A Team Fortress 2 fan fiction. The pyro suffers amnesia. Special thanks to Cred-Injuries for the silhouettes. Is credit to team.Jackson never thought buying a yacht could be so dangerous. A deadly attack at sea leaves Jackson wet and bewildered, fighting for his life. Views: 682
“Proceed to Section Z” is a short story written in a choose-your-own-adventure format. Simultaneously slapstick, literary, and charmingly post-apocalyptic, the story started as a fun thought experiment and wound up inspiring the novel THE MOSTLY WEIRD CHRONICLES OF STEFFAN McFESSEL, also by Ted Wenskus and Marcos Donnelly. Like the free story? Then you'll love the SMASHWORDS novel.By Ted Wenskus and Marcos Donnelly.“Proceed to Section Z” is a parody of the old choose-your-own-adventure format popular in paper books of decades past. This short story, the post-apocalyptic adventures of reluctant hero Steffan McFessel, started as a fun thought experiment and wound up inspiring the novel THE MOSTLY WEIRD CHRONICLES OF STEFFAN McFESSEL, also by Ted Wenskus and Marcos Donnelly.Both literary and slapstick, the work offers two ways to enjoy the plot: (1) by selecting what characters do next at the end of each mini-section and making a one-click jump to the next scene; or (2) by reading straight through all optional scenes to see how the authors mix up the fun and put their characters through their paces.If you enjoy this work, be sure to get your own copy of the full novel (with similar characters but a completely different madcap plot) at Smashwords! Views: 682
The Rescue is a tale about the road to hell. Good intentions really aren't enough. In fact, sometimes good intentions bring out the bad.In the next hour, I would die. Either burnt to a crisp during Vela’s nosedive into Earth’s atmosphere or blown to a thousand pieces when the Vela explodes in space. The first would make me a Ku’wahine warrior, the second an Earther hero. My now dead sister Haunani had chosen the warrior route. Captain Tim Jones would do everything he could to be the hero. I didn’t care for either choice.So begins Nalani’s Choice, a top ten selection in a Preditors and Editors readers short story poll. Views: 682
Zach Hilyer is in trouble. Hil is good, one of the best field operatives in the Thieves' Guild. The problem is, he can’t remember when it all went wrong.Blackmail, murder, betrayal and the highest bounty in history set the Thieves’ Guild at the centre of a conflict that threatens to spark a galaxy-wide war.The almost mythical Thieves’ Guild has no qualms about playing both sides of the line, manipulating and exploiting the ever-present rumblings of discontent between Earth and Winter. No one messes with the Thieves’ Guild. Except someone just did.Zach Hilyer is in trouble. Taking a package from A to B always gets more complicated when A doesn’t want to lose it and C will pay and do anything to get their hands on it. Hil is good, one of the best field operatives in the guild. Problem is, he can’t remember when it all went wrong.After crash landing on a planet with no memory of his last assignment, Hil discovers that his handler is dead and someone’s put a price on his head. Injured and alone, he has no choice but to go rogue from the guild, fight to clear his name and wreak revenge on the people who set him up.Blackmail, murder, betrayal and the highest bounty in history set the Thieves’ Guild at the centre of a conflict that threatens to spark a galaxy-wide war. Views: 681
NASA’s Near Earth Asteroid team is tracking an asteroid when, without explanation, it changes direction and heads for earth. When they inspect the impact sites, they discover that the meteorite fragments are not what they expect.NASA’s Near Earth Asteroid team is tracking asteroid 2027 UX25 when, without explanation, it changes direction and heads for earth. When they inspect the impact sites, they discover that the meteorite fragments are not what they expect.The press has nick-named the asteroid ‘Hachiman,’ after the Shinto god of war and patron god of the samurai, an omen of things to come.Hachiman does not behave like an asteroid should. It fragments and impacts across the globe. The global environments changes: diseased plankton in the Atlantic Ocean, silicon-based killer organisms in northern Russia, and green-house gasses spike globally. ---------This short story is an Avar-Tek Event, an event that develops the technology or characters in the Angel Series. The first Angel Series book is due to be published in 2013. Views: 681
In the wake of victory at Oudenarde, career soldier Captain Daniel Rawson must take a leading role in the Allies' new strategy - to invade further into French territories and lay siege to Lille, the 'pearl of its fortresses'.He fights alongside the Duke of Marlborough, whose position and safety abroad are threatened by politicians in England plotting his downfall - and by his outspoken and treasonous wife, Sarah.Meanwhile, Captain Rawson must contend with a new rival for his beloved, the beautiful Amalia Janssen, rescue his comrade-in-arms, Henry Welbeck, and avoid capture by ruthless French soldiers. Views: 681
The ten stories in this volume were all written by men and women who once worked at the Paperback Rack Bookstore in Tallahassee, Florida--one of the best independent new-and-used bookstores in the country. Authors include Helen K. Bailey, Teresa Jones, Jesse Murphree Kemper, Brigette Kinney, P. V. LeForge, Nancy H. Rainey, Len Schweitzer, Shannon Taylor, Stephanie Tillman, and Sara Warner.What happens when a group of abandoned people from 19th century America survive in bio-spheres, only to discover certain danger awaits Outside where mutant humanoid species roam...From the NYT bestselling author of A TERRIBLE LOVE.Clara Williamson is a princess living in a dark post-apocalyptic future of bio-spheres fashioned to protect 1890s America. A time when marriages are arranged for things other than love. When her sadistic mother betroths her to an abusive prince from a neighboring sphere to secure their future in illicit trade, Clara determines to escape. Leaving a life of familiar terror behind, she embraces the dangers of Outside that no one from the spheres has seen in nearly a century and a half. Clara escapes tyranny only to discover the sphere-dwellers are not the only people who survived the cataclysmic events of one hundred forty years prior. She finds herself trapped, unable to return to the abusive life of the sphere while facing certain danger Outside. Can Clara find love and freedom with the peril that threatens to consume her?Full length novel. Views: 681
