Ghosts in the Machine is an anthology of 13 original short stories that each look at the imperfections of life through the imperfections found in games, be they bugs, exploits or design flaws. Edited and organized by Lana Polansky and Brendan Keogh, and featuring pieces by Lana Polansky, Ashton Raze, Denis Farr, Alan Williamson, Shelley “Big Shell” Du, Matt Riche, Rollin Bishop, Ian Miles Cheong, Andrew Vanden Bossche, Ryan Morning, Dylan Sabin, Alois Wittwer and Maddy Myers. Views: 33
Could she ever prove her innocence? After her father's death, Sara Rodney thought she'd finally be safe at her grandmother's country home outside London. That was before she was forced to marry Luke Gallagher, almost a total stranger. Cressy, Sara's selfish stepsister, had filled Luke's head with lies, and now he believed Sara to be a despicable fortune hunter. There was no way to change his mind. But Luke's hatred was only part of the trouble. For despite her efforts to the contrary, Sara found herself falling in love with her new husband. Views: 33
Kayla is intent on leaving her past north of the border. Hired as a Canadian liaison by the US Navy, she finds the Coronado SEALs tough but amiable. Their Commander is another matter. With eyes like blue steel and a body carved from it, Kayla resists the hungry attraction between them for good reason.Navy SEAL Commander Thane Austen (Ghost) treats his women like his missions: in, out and gone. Returning from deployment to find Kayla is his new tactical specialist poses a challenge, one he’s never faced. When the defiant beauty with haunted eyes becomes a serial killer’s target, the Commander has the excuse he needs to close ranks around her. Fear is a word unknown to the legendary SEAL until he realizes love can be as dangerous to a warrior as combat. Convincing Kayla to surrender to him and catching a killer is a mission he won’t fail. Views: 33
True or False: Simon is one of the coolest teachers at Forest Alternative: True Simon and Alex are friends: True Tim is jealous of Alex and Simon: False... ...until Stacy walks into class, flashing her tongue ring, swishing her hair, and spreading rumors — dirty rumors, the kind that make you second guess who your real friends are, and their intentions. Rumors like Stacy's test and sometimes ruin friendships as strong as those among Tim, Alex, and Simon. Rumors are dangerous, but not always as dangerous or ugly as the truths from which they spring.... Views: 33
Eleven days. Eleven days it took, for me to become vampire. The beating had revived old nightmares and I only wished to die. I'd shaken my head and muttered no through lips so bloodied and swollen it was difficult to say the word. He'd asked me if I wanted to live. I said no. He asked me if I wanted to be strong and live forever. I said no again, with difficulty. "Wrong answer," he whispered and cut into my wrists.In the beginning, the One created the Three. Only the One was more powerful than the Three. They were named Wisdom, Strength and Love. Those Three are more commonly known as the Mighty Mind, the Mighty Hand and the Mighty Heart.Others were made, then, with varying degrees of power, who served under the One and the Three. The worlds were made, both Light and Dark, and those worlds were populated with all manner of races and creatures.One day, the One and the Three discovered that a blight had infected their ranks. Some at many levels of power had banded together and turned against them, seeking to destroy what had been created. The Three were given the task of pursuing the rogues and finding a way to either turn them back to the light or eliminate them. The Three began to choose their armies carefully, as their duty was to seek out and right many wrongs in their pursuit of such pervasive evil.The God Wars have begun. Views: 33
With an introduction by award-winning novelist Colm TóibínIn 1960s Central Mexico, two sisters, Delfina and María de Jesús González, known as 'Las Poquianchis', run a small-town brothel. Kidnapped, drugged and beaten, their young workers are desperate for escape. The Dead Girls is the discovery of these young women, buried in the back yard. In the laconic tones of a police report, Jorge Ibargüengoitia investigates these horrific murders and their motives. A black comedy, both moving and cruelly funny, Ibargüengoitia's work is a potent and entertaining blend of sex and mayhem. Views: 33
Investigating an ex-cop's death, Hastings gets drawn into a family conspiracyIt was just after he made lieutenant that Frank Hastings told Charlie Quade to resign. They had known each other at the academy, and Quade was a rotten cop from day one. Dogged by rumors of corruption, Quade left without protest, eking out a living doing security work. When Hastings hears Quade has been shot dead, he doesn't blink. The only surprise is the place the ex-cop died.Alexander Guest is one of the wealthiest lawyers in the city, and Hastings can't understand why he would hire a thug like Quade to protect his grandson from the father-in-law who wants to kidnap him. When Quade's body is found, the grandson is long gone, and the father-in-law is the natural suspect. But Hastings knows better than to trust the rich, and he refuses to accept the easy answer. Views: 33
Heather Wells is used to having her cake and eating it too, but this time her cake just might be cooked. Her wedding cake, that is.With her upcoming nuptials to PI Cooper Cartwright only weeks away, Heather's already stressed. And when a pretty junior turns up dead, Heather's sure things can't get worse--until every student in the dorm where she works is a possible suspect, and Heather's long-lost mother shows up.Heather has no time for a tearful mother and bride reunion. She has a wedding to pull off and a murder to solve. Instead of wedding bells, she might be hearing wedding bullets, but she's determined to bring the bad guys to justice if it's the last thing she does . . . and this time, it just might be. Views: 33
Mermaids have been sinking ships and drowning humans for centuries, and now the government is determined to put an end to the mermaid problem—by slaughtering all of them. Luce, a mermaid with exceptionally threatening abilities, becomes their number-one target, hunted as she flees down the coast toward San Francisco.
