After his home planet is destroyed Jeff Koenig is given the thankless task of settling a newly terraformed planet, a job that would be much easier of pessimistic Dr. Bella Lawson wasn't predicting the imminent destruction of the planet.The new colony will be out of contact with the rest of humanity for only seventy days, and by Day 1, everything has gone wrong.After alien ships have invaded the human territories, destroying planets and sending the survivors fleeing to Earth, the Terran government orders the refugees to settle a new planet. One that has just been terraformed.Jeff Koenig, one of the few survivors from the Delious system, leads a team of scientists to the planet Dauphin to rebuild his life. They have 70 days until the ship returns with the first wave of colonists, but from Day 1 everything goes wrong.As the days count down, the colonists watch the skies and pray that the Hurluk won't find them, or Earth, before they are rescued.Published in M-BRANE #5 May of 2009

science fiction adventure/warfare novel approx102,000 + wordsLight-years from home, about to carry out a survey of their designated star system. The crew of a survey vessel learn they are now at war with an unknown adversary who has destroyed a sister vessel in another quadrant. All that is known of the enemy is the side-view shape of their giant vessel. Shaped like a letter Z, they are henceforth designated as Zedds, by the Central Command War Council. This then is the prelude to the adventures and the horrors of fighting a war of survival, within a war, on an alien planet. Which would ultimately cost the lives of millions of beings. That has yet to unfold for the unsuspecting crew.

An Ancient Adventure…When Leon begins to have dreams pointing him to the obscure and despondent land of Mordelan, he is reluctant to accept it. But when he discovers the answers to his questions, he does what no man has done in the last forty years. He picks up and journeys to Mordelan to save them from their worst enemy – themselves.Paul and Susan Spencer portray a traditional family setting, fully equipped with four children (and growing). After a typical meatloaf dinner, Susan reveals a special secret that not only surprises the family, but shakes her husband to the core. After a strange turn of events, the family isn't as picture-perfect as they let off.

Featuring A FIRST SHOT FIRED: Part Two and January's Tin Universe Daily collected in one place.A lonely young man finds his world turned upside down after rescuing a biod in the form of a beautiful alien girl with an AI implant. Aidan soon discovers that living out an anime scenario in the real world is not what he had dreamed. When more of her sisters arrive he learns the entire world is under threat from one of their kind who was held in a lab on earth for over a century. Together they decide to take it upon themselves to save the space city as well as the Earth.Fantasy science fiction Suitable for mature teens or adults

On the coast is the quaint village of Crescent Bay. On foggy nights you can see the wispy figure of a woman standing on the gallery of the Crescent Bay lighthouse, searching the sea. Two unsuspecting individuals land in Crescent Bay, a grieving woman seeking her future, and an man longing to bring the lighthouse’s past back to life. But sometimes the past wants to be left alone.On the coast of California between Los Angeles and San Francisco is the quaint village of Crescent Bay. In the past it was an active port for smugglers, but now it serves as a tourist destination for those seeking cute shops, seaside relaxation and nautical history.Part of Crescent Bay's history sits on the outskirts of the village, an abandoned lighthouse overlooking the cliffs.It is said that on foggy nights you can see the wispy figure of a woman standing on the gallery of the lighthouse, searching the sea. Some claim that they have seen her jump over the edge and plunge to her death.Two unsuspecting individuals land in Crescent Bay, a grieving woman seeking her future, and an industrious man longing to bring the lighthouse’s past back to life.But sometimes the past wants to be left alone.

Dianne coughed up a puff of sand as streams fell across her jacket from the hole above. What started as a trek through the wastes had ended down a sink hole and into a dark labyrinth filled with the ghosts of forgotten days. Met with artifacts from before the Blood Order, Dianne pieced together a history she'd been told didn't exist.Meet Kimaya Verma. Born in London, Kimaya is a half-British half-Indian teen with an acceptably normal life. Everything seems to be perfect, until the family next door starts having problems.What seemed to be a simple case of cheating turns out to be more dangerous, and Kimaya is the only one who knows. As things get complicated, Kimaya battles the problems alone - but will she be able to unscramble the mess before it's too late?

