Two abandoned children make their home in a castle - which turns out to be haunted by the Duke of Wellington! The ghost is a particularly determined spook who helps them hide from the castle's caretaker. But when developers want to turn their home into a spa, everyone who loves the castle must band together to save the day. Comic ghostly fun for newly confident readers aged 8+ and those looking for a fast, fun read. Views: 65
The Romance between Emma & Benjamin Troubled city girl Emma comes to live with her Amish family. She is trying to put her past behind her. She falls in Love with Benjamin. But his father tries to prevent him from marrying Emma. Will their Love survive all those difficulties? Views: 65
Love Is on the Air Belle O'Brien, the woman behind the warmest voice in Virginia radio, has one problem: Her oldies show on WPER-FM is a solid-gold hit, but her love life, at thirty-two years and counting, is an off-the-charts disaster. The pickings are slim in small-town Abingdon. Will it be smooth-talking Patrick Reese, the man who launched her radio career a decade earlier? Moody but handsome David Cahill, the chief engineer with a mysterious past and a new life in Christ? Or Matthew the Methodist, her pastor across the street? Surrounded by an on-air cast of colorful characters, Belle's journey toward joy is filled with humor, heartache, and endless surprises. Norah Silver-Smyth, her friend and encourager, will join Belle in discovering that it's never too late to listen to your heart. "One of the most delightful surprises I've had all year-- a first novel that moved me to both laughter and tears!" Susan Wiggs, USA Today... Views: 65
What is the secret of the forester living a hermit-like existence in the remotest part of the Wingate Estate? Is he a callous murderer? Is he now taking a terrible revenge on those who wronged him? Or, does the truth lie elsewhere? A ruthless killer is on the rampage, one with a distinctive trademark. With resources decimated by a flu epidemic, Mike Nash is forced to use unorthodox tactics to expose a web of corruption and deceit spanning the years. Evidence all seems to point to an inevitable conclusion, but will Mike be able to uncover the truth, and can he do so before it is too late for all concerned - be they innocent or guilty? Views: 65
Product DescriptionReeferpunk is a dieselpunk, spaghetti-Western, refried alternate-history of what could have become of the southern half of North America if cheap oil never got cheap, and instead brilliant minds devised an early cellulosic ethanol from the wondrous cannabis plant. Mein Hanf! This collection of shorts roams from a zombie plagued Dust Zone where Death lives in an Airstream to revolutionary Mexico. What if during the turbulent years of the Mexican Revolution and the grisly war to end all war a sinister and wealthy oligarchy set their minds to control 30% of the world's known petroleum resources in order to bring a global economy to its knees just as it was learning to walk? What if the success of their evil plot relied, in part, on the gumption of a disillusioned Mexican revolutionary turned goat herder and hemp farmer, along with his two native American friends? Welcome to the pulp world of Reeferpunk. Reeferpunk delivers a surge equivalent to a cocktail of 1 part serotonin, 2 parts adrenaline, with a dash of grenadine served over ice. It scratches the urge primeval. Whether experiencing an apocalyptic Dust Zone rampant with zombies, or torching an arsenal of German weaponry in revolutionary Mexico, Reeferpunk delivers thrilling, high-octane action. Reeferpunk, Volume One includes four shorts: Reefer Ranger: Texas Ranger, J.T. McCutchen, didn't heed the Mexican revolution until it spilled across his border. Soon every revolutionary'll know, you've got to kill the man before you fight the power. Fourth Horseman: If the Dustbowl can't erase the regrets that haunt the Fourth Horseman, it's unlikely the tequila will. Besides, what's Armageddon without Death? Del Rio Con Amor: This ain't just Villa's revolution anymore and there's a whole lot of gold about to go disappearing. Viva this! Paraplegic Zombie Slayer: A neurotoxin transforms the Texas panhandle into a forbidden dust zone where Georgy Founder struggles to keep his three young sons alive and together as a family. It turns out that post-apocalyptic 1928 Texas ain't very handicap accessible, and while zombie-slaying is fulfilling, wheelchair lifts are pretty damn slow. Views: 65
The New York Times Book Review has praised Richard Burgin’s stories as "eerily funny... dexterous... too haunting to be easily forgotten," while the Philadelphia Inquirer calls him "one of America’s most distinctive storytellers... no one of his generation reports the contemporary war between the sexes with more devastating wit and accuracy." Now, in Shadow Traffic, his seventh collection of stories, five-time Pushcart Prize winner Richard Burgin gives us his most incisive, witty, and daring collection to date as he explores the mysteries of love and identity, ambition and crime, and our ceaseless, if ambivalent, quest for truth. In "Memorial Day," an aging man at a public swimming pool recalls a brief but momentous affair he had with a young British woman in London thirty years ago and the paradoxical role his recently deceased