Weekly summary of soap opera's hottest news, stories, humour, gossip, blind items, breaking news, snark galore, and analysis.INSIDE: Major Exodus: Which GH Leading Ladies Will Quit — And Be Fired? E!’s newest star Nadia Bjorlin: Her DAYS Future (“It Still Stings A Bit!”), Dirty Soap (“My Mom Loves Me!”), and Venice news (“Half-hour Episodes”)! Maggie’s Secret Child on DAYS! Maria Arena Bell: Chaos Behind The Scenes! Trevor St. John’s New Role! Plus: Victor’s killer revealed! More Gay Headed DAYS’s Way! 2011 Katie Couric on her new soap-killing talk show! Avery… and Y&R’s Nick? Last week’s Soap Reviews; Next Week’s Preview Cheat Sheet! And every week: Unbelievable Blind Items!

This is a historic novel about Coenraad de Buys and his quest to find the African cities of gold.This is the incredible adventure of a giant that found himself at the frontiers of his world. Born in the Cape, South Africa, he gradually moved east to became an advisor to the King of the Xhosas, then ended up having an affair with the Kings mother. He soon crossed the Gariep river looking for new hunting grounds that led him to the edge of the Kalahari desert as Chief of the Springbok-Korannas. Bushmen stories from his childhood and his discovery of the lost cities of the Kalahari all pointed to trade with far-away countries. Myths, stories, ruins, Jews living in the Zoutpansberg and age-old tracks in the bush point to the elusive land of Ophir with its wealth in gold and diamonds.... Did Coenraad discover the mines used by King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba?

From the 2010 Penguin Ireland Short Story Competition short-listed author comes a collection of fourteen hint, nano, micro and flash fiction stories.From the 2010 Penguin Ireland Short Story Competition short-listed author comes a collection of fourteen hint, nano, micro and flash fiction stories, including:'Rainbow'A young man tempts fate to prove that his is more than his father's son.'The Good Boy'What befalls you when you don't listen to your parent's warnings?'Both'A couple's life falls apart in one hundred and forty characters.'To Delight in Mahler'A look into the depths of human emotion at play.'The Way Not To Wish'A tale of the relationship between a young boy and his father as they deal with an overwhelming loss.

Rejecting the advice of the wizard Varthlokkur and spymaster Michael Trebilcock, King Bragi Ragnarson of Kavelin joins Chatelain Mist's coup against the Dread Empire. Ragnarson dangles the fate of his nation in the jaws of his foes, refusing to see that his one true enemy may be himself.

Fiction based on fact of the late 50's early 60's Rock n Roll industry. by Terry AspinallThis story is fiction, however it is based on a collection of events that actual happened to me or some of my musician friends during my 50 years in the music industry.The story takes you back to the late 50's and through to the early swinging sixties, when the musical world suddenly awoke to the sounds of a new musical revolution that was emerging from all parts of England. Johnny Morris and the Convertibles were part of that revolution that took them on one hell of a wild ride, as they slowly made their way to the top of their profession. While enjoying the brighter side of life along the way, they often fell victim to the darker side, that lay in wait, and in the end, it became their undoing.This is a personal account of how Johnny Morris remembers his rise and fall.

Welcome back to Cottontail Pines where animals talk, and there’s always a friend around the next corner. In this story, Blacky the skunk preforms a heroic act that gets the attention of the entire town. Will it go straight to his head? Read “Blacky the Hero” by T.K. Wade to find out!“Adventures of Cottontail Pines” is a new series of children’s stories by T.K. Wade. In “Blacky the Hero,” a normally grumpy skunk saves the day when a wolf threatens one of his friends on the outskirts of town. Even though he never meant for it to happen, the entire town hails him as a hero. Unfortunately, the fame goes straight to his head, and he starts forgetting the very friends he cared about in the first place. Will Blacky learn his lesson before he hurts someone’s feelings? Read on to find out!

