A little down-time as the crew waits to see if their captain will pull through, and 'Freya's' First Officer reflects on revenge, survival, and his lack of compassion.Young children cannot grasp some abstract concepts. They simply do not understand death. The idea of the disappearance of a loved one, the wonderful friend who is a pet, for instance, it is difficult to accept. But what if this disappearance is only apparent, because the pet soul will return as another animal? It could be a wild animal, or a domestic one? A funny or an annoying one? This short story will propose scenarios and link together happy memories, meant to bring a smile through tears.Following A New Pet in the Family, Bookata addresses the end of the life cycle in My Pet is Gone. With this new addition, Bookata’s collection covers the full range of family-child-pet dynamics, introducing elements from the child’s environment to create unique, personalized books. Views: 821
Teenager Hex Wayward shouldn't have a care in the world, racing motocycles for extra cash and living without parents or rules. But Hex has a secret. The dark creatures who've come to claim the terrible magic inside her won't let anything stand in their way.Refusing her powers will leave her defenseless but the alternative is much worse. Hex has to make a choice: save her life or save her soul.Born without magic, seventeen-year-old Helena “Hex” Wayward is an embarrassment to her power-hungry relatives. As the weakest member of the world’s most deadly magical family, Hex learns early how to avoid confrontation. There’s no defending herself against an errant curse or the pit-demon that her cousins like to summon during family reunions.When the dark magic inside of her -- magic that she never dreamt even existed -- erupts in a violent display, it kills a member of a rival family. Now, Hex's family hopes to use her magic for their own sinister purposes and their enemies just want her dead. Abandoning her magic will leave Hex defenseless but she's seen how quickly power corrupts even the best intentions. She has to make a choice:Save her life or save her soul. Views: 821
22 poems about the ceremony of dancing naked in the moonlight.How to Dance Naked in the Moonlight is a book of maybes. Maybe it contains the key to traveling to a magical and powerful sphere as practiced for millennia by Celtic priestesses. Maybe it is just a cheeky romp in the moonlight by bare-assed bad boys. Maybe it contains the recipe for the exhilaration of stepping out of boundaries into the only freedom we have left: the unadorned experience of self in the lonely moon-lit night. Maybe it will help you see aspects of the brief human journey in ways that will change and transform you. If these verses make you wonder, smile, tearily respond, or long to explore the un-mapped terrain that pulls your blood as the moon does the tides, then the skeptic and the pagan have reaped the moon--- and are satisfied. This cheeky little book manages to combine mysticism and mischief. Great for hearth or moonlight reading!Katherine L. Gordon lives to write in a secluded river valley, where she is free to dance unseen in a midnight moon-lit stone circle, following her Celtic Pagan traditions. Lenny Everson is a country boy currently living in the city. As a result we suspect he’ll eventually be found on some moonlit night running through the suburbs, pursued by the local Esthetics Police.There are 22 poems in this book. Views: 821
A woman is born with an illness that leaves her with additional gravity pull. Dealing with being teased, admitted to the mental hospital, and life threatening situations, she struggles to live a normal life.The third book of the series, A Texas Family tells the story of Janet Parker Baker, great niece of the infamous Bonny Parker, criminal partner and lover of he Depression era outlaw, Clyde Barrow. Unlike her great aunt, Janet was a good person, but her husband's uncle Charlie Haley, Sheriff of Long Horn County said, "Janet you are a good person, but trouble is attracted to you like horse shoe nails are attracted to a magnet." Janet thought her troubles were over when she married Air Force Sargent Robert Baker, but her troubles returned with a vengeance when Robert was sent to Vietnam and she had to return Comanche Springs pregnant to live with her grandmother in the old mansion on Crockett Street. Her troubles were caused by Lydia, her sister-in-law, who hated her and by Bernard Fouquet, a rich handsome young banker who wanted Janet for himself. Views: 820
What might Holden Caulfield be like if he lived in the 21st Century media-infested environment? What if he does something so naughty that his parents severely punish him by taking away all his electronic devices? "Unplugged" takes place in contemporary Durham, North Carolina, and follows a few weeks in the life of a 17-year-old, Sterling Eumorfopoulos, a Mensa-registered genius.What might Holden Caulfield be like if he lived in the 21st Century media-infested environment? What if he does something so naughty that his parents severely punish him by taking away all his electronic devices? "Unplugged" takes place in contemporary Durham, North Carolina, and follows a few weeks in the life of a 17-year-old, Sterling Eumorfopoulos, a Mensa-registered genius. The Bildungsroman tracks him over the summer of 2009, through his training for an upcoming boxing match, his encounter with a grand jury and several sessions of psychotherapy. Views: 820
Former Special Ops Agent Brian Mitchell was living a quiet life as a Sheriff’s deputy with his wife and daughter, until the night he awakened to find himself kidnapped and his family held prisoner by a former enemy determined to settle an old vendetta.Former Special Ops Agent Brian Mitchell was living a quiet life as a Sheriff’s deputy with his wife and daughter, until the night he awakened to find himself kidnapped and his family held prisoner by a former enemy determined to settle an old vendetta. Trapped inside a remote castle in eastern Europe, Brian must use every bit of skill, experience, and animal instinct he possesses to survive a grim gauntlet of professional killers determined to make sure he doesn’t see the end of the longest night of the year alive! Views: 819
Dreaming of the dead might mean a restless night for anyone, but for Nina Grey it was a warning.
