NASA had a successful failure. Seven sophisticated Bio-Teks (5 "human-robots" and 2 "pet-robots"), were created for a deep space mission. The money ran out, the spaceship was cancelled and these colourful characters moved out to live in the community and report back their experiences yearly. They set up 5 small businesses in adjacent shops, happily mixing with the neighbours, in Poppycock Place.Botzi receives a treasure map from a mysterious uncle. Botzi has no money and is helped by his friends. So Noodles volunteers to take all five shopkeeper friends, Botzi, Noodles, Aurora, Banjo and Izaak up in his balloon to sail it on a trip to a South American lost city. The balloon often runs out of fuel placing our heroes in dangerous predicaments. Mexican bandits, dangerous car chases, powerful Elfin war lords, plagues of killer bees, and that’s just the easy part. The “treasure” turns out to be a dangerous instrument of power left by the pharaohs, that can enslave the world. A problem arises when Alby and Fungus, the two Bio-teks who have over-ruled their ethics modules and are growing into very selfish monsters, learn details of this expedition. ….Who will control this instrument?....Is this the makings of another world dictatorship?.....

Hot Lesbian Romance: What happens in a Yoga class brings these two girls together in the least expected way...Hot Lesbian Romance: What happens in a Yoga class brings these two girls together in the least expected way...Marcie is a private chef working for fancy parties and designing menus for the overly wealthy.Excitement and fun, that’s what Chloe is looking for in life...She is a free-spirit that loves to laugh. She is a yoga instructor at the gym where Marcie attends. It doesn’t take Chloe long to set her target on the new best friend.Well, a bit more than a best friend anyway... in her eyes.What's going to happen?LOOK INSIDE to find out now!

This collection began as a Halloween flash fiction writing contest on Facebook, sponsored by Sharon Van Orman.This is not one person’s achievement, but a collective of people from around the block and around the world.Enjoy these spooky bits, for they are what makes Halloween special!"Hal L. O’ween" is the pen-name of a group of writers from around the world that have joined together to ‘scare your pants off!’Each ‘Halloween Horror Flash Fiction Contest’ story, sponsored on Facebook by Sharon Van Orman, was approved and contributed to this anthology for your ‘enjoyment’.The individual authors retain ALL the rights to these stories.Many thanks go to the following writers—without their involvement, this collection wouldn’t have been possible:Devin Berglund, Brian Bigelow, Melissa Blume, Carol Bond, Michelle Patricia Browne, Jaleta Clegg, Richard Cotton, Russell Cruse, J. A. Cunningham, Toy Davis, Bella Doerres, Debra Elliott, Jiva Fang, Paul Freeman, Joseph Alan Gharagheer, Pamela Griffiths, Erik Gustafson, Rylee Hales, Denise Hemphill, Bruce Hesselbach, Rob Holliday, Katrina Jack, Gerald D. Johnston, Mel L. Kinder, Merita King, Pamela K. Kinney, Neil Leckman, Tracy Lesch, Rosemary Lynch, Ellen McKinney, Wolfen Lee McKoy, Shannon Marie Mead, Jason Mueller and C. L. Foster, Matthew Christopher Nelson, Sharon Van Orman, Patrick Ottuso, Cheryl C. Ramirez, Martin Reaves, Katherine Rochholz, Kincaid Savoie, Adam Sifre and Splinker, Gretchen Steen, Michael L. Turner, Rahima Warren, Richard A. Wentworth, Lisa Williamson, Sherill Willis, Stephen L. Wilson, Kay D. Ziegler.We are "Hal L. O’ween"

It may be less than a month since the doors of New Order opened but that doesn't mean Bo Blackman isn't busy. It's not just daft allegations about vampire dogs and complicated relationships that she has to deal with, however. When a woman is brutally assaulted, barely escaping with her life, Bo ensures she forms an integral part of the investigation. The trouble is that she may end up being confronted with a darkness that she's simply not ready for...

