This epic saga chronicles the eternal war of the “Others,” an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers who must swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. The agents of the Dark – the Night Watch – oversee nocturnal activity, while the agents of the Light keep watch over the day. For a thousand years both sides have maintained a precarious balance of power, but an ancient prophecy has decreed that a supreme Other will one day emerge, threatening to tip the scales. Now, that day has arrived. When a mid-level Night Watch agent named Anton stumbles upon a cursed young woman – an uninitiated Other with magnificent potential – both sides prepare for a battle that could lay waste to the entire city, possible the world. With language that throbs like darkly humorous hard-rock lyrics about blood and power, freedom and responsibility, Night Watch is a chilling, cutting-edge thriller, a pulse-pounding ride of fusion fiction that will leave you breathless for the next instalment.

Some people want it all, and think they know everything. Oh how wrong they are!Ashden Jaybanks,15, is relieved as he hammers the tack into his final rescue notice. It will no doubt lead to ridicule and bruises from Oscar, but what’s new? And if it saves a soul or two, he can quit in good conscience. Yes, it’s time to give up and concentrate on his mother whose mind has all but gone and whose terrors rule her. It’s also time to grow up...in this world. His plans are thwarted when a strangely forgettable red head witnesses his movement through the gateway under the fig. No-one has ever been able to see his comings and goings to the Timefold before. Could she be the same as him? But why can’t he recall ever seeing her before? Alone in her hideout, Elanora, 13, has been watching Ashden; curious as to how the most bullied kid in school can stand so confidently amongst the roots of the spectral fig when everyone else is scared to death of it. Especially her. When he finally reveals that he can see souls in animal replicas and that she has an unsurpassed ability to create such souls, Elanora refuses to let him keep her from her destiny. She must be taken to see the rescued ones and will join his mission to save them. And that may happen...if Ashden can remember her in the morning.

What you hold in front of you is a small sampling of short stories from the indie zombie series Zombie A.C.R.E.S. All three of these short stories are part of a larger collection entitled AiZ: Alice in Zombieland, which is due out spring 2012. These stories are not only here to whet your appetite for this upcoming anthology, but also to introduce you to a very interesting world.All three of these short stories are part of a larger collection entitled AiZ; Alice in Zombieland (Complete Saga), which is due out spring 2012. These stories are not only here to whet your appetite for this upcoming anthology, but also to introduce you to a very interesting world.This series takes place in a world that is very much like our own. The sky and water are blue just as the grass is still green. Every day, people are going about their business, most just trying to make ends meet. Politicians still get on the television and lie to cameras and the good people of the world.The world of Zombie A.C.R.E.S. has one stark difference from our own – the living dead. This is not an apocalyptic scene of destruction and despair (yet!), but hope for the living is dwindling with every waking moment. Zombie A.C.R.E.S. tells the tale of how this world came to be through short stories about the people of this new world – both good and bad.It all began with The Interview. This is the very first Zombie A.C.R.E.S. short story and it laid out the path for future stories. William Lohman, a recently deceased man, holds an interview that is seen by the entire world. In this interview, he tells of how the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, Roslun Global, has been conducting secret experiments meant to revive the dead, among other atrocities. Mr. Lohman is taken quite seriously seeing as how he is obviously one of these experiments, what with the decay and all.This interview knocked over the first domino in a long series for Roslun Global, and the company’s greedy CEO Richard Roslun. Richard was not known for being subtle or calm, but he was known for getting results…at any cost.Nine years has passed since that historic interview changed the world forever. People have learned to live with the idea of zombies, much the same way they learn to live with many modern diseases; it’s a terrible thing, but it doesn’t affect them. Until it does, that is.Georgia ‘Gee’ Marie is a typical college student in the state of Washington. She enjoys reading and hanging out with her friends, smoking a little weed and going to work. Her life is pretty mundane, until she returns to see her father one day. Tough Love is the story of what this average college student finds when she returns to her father’s home that fateful day. Gee and her younger half-sister Alice, are about to begin the greatest trials of their lives. Not only will their will to survive be tested, but the bonds that hold them together as family and loved ones will be stressed to the max.Gee and Alice are not the only ones to be greatly affected by the terrible actions of Richard Roslun. Sam Ashe and his fiancée, Heather Young, have just moved to a nice neighborhood in Seattle. Their new neighborhood is beautifully manicured, right down to the last tree lining the street. This area was chosen for its aesthetics, but also for its safety. According to several of Sam’s favorite zombie reporting sites, a very low number of incidents have been reported here.This would be why Sam is caught off guard one night in The Boy Who Cried Zombie. After an intense gaming session, Sam sees what he believes to be a zombie. Thinking of his love, he heads off to save her from the inevitable zombie outbreak about to occur. Their path is not an easy one, and again, human emotions will be stretched to the limit. If you have ever been in love, and I mean true love, then Sam and Heather’s tale will grab you by the heartstrings and never let go.If you enjoy these free zombie stories, please make sure to write a review and share it using the buttons on the side of the screen. Thank you.