" Behind Howard's stories] lurks a dark poetry and the timeless truth of dreams." -RobertBloch" ""Howard's writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks." -Stephen King Theclassic pulp magazines of the early twentieth century are long gone, but their action-packed tales live on through the work of legendary storyteller Robert E. Howard. From his fecund imagination sprang an army oflarger-than-life heroes-including the iconic Conan the Cimmerian, King Kull of Atlantis, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn-as well as adventures that would define a genre for generations. Now comes thesecond volume of this author's breathtaking short fiction, which runs the gamut from sword and sorcery, historical epic, and seafaring pirate adventure to two-fisted crime and intrigue, ghoulish horror, andrip-roaring western. Kull reigns supreme in "By This Axe I Rule " and "The Mirrors of Tuzan Thune"; Conan conquers in one of his most popular exploits, "The Tower of the Elephant"; Solomon Kane battles demons deep in Africa in "Wings in the Night"; and itinerant boxer Steve Costigan puts up his dukes of steel inside and outside thering in "The Bulldog Breed." In between, warrior kings, daring knights, sinister masterminds, grizzled frontiersmen-even Howard's stunning heroine, Red Sonya-tear up thepages in stories built to thrill by their masterly creator. And in such epic poems as "Echoes from an Anvil," "Black Harps in the Hills," and "The GrimLand," the author blends his classic characters and visceral imagery with a lyricism as haunting as traditional folk balladry. Lavishly illustrated by Jim and Ruth Keegan, here is a Robert E. Howard collection asindispensable as it is unforgettable. "Howard had a gritty, vibrant style-broadsword writing that cut its way to the heart, with heroes who are truly larger thanlife." -David Gemmell "For stark, living fear . . . What other writer is even in the running with Robert E. Howard?" -H. P.Lovecraft "From the Trade Paperback edition."

N. D. Wilson, author of Leepike Ridge and 100 Cupboards, returns with an action-packed adventure that will captivate fans of both Percy Jackson and Indiana Jones with lost civilizations, ancient secrets, and buried treasure. For two years, Cyrus and Antigone Smith have run a sagging roadside motel with their older brother, Daniel. Nothing ever seems to happen. Then a strange old man with bone tattoos arrives, demanding a specific room. Less than 24 hours later, the old man is dead. The motel has burned, and Daniel is missing. And Cyrus and Antigone are kneeling in a crowded hall, swearing an oath to an order of explorers who have long served as caretakers of the world's secrets, keepers of powerful relics from lost civilizations, and jailers to unkillable criminals who have terrorized the world for millennia. From the Hardcover edition.

Bloody Rain is a short story set in the 1880s on the sailing ship, Queen Charlotte, in the Hoogly River off the Calcutta and in the Bay of Bengal - a tale of murder, madness and the monsoon.Bloody Rain is a short story set on a sailing ship in the 1880s. The Queen Charlotte was anchored fore and aft off the Calcutta wharves in the Hoogly River, waiting for cargo. She was a fine, three masted iron bark; trim, low and fast on a reach - in all respects, the perfection of the shipbuilder's art. If she had a single great flaw, it was on her quarterdeck in the man that the owners had chosen as captain.Captain John McPherson maintains absolute control over his ship and those who sail upon her. The only one that he cannot control is himself, slipping into murder and madness in the face of the relentless monsoon.

Graham Theakston is a journalist in East Africa just before independence. He’s a bit of a hack, a bit of a boozer, smokes too much and is bullied by both his white boss and his black wife. Despite this, he bumbles along, until a rebel leader takes offence at an article he's written for the local rag.Graham Theakston is a journalist in East Africa just before independence. He’s a bit of a hack, a bit of a boozer, smokes too much and is bullied by both his white boss and his black wife. Despite this, he bumbles along, until a rebel leader takes offence at an article he's written for the local rag.Katife is a book of often dark humour set in a time when Imperialism was going out of fashion, leaving former colonies looking for a new political identity and for new rulers. Any money I make from selling the book is being donated to the charity War Child, though I've kept the price to a minimum in the hope that readers like the book enough to make their own donations and pass the word.

Jed Namara quits a top job to hunt hidden diamonds in Polynesia and discovers pursuing Kami, a local girl, promises even more sparkle.Jed Namara quits a top job and sets out on a madcap hunt for hidden diamonds in a group of Polynesian islands untouched by time. No power, roads, cars, telephones, internet, hotels or bars. Just leaky wooden boats, bullock carts and donkeys for transport. This fast-paced hunt with bad guys on his tail allows time to pursue Kami, a local girl, too.