Being kidnapped isn't the best way to pass the time. Especially not when you should be in school. But Amber-Louise is a witch and she has bigger things to worry about.The #1 Gothic Romance Novel on Kindle for the Month of October 2013If you want to know why, read on!Power, grace, and immortality... Everything has a price.To walk as an abomination in the night. To have power that seeps into the vein and never lets go. To know that blood draws the path that will lay the world to rest.Zack Giver is a stoic young man that walks slowly into an inviting nightmare. After he meets a young singer at a local Gothic club, his life changes forever.Demon Vampire parallels the choices of many people over the course of centuries and how they affect both the world and each other. As the morality stains the lives of all those it touches, the the future grows darker. A romance that spans time itself takes hold of a fundamental choice. The memories that form the soul are the only cost of a power that no vampire should ever hold. What would you choose? The commanding touch of a welcome stranger, or a fleeting memory that may hold the essence of what makes you unique.The Redgold Series as a whole:For fifty years, Zack has loved Kyli. Until one fateful day, she was gone. Their romance was everything a romance should be. They met, an attraction kept them together, they fought, they broke up, they longed, they reunited, and in time they married and were able to seek out all the joys life had to offer. Destiny bought them together and fate was cruel enough to tear them apart. Nothing could keep them away from each other. Not pain, distance, time, or blood. Especially when you aren't human. Even still, there is a regret in Zack's heart that remembers what happened on that day. It asks for the feelings he wishes he could let go. It offers him all the power in the world, if only to take hold of his soul. For Zack, the past is a fresh, wet, injury that he recalls every night.This is his memory.This is the story of the Demon Vampire.

Jack, Phillip, and Tracy. Three teens living in different parts of the US never having met or even know of each other's lives. Each with their own problems, challenges, and abilities. Soon they will be thrown together on a different realm. A realm where a troubled world under siege is called Kantura.WARNING!!! This Book is a CLIFF HANGER!! Please read the long description.Jack, Phillip, and Tracy. Three teens living in different parts of the US never having met or even know of each other's lives. Each with their own problems, challenges, and abilities. Soon they will be thrown together on a different realm. A realm where a troubled world under siege is called Kantura. The challenges they faced on their world are petty compared to the life and death challenges on Kantura. Can they learn to work together in time to save Kantura and in turn save their own world?WARNING!!! This Book is a CLIFF HANGER!! It is written in the style of many book series. It will leave you hanging at a critical junction! But do not worry; I will not leave you hanging forever. Krae (book 2) is already in the works. Krae, coming around mid/end of July 2011, Krae will be priced at $2.99.

At the Angler’s Rest, a bucolic English pub, drinking hot scotch and lemon, sits one of Wodehouse’s greatest raconteurs. Mr. Mulliner tells fabulous stories of the extraordinary behaviour of his far-flung family.

Have you wondered what the first glider flight was like? It happened in 875 A.D. and Abbas Ibn Firnas was the one who accomplished the feat.Angela Dawson lives in a tiny apartment on the tenth floor, with white walls, a window full of lies, and a hidden camera in the corner of the ceiling. All the coffee and pancakes in the world couldn't make her choose her current residence over a soggy, cardboard box in the back of a flea-infested alley. Of course, she doesn't have that option. Angie has been raised in the captivity of The Facility for as long as she can remember. Though she is able to manipulate elements, The Facility took measures, after her first failed escape attempt, to prevent the use of her abilities outside of testing: Electro-Cuffs. They are as painful and deterring as the name suggests, and the ever-present threat of electrocution ensures that Angie's power is anything other than her own. Now, almost eighteen years old and with no hope of escape, Angie has surrendered to her life of testing, poking, and prodding within the thirty-floor, underground prison. That is, until a suspicious, young psychologist is hired to crack open her most protected secret; the locations of the five others like herself, to whom she is connected in her dreams. Faced with decisions based on trust, love, deceit, and breakfast foods, Angie's transformation into an adult—and into a human being—is far more extraordinary than she could have ever imagined within the suffocating walls that raised her.