Still healing from her last run-in with Hell, Nina struggles with not only her life as a Brown University student, but also as an intern at Titan Shipping, her father's company. Recurring nightmares about her father's violent death have become a nightly event, but being overwhelmed with guilt from Ryan's unexpected departure to the Armed Forces, and heart ache over Claire being across the ocean to protect him, Nina believes her sleepless nights are the least of her problems—but she's wrong.
Worried about Nina's declining health, Jared must steal back Shax's book for answers. Fighting new enemies, and with the help of new friends, Jared's worst fear comes to fruition. Desperate, he is faced with a choice: Fight Hell alone, or start a war with Heaven. Views: 819
Lost, thirsty and sunburnt, Frank sees a petrol station in the distance, gleaming like an oasis. All Frank wishes to do is resupply and head back where he came from so he can find his brother and give him the proper death he deserves rather than leaving him a mindless creature roaming the countryside for new victims.What really makes one human, is it a fact of birth, the right of passage that is growing up, is it societies' influence on young impressionable minds, or is it something else? Is Humanity and all that goes with it in fact programmed into our DNA?These are questions that have plagued Shiva all her life. For most people, for Normal people, these are questions with easy answers, after all they were born human, raised human, and have always been 'Human'. But Shiva is not 'Normal', she might not in fact be 'Human'. She is or perhaps was a Weapon, she was created as a weapon, trained to be a weapon, and she sees the world as a weapon. But all that changes one day when she meets a girl and for the very first time, she feels something that defies all logic and all reason. Can a weapon fall in love, or this something reserved only for those who are humans?But there are those in her world who have never doubted these answers, to them she is a powerful tool created for a war not yet fought, and they cannot allow that tool to slip from their grasp. So from the shadows they strike at the very thing that threatens to take that weapon from their grasp, that person who might be the key to unlocking the heart within the weapon. Views: 819
Eliza D Braun is a young field agent in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences (South Pacific Branch) when she is asked by New Zealand's preeminent suffragist to investigate some strange goings within the organisation.She cannot possibly imagination that this little case will alter her entire life and thrust her into a world barely prepared for her.Eliza D Braun is a young field agent in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences (South Pacific Branch) when she is asked by New Zealand's preeminent suffragist to investigate some strange goings within the organisation.She cannot possibly imagination that this little case will alter her entire life and thrust her into a world barely prepared for her.Tales from the Archives are short stories set in the world of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. They explore events mentioned in the novels, characters seen and unseen and may include novel teasers of things to come. Views: 818
On Cauldron Cooker's Night, expect black cats and blacker magic.It's Cauldron Cooker's Night, a holiday for witches. Josh and his sister Jozlyn can't sleep. When they hear a noise outside their window, they know it's a witch coming for them.On Cauldron Cooker's Night, expect black cats and blacker magic.It's Cauldron Cooker's Night, a holiday for witches. Josh and his sister Jozlyn can't sleep. When they hear a noise outside their window, they know it's a witch coming for them.But the witch is only the beginning of their troubles. Soon the pair head out on a dangerous adventure to save their townsfolk from a terrible spell. Everyone has been turned into frogs! Along the way, Josh and Jozlyn will face a hungry ogre, a creepy swamp, a mischievous black cat, and more.Worst of all, the witch is waiting for them at the end.Children's fantasy. Recommended for ages 10 and up. Views: 818
The adventures and spiritual growth of a group of 21st century soldiers who find themselves in the 23rd century after the collapse of civilization.Triggered by environmental disasters, the Second American Civil war is coming to a close, and the North is losing. Hoping to defeat the South by surprise attacks in the near future, twenty groups of fifty soldiers are hidden in stasis, to be awakened in five years, but when Commander Jason Armstrong wakes, three hundred years have passed. The world and everything he knew is gone, lost to catastrophic earth changes. Civilization has reverted to an agrarian state, but his skills, and those of the other eleven survivors, are still needed. The totalitarian empire of Kenor The Great is expanding, enslaving all those it conquers.The original protectors of the soldiers have watched over them for centuries, and in that time developed a culture of peace, and reverence for life and nature in their remote village. Highly evolved, they easily communicate with the spiritual plane and perform feats of apparent magic. They need the soldiers to protect them, but justifiably fear the corruption of their values by the soldiers' culture.This is book one of a four part series. Views: 818