A trip to grandmother's house that rapidly becomes a descent into an underworld community of vampires and a frantic rush to save Heaven and Earth. Lumi Laura is a Romanian author who now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. You can learn everything about her on her blog: LumiLaura.com.Teenager Alexandra Eidyn never suspected that her annual trip to Grandmother's house to spend the summer would this time destroy her plans to attend Oxford University in the fall and instead propel her into the World of Vampires and eventually to the gates of Heaven and Hell. On the way, she'd fall in love — something she'd come to think wasn't even possible for her — with two people, become a fugitive from justice, and be a casualty of the Church to which she'd turned for help. She withdraws into a vampire society she never knew existed but that has been waiting for her the last ninety years, and learns that the Divine World has prophesied of her coming for millennia. All this following her grandmother's revelation of a family connection to royalty that has been kept secret for generations.

The land is dying. The first victims of a devastating catastrophe struggle to understand what could cause the terrifying tragedy that seems to signal the end of everything. There is no place to run when the Earth dies. The Perishing Land is a short story (approximately 3,200 words).Fiercely independent Ashla is the healer in a village blighted by the shadow of a dark god. Exinious created Ashla’s civilization centuries ago and silently watches them from his mountain fortress. His only interaction is to choose a bride from their ranks every generation.A disease has stricken the villagers that Ashla can’t cure with her magic potions. She knows this must be the work of Exinious, and journeys to his fortress to face him.Deep down she already knows what’s going on. It’s time for Exinious to choose a new bride, and he must have his eyes on her. Unfortunately for the god, Ashla will never leave her post as healer. She fears the prospect of being the first woman to ever refuse him.

People told Professor Hugo his taste in furniture sucked. That could be because a vampire is occupying his ottoman. Will the professor give in to "the magic of her charms," or can a "cat of many colors" convince him he needs a makeover?My intention is to send across the message of how discrimination occurred in South Africa in those days and reminding human kind the challenged that one had to face in those days. My particular inspiration to write about the prejudice that took place in South Africa came from my past nanny, Dora. She had worked for and taken care of a wealthy Jewish South African family for over three decades throughout the Apartheid era. One day without much notice, they decided to leave the country, leaving her with no pension. This family was very close to her heart, as she had raised their three children and was left heart-broken. She needed a job and my family needed a domestic worker. Dora came in one Monday morning for an interview. I was one year old at the time, and she told my mother that she would be prepared to clean the house but she felt she was too old to take care of me. We agreed to Dora’s conditions and our family was so happy, as she was an amazing worker and a phenomenal, principled person. With time, Dora quickly fell in love with me and could not wait to see her little “Dudu” (in this case it was me) every morning. I would literally run into her arms every morning. I feel that I have many principles today, because of the qualities that she taught me about life. Sadly Dora passed away with cancer in 2006, but has always retained a special place in our hearts. This book is dedicated to her, and describes the harsh times that non-whites had to face during the Apartheid era. I based the fictional story on real events as I thought it would be the best way to communicate the historical occurrences to readers. I used fictional characters but included some real people that made significant differences in the Apartheid such as Nelson Mandela. My purpose in using fictional characters was to create an emotional connection between the readers for them to comprehend the difficulties that different characters had to face. The book is also intended to educate the readers about South Africa and the 20th century of the Apartheid era. I have written the division of chapters by using different character voices. I have written it in two character perspectives, as I want to express both sides of Apartheid, the white side and the non-white side. The main characters are Dora and Danie, which express both sides of the Apartheid system. The story is about a sixteen year old black girl that lives in Soweto with her mother Anesu. Anesu takes care of the white Coetzer family that lives in Boksburg, Johannesburg. In the family, she takes care of a sixteen-year-old boy named Danie that initially is influenced by the white racist society to believe one way until he meets Dora. This event changes his perspective about Apartheid and leaves him in a conflicted situation. Dora however believes that she can make and must make a change. Her friends Hector Pieterson and Kimone Lesendi, convince her that together they can change a law by peacefully rioting in front of the Department of Bantu Education. Nevertheless things swiftly change directions, and the situation gets out of control.