A bus explodes near the Pentagon and triggers a massive search for the bomber. After a manhunt across four continents, a special CIA unit searching for the world’s most wanted terrorist discovers an imminent plot to bring nuclear carnage to the United States. But all is not as it seems to be as the unlikeliest of heroes must prevent the nuclear attack and risk his life to do so.A young American-born Muslim offers a silent prayer to Allah before getting up from his seat on a bus just outside Washington, DC. He leaves behind a backpack. Within minutes, the bus explodes near the Pentagon.The largest attack in the United States since 9/11 paralyzes the country. The FBI quickly identifies Hassan al-Zaid as the primary suspect. A search of his home reveals bomb-making equipment and a taped confession in which he pledges allegiance to as-Sirat, the world's most dangerous terrorist group, and its elusive leader Omar Bashir.Before the massive manhunt even begins, Hassan al-Zaid manages to slip out of the country. But a special unit of CIA terrorist hunters is on his tail and follows him across four continents to Pakistan. Once there, a member of the team discovers that as-Sirat is just days away from carrying out a nuclear attack on the United States. Having lost all ways to communicate with the rest of the unit, he has to risk everything to relay the information back home and stop the terrorists from carrying out their plan.

set in Tsarist Russian milieux — reveal noted author's skills in character, nuance and setting development. Includes "The Black Monk" (1894), "The House with the Mezzanine" (1896), "The Peasants" (1897), "Gooseberries" (1898) and "The Lady with the Toy Dog" (1899).

This is the novelization of the fall television premiere of a Buffy The Vampire Slayer spin-off series featuring the hunky, brooding vampire known as Angel, played by David Boreanaz. Angel can never again love Buffy without losing his soul and reverting to the ferocious vampire he once was. So he packs his bag and heads off to Los Angeles in search of a purpose.

When Brick and Spiritwind drunkenly head out into the universe for a dance and takeaway food, they awake enrolled at Evil University, and after the Vice-Chancellor takes a liking to the pair's philosophy, he sets about making them the new ideological hope for all mischief.Given a tip for a galactic hot spot, complete with dance floor and attached takeaway, Brick and Spiritwind head towards Fluffy McCoy's with a smile and a chat up-line beneath each sleeve; unfortunately, They's drunken memory tells their ship to go to Huffy LeRoy's by mistake: a bus depot with a dilapidated pub, hanging on for sanity and rare custom.Determined to have fun wherever they are, Brick and Spiritwind pull up a chair at Bozo and Schmuk's booth, two beasts of defiant size who are off to start a henchman training course at Evil University; as politeness spills forth and drink flows, the heroes offer the monstrous duo a lift. When they awake the next morning, they find themselves enrolled on the megalomaniac course, under threat of a thousand pinches and eternal headlocks should they try to leave. Adopting the pseudonyms of Dag Nammit and Corsetry Overload, they opt for study over pain.Nicole Extravaganza and Suzy Fantastic had recently been promoted to grade three heroes, and as such had to cash in their outdated nemesis at Velos 19, the hub of hero admin and ego driven rhetoric. Discovering their nemesis had given up day to day Evil, they hear he now works as the Chancellor at Evil University, and head to the planet that houses the academia of the naughty. Whilst there, they stumble across Brick and Spiritwind's room and overhear the pair mentioning their true identities as grade five heroes. Convinced they could gain further promotion, they offer to help.Hugo Cortizone, the popstar of the hero world, has a monumental crush on the two female heroes, a crush they repeatedly spurn. When his scanners see their ship at Evil University, he considers it his duty to pay them a visit and check they're safe, and maybe to hang around long enough to try and woo a snog out of one of them, or both.Dip Sing Doolally, the chancellor and nemesis in question, decides the institution needs a figurehead for potential students to aspire to, and to increase revenue. He instructs his vice-chancellor, Spon Dooliks, to find one from the current intake and elevate their reputation through manipulated drama.Spon had always envied Good's professional and well thought out approach to the battle of light and darkness, not like Evil with its flawed plans and flippant security measures, so when he spots the heroic nature of Brick and Spiritwind, he believes he's found a duo who can not only be the new hope for bad, but also shift the entire ethos towards greater success. Dip finds the pair little more than annoying and insists they can only be used if they are martyred after achieving whatever Spon intends them to achieve. He wishes to use their memory as an icon rather than the duo themselves.The final assessment for the megalomaniac course is to take over an Earth planet in the early twenty-first century. From their Evil base, a pub by a picturesque canal, Brick and Spiritwind plan to steal the internet and infect it with the news that they now rule the world.With countless pseudonyms and missions overlapping, heroic narrative struggles to make sense of the unfolding adventure, but with a pen and paper, and the odd shot of rum, it slowly falls into place as Good and Evil battle with their own identities as much as each other.