A twenty-eight page informal newsletter about the alternate history subgenre of science fiction and related science fiction topics. This issue has an excerpt from a Work In Process called There Will Always Be An England, mini-essays on alternate World War II and Space Programs, along with commentary on a range of science fiction topics, including Steve Stirling's Dies The Fire.In a desperate measure to add excitement to Sam’s boring and crumbling marriage, he arranges an exotic sailing adventure, but it’s more than he bargained for when he and his family are abducted in the Gulf of Mexico, forcing them to endure a nightmare to escape their fate awaiting them in a foreign land. Views: 817
They are in your house. They are in your car. They are in the skies…Now they’re coming for you.
In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.
When the Robot War ignites -- at a moment known later as Zero Hour -- humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us…and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 817
Bring On The War Mice is Book Three of the epic serial adventure series The Go-Kids by Amazon Top 100 science fiction writer Ryan Schneider.Bring On The War Mice is Book Three of the epic serial adventure series The Go-Kids by Amazon Top 100 science fiction writer Ryan Schneider.After surviving the worst attack on American soil in the nation’s history, only to be informed that his dad has been listed as Missing In Action, Parker is the victim of mistaken identity and kidnapping. He soon finds himself and his irrepressible friends in a Top Secret government facility confronted with technology the likes of which none of them has ever seen. But could it be a way for him to rescue his dad? Will Parker accept the mission? Will Sunny fall prey to Colby’s flirtations? Will Parker’s nightmares continue? Find out in Book Three of the ongoing serial adventure series, The Go-Kids.Though it is a story about kids, it is far more than just a kids' story. It is a story involving young protagonists dealing with universal themes of growing up, friendship, and making the right moral choices. Views: 816
This is the first book of the Blood Shadow new-age vampire series.It is early 20th century San Francisco and the Black Death has taken over the city. Thomas Hartwell loses his wife and young son to the plague and is ready to take his own life, until someone knocks on his door and says, "Don't do it. I have a way that you will be able to see your wife and son again."This is the first book of the Blood Shadow new-age vampire series.It is early 20th century San Francisco and the Black Death has taken over the city. Thomas Hartwell loses his wife and young son to the plague and is ready to take his own life, until someone knocks on his door and says, "Don't do it. I have a way that you will be able to see your wife and son again."The story flashes forward 100 years to the town of Beach Haven, where Hartwell hopes to reunite with his reborn family. In order to reconnect with his son, Thomas Hartwell must inject the young boy with his own vampire blood. Daniel Thompson spent the first eight years of his life shuffling from one doctor’s office to another, guided by a mother that made him a walking catalog of allergies and ailments. That was, until, he moved to the suburban community of Beach Haven, New York, where he was gradually exposed to a world of vampires, hunters and protectors.As each vampire is sired and when they comes on-line, a hunter and mammal protector are allocated. The hunters and protectors are both capable of morphing into various iterations – protectors taking the evolutionary tract of a dolphin, and vampire hunters capable of interchanging hawk, pit bull, ram, and grizzly bear.Throughout the formative years of the three young adults – Daniel, Nicole and Andrew – we see various aspects of their supernatural personalities starting to take hold. Hartwell spent almost every day with Daniel as a projection of his imagination, free from being observed from the outside world. Daily tai chi sessions blended in with training exercises in order to hone Daniel’s skills, and have him ready to assume his vampirical destiny once he turned 18 years old. Views: 816