The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker

"Ong's Hat was more of an experiment in transmedia storytelling than what we would now consider to be an ARG but its DNA - the concept of telling a story across various platforms and new media- is evident in every alternate reality game that came after." - Games Magazine 2013“…a bizarre Internet phenomenon: an “immersive” online experience—part mystery, part game, part who knows what—known as both the Incunabula Papers and Ong’s Hat. The Incunabula Papers/Ong’s Hat was, or is, a “many-threaded, open-ended interactive narrative” that ”weds an alternate history of chaos science and consciousness studies to conspiracy theories, parallel dimensions, and claims that computer-mediated environments can serve as magical tools…. the documents provoked a widespread “immersive legend-trip” in the late 1990s. Via Web forums, participants investigated the documents—manifestos—which spun up descriptions of brilliant but suppressed discoveries relating to paths that certain scientists had forged into alternate realities. Soon, those haunted dimensions existed in the minds and fantasies of Ong’s Hat’s many participants. That was evident as they responded to the original postings by uploading their own—all manner of reflections and artifacts: personal anecdotes, audio recordings, and videos—to augment what became “a really immersive world, and it was vast”. - Chronicle of Higher Education"Ong's Hat was more of an experiment in transmedia storytelling than what we would now consider to be an ARG but its DNA - the concept of telling a story across various platforms and new media- is evident in every alternate reality game that came after." - Games Magazine 2013 Though Ong's Hat may not have set out to be an ARG, the methods by which the author interacted with participants and used different platforms to build and spread its legend has been reflected in later games. - Know Your Meme

After arriving in England to claim her inheritance, Hester Jekyll, niece of Dr. Henry Jekyll, discovers she gets nothing, and suddenly her friends are untrustworthy and aloof. Hester becomes entangled in her uncle's mysterious past, and a series of brutal deaths cause her to wonder if London's seen the last of Dr. Jekyll--or Mr. Hyde.

As a bizarre zombie pandemic sweeps across North America, residents of a large island on Lake Huron prepare to isolate themselves from the rest of the world.As a bizarre zombie pandemic sweeps across North America, residents of a large island on Lake Huron prepare to isolate themselves from the rest of the world.Each of the Zombie Crusade Snapshots are quick glimpses of critical locations around the world as the zombie pandemic detailed in the Zombie Crusade series begins to unfold. While the snapshots connect to the main story line of the novels (some in obvious ways, others in ways that will become more apparent as the series continues), they may also be read as stand-alone stories.

Unholy is a horror story.The story evolves around Miller family. When David Miller shifted to India from Dallas[USA], to find a new beginning for his family after the tragic incident. But he had no idea that the omen which followed him, would turn his life upside down.Incurable prion disease eating your nervous system?Abandon everyone you love. Go to a clinic in a universe where prions can't replicate.Sherry Rogers fills her days as best she can with her rattletrap nervous system. When aliens attack the clinic, however, she finds herself behind enemy lines.Nobody can save Sherry. Except herself.And nobody at all can keep the aliens from massacring everyone... except -- maybe -- Sherry.

The end of the world didn’t happen overnight. After years of societal breakdowns, wars and quakes and rising tides, humanity was already near the edge. Then came a final blow no one could have expected: all the world’s corpses rising up to make more. Born into this bleak and bloody landscape, twelve-year-old Julie struggles to hold on to hope as she and her parents drive across the wastelands of America, a nightmarish road trip in search of a new home. Hungry, lost, and scared, sixteen-year-old Nora finds herself her brother’s sole guardian after her parents abandon them in the not-quite-empty ruins of Seattle. And in the darkness of a forest, a dead man opens his eyes. Who is he? What is he? With no clues beyond a red tie and the letter “R,” he must unravel the grim mystery of his existence—right after he learns how to think, how to walk, and how to satisfy the monster howling in his belly. The New Hunger is a glimpse of the past and a path to an astonishing future…

Free to read online here: http://playboysfw.kinja.com/zombie-a-...

In the dark heart of space, a derelict freighter drifts empty and lifeless. And in the shadows...something waits.Forget the fairies and unicorns, most people return from fairy world with lost memories and mental problems. Olive Kennedy knows. She's the therapist who treats patients suffering from Faythander's side effects.Traveling back to the fairy realm wasn't on Olive's to-do list. But she has no choice. The fate of both Earth and Fairy depends on her ability to stop an ancient being called the Dreamthief. To complicate matters, she may be losing her heart to someone who can't love her in return. Saving the world, she can handle. Falling in love—not so much.Dreamthief is the Amazon #1 bestseller in both Mythology and Fairy Tales. With over 100 five-star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, Dreamthief is an imaginative, romantic fantasy for fans of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Morgan Stamm of InD'tale magazine says, "[Dreamthief] springs to life from the very first sentence." This imaginative read has been nominated for both the Foreword Reviews' INDIEFAB book of the year award, as well as InD'tale's prestigious RONE award. If you love fantasy, don't miss this thrilling read!