Teenage werewolf Kalix MacRinnalch is pursued through the streets of London by murderous hunters, while in the Scottish Highlands there's trouble at Castle MacRinnalch as the Werewolf Clan prepares for war.

Welcome to a future where long-distance travel involves nothing more than stepping into a booth. Unfortunately, for one man this tiny step is a giant barrier ...Welcome to a future where long-distance travel involves nothing more than stepping into a booth. Unfortunately, for one man this tiny step is a giant barrier ... Martin stared in wonder at the mirrored surface suspended between the chrome arches. They were the teleporters! He'd imagined something more robust, more ... sci-fi. He felt a weight lift from his shoulders, a tight knot unfurling in his stomach. After all his worries, it looked as safe as crossing the road.Tell that to a hit and run victim, said a tiny voice inside his skull. But it sounded plaintive now, lacking the wisdom and authority which had plagued him every night for the past week.A 2000-word short story from the author of the Hal Spacejock series

A little down-time as the crew waits to see if their captain will pull through, and 'Freya's' First Officer reflects on revenge, survival, and his lack of compassion.Young children cannot grasp some abstract concepts. They simply do not understand death. The idea of the disappearance of a loved one, the wonderful friend who is a pet, for instance, it is difficult to accept. But what if this disappearance is only apparent, because the pet soul will return as another animal? It could be a wild animal, or a domestic one? A funny or an annoying one? This short story will propose scenarios and link together happy memories, meant to bring a smile through tears.Following A New Pet in the Family, Bookata addresses the end of the life cycle in My Pet is Gone. With this new addition, Bookata’s collection covers the full range of family-child-pet dynamics, introducing elements from the child’s environment to create unique, personalized books.

The Fisher is a short story set in the early 21st century about a man in the mountains of Colorado. A young man struggling to find a balance between modern society and the joys of nature.Please note, this is a short story.Luke and James are nine-year-old twin brothers. Being lost in the dark is not on their list of things to do. They would prefer not to share their sleeping bags with a snake. And they don’t want to spend their school holidays with their eccentric Aunt Lucy, in the middle of nowhere. The boys face daunting and exciting challenges when they find themselves lost and alone in pitch-black tunnels and caves inhabited by spiders, lizards, bats and glow worms. They will need to face their deepest fears and draw strength and courage from places deep within themselves. This is an adventure story about being bad-mannered, self-centred and scared, and also about being friendly, considerate and courageous. It’s about finding the best part of yourself and liking who you discover yourself to be. This story is a page turner for young people getting into their first novels.

Three years after Fitzwilliam Darcy married Elizabeth Bennet, a failing Anne de Bourgh takes advantage of peace between England and France to spend a warm winter in Naples. Accompanied by a mysterious gentleman and a doting doctor with secrets of his own, Anne flees a new war and commences a voyage home that will change forever the life of one of literature’s most famous third wheels. Vol. 1 of 3.Pride and Prejudice and Pirates….It is a truth universally understood—but never acknowledged—that an heiress with no husband and no prospects is an object of derision and pity.And an heiress who had a prospect—for decades—but her intended was stolen away by a rival with no family, no money, and no connections, is so profoundly to be pitied that she must not even be talked about behind her back.Except, of course, if she is not in town.And most definitely if she is the daughter of that imperious old harridan, Lady Catherine de Bourgh.Three years after her cousin Fitzwilliam Darcy broke their engagement to marry Elizabeth Bennet, Anne de Bourgh’s life is sputtering to a halt. With failing health and a cloudy future, in desperation she takes advantage of a peace treaty between England and France to spend a warm winter in the Italian kingdom of Naples. But when war erupts, Anne and her party must scramble to find safe passage back to England. Accompanied by a mysterious gentleman from Naples and a doting young doctor with secrets of his own, Anne de Bourgh commences a voyage that will change forever the life of one of literature’s most famous third wheels. Pulled from the shadowy recesses of Pride and Prejudice and thrust into the spotlight of her own story, a woman with no wit, no vivacity, no charm—and the mother of all mothers—will seek her only, slim chance at happiness.

