Jorunhaal leads an expedition to the new island. In search of power, he and the wizard, Wilheim, discover only death.King Eidon of Ilteriel learns of a new island, far to the south. He sends an expedition in search of new resources, allies, and power. Jorunhaal, Ilteriel's greatest warrior, is to lead the expedition. Upon setting foot on the island, one disaster after another occurs. The men battle small were-wolves, fall prey to a foul sickness in the air, and uncover demons once sealed away. Views: 371
“The sky begins to shimmer with the silver of brilliant star clusters, the eerie radiance of red and blue flourescence. One huge moon, glowing gold, is soon joined by two others, much smaller, which slowly rise above the horizon, each jagged in shape as if carelessly formed. Night falls suddenly and completely, and we sit together in a glorious royal-blue world illuminated with silver. It is Mother who speaks, softly: ‘So lovely a world. . . is surely meant for women.’” Late in the 22nd century, the settling of a new world falls on the strong shoulders of young Megan. The perfect leader, she undertakes to guide her sisters to a new planet, free from the shackles of the brutal Earth regime. Negotiating politics in a society of women is second only to securing their safety. When a landing party of men and women discover their colony Megan must decide if the outsiders will live or die. And that includes Lt. Laurel Meredith, whose disturbing beauty is as dangerous to Megan as her people are to Megan's world. Views: 371
Matthew and Winston are in Italy on important business - but Matthew wants one final adventure before he ties the knot with his fiancee back home in the States. As Matthew drags Winston across Italy on a paranoid pursuit of murderers, Winston has a trick of his own waiting up the sleeve of his expensive suit...Seventy from the 70s is a collection of poems written by a 1970's schoolgirl, presented just as they appear on the poet's original handwritten copies. They offer a fascinating glimpse into the psyche of a teenage girl in the early 1970's, with subjects as diverse as kittens, seagulls and witchcraft, plus the recurring topic of love both gained and lost. Let Seventy from the 70s take you back to your own teenage years: to all the confusion, exhilaration and wonder!Julie Stamp lives in SE Kent and is still writing poetry. Views: 371
When you’re about to get the chop in the dog-eat-dog motor trade and the blonde with a brace of sawn-off shotguns in her bag is eyeing up an ‘80s muscle car, there’s only one thing left to do – reach for the chicken suit! Another short story from Roger Busby which will entertain you and amuse with the pitfalls of the motor trade.Lately Jack Bowen had taken to wearing the chicken suit in the morning. He’d get to work early, before the others arrived, lock the door of his prefab office, take the suit out of the cupboard where it had hung all those years and slip it on, just for a few minutes. So where was the harm in that? The yellow plumage was a little ratty now and when he put the head on the beak sagged forlornly as he strutted up and down flapping the stubby wings. All the same, it felt good; took him back to the old days when he and John Tully were the top dogs at Lomax Ford, beating the sales target every time and picking up the cut glass decanters and all the other trinkets at the end of the month when the figures came out.Jack had bought the Wurlitzer to hang onto the same memories; picked it up caked in dirt at a junk auction, cleaned it up good as new until the chrome and plastic gleamed. When Betty finally got exasperated and threw it out, he’d brought it to the office, and in his lunch break would plug it in and watch the coloured lights flicker up and down the tubes; press one of the buttons from which the paper slips with the song titles had long since disappeared and feel the thrill of anticipation as the selector arm plucked a 45 from the stack and placed it on the turntable, the needle going down…Ricky Nelson singing “My babe”. Those were the days. When Big John Tully took the UK Ford Salesman of the Year Award for the third time running he’d put on his big confident smile and told Jack: “Jackie, kid, we’re wasting our talents busting a gut for Lomax when we could be coining it for ourselves!” Gone straight out and sweet talked the bank into a loan to buy Stan Gifford’s place on The Old Kent Road; clinched the deal on the strength of poaching a fair chunk of the Lomax trade. That was John all over, the wheeler-dealer, and Jack, who’d always played straight-arrow to this flamboyant showman, leafing through the Glass’s Guide and shaking his head whenever a punter grew over optimistic, had naturally thrown in with him. “Ha-ha Jackie boy, we’ve got it made,” John told him in his booming voice, arm thrown around his shoulder, “you and me, kiddo, we’re set up for the good life.” And so they were in those distant days before Tully went over the top, took to wearing cowboy boots and watching John Wayne DVD’s on a giant home cinema rig he’d set up in the back room, leaving Jack to run the business; before he named his only son after the Duke; before he snuffed it on the day Jack sold a blinged-up Bentley to a minor Saudi royal and Tully overdid the celebration; choked himself to death on a T-bone steak with pepper sauce. Views: 371
The Mother-Daughter Book Club says bon voyage to Concord and bonjour to France!
It’s a dream come true for Megan, who’s jet-setting to Paris for Fashion Week with Gigi. Meanwhile, back in Concord, Mrs. Wong decides to run for mayor, so Emma and Stewart team up to make her campaign a success. Jess and Cassidy are also hoping for victories, Jess in the a cappella finals with the MadriGals and Cassidy in the national hockey championships with her teammates. In the midst of it all, the girls—along with their Wyoming pen pals, who drop in for a visit over Spring Break—dive into Charlotte Brontë’s classic Jane Eyre. Some real life romance follows, as Becca may have found a Mr. Rochester of her own.