There she finds hundreds of mermaids living in exile under the docks of the bay. These are the Twice Lost: once-human girls lost first when a trauma turned them into mermaids, and lost a second time when they broke mermaid law and were rejected by their tribes. Luce is stunned when they elect her as their leader. But she won’t be their queen. She’ll be their general. And they will become the Twice Lost Army—because this is war. Views: 33
A world of violent passions and inhuman hungers explodes as ancient taboos and primal desires collide. Wolf Were Alpha Sylvan Mir wants nothing more than to keep her pregnant mate Drake safe in their secluded stronghold, deep in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains, but enemies, political and praetern, force her into battle. Sylvan must confront the Vampire Chancellor Francesca, a one-time lover, about her part in a recent attack on Mir Laboratories—a confrontation that will test Sylvan’s alliance with the Vampires and lead to war. Francesca’s enforcer Michel, with a secret sexual conquest in Sylvan’s Pack and a Were centuri newly-turned Vampire, Lara under her command, may have divided loyalties, too. Lara, born to fight in service to the Were alpha, finds herself caught between two worlds, belonging to neither, and her unexpected obsession with an enemy Alpha puts ancient loyalties to the test. In a world where humans and praeterns conspire for the ultimate power, violence is a way of life...and death. A Midnight Hunters novel. Views: 33
Persuasion, Jane Austen’s final published work, is a story of second chances. A very young Frederick Wentworth and Anne Elliot are broken-hearted when their hasty engagement is dissolved due to Frederick’s lack of prestige and lack of money. Eight years later, they are still healing when they are thrust into the same social circle once more - however, in a brilliant turn, now Frederick is Captain Wentworth, a prosperous naval officer, and the Elliot family finds themselves on the brink of financial ruin.Austen, who suffered her own broken engagement, pens a beautiful tale of the redeeming power of love, and the passion between Frederick and Anne sizzles on the page, even by the standards of 1816. In this wild and wanton edition of Persuasion, read the entire classic and discover the steamy untold portions of Austen’s story that have been lying dormant in the subtext. Who knows, Austen may have included these bits herself 200 years ago - if only she dared.Sensuality Level: Sensual Views: 33
It is the summer of 1940, and Lisbon, Portugal, is the only neutral port left in Europe—a city filled with spies, crowned heads, and refugees of every nationality, tipping back absinthe to while away the time until their escape. Awaiting safe passage to New York on the SS Manhattan, two couples meet: Pete and Julia Winters, expatriate Americans fleeing their sedate life in Paris; and Edward and Iris Freleng, sophisticated, independently wealthy, bohemian, and beset by the social and sexual anxieties of their class. As Portugal's neutrality, and the world's future, hang in the balance, the hidden threads in the lives of these four characters—Julia's status as a Jew, Pete and Edward's improbable affair, Iris's increasingly desperate efforts to save her tenuous marriage—begin to come loose. This journey will change their lives irrevocably, as Europe sinks into war.Gorgeously written, sexually and politically charged, David Leavitt's long-awaited new... Views: 33