Two innocent sisters from Sinaloa, taken by human traffickers to California, are separated when one is sold to a new master in Colorado. During each sister's desperate search for the other they learn their bond is stronger than the evil men who control their lives. They learn that many possess the power to kill. But only one learns of an even greater, more elusive power. The power to live.Two innocent sisters from Sinaloa, taken by human traffickers to California, are separated when one is sold to a new master in Colorado. During each sister's desperate search for the other they learn their bond is stronger than the evil men who control their lives. They learn that many possess the power to kill. But only one learns of an even greater, more elusive power. The power to live.Characters:Lozen and Elizabeth.Sisters. During a minor skirmish in their father's drug war, they are taken as POWs. Treated as chattel, they are smuggled into California and forced into the sex slave trade. When one is sold to a new master in Colorado, they are separated. But their bond proves stronger than the evil men, on both sides of the border, who barter with their lives.Napolita. Smuggled across the border with Lozen and Elizabeth and sold to the same club in San Francisco. She grows close like a sister, but when the two blood sisters are separated and embark on separate, desperate searches for each other, Napolita is caught in the middle. She is slowly pulled apart by her circumstances until she is left on the pavement, bleeding and alone.O'Groghan.The top of a criminal empire who could snap your neck with one hand, if that's what it takes.Marcos.Club owner, crime boss, and slave master. He owns Lozen, Elizabeth, Napolita, and many other girls in his San Francisco club. He thinks he rules his little world but when he sells Lozen and Elizabeth and the transfer goes awry, he discovers how wrong he is.Richard von Broughton.Doctor. He worked as a surgeon, sometimes skillfully but oftentimes not, for decades. Upon forced retirement, his thirst for money supplants whatever thirst he had, decades previously, for compassion and humanity. Now he will cut out your eyes and your heart between martinis, avec plaisir.Nancy.A nurse who hands him the scalpel. Vestiges of her maternal instincts remain but they don't fare well in the battle raging inside of her between these instincts and her lust for money.Samantha.Kidnapped at 12 and enslaved by Marcos. All her teen years are spent in servitude. As she grows from a girl into a woman, whatever thoughts of resistance she may have once harbored recede until, by her nineteenth birthday, she is Marcos' madam and keeps the new girls in line for him. She is repaid in a way she could never imagine.Bowery. A 300-pound security chief who keeps the girls in line for Marcos. He maneuvers his bulk with dexterity and skill, but would really just like a damn pair of pants.Chase and Serio.Low level soldiers in Marcos' organization. They are responsible for the transfer of Lozen, Napolita, and Samantha to their new owner. When they bungle the job, they are sacrificed without regret.Steve.Works at his dad's roadside barbecue joint in Nevada. His vision passes through the ultraviolet ugliness that swarms around Lozen and Napolita. It is a wavelength he is not equipped to see. Instead, he sees the two girls for what they are, what they should be, and what they may become.Read how their lives all collide during Lozen's and Elizabeth's desperate search for each other. Read of the many who possess the power to kill, and the one with an even greater, more elusive power. The power to live.

If Lars Marlin had three wishes, two have already been granted: he has escaped from Devil’s Island . . . and he has come face to face with the man who put him there—Paco Corvino.  But the third wish—putting a bullet in Corvino—will have to wait.  They’re off to sea, and not since Fletcher Christian and Captain Bligh set sail on the Bounty have two more heated enemies been in the same boat. Corvino is a convict, con-man and killer who has schemed his way into a position as chief steward on a luxury yacht sailing out of Rio de Janeiro.  And, in a twist as devious as it is diabolical, he’s managed to install Lars—his hated rival—as captain of the very same vessel.  And there are even darker twists to come. . . . Lars is determined to find out what Corvino has up his sleeve . . . and what killer cargo he’s hiding on board.  But the yacht owner’s daughter proves to be a beautiful—and dangerous—distraction. Will Lars be safe in her arms . . . or is she part of Corvino’s plot—a deadly trap set with honey? Like several leading writers of the day, L. Ron Hubbard was invited to Hollywood to write scripts, where his superior talent and productivity attracted numerous lucrative offers from the studios. But, as he wrote in a letter to the editor of Argosy magazine in August 1937: “I love to tie a yarn and try to make it blaze in print. The mags will never lose me to the movies. Never, at any salary!”  And as Argosy gleefully responded in its pages: “Next to exorcise the Hollywood virus from his veins was L. Ron Hubbard. . . . he has set to work to give Argosy some more of his rousing yarns. The first, ‘Cargo of Coffins,’ is due to appear in the November 13th issue, and a serial is likely to follow.”

A fantasy set in Tsarist Russia

Another thrilling episode of Earth! Survivors launch their first counterattack with devastating results and Stanley finally develops a plan.In Episode 8 of Earth, The Hrwang Incursion, survivors launch their first, real counterattack. Wolfgang’s sniper team, after an arduous traverse of the German Alps, moves into position and finds a target beyond their expectations. Eva finds herself deeply entangled with the Lieutenant Grenadier, with devastating consequences. Stanley finds a surprising ally.