And then there’s the matter of a certain wedding. The book club girls, their families, the British Berkeley brothers, and even Annabelle Fairfax (aka Stinkerbelle) will be attending the ceremony, which means there might be some bumps before the bride waltzes down the aisle… Views: 371
On Tina's thirteenth birthday, she receives an extraordinary gift that holds the power to solve all the problems she's having at her new schoolHunted by demons from the Afterlife and pursued by a vicious thug in the real world, Connor True was caught between both planes of existence, locked in a coma from which he could not awaken. His mind was active but his body had shut down. The walls of the tiny prison cell of in his head pressed in around him threatening to crush his sanity and there was nothing he could do about it. Views: 371
Sometimes making a living is murder... three short stories of crime and punishment.In A LIVING, a solitary man contemplates life and death and thinks about exactly what it takes to make a living. This story was shortlisted for the Quick Reads 'Get Britain Reading' prize.Two bored detectives investigate an unattended death in KITTY. The only witnesses were a harmless old lady and her cat, so it looks like an open-and-shut case. As a quiet afternoon escalates into an ordeal of dreamlike terror, the detectives discover how wrong you can be.And finally, in A JOB WORTH DOING, a repair man providing a discreet service to a niche market thinks he's discovered a way to make some easy money from death. * * *Three stories of mystery and suspense, with a twist of urban horror, in one great package. This trio of chilling noir tales draws on influences as diverse as James Ellroy, Stephen King, Stanley Ellin and Alfred Hitchcock.This collection also includes an exclusive free sample of HALFWAY TO HELL - Gavin Bell's full-length thriller novel.Book Length: 7,000 words (plus exclusive sample of Halfway to Hell); includes active table of contents for easy navigation between stories. Views: 371
In space, Zombies still hunger for brains. Will the transport ship Firebird make it back to earth before it is overrun with the alien undead?Interplanetary transport ship Firebird is on a routine mission, delivering much needed supplies to a mining colony when a freak collusion of accidents plunges the crew in a desperate race against time against the most unlikely of foes to meet in space. Zombies. Views: 370
This country doesn't need a constitution, never has, never will. We have History as our guide. In tough times, the British do what we have always done. We muddle through. This House is a timely and relevant political comedy, exploring Westminster and the 1974 hung parliament. In the run-up to the General Election pressure mounts as squabbling whips attempt to attract key regional votes. As it becomes clear the results will be closely balanced, the play tracks the formation, perils and consequences of a coalition government, including the compromises, conflicts and power games all in the interest of gaining control of Parliament. With well-paced, witty and waspish dialogue, This House playfully explores the childish digs and chauvinistic attitudes that riddle political life. Award-winning playwright James Graham combines comedy with comment in this portrayal of the strain between the thinking individual, the pressure to toe the part line and the end goal of... Views: 370
This second collection of (mostly) short fiction from Diane Duane features tales based on folklore, ghost stories and fairy tales with a modern twist.
The stories in the collection include:
First Readthrough: How you do the casting for a fairy tale… and what can go wrong while you do.
The Dovrefell Cat: Your pet polar bear may sometimes be a problem… but there’s one night of the year when he shines.
…Under My Skin: Some first dates just don’t work out the way you think they will: not at all.
A Swiss Story: Lots of people from that part of the world have something from “during the War”. But not many have anything like this…
Blank Check: A most unusual client turns up at one of the world’s oldest banks with an impossible request… which nonetheless must be fulfilled.
Don’t Put That In Your Mouth, You Don’t Know Where It’s Been: A would-be worshipper of the Triple Goddess has her upcountry ritual disturbed by something very odd.
The House: A school project examining gingerbread as a structural element turns into something way more personal.
Cold Case: A cop who won’t take no for an answer meets a murder victim who’s even more stubborn than he is.
The title work, Midnight Snack: “Dad came down with the flu that week, so I had to go down to the subway and feed the unicorns…”
And completing the collection, a full-length feature film screenplay, Dead & Breakfast: a ghost story with computers. Views: 370
A religious leader's unprecedented trip through a wormhole to another dimension to retrieve a sacred tome could save his planet's people - or perhaps doom them.Samurai Shark has a license plate stuck in his teeth and it's pissing him off. The pain makes him go on an epic rant that will make even the toughest dizen of the deep cower in fear. Watch out world, Samurai Shark is comin' to bite you in the butt! Views: 370
This surprise bestseller set in the world of female bodybuilding is "a modern gothic comedy of obsession" (Vanity Fair). Aurora Jeanine Johnson is an unwed mother from Savannah, Georgia, desperate to sculpt a new life—and a new body—in California, where the quest for the perfect butt or bicep reaches religious intensity. Spending every spare moment training at the gym, Aurora is barely getting by—until she meets the man who will offer her everything she most desires. Charles Worthington is a wealthy eccentric, rich enough to indulge his every decadent whim and fantasy. Aurora is his sexual ideal, the raw material from which he will shape his masterpiece. He will transform Aurora into the woman of his dreams—and fantasies—no matter the cost. To achieve their common goal, Aurora hands over complete control of her life to Charles. He dictates her diet, her lifestyle, her training—and when and how much... Views: 370
When the lines between dreams and reality disappear, wishes can become nightmares...For sixteen-year-old Bixby, the last few years have been a misery of loss and rejection. Her mother’s death, her grandmother’s Alzheimer’s and her father’s despair and distance have robbed her of the family she once had. With only her brother Lincoln and her imaginary friends from the town she dreams of every night on her side, she struggles on.But then Lincoln is killed in a suspicious car accident and Bixby is devastated to lose her best—and only—friend. Desperate to have him back, she accepts an offer from a stranger from her nightmares. Jordan delivers on his promise and Bixby finds she must deliver on hers. The problem is she doesn’t know who—or what—Jordan really is or what exactly she promised in returned. Each evening they spend together in her dreams brings them closer together and tears Bixby further from her own reality. What does Jordan really want and what is Bixby going to lose in return for the only thing she thought she wanted most in the world?Look for the sequel, Winter’s Dream, due out soon. Views: 369