No one escapes The Great War, not even the stars themselves!3rd book in the BALADA series..........“When I dream of the stars, do they dream of me……………….of anything?” From his perch on what could be considered the top side of the ship, Metternich took in that small fragment of the vast visual wonder of the universe. He could see the light of countless stars that where so old they exploded hundreds of millions of millennia ago, yet continued to shine brightly in the night’s sky, the endless clouds of nebulas that from this distance seemed no bigger that a speck of dust, the great planets of the system he was passing, all shining brightly from the light of their sun, all with their unique beauty. The gas giants, whose immense gravitational pulls could shatter any comet that threatened its smaller brethren and had moons larger than planets that could sustain life. There where celestial bodies, that where so close to the sun that no water exited on them, instead there where rains made out of mercury and oceans of melted iron, inhabiting its surface. The distant bodies of the outer edge planets that during their many millennia long orbit moved so far away from the sun, that the atmosphere would freeze, encasing them in a giant shield of ice, giving the impression that some Titan had been here and created these wondrous sculptures for all mortals to look before them in wonder. And this was just one small speck, of one tiny fragment, of a single flake, from a great field of snow that was the great beauty of the galaxy and of the universe. Far beyond this system, he knew that there laid other things of wonder and beauty, to great to have ever been imaging by mere mortals, but was the creation of something grander than themselves. He gazed into infinity and although he could not see them directly, he knew that before him lay things like diamonds the size of planets, systems with multiple suns that graced them with eternal protection from the darkness of night. Worlds that left their stars and where now wondering the vastness of space, galaxies than seemed to be forever stationary but where forever moving, some were on a collision with each other, one that took thousands of years for it to begin, millions of years for them to finally meet, and a billion trillion years for the offspring of such a union to exist, until it too eventually finds its own pair. There where ice planets than burned hotter than any fire and bodies of fire that where colder than any winter, gas giants than rained diamonds, vast bodies of space dust clouds that stretched for light years and tasted like raspberries. Oceans that could encompass whole star systems, a cluster of stars and mass so great that the laws of physics’ denied its existence, yet there it had been for countless eons, ever present, ever defiant! Beyond where Titanic black holes, who generated massive thunderstorms, that could engulf anything. There was somewhere out there, stars bigger than any sun, as a sun is bigger than a speck of sand on a beach. There would be a great field of gas and matter, which existed from the very first moment of creation and would no doubt would sound the final rally, when the twilight of all would come. There would be countless bubbles of space and time always being born into existence, growing, expanding, popping, and from their remains new ones would emerge, each one of them was a universe that was new and young one moment and a whisper latter it would be old and then dying, only to be replaced by the next one. Nothing but a passing moment in the infinity of space, but an eternity among eternities for mere mortals! Despite all these wonders, the gaze of the young Commodore always shifted back towards the rear of his fleet, where the mighty Volunian host was chasing him. A fleet that was at least 15.000 ships strong moved through this system with a speed many times that of light, and as a cause of that they actually outran their own image. From the journal of Deux,

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Hamlet, William Shakespeare A land of shadows, of mystery, of obfuscated Truth. Welcome to the Greylands, that strange world, within the bounds of Time, peopled by mortal men. We cannot see truly, only as through a glass, darkly. Discover a collection of stories inspired by such imaginings.A land of shadows, of mystery, of obfuscated Truth. Welcome to the Greylands, that strange world, within the bounds of Time, peopled by mortal men. We cannot see truly, only as through a glass, darkly. There are things that move and have their being completely beyond our ability to perceive them. There are things beyond our mortal ability to comprehend. There are hints and glimmers hidden within the body of revealed Truth, but there is much we do not know, cannot yet understand, and could never dare dream. These stories are mere fancy, with a seed of Truth at their core. They play with the ideas of mortality and Eternity, Time and things beyond it, and of course the epic battle of Good against Evil. Each stands alone, and though there are common themes, threads, names, and concepts, each story is an entity unto itself and should not be seen as occurring in the same world or mistaken for installments of a series. These are random musings, not Gospel Truth, and should not be taken as such. Joy, hope, and encouragement are hopefully a byproduct, but certainly not sound Theology. If you would know more of the true world beyond these Greylands, one must be a careful student of the Scriptures, not of silly stories such as these.