John discovers he's not alone on his little farm when his best friend finds a little metal cube.Alaric and Everet have begun their journey across the desolate Oresian plains back to the border, where they'll continue on to the Vasque Capitole to meet with Veld Martiale Hadryan. But issues more personal and pressing than a stalled treaty and the Holds' futures must first be addressed, and as the fury of a coming storm begins to mount, so too do the tension and uncertainty between the pair. Views: 559
A young princess embarks on a desperate quest to find her missing mother.Princess Eladria is devastated to learn that her mother has been officially listed as missing. Extensive planet-wide searches by the Royal Military have failed to yield a trace of the queen. Shocked that her father seems to think she won't be coming back, the wilful seven-year-old sneaks out of the palace and prepares to embark on a desperate quest to find her missing mother. It's a quest that's fated to end badly, but a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger could mark a turning point in the princess's life... Views: 559
An earthquake shakes Montana, unearthing old bones and new trouble Usually it takes more than one beer to make the Toussaint bar shake. When the earthquake hits, part-time deputy Gabriel Du Pré and his friends are lamenting the fishing resort a Japanese firm has planned for their small town. The floor shakes, the lights go out, and glass rains from the walls. When they emerge from the bar, they see a new landscape. Roads are mangled, mountains have shifted, and the spring where the Japanese businessmen had planned to build their resort is no more. In its place is an uprooted Indian burial ground, and a massive headache for Du Pré. As local Native American tribes fight over the ancient remains, a fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth is found in the hands of a murdered anthropologist. Du Pré had just wanted a beer. Instead he found a murder that was sixty-five million years in the making. Views: 559
Taking place after The End Begins: The Nine, we catch up with Caleb Knight as he prepares a squad of new recruits for a Post War society. But the lines of ally and enemy are about to become blurred.The day Connor cornered me in the library, I thought he was cracked. The day he covered my walls with crosses and filled my apartment with garlic, I thought he was psychotic. The day he killed someone on the floor in my living room, I had no choice but to believe. This is my last confession, the story of the years we spent hunting Them and the mistakes we made. This is my memorial to the people we lost. This is my realization of the importance of Proof.They have been lurking in the shadows for untold years, waiting for the chance to burst free. Only the ragged few, held together by the charismatic Connor, have seen the signs and dare to stand up against Them, the undead. In this battle, no one leaves unscathed. Views: 558
Chris Landrum's idyllic life of retirement on the South Carolina barrier island of Folly Beach just got turned upside down. After more than two decades, his ex-wife, Joan, calls to wish him a merry Christmas. He can tell she wants to tell him something more, but their conversation is cut short before he learns anything. Something's up.A second call from Joan's best friend delivers startling news. Joan's husband has just been killed in an automobile accident in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, and Joan wants Chris to investigate. Even though it's hundreds of miles from Chris's peaceful beach cottage, he agrees to help.Meanwhile, Chris's best and strangest friend, Charles, joins the working world as a bartending private detective, two jobs he stumbles and bumbles through with equal measures of incompetence. Country Cal, an aging country music singer and new bar owner, hires Charles to catch a petty thief who is stealing bourbon and cash. Heather, a psychic and Charles's... Views: 558
If you like this be sure to check out the full "Bell Watkins and The Mistrunners" book available on Amazon.com now for only 99 cents!When former MI6 agent turned archaeologist Dr Ava Curzon is engaged by American intelligence to track down an African militia claiming to hold the Ark of the Covenant, she is plunged into a world where nothing is what it seems.Her breakneck descent into the shadowy realm of dark biblical magic hurls her across continents and into the opaque worlds of the Knights Templar, freemasons, occultists, and extremist neo-Nazis, pushing her mentally and physically to the limits.As the plot twists and turns across the centuries, she requires all her skills to solve a trail of ancient clues leading her inexorably towards a terrifying ritual. Taking centre stage, she faces the ultimate battle against an age-old evil she must stop at all costs.Dr Ava Curzon is Lara Croft meets Evelyn Salt – the first real challenger to Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon. Views: 558
