From the very second they met, Maria knew this girl was something special. It doesn't take more than a few Tuesdays for her to fully realize just how big an impact she's going to leave on her life.Yes, it's Volume 2 of TIW shorts! Yet another collection of totally pointless exactly 500 and exactly 200 word nonsense to entertain you while doing whatever you do when reading. Here are my own personal takes on the second 6 months of the Iron Writer Challenge, including Challenges, Weekend Quickies, Grudge Matches and Solstice Opens - plus an excerpt of 'How to' killing Brian (Cannibalising Brian) and a slice from the first ever Relays. I hope you enjoy these short snippets just as much as you enjoyed Volume 1.Thanks again to Brian and all the other Iron Writers for making The Iron Writers phenomenon the success that it already is.

Marie Tranton is a vivacious 23 year old in 1927 Boston who discovers that her Prince Charming isn’t much of a prince. She goes for a walk in her garden and, lost in thought, wanders into a strange garden. It belongs to Rick Lauman, a successful but lonely realtor in Boston…2012 Boston.In 1927 Boston, Marie Tranton, vivacious and in love, thinks all handsome men are like Douglas Fairbanks. But once she becomes engaged, she sees a side of her fiancé she doesn’t like. She goes for a walk to think and wanders through the fog into a strange garden. In modern-day Boston, Rick Lauman is one of the nice guys who finish last—especially in the romance department. His matchmaking sister gives him a 1920s book to lure him to a theme party. When he sees the young woman who’s just walked into his garden, he’s stunned. Why? She’s the image of a girl in the book.Both Marie and Rick become convinced she’s wandered into the future. Frightened and homesick, Marie walks in the garden every morning to try to get back home while Rick waits, wondering if she’s going to come back.Unlike all the women Rick has dated, Marie is guileless and open, but he resists falling in love with her. After all, she could walk out of his life any morning. But he doesn’t want her to marry her fiancé. According to the book, that man abused her. Rick decides to show her how a man is supposed to treat a woman. But spending so much time with her, he can’t help falling in love.

I know how to watch my back. I’m the only one that ever has. India Maxwell hasn’t just moved across the country—she’s plummeted to the bottom rung of the social ladder. It’s taken years to cover the mess of her home life with a veneer of popularity. Now she’s living in one of Boston’s wealthiest neighborhoods with her mom’s fiancé and his daughter, Eloise. Thanks to her soon-to-be stepsister’s clique of friends, including Eloise’s gorgeous, arrogant boyfriend Finn, India feels like the one thing she hoped never to be seen as again: trash. But India’s not alone in struggling to control the secrets of her past. Eloise and Finn, the school’s golden couple, aren’t all they seem to be. In fact, everyone’s life is infinitely more complex than it first appears. And as India grows closer to Finn and befriends Eloise, threatening the facades that hold them together, what’s left are truths that are brutal, beautiful, and big enough to change them forever…

IS IT LUST? Ivak Sigurdsson is dead...well, sort of. Guilty of the sin of lust, he’s been given an unusual penance: spend eternity as a Viking Vampire Angel, or Vangel, fighting Lucipires, Satan’s vampire demons on earth. Now sequestered in Angola Prison as a “spiritual advisor,” Ivak is finding all these centuries of celibacy depressing, to say the least. But then, along comes southern belle Gabrielle Sonnier. Is she a reward for his good deeds, or a temptation sent to rattle his lustsome brain? OR IS IT LOVE? Gabrielle, a lawyer, begs Ivak to help get her brother out of prison. Aided by the Cajun LeDeux family and their chief looney bird, Tante Lulu, Ivak reluctantly agrees. And while he alternately tries to seduce and save Gabrielle before the Lucipires run rampant, they both begin to wonder if it’s really only lust, or something more.

Katie Dorchester's heart died with her husband. Worse, her ex-in-laws would kill to steal her property. Forced to leave town, she tries to build a new life in Brooksville. Enter Joe Lansing and his cousin, Deputy Mason Carlisle. Joe’s had run-ins with the Dorchesters before…and suspects his fiancée paid the price. Mason lost his sister to a rich bully. The men have heartache of their own, but when they intercede on Katie’s behalf to protect her from the Dorchesters, they know she is the one for them. Katie would do anything to protect Joe and Mason’s reputations in town, including giving up her own happiness with them. When the Dorchesters threaten her men, she tries to protect them the only way she knows. Now her men are in a race to save her life and their new family. Can they keep her safe in the deadly Hernando Heat?

(Suncoast Society series #74, MMF, BDSM) Life’s never boring with Max and Sean, but Cali wouldn’t have them any other way. Still, it’d be nice if they both had two eyebrows and weren’t trying to set each other on fire. Except when a routine evening volunteering at the club turns into anything but, it’s just the start of a chain of events that will upend all their lives…and leave Cali fighting for hers.