Do you believe that knowing about someone's childhood will help you to understand them? John Verry has become a very precise man, comfortable within his perfectly timed and arranged little world. But what led him to this? And as an author, do I really have any control over him?'John Very' is a short story playing with and enjoying the relationship between author and character.These two short stories examine the hidden lives of outsiders from society - people who are put on the outside because of mental illness. Their remarkable stoicism and the valuable contributions they can make are put on display here, for the reader to consider.We all know by now that the mentally ill suffer from cruel and crude stereotypes and stigmas of being "defective," "crazy," and "weak", as well as a still-pervasive belief that they are generally prone to committing crimes. Here are two portraits of mentally ill people that show how they often do stand aside from mainstream society, yet inject that mainstream with important insights and inspiration.In the first story, "The Exalted Mortals," Lester, a young man with schizophrenia, finds through the darkness his niche in the world of art - he makes as his subjects the mentally ill and other people with disabilities, conveying to his audiences what contributions the disabled make, and how they strive to love be loved just as others do. He finds in the efforts of the disabled remarkable examples of what the human spirit is capable of, and there is the implication that even more could be accomplished if the seen and unseen barriers to the disabled were lowered.The second story, "Strange Jill," shines a light on the unique perspective of a mentally ill school girl, who knows what "cool" really is, and tries to teach a curious schoolmate what knowing is all about in this world.Neither story contains adult or otherwise explicit content, though the themes might best be discussed with the younger reader.

Melissa is excited about starting school. She has a new uniform and feels very grown up. But when the classroom door opens suddenly she wants to go home. But once the day begins she makes new friends and, best of all, meets Bumble, the Cry Bear, who lives in the comfy corner and soaks up all their tears.The Cry Bear tells of a child’s first day at school. Melissa is excited. She has been looking forward to starting Reception Class for a long time. She is wearing her new uniform and her very own lunch box. She feels very grown up. Then suddenly she doesn't want her Mummy to leave. She doesn't want to have to go into the classroom all by herself. She wants to go home.A little girl called Riana makes friends and soon Melissa has forgotten all about feeling sad. Riana seems to know everything about school. Melissa asks her about a curtained area at the back of the classroom through which she can see a large bear sitting on a comfy chair. Riana tells her that is the comfy corner. Melissa is none the wiser. Just before home time a naughty little boy called Trevor rips up a painting she has done to take home to Mummy. Melissa starts to cry. She is taken to the comfy corner to meet Bumble, the Cry Bear. Soon all her tears are gone.

Adele has a dream to be a professional show-jumper. An unexpected accident on her beloved horse, Gypsy, puts Adele in a dark frame of mind. Will she find a way to move on from the tragedy, or will Adele never ride again?Time Code: The Best Collection of 52 Stories You Should Be Reading This YearThe stories in ‘Time Code: The Best Collection of 52 Stories You Should Be Reading This Year’ are:1- Big Bang Serenade2- Mercury Heaven3- Twilight's Last Gleaning4- Ginkey's Garden5- White Van6- Finding Footprints7- Timid Bunny8- Red Moon9- Some Pig10- When the Doorbell Rings11- Slush Pile12- To Whom It May Concern13- Blood Draw14- Are We Superman?15- Moon Tweets from the Sea of Tranquility, 196916- Time Code17- The Ink Beneath18- Christmas Poinsettias19- After the Last Showing20- September Remembered21- Grafting In the Dark22- Test of a Lifetime23- Coffee Lover, Muffin Lover24- Pink Unicorn Gunfight at the O.K. Corral25- All I Want For Christmas...Beets26- Sitting Next to the Bug27- Sir John Falstaff Pleads With HAL: A Sonnet Not Penned By the Bard nor an Odyssey Presented By Kubrik28- Mac Morris…Sick Day29- Maidens and Monsters; Tokyo Footfalls30- The Typist31- There goes a Tenner...Beans32- Excellent to Bad and Everything In-Between: A Quick Glance at Fredrick Culvert-Owen’s Credit Score33-Eating Acrylic Pancakes with the Dictators at IHOP on my Birthday34 -Fallen Hero35- Girl Wrestler36- Everything is Clear37- Five Voice Mail Messages38- Tourists of Apocalypse39- Yellow Hair Lures Them All40- Writer's Time41- After the Game42- Home Renovation TV43- Bard's Muse44- Fan Fic45- Conan the Barber46- Let's Make A Yggdrasil Tree Deal47- Z-Garten48- Stupid Fucking Story49- Free Range Human50- Sounds of Segregation51- Nemo Found52- Nona’s Christmas Cookies

