The luminous novella and stories in The Age of Grief explore the vicissitudes of love, friendship, and marriage with all the compassion and insight that have come to be expected from Jane Smiley, the Pulitzer Prize—winning author of A Thousand Acres. In “The Pleasure of Her Company,” a lonely, single woman befriends the married couple next door, hoping to learn the secret of their happiness. In “Long Distance,” a man finds himself relieved of the obligation to continue an affair that is no longer compelling to him, only to be waylaid by the guilt he feels at his easy escape. And in the incandescently wise and moving title novella, a dentist, aware that his wife has fallen in love with someone else, must comfort her when she is spurned, while maintaining the secret of his own complicated sorrow. Beautifully written, with a wry intelligence and a lively comic touch, The Age of Grief captures moments of great intimacy with grace, clarity, and indelible emotional power. From the Trade Paperback edition.

This ia a previously-published edition - ASIN: B078N6N4ZB This book was part of The Vault: A Sinfully Sexy Collection. Erika Ellis is available to everyone, each night, on their TV—news at five-thirty and again at six o’clock. Viewers think they know her. They don’t, not like I do. I’ve watched her—closer than the others—not only on the news, but at all hours of the day and night. I’ve taken my time and learned her routines and her secrets. I know what she needs. I’ll bring her fantasies to life, even the ones she’s yet to realize. I’ll be the one to teach her that in submission there is power. She’ll understand that she doesn’t need accolades from her viewers or the world. She doesn’t need to be primped and primed. My praise is what she’ll live for. Bound and helpless is where her freedom will be found. The truth behind the stage makeup and faux laugh is that she’s mine—nothing she can do or say will change that. She doesn’t know my unconventional plans. That’s okay. She will. It’s time to make my move. I’m Victor Cross, the only man for the job. From New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author Aleatha Romig comes the fun, lighter story with a classic Aleatha darker twist, Unconventional. Have you been Aleatha’d?

Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well. For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning graduate teaching prizes for her highly selective seminar at Syracuse, where she mentored such future hit authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas. In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and “black belt sinner,” providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre. Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers’ experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr’s own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told— and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate. Joining such classics as Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today’s most popular literary forms—a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.

Russ Devereaux used to have it all—loving father, beautiful best friend, a carefree life in a town he loved, and strong magic. He was the king of his happy universe. Five months ago, that life was taken from him. Do not pass Go. Do not collect two hundred dollars. He’s spent months fighting back and building himself a new life, in a new city, with new friends he now considers family. But suddenly, his new life might be in jeopardy of getting shot straight to hell just like the last one. Literally, this time. He’s discovered power inside of him—an ancient, dark power that he shouldn’t have, can’t explain, can’t control, and definitely needs to keep secret. He needs answers, but before he can get them, he finds himself arrested and on his way to face the supernatural council. The same council that stole everything from him the first time. As Russ struggles to keep his new power under wraps, his old life and he new one are about to collide and it’s bound to be explosive. He may not have all the answers he needs, but one thing is certain: he’ll be damned if anyone is taking his new life from him. That is, if he’s not just plain damned.

The heartbreaking true story of a young, troubled mother who needed help. The sixteenth fostering memoir by Cathy Glass. It is the first time Laura has been out since the birth of her baby when Cathy sees her in the school playground. A joyful occasion but Cathy has the feeling something is wrong. By the time she discovers what it is, it is too late. This is the true story of Laura whose life touches Cathy's in a way she could never have foreseen. It is also the true stories of little Darrel, Samson and Hayley who she fosters when their parents need help. Some stories can have a happy ending and others cannot, but as a foster carer Cathy can only do her best.

Four breathtakingly romantic tales of a Regency Christmas from four bestselling romance authors. Including stories by Shana Galen, Vanessa Kelly, Anna Campbell and Kate Noble.Down through the years, enchantment touches a tall gray house in Grosvenor Square. The legend of Lady Winterson’s Christmas ball promises true love and happiness to one lucky couple. Who will feel the magic this winter?Four breathtakingly romantic tales of a Regency Christmas from four bestselling romance authors.Down through the years, enchantment touches a tall gray house in Grosvenor Square. The legend of Lady Winterson’s Christmas ball promises true love and happiness to one lucky couple. Who will feel the magic this winter?1803 - The Seduction of a Duchess by Shana GalenRowena Harcourt, the Duchess of Valère, never forgot the handsome footman who helped her escape the French Revolution. For fourteen years, Gabriel Lamarque has loved Rowena—now at Lady Winterson’s Christmas ball, has fate finally delivered a chance to win her hand?1818 - One Kiss for Christmas by Vanessa KellyNigel Dash is London’s most reliable gentleman, a reputation he never minded until he fell in love with beautiful Amelia Easton. Unfortunately, Amelia sees Nigel as a dependable friend, not a dashing suitor. At Lady Winterson’s famous Christmas ball, Nigel vows to change Amelia’s mind—by sweeping her off her feet.1825 - His Christmas Cinderella by Anna Campbell At the season’s most glittering ball, a girl who has never dared to dream of forever after discovers a Christmas miracle.1830 - The Last First Kiss by Kate NobleSusannah Westforth has always loved Sebastian Beckett – but he’s only ever seen her as a friend. When Sebastian takes his Grand Tour, Susannah transforms herself into a woman he’ll notice. Now Sebastian is back, just in time for Lady Winterson's Christmas ball – but the last thing he expects to see is his little Susie, all grown up...You’re invited to join the whirling dance at Lady Winterson’s sparkling Christmas ball, where miracles happen and true love shines forever. How can you resist?