Brian is a faded rock star, still trying to cash in on his childhood fame. But when he meets former hippie, Rain, he gets more than he bargained for.This story contains content that is not suitable for children.DID YOU KNOW:Sir Balin, the knight who delivered the dolorous stroke, was so stupid half of Camelot assumed it was an act to cover for his witchcraft? Sir Gawaine was a whiny little brat who demanded unlimited special treatment on account of he was King Arthur’s nephew? Arthur only married Guinevere to get his hands on her dowry, the Round Table? Nobody liked Merlin because he was terrible?If you did know all those things, clearly you’ve read Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, and I pity you. No one should have to slog through that pile of continuity errors and insipid descriptions of jousts. I’ve spent years of my life poring over all twenty-one Books of this foundational work of fantasy literature, dreadful as it is. Here, for your amusement and edification, I recount, dissect, and ruthlessly mock each ridiculous plot contrivance, each self-contradictory anecdote, and each unnamed damsel who runs in from offscreen and dies.Arthur Dies at the End volume 1: Something About a Sword and a Stone? covers Books I through III of Le Morte d’Arthur. Here you’ll find King Arthur’s earliest days, from the hilarious and rape-filled account of his conception to the bit with the sword in the stone we all remember to his first war to his loveless wedding to Guinevere and his nephew Gawaine’s very first quest (he screws it up pretty bad)!ARTHUR DIES AT THE END: I read Le Morte d’Arthur so you don’t have to! Views: 558
This is an extra chapter for all the fans who've read my 12-part Comet Clement series. This is my way of saying thanks for your readership, as well as a way to wrap up a small storyline not touched upon in later books. I hope you all enjoy!Guest Ranch is a short story. It opens with a married couple visiting the ranch. The husband is in a bad mood because he had been stopped and fined for speeding in the town. It takes him awhile to warm up to the experience of the ranch and a young guide. However, he gradually gets into the spirit of things.The story is in the western genre. Views: 558
In 2085, Dr Josef Hanson, and the last survivors of humanity, watch the destruction of Earth from Chronicle; a billion-dollar moon base. Built to preserve world history, its library becomes a symbol of hope for survival. But that’s not all; inside lies a supercomputer known as the Black Box... Not everyone is convinced of hope. Conflicts lead to dire consequences. The world will shatter, again...In the year 2085, Dr Josef Hanson, his son Louis and less than two dozen others; possibly the last survivors of humanity, watch the destruction of Earth from Chronicle; a multi-billion dollar base on the moon. Built to preserve the world’s history, its library archive becomes an invaluable resource and symbol of hope for survival.But that’s not all; inside lies a supercomputer known as the Black Box, that stores knowledge of almost every past human achievement. When the survivors discover the technology, Josef struggles to step up in leadership, and deal with the rising tensions that follow his restriction on the use of the machine. Not everyone is convinced there is hope, and disagreements lead to dire consequences.The world will shatter before them, again... Views: 558
When Lucian is faced with his biggest fear - becoming the next breeding male - he knows his only options are imprisonment or death. But when he learns that the key to his salvation may lie in the body of the veana he's trying to forget, he's forced to choose between sanity and the destruction of the only woman he's ever loved. Views: 558
After four disastrous engagements, Penelope Rastmoor wants nothing but to travel to Egypt. To escape her brother's plan to marry her off, she's determined to find herself such an improper fiance that he would do anything rather than let her wed. Enter the notoriously unscrupulous Lord Harris Chesterton... Views: 558
Do you feel your life is that bad you need to leave so much of it behind?Do you feel your life is that good you can’t leave part of it behind?Fairly looked around the room anxiously. The sterile white walls were no comfort; the spotted plaster of the ceiling was not much better. The beaten linoleum floor shone with a dim glow from the overhead fluorescent lighting, showing a reflection of his jeans where the mop had washed most recently. Fairly exhaled deeply, hoping to quell the trembling that overtook his body whenever he had to take a needle. It’s just a blood test, he told himself unconvincingly. They’re not going to put anything in you, just take a bit of something out, and you have five litres of it anyway. That was what the sources he had read had said. Five litres, and only one needle’s worth will be coming out. Still not how I want to be spending my first Friday afternoon off in weeks. Views: 557
When star pilot Jael rebels against an abusive captain and flies the "mountain route" through the Flux, she dismisses a legend claiming that dragons lurk waiting for unwary riggers. But appear they do, challenging Jael to a fight to the death. This short story is the basis for the novel Dragons in the Stars (available in the omnibus Dragon Space). 9000 words, plus excerpt from Dragon Space.When star pilot Jael rebels against an abusive captain and flies the "mountain route" through the Flux, she dismisses a legend claiming that dragons lurk waiting for unwary riggers. But appear they do, challenging Jael to a fight to the death. This story appeared originally in the anthology Dragons of Darkness, edited by Orson Scott Card. 9000 words, plus excerpt from the novel that followed. "Though All the Mountains Lie Between" formed the seed of two novels, Dragons in the Stars and Dragon Rigger, both published in print by Tor Books. They are available in the omnibus Dragon Space (in the author's edition, available on Smashwords), or individually (in E-Reads editions, available in most other ebook stores). Views: 557