In 2027, destroying an embryo is considered first-degree murder. Fertility clinics still exist, giving hope and new life to thousands of infertile families, but they have to pass rigorous inspections by the United States Department of Embryo Preservation. Fail an inspection, and you will be prosecuted.Brilliant young doctor Arianna Drake seems to be thriving in the spotlight: her small clinic surpasses every government requirement, and its popularity has spiked—a sudden, rapid growth that leaves the DEP chief mystified. When he discovers Arianna's radical past as a supporter of an infamous scientist, he sends undercover agent Trent Rowe to investigate her for possible illegal activity.As Trent is pulled into Arianna's enigmatic world, his own begins to unravel. The secret he finally uncovers will deeply move him—and jeopardize them both. With the clock ticking her life away, he... Views: 696
The real town of Truro, Nova Scotia has problems. It's suffered similarly to the rest of the Canadian province with one small exception: Truro is the Hub of paranormal phonomenon. The following is a collection of short stories about children dealing with disturbing, real life occurances.Childrens imaginations run rampant to explain the circumstances they cannot emotionally fathom.The year is 2048 and Liristan has declared war on the Allied powers. While Canadian Prime Minister Alistair Tillman is doing his best to placate his enemies and assist his friends, there's a traitor on the Hill. He enlists nineteen year old, rookie M.P. Jonathan Tremblay and the beautiful Legislative Assistant, Alexandra Sinclair to help him unmask the enemy within. But what they find is more shocking than they ever could have imagined and the pair of political sleuths must quickly learn to navigate the dangerous game of politics to stay ahead - and stay alive. Views: 696
Some things are done for one reason, and one reason only. Also, there is fire, and cigarettes, and a bounty hunter, and other tagged words :DI have 19 Minutes left, to read the secret code from an unknown person's mind, to safeguard my girlfriend Nisha! I can do that and only i can do that, I am Mind traveler! They found me and they followed me, and now i need to read the code from that unknown person! I have to start my travel in this crowded Indian railway station, and i have only one clue, that he is an American! Me too! Time is running, every seconds count for me and i need to be smart in my mind travelling to read and jump in to another one's mind to safeguard my Nisha! Will I succeed?! Views: 695
Susan Hunter is in Las Vegas for ten days of work and play. Her parents come in from Dallas to spend some time with her and have their own fun.But fun turns to terror for Susan when a magic act goes wrong. When a man is murdered, Susan knows who did it. Unfortunately for her, the killer knows that she knows. Her actions in Sin City ultimately put not only her own life on the line but that of Mick’s as well... Views: 695
In which I attempt to describe the way a song comes to me. I also discuss working with other songwriters. Their work also appears in this essay.I was asked by DW Gregory, an award-winning playwrite form the D.C. area, to write this essay. She explores the writing process on her blog. You can find her at www.dwgregory.com. Be sure to check out "Looking Backwards Through A Microscope" while you're there. When she asked me to write this I was a bit concerned because although I've thought about my songwriting and how it comes about, I'd never tried to put it into words. But it came rather easily. So it is because of DW that you are reading this! Views: 695
Step into the boarding houses and furnished rooms of New York City, or take a stroll around the park. Observe the tumult and glitter of Broadway on a Saturday night, and browse the silken stockings in Manhattan's most exclusive store. Hop onto the Coney Island ferry to join the lovesick shop-girl, the drunken down-and-out and the secret millionaire in the city's dance of folly and pleasure. Bringing to life the glamour and squalor of the 1900s, O. Henry's unmistakable tales are by turns hilarious or tragic, but always deeply poignant. Views: 695
A male prostitute, a mangy cat, a murder and a maniacal mix-up that threatens his career, his impending marriage and his life. Nothing is going as planned for Austin Glass.
Austin—seems to have it all. At least on the surface. A loving fiancee. A future with the FBI and a healthy sized trust fund. He also has a grin and a wisecrack for every situation. But the smile he presents to everyone hides a painful past he’s buried too deeply to remember. And his quips mask bitterness and insecurity. Austin has himself and most of the whole world fooled. Until he meets someone who immediately sees him better than he sees himself.