Collected essays by Frederic Bastiat. Introduction by Dr. Tom Palmer.A 300-line poem about a man who decides to visit such a graveyard in October near midnight, in hopes of seeing a ghost. He stumbles across the field as a storm approaches.I've got to tell you that he sees only parts of what might be a ghost - not a very satisfying result, and then retreats to his car. That's all. Yet this is one of the finest and most affecting modern poems for reading out loud. It will haunt you. Views: 681
With The Innocent, Taylor Stevens, the bestselling author of The Informationist, returns with another blockbuster thriller featuring the fearless Vanessa Michael Munroe.Eight years ago, a man walked five-year-old Hannah out the front doors of her school and spirited her over the Mexican border, taking her into the world of a cult known as The Chosen. For eight years, followers of The Prophet have hidden the child, moving her from country to country, shielding the man who stole her. Now, those who've searched the longest know where to find her. They are childhood survivors of The Chosen, thirty-somethings born and raised inside the cult who've managed to make lives for themselves on the outside. They understand the mindset, the culture within that world, and turn to Vanessa Michael Munroe for help, knowing that the only possibility of stealing Hannah back and getting her safely out of Argentina is to trust someone who doesn't trust them, and get Munroe on... Views: 681
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
For five hundred years, the survivors of the Great Wars lived peacefully in a valley sanctuary shielded by powerful magic from the dangerous outside world. But the enchanted barriers have crumbled, and the threat of annihilation looms large once more. As he lay dying, Sider Ament, bearer of the last black staff and protector of the valley, gave stewardship of the powerful talisman to the young Tracker Panterra Qu. Now the newly anointed Knight of the Word must take up the battle against evil wherever it threatens: from without, where an army of bloodthirsty Trolls is massing for invasion; and from within, where the Elf king of Arborlon has been murdered, his daughter stands accused, and a heinous conspiracy is poised to subjugate the kingdom. But even these affairs will pale beside the most harrowing menace Panterra is destined to confront—a nameless, merciless agent of darkness on a relentless mission: to claim the last black staff . . . and the life of whoever wields it.
BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Terry Brooks's The Wards of Faerie. Views: 681
A Kasey Michaels Classic Alphabet Regency. Tansy Tamerlane, left penniless by her late father, is working as a governess when she's caught up in playing chaperone to a distant cousin, the sister of a duke. Ashley Benedict, Duke of Avonall, is a man beleaguered. His grandmother is a terror; his aunt is odd. Now, Ashley has a new problem … how to keep himself from falling for Tansy Tamerlane.A Kasey Michaels Classic Alphabet Regency.You’ve heard about them, “those perfect little books” USA TODAY and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Kasey Michaels penned in the 1980s, known to her many fans as her “Alphabet Regencies.” These are classic Regencies, not Regency historicals, and they center on the foibles of the day, the eccentrics that populated the drawing rooms (and there were many of these silly people, especially when Kasey is the one telling their stories). The love scenes fade to black with the reader encouraged to use her or his imagination to fill in the blanks — oh, come on, you know how to do that, right! Classic, traditional Regencies are sophisticated, lighthearted character studies if you will, and a fine introduction to the Regency Era.They’re also a lot of fun.Being Kasey, she didn’t start with the letter A, and then move on to B, C, etc. No, she started with B…and then jumped to T and The Tenacious Miss Tamerlane for her second book. Why? Because nobody told her she couldn’t, that’s why. That’s the beauty of being a writer — when it hits you, it hits you, and you run with it.Tansy Tamerlane hit Kasey like a ton of bricks one day, refusing to be anyone but who she was, refusing any name that ended with A, or even C. That’s the thing about Tansy. She’s tenacious (which is just a short hop to “stubborn,” but nobody ever got anywhere by being a shy, shrinking violet, now did they?).Tansy, left penniless by her late father, has been putting herself out as a governess to other people’s brats for two years when she is somehow caught up in playing chaperone to a distant cousin, the sister of a duke, no less. Ashley Benedict, Duke of Avonall, is a man beleaguered. His grandmother is a terror, his sister a lovely but none-too-bright chit, his valet a superstitious twit, and his aunt Lucinda is … well, different. Singular. Okay, so she’s downright odd.Lucinda Benedict, you see, speaks only in quotes. Other people’s words. Really. And if you think an author can’t have a lot of fun with a character like that, well, you haven’t yet met Aunt Lucinda! In fact, Kasey was so taken with her that Aunt Lucinda went on to appear in THE PLAYFUL LADY PENELOPE, and (as a ghost, no less!) in THE HAUNTED MISS HAMPSHIRE.You’ll notice that Kasey never did buckle down and do the alphabet in order. Too boring by half, as Tansy would have said.Thanks to the wonders of technology, Aunt Lucinda is back, along with Tansy and Ashley, and all the other eccentric characters that make up Kasey’s “rainy day book,” the one she penned during a very trying time in her personal life (see accompanying bio), and a book that has brought a smile and a laugh or twelve to thousands of readers over the years. Indeed, one reviewer wrote Kasey to complain that she had to get off the New York city bus she was riding to work because she was reading Tansy’s story and began to laugh so hard that “people were looking at me funny.”Be sure to search out THE PLAYFUL LADY PENELOPE and THE HAUNTED MISS HAMPSHIRE, and more of Kasey’s Alphabet Regencies, soon available in e-book form. After all, everyone needs a good laugh now and then, right? Views: 681