Jacob Smith is a Knight Templar, a secret order dedicated to protecting mankind from demons and the forces of Hell. His territory? The old west. Specifically New Mexico Territory.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.

This free ebook is a sampler of the author's collection "Ooter's Place and Other Stories of Fear, Faith, and Love." This book contains the full introduction and the three stories that start each of the three sections, along with their forewords. The full book contains 13 stories in total.Home alone during a storm, two young brothers play a game to entertain themselves, a game that will quickly spiral out of control, a game that will have consequences as tragic as they are frightening.In a dark alley, a man regains consciousness and discovers that he has superpowers. He can stop bullets with his chest, he can crush steel with his hands, he can even fly! He must be a superhero! The truth, alas, is something very different.A young boy learns that his best friend is an alien. But does that mean they have to stop being friends?This free ebook is a sampler of the author's collection "Ooter's Place and Other Stories of Fear, Faith, and Love." This book contains the full introduction and the three stories that start each of the three sections, along with their forewords. The full book contains 13 stories in total.

A suave baron takes a fancy to twelve-year-old Edgar's mother, while the three are holidaying in an Austrian mountain resort. His initial advances rejected, the baron befriends Edgar in order to get closer to the woman he desires. The initially unsuspecting child soon senses something is amiss, but has no idea of the burning secret that is driving the affair, and that will soon change his life for ever.

A meditation on identity, consumption, and pareidolia. Ninety-five percent true by semi-exact count, contains the word “boudoir” twice, “polaroid” and “french fries” six times apiece, and “ejecta” only once. There are three scenes featuring jazz quintets, two featuring market-research brainstorming, and one each featuring thrift stores, dumpster diving, and internet pornography.When Petra Baron goes into the fortuneteller’s tent at a Renaissance fair, she expects to leave with a date to prom. Instead, she walks out into Elizabethan England, where she meets gypsies, a demon dog and a kindred spirit in Emory Ravenswood. Emory must thwart the plans of religious zealots. His mission is dangerous, his enemies are fanatical, and Petra Baron is a complication that Heaven only knows he does not need. Or does he? Although Emory is on Heaven’s errand, he learned long ago that Heaven does not always play fair. As Petra slowly falls for Emory, she wonders if he really is who he seems, or if he is just as lost as she is. How can they have a future while trapped in the past? Or is anything possible Beyond the Fortuneteller’s Tent?

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An aspiring writer struggles to publish his books until a special christmas present shows him what he's been missing in his writing and his life.Edar Moncrief: sorcerer and scholar extraordinaire. To the outside world, he is a peddler of love potions and wart remover – after all, one has to make a living. Behind closed doors, he is a dangerous and powerful sorcerer specializing in the laws and function of the mysterious energy known as manna.When he trips over a body in the streets of Elenia, he discovers that the corpse belongs to none other than an Arbiter, the mysterious wielders of the crystal swords rarely seen in his part of the world. The loss of life is his gain, though, when he finds the opportunity to examine the most precious and rare artifact in the world: the Arbiter’s heartblade.To his misfortune, that same opportunity brings him face-to-face with the spectre of death. Another Arbiter, D’Arden Tal, has found him, and believes he is responsible for the killing. Edar’s only hope is to find and catch a murderer in the streets of the most decadent and deadly city in the Old Kingdoms, before Tal declares him responsible and kills him instead…From the author of Elegy and The Corpse King comes this brand new novelette set in the dark fantasy world called Eisengoth, where dark and terrible things fill the night, and only the Arbiters possess the power to drive back the horrors that threaten to consume the world.

(hints) is a collection of ten poems. Each piece features a unique hint in parenthesis at the end of each title. These hints vary in how they are set up, and offer different views to consider while reading. Themes include specific religious beliefs, and a glimpse into my story of living with bipolar disorder. My goal with these poems is to walk the line where delusion and reality collide. Cheers.Status updating…Time and Space breached…Data leak detected…The archives of The Numbered Entity Project have opened in this membrane of existence for the very first time. Inside the, at once both infinitesimal and infinity-spanning, data stores wait the tale of rogues, outcasts and 'others.' Those whose time was numbered but refused to 'know their place.' Those who tried, for better or worse, to change their respective worlds of swords and magic, steam and musket, or nanotechnology. The Project records all, in tribute to Time and Space.Jaime has waited his whole life for the chance to change the world. Armed with a discrete bio-weapon, he prepares to assassinate the Great Sir of the Seven Systems and free millions from industrial serfdom. But Jaime is on a one way trip, a journey that will force him to sever his ties to the one he loves most. His ideals will be tested to breaking when brought to bear against that love, a love which could tear Seven Systems apart.