For thirty years, Robert Ludlum's novels have set the standard for the finest in international intrigue and suspense. With an unbroken string of bestsellers in almost every country in the world, his books have been enjoyed by hundreds of millions of readers and are widely acknowledged as classics in the field. Now, after the bestselling Covert-One novels The Hades Factor and The Cassandra Compact, comes the third thrilling novel in the series. A fiery explosion in the dark of night shatters one of the laboratory buildings in Paris's esteemed Pasteur Institute. Among the dead is Emile Chambord, one of the leaders in the global race to create a molecular or DNA computer. Unfortunately, Professor Chambord kept the details of his work secret, and his notes were apparently destroyed in either the bomb blast or the raging fire that followed. Under the cover of visiting his friend Marty Zellerbach, who was severely injured when the Pasteur lab was destroyed, Covert-One agent Jon Smith flies to Paris to search for the connection between the Pasteur explosion and the forces now wielding the computer. Following a trail that leads him across two continents, Smith uncovers a web of deception that threatens to wreck havoc and forever reshape the world.

A chilling story of ambition, Daphne du Maurier's third novel has lost none of its ability to unsettle and disturb. Julius Lévy has grown up in a peasant family in a village on the banks of the Seine. A quick-witted urchin caught up in the Franco-Prussian War, he is soon forced by tragedy to escape France for Algeria. Once there, he learns the ease of swindling, the rewards of love affairs, and the value of secrecy. Cruel and insensitive, Julius claws his way to the top, caring nothing for others--until his daughter, Gabriel, is born. Julius' attachment to her will become his strongest bond--and his greatest weakness.

Continuing the subversive self-revelation begun in Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Henry Miller takes readers along a mad, free-associating journey from the damp grime of his Brooklyn youth to the sun-splashed cafes and squalid flats of Paris. With incomparable glee, Miller shifts effortlessly from Virgil to venereal disease, from Rabelais to Roquefort. In this seductive technicolor swirl of Paris and New York, he captures like no one else the blending of people and the cities they inhabit.

Abducted from her West African village at the age of eleven and sold as a slave in the American South, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom - and of finding her way home again. After escaping the plantation, torn from her husband and child, she passes through Manhattan in the chaos of the Revolutionary War, is shipped to Nova Scotia, and then joins a group of freed slaves on a harrowing return odyssey to Africa. Based on a true story, Lawrence Hill's epic novel spans three continents and six decades to bring to life a dark and shameful chapter in our history through the story of one brave and resourceful woman.

*Hello! * We've met before... Yes, I am sure. Positive. About ten years ago. Stuart's right. We have met before, and his best friend Oliver, and Gillian, the woman they both loved. In Talking it Over Gillian and Stuart were married until Oliver - witty, feckless Oliver - stole her away. In Love, etc Julian Barnes revisits the three of them, using the same intimate technique of allowing the characters to speak directly to the reader, to whisper their secrets, to argue for their version of the truth. Darker and deeper than its predecessor, Love, etc is a compelling exploration of contemporary love and its betrayals.

Week after week, the postcards arrive, addressed to a name Ellie does not know, with no return address, each signed with an initial: A. With their bright skies, blue seas and alluring images of Greece, these cartes postales brighten her life. After six months, to her disappointment, they cease. But the montage she has created on the wall of her flat has cast a spell. She must see this country for herself. On the morning Ellie leaves for Athens, a notebook arrives. Its pages tell the story of a man's odyssey through Greece. Moving, surprising and sometimes dark, A's tale unfolds with the discovery not only of a culture but also of a desire to live life to the full once more.