I'd kissed a toad but he hadn't turned into a prince. No, my prince had come later. Edward Bouvier was everything Flynn McCreary wasn't. Then I found out that the toad was my prince's brother and my fairy-tale turned into a nightmare. When Gabriella Baine began her whirlwind romance with rich, handsome Edward Bouvier, she never expected for her one-night stand, photographer Flynn McCreary, to make an appearance. She wants to put everything behind her, but Flynn can't seem to stop playing things hot and cold. To make matters worse, she's broke and needs a good-paying job – like modeling for Flynn again. Will Gabriella be able to resist temptation or will she lose everything? Don't miss the second sizzling installment of the Pure Lust series by M.S. Parker and Cassie Wild.

I grew up hearing about my parents’ love story. How he’d fought for her when she’d refused to fight for herself. The way she’d fought for him when she’d feared that all was lost. I wanted that. But for some reason, I’d always imagined that my love story would be different. That it would be easy. It wasn’t. No, our story was intense, and convoluted, and frustrating. But it was ours. In the end it all came down to one thing… I’d loved him since the very beginning. Even when he wasn’t mine to love.

WHEN THE STAKES ARE DEAD -- OR UNDEAD! Werewolf mobsters and vampires run Vegas, but that's yesterday's news for Delilah Street, paranormal investigator. What's truly fearsome is her bloody discovery of an undead evil rooted in ancient Egypt. Now, with her lover Ric fighting for life after a grim battle, the chips are down. But Delilah is a born winner who has never let a little danger throw off her game, and she's been learning fast since she came to Sin City. Her affinity for silver is making mirror-walking a real breeze, and being forced to accept the albino rock star sorcerer Snow's Brimstone Kiss has ramped up her powers to a startling new level. With the help of her trusty uber-wolfhound Quicksilver, not to mention the orange demon parking valet Manny, Delilah is determined to solve even more paranormal secrets, and hopefully save the few innocents left in town. But can Delilah win her high-stakes gamble for life and love against ancient gods and lethal supernatural odds?

Her wants are few, though often many. She's always saving every penny.Her bones ache, it's hard to kneel. Whatever it takes, she likes a deal.

Wild and passionate by nature, Lyra Black is not just any werewolf. She's the future leader of the powerful pack of the Thorn - if she can stay alive long enough to inherit the title. One of the Cait Sith bloodline of vampire cat-shifters, Jaden Harrison has no interest in the wars plaguing the world of night. But when he rescues Lyra from a violent attack, they're both captured by an insatiable desire that threatens to overwhelm them and bind them together for eternity. . . just as ancient enemies prepare to strike. And when they do, the Thorn and the Cait Sith - and Lyra and Jaden's love - may never recover from the deadly blow. . .

In this follow-up to Elphame's Choice, Brighid flees her centaur clan's rigid traditions and prejudice to find peace and acceptance among the humans of Clan MacCallan. When her family summons her home, Brighid must make a fateful decision.

What happens when Victoria Budroix receives a cameo that promises to give her the desires of her heart? Since she doesn’t know what that would be, a trip to medieval times, intrigue, threat of war and an overbearing lord are on the list for her to choose from. Or could it be meeting her one true love?What happens when Victoria Budroix receives a cameo that promises to give her the desires of her heart? Since she doesn’t know what that would be, a trip to medieval times, intrigue, threat of war and an overbearing lord are on the list for her to choose from. Or could it be meeting her one true love?Sir William of Conrad has escorted a stranger home to be under his protection. He discovers this woman speaks her own mind and melts his heart. He faces his father’s outrage and a broken alliance with the neighboring clan by falling in love. This could mean war.

A forgotten evil threatens Terra, her adoptive children, her friends, and her very existence. Will Edgar, Locke, and company stop the madman before Terra falls into the depths of madness?*(this is a work of fan-fiction; events take place after those of Final Fantasy VI)Terra Branford. Naïve and innocent, yet she caused so much death. Passionate and powerful, yet the epitome of purity.Now a forgotten evil threatens her children, her friends, and her very existence. Will Edgar, Locke, and company stop the madman before Terra falls into the depths of madness?Or will Edgar lose his last chance to confess his love?*(this is a work of fan-fiction; events take place after those of Final Fantasy VI)

Joey’s mother, Eden, once told her stories about a world filled with vampires, werewolves, and angels. Joey always assumed these stories were part of her mother’s schizophrenic delusions. However, when Joey is attacked a second time by unseen creatures, she begins to wonder if her mother actually knew what she was talking about.Someone is following Joey Trevor. She does not know who he is or what he wants. Able to see the truth behind the facade most people show the world, Joey cannot see this man. That frightens her more than his unknown intentions. When she is attacked in the shower of her locked apartment, her stalker, Sam, is the one who comes to her rescue. But Joey does not know if he wants to help her, or if he is after something she neither understands nor wants to understand. Joey’s mother, Eden, once told her stories about a world filled with vampires, werewolves, and angels. Joey always assumed these stories were part of her mother’s schizophrenic delusions. However, when Joey is attacked a second time by unseen creatures, she begins to wonder if her mother actually knew what she was talking about. Joey has never been able to trust the people around her. The few times she trusted—her mother, a college boyfriend—she ended up broken and confused. But trust is the only thing Sam asks of her. Can she put her life in this man’s hands? Or is he as crazy as her mother?