with a no-risk scheme to make some quick cash, Ash just can't say no.Waking to find the world changing each day, Jerrod struggles to find out why he appears to be the only one who notices. While trying to understand what is happening to The City, Jerrod discovers that the woman of his dreams is real, but so is the danger that she is running from. Board the dreamship. Fly on sweet angel. Never touch the sky. Our loves will always live in our memories. Immortal. Immutable. Devine. The joys of life. Love of mother. Fun in the Sun.Perfect passion. Chili days.Celebrate the Sea. I sit. Upon the the hill. Blessed by the words of my supporters. I sit.We have an obligation to ourselves to be honest and true to ourselves and our readers. If we fail to do this, we shall rise no higher. If we rise no higher, then what are we?