As events unfold and Austin’s world unravels, he finds himself pushed into making quick life-changing decisions. But can he trust Peter or what’s happening between them when each meeting seems to be just a series of volatile reactions? Views: 695
Lube up, dear reader, because this is the story that happens when the Muse starts talking dirty to you. This is a ten minute fellatio for your mind - sloppy and in your face. This is…What if the ancients were wrong? What if the delicate, graceful, vestal Muses were nothing more than dirty, divine whores looking to score some creativity from us mortals? What if they wobbled from Mozart to Proust to Da Vinci to Canaan, with their togas lopsided, eyes bloodshot, rubbing themselves against genius like cheap harlots? Views: 695
It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning. A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you’re as good as dead. And David has no gang. It’s just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school. In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don’t fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive. Views: 694
This is the first in a series of short stories based in the same world as the book series A Life in After World. Instead of telling the life story of one character, these stories tell the story of one day in the life of a person in After World.Sugar is sweet. Sugar is pretty. Sugar is a mouse.Eek! A mouse!Mice are the bane of every city as they live in the cracks and hovels and steal any food they can. You can try to poison them but they tend to be immune. As if they did not have short enough natural lives, they rarely get to live out their years because to normal humans mice are considered less than worthless.Sugar dreams of a better life. She is doing everything she can to try to get past the stigma of being a mouse. Views: 694
Stephan Gordon is down on his luck. Despite good qualifications, his career path has hit the skids and he is worried about his future and his family. A dream job has possibly landed in his lap that promises to be around for a lifetime. But will it be worth the cost?Based on the Resident Evil video game series by Capcom. Jill Valentine and the rest of the surviving S.T.A.R.S. team members return to Raccoon City after their harrowing ordeal at the Arklay mansion, only to find that they cannot reveal the truth about what happened. No one would ever believe them, but the death of so many of their coworkers draws them into a scandal that rocks the entire city. Umbrella has finally come to investigate the Arklay lab, and they discover the outbreak. They begin damage control, bringing in BCF soldiers to prepare for the inevitable outbreak in Raccoon City itself. A black ops commando code-named Hunk is sent to evacuate the Raccoon City lab, where he meets William Birkin and sets in motion a devastating chain of events. Meanwhile, a mysterious secret agent named Ada Wong arrives in Raccoon City as well. And Albert Wesker, still alive and manipulating things behind the scenes, remains in Raccoon City to clean up some loose ends before the T-virus infection reaches the city. Using a new variant of the Progenitor, he creates a new creature called the Nemesis ... Views: 694
A platoon of young men and one woman soldier leaves Italy for one of the most dangerous places on earth. Forward Operating Base (FOB) in the Gulistan district of Afghanistan is nothing but an exposed sandpit—scorched by inescapable sunlight and deadly mortar fire.
Each member in the platoon manages the toxic mix of boredom and fear that is life at the FOB in his own way. Brash Cederna shamelessly picks on the virgin Ietri. Giulia Zampieri seemingly navigates this male-dominated world with ease—until two male comrades start vying for her attention. And for medical officer Alessandro Egitto, the FOB serves as an escape from a real life even more dangerous than one fought with guns. At night, lying on their beds, they feel the beat of their own hearts, the ceaseless activity of the human body. But when a much-debated mission goes devastatingly awry, the soldiers find their lives changed in an instant. Views: 694
How do you evacuate a planet of Seventy Five Million beings, those who are of flesh and blood, as well as those that are cybernetic? That is the question “Every Last Mother’s Child” poses, when an asteroid field is disturbed, and threatens to destroy the planet of Trena.Every Last Mother’s Child is a far ranging novel, telling the story of a planetary disaster that is going to befall the planet of Trena. The cause of the disaster is the accidental detonation of an abandon planet buster bomb. The bomb was abandoned during a naval engagement between pirates and a Thonian battleship years before Trena was founded. The detonation created a small black hole that changed the orbits of many of the asteroids of the major asteroid field of the Trena Solar System so they would intersect with the planet of Trena in less than a year. The Trena Militia, the Thonian Realm’s Space Force, and the Imperial Armed Forces of Earth believing that detonating another graviton bomb could solve the problem, set a second one off. It didn’t. It made things worse. Because of this the Queen of Trena, a young woman, comes to a decision. She has to evacuate her world.Having made this decision, to evacuate, when she goes to consult with her Ministry of Emergency Management she finds the minister has resigned, and there is no plan to evacuate the planet of Trena. Still very much angry at the people she had trusted to help her people, she hears about a retired Imperial Marine who might have emigrated to Trena with his wife from Earth. The retired chief master gunnery sergeant is an expert in emergency management operations. He is suspected to be on Trena but no one is certain. When they find him, they find he has been on Trena and has been a member of the Trena Mounted Patrol as instructor at the patrol’s academy. He has been teaching emergency management, police tactics, and moral leadership to her police officers and others at the Trena Royal Mounted Patrol Academy. She reaches down past more senior officers and promotes him to Marshal of the Trena Royal Constabulary. She tasks him with getting every last mother’s child off Trena. Views: 694
Under divine protection, Luitgard and Sieglinde knew the Church would not find them. But when the Dominican Justin appears at their gates, they begin to question. Luitgard and Justin leave in search of answers while Sieglinde remains, struggling with a new role and a new relationship. As the threats grow, the women learn the truth about their protections and that living in peace is not possible.Long DescriptionLuitgard is a High Priestess of the Mintharchs, a people who have spent nearly half of the thirteenth century hiding from the Roman Catholic Church. Under the protection of an ancient goddess, their home has had no contact with the outside world in that time but when a Dominican friar named Justin appears at their gates, Luitgard cannot figure out how he found them. She soon realizes that Justin is just as confused and just as worried. They leave the village in search of answers while Luitgard's fellow High Priestess, Sieglinde, is left behind to take over the leadership she had never expected to hold. On their journey, Luitgard and Justin learn that they have much more in common than had been suspected and begin to rely upon each other in a way Luitgard has never before experienced. As Sieglinde tries to remain strong for her people she is left wishing for the quiet life she would have had with the warrior Humbert. As both Luitgard and Sieglinde learn their situations are much more dangerous than they had anticipated, they begin to question how real their divine protection ever was and learn that their best hope for survival is trusting not faceless gods but the mortals by their sides. Views: 694