father played in it. In the highly suspenseful "Memo and Oblivion," set in the near future in New York, two rival drug organizations engage in a dangerous battle for supremacy—one promoting a pill that increases memory exponentially, the other a pill that dramatically eliminates memory. "The Interview" centers on a B-movie starlet married to a much older and more famous director and her tragic yet comic interview with an ambitious but conflicted young reporter. Shadow Traffic justifies the New York Times’ claim that Burgin offers "characters of such variety that no generalizations about them can apply" and why the Boston Globe concluded that "Burgin’s tales capture the strangeness of a world that is simultaneously frightening and reassuring, and in the contemporary American short story nothing quite resembles his singular voice."(2011)ReviewBurgin taps into humanity at its weakest in his seventh collection of darkly captivating stories. Gritty realistic scenarios, such as "The Dolphin," in which a bystander attempts to persuade a fellow drinker at a strip club not to murder one of the dancers, mix uneasily with more surreal stories in the style of parables, such as "Memo and Oblivion," where the world is divided into factions of people who take prescription drugs to either remember or forget. Burgin deftly exposes his characters’ most sacredly held fears with a tenderness that makes the reader exalt in their small triumphs. In one of the standouts, "Mission Beach," a single father on vacation with his 12-year-old son in San Diego contemplates the breadth of his love for the boy as he spends hours with him in the surf at the expense of a possible romantic interlude. Burgin shows admirable range in this collection, which is hugely varied in both style and form, and while there are clear standouts, there’s not a single throwaway.(Publishers Weekly 2012)Richard Burgin continues to have his finger on the pulse of modern experience as do few others and Shadow Traffic shows him at the top of form, refining a vision that, story by story and volume by volume has made him a master of contemporary short fiction and a prince of our disorder.(Broad Street Review )Each of these astounding tales resonates in a unique way, and it's not surprising that Burgin has won five Pushcart Prizes for his short stories.(St. Louis Post-Dispatch )Shadow Traffic is a shockingly splendid example of psychological noir. No contemporary writer of the short story creates better characters than Richard Burgin. In Shadow Traffic, Burgin manages to cram a novel’s-worth of character into each of these twelve tightly-woven stories, giving us unforgettable character psyches that defy simple classification.(CRIMINALELEMENT.com )Shadow Traffic is a special book, one worth repeated readings, one worth taking to the bar to read over eight beers and a whiskey on a rainy day. It is one to pass around. It is an example of a pattern for great literature. It is a horizon far ahead of the majority of short fiction writers working today.(Industrial Worker Review )He is certainly one of our best short story writers, with a clarity of style and thinking that's become increasingly rare in these days of workshop artificiality. The Conference on Beautiful Moments was one of the best story collections of recent years, and Shadow Traffic is more than a worthy successor.(Anis Shivani Huffington Post )The virtues of this book are endless... Shadow Traffic is a special book, one worth repeated readings...It is an example of of a pattern for great literature. It is a horizon far ahead of the majority of short fiction writers working today.(William Hastings Industrial Worker Book Review )Burgin has an instinctive feel for the things in everyday life that are just a little bit wrong.(Philadelphia Inquirer ) ReviewBurgin writes crisp and intelligent dialogue and description, and he handles disconcerting situations with deadpan ease... His characters—alone, alienated, desolate, and desperate—come alive on the page.(Publishers Weekly 2011)Burgin is the poet laureate of loneliness and longing, writing economically, with humor and exquisite attention to interior monologues.(Philadelphia Inquirer 2011)Burgin skates along the edge of realism and dark fantasy in fiction so supremely well made that all manner of fancy and menace is readily ingested.(Booklist 2011)A writer at once elegant and disturbing, Burgin is among our finest artists of love at its most desperate.(Chicago Tribune 2011)Burgin's prose is invigorating. Bravely and imaginatively, he characterizes that feeling of being adrift in a consumer-driven society and is particularly astute and funny dealing with the male viewpoint.(Review of Contemporary Fiction 2011) Views: 65
WAS HE REALLY HER HUSBAND?If so, why couldn't she remember him? Annabel--as he called her--refused to believe she'd actually married Luis Alarcon. But how could she deny it, when she couldn't even remember her own name? Powerless to resist him, Annabel was taken to his isolated home. There she was determined to uncover the truth about her past--and about the accident that had stolen her memory. But most of all, she was determined to discover the truth about her marriage. What would Luis gain by claiming her as his long-lost wife? And why did she want so much to believe it was true? Views: 65