Metal Fatigue is an anthology of stories relating to prison, incarceration, hopelessness and hope. These are largely first person accounts of survival behind bars and give a visceral look at what it means to do time. The stories present a critical look at the prison system and the stats for those held behind bars. A child lost to the system, a father’s plea for reconnection.Metal Fatigue is an anthology of stories relating to prison, incarceration, hopelessness and hope. These are largely first person accounts of survival behind bars and give a visceral look at what it means to do time. The stories present a critical look at the prison system and the stats for those held behind bars. A child lost to the system, a father’s plea for reconnection.EXCERPT:Jimmy passed his eighteenth birthday locked inside a cold, stinky cell in the obsolete old city jail. The toilet obviously didn’t work, an issue probably for several years… running.He thoughtfully reflected on his dry-humor pun. Besides, no one locked up ever flushes the motherfucking john. Never. Revoltingly putrid fecal matter, left in desperation by prisoners with nowhere else to go, overflowed and formed a vile puddle at a low spot in the frigid concrete floor. The prison smelled like shit. Smelled worse than shit. His own more recent addition was beginning to decay.If Jimmy had been home for his birthday, no doubt his father would’ve treated him to a steak dinner at The Outback; and perhaps a ballgame at the stadium afterword. Instead, Jimmy celebrated with foul-tasting water—grey water reprocessed from sewer waste—and several slices of stale bread upon which a near-microscopic dab of something resembling peanut-butter could be found sticking near the center—if one studied it closely, of course. The rancid bread was always stale in this place, just like the air, thick with mildew and the smell of unwashed bodies. It all mixed with the reeking toilet to produce an odor more disgusting than sweaty armpit pubes set on a smoldering fire.Tonight, for the most part, a stifling quiet lingered throughout the cellblock. The only sounds being the incidental shout of a guard, the muffled moan from a prisoner, or the occasional fart from either. Every so often, a cell door clanked open, followed by scuffling noises signaling a new prisoner’s arrival.Two weeks forever, he’d sat there in solitary now. But he still wasn’t so desperate as other prisoners on the cellblock who would actually shit themselves just for a laugh. Two weeks plus three lonely days, he reminded himself, marking off another day on the wall with the sharp edge of a small stone, chipped away from a section of rotting-old concrete. He made the mark with an awkward jab of his left hand. His right arm hung broken, suspended in a dirty sling he’d torn from an old rag.Sinking down onto the cold concrete slab that served as a bed, Jimmy leaned his head against the wall and shut his eyes. He figured it might be nine o’clock… or thereabout, although he really couldn’t be sure. Maybe ten. His watch had disappeared on intake at R&D receiving the first day, along with all his other personal effects… confiscated for “purposes of security” by the prison R&D guards. Problem was, they’d never listed his expensive Rolex watch on that property receipt they’d forced him to sign under the threat of tossing him in solitary stripped naked.Any questions about time, or anything, for that matter, brought only taunts and trouble from the guards. Especially the big one called ‘Boiler Bob’—so named by the prisoners for those angry-looking boils in evidence on the back and both sides of his incredibly thick neck.“What’s time to a prison roach?” Boiler Bob would mock, his furry broken teeth bared in a cruel laugh. “Hah, I know! I bet you’re impatient for your next fine meal… is that it?” Invariably he and the other guards goaded the prisoners about the food: food so foul even the cockroaches all passed around it in wide arcs.

Mia was given a baby pigeon by the porter of Astor Court, the building where Mia lived. She named the pigeon Peepers and called Rita a wildlife doctor. With the help of Rita, Mia was able to find Peepers a new home where she could learn to be a bird. The other pigeons didn't accept Peepers until Hubert came to the aviary. Peepers and Hubert found true love and a true home in the New York skies.Mia was given a baby pigeon by the porter of her apartment house, Astor Court. She named it Peepers because it peeped so much.She called the neighborhood Wildlife Bird Fund and spoke to her mothers friend Rita a wildlife doctor. When Rita was able to check it over, she pronounced it in good health. Rita suggested that it go to live with another patient of hers, Squeaks so Peepers could learn to be a bird. The guardian of Squeaks lived in the grand Hooper Cooper Mansion and so Mia thought that surely Peepers would be leading a life of leisure. When Mia arrived at the mansion everything was in renovation and the place looked like a dinosaur had sneezed tossing everything this way and that. The other pigeons didn't accept Peepers until one day a black pigeon named Hubert came to the aviary. Peepers and Hubert became instant friends and found true love and their true palace in the New York skies.