Count your blessings, guard your curses--and watch your back. . . Sophie Lawson was seriously hoping life at the UDA would get back to relative normal now that her boss Pete Sampson has been reinstated. Unfortunately, her new assignment is sending her undercover into a realm where even the most powerful paranormals fear to tread. . .her old high school. Being a human immune to magic is no defense against soulless picture-perfect mean girls--or a secret witch coven about to sacrifice a missing female student. And Sophie's Guardian, uber-proper Englishman Will, is determined to convince Sophie he's the kind of temptation she should indulge in permanently. Now as the clock ticks down to apocalypse, he and Sophie will have to summon every trick in the book to battle devilish illusion, lethal sorcery--and betrayals they'll never see coming . . . Praise for Hannah Jayne's Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles "Jayne continues to delight with the third Underworld Detection Agency novel." --"Publishers Weekly "(starred review) on "Under Suspicion" "Hannah Jayne has created an imaginative world that I look forward to visiting again and again." --Alexandra Ivy, "New York Times "bestselling author on "Under Wraps" Views: 561
I stopped and let them circle me, first because it was intriguing and, second, because, honestly, what could they do? Only knives, but all armed, and that made them even more interesting. Interesting. Fun.
Playtime…
Taking on bloodthirsty supernatural monsters is how Caliban and Niko Leandros make a living. But years ago—before they became a force to be reckoned with—the brothers were almost victims of a very human serial killer.
Almost.
Unfortunately for them, that particular depraved killer was working as apprentice to a creature far more malevolent—the legendary Spring-heeled Jack. He’s just hit town. He hasn’t forgotten what the Leandros brothers did to his murderous protégé. He hasn’t forgotten what they owe him.
And now they are going to pay… and pay… and pay.… Views: 561
Mila was about to learn the hard way that easy money has a price that comes with it. When put in danger, she had to make the choice to give up her lucrative practice or put her friends and family in further danger."Leave by the back door. Weave your way home. Be careful and don't be followed. They are out there but it appears they do not know who you are or where you are at this moment. I got their license plate number. I'll make some calls. I know someone on the force who owes me a favor. Keep in mind that they could find out who you are at any time. It only takes one student to spill the info."Before they left, they each called home and tried to act as if nothing was wrong and to advise their parents that they were downtown and would be home shortly.The trip home took them almost an hour before they felt they it was safe. "Mila, call me if you hear anything, anything at all. This is a nightmare." Views: 560
A zealous government tries to use one lover against another for information. But when that fails, the government proves they still have the upper hand.Conan Burke’s childhood is curious. He is born in Bootle in 1920 to a couple who marry in haste. His Belgian mother suffers from long cyclical depressions and Conan spends half of his childhood in the care of his maternal grandmother in Brussels. He proves to be an unusual, single-minded child who is obsessed with language. He develops a special talent for recognising accents and learns to pinpoint a speaker's birthplace by the sound of their voice. When his mother dies prematurely, he finds himself free to roam the north of England on his bike, all the while honing his linguistic skills. He is earnest and undeviating in his obsession and there are hints of how his compulsive behaviour will make his grown-up life difficult, singular and sometimes absurd. Nowadays he might well be diagnosed as suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome. By the 1960s Conan has become a radio personality and university lecturer in Romance Linguistics attached to a Department of Spanish somewhere in the North of England. When his marriage fails because his wife can no longer stand his unreasonable and often ludicrous obsessive behaviour he decides he will try to change in order to win her back. He wishes he could become more romantic and imaginative instead of being so cold and factual. So, during the summer vacation he embarks upon a journey to Galicia in north-west Spain, hoping that a pilgrimage to this rural cradle of magical realism might wondrously transform his notoriously concrete thinking. The tale is narrated by his daughter Jennifer, who accompanies him on the journey. She grounds him, rescues him and protects him, jealously guarding him from the predatory attentions of an academic girlfriend who takes advantage of his lack of worldliness and attempts to rob him of his chance discovery of a literary and anthropological find. Views: 560
I wrote this short story for a class in intermediate fiction at the University of Colorado back in 1987 after reading a short story by John Ashbery titled, "Description of a Masque." I wrote it during the spring semester and just before I attended the Aspin Writers Conference, a life-altering event for me.You are blind and standing at the south rim of the Canyon. Gently and with kind words, as if performing a long overdue service for a patient of some convalescent hospital, he takes the cane from you, and you listen to the dull clunk of wood as he leans it against a rock. You learn that place, knowing you may have to return to it alone. The heat of midday sun is on your head, and you wish to see the wall of the north rim, realizing that the image can be nothing more than a mental fabrication. He returns, encourages you to stand a little closer to the edge. "To see," he says, "if you can sense what she must have — the ground plunge downward to the first plateau." He solicits more courage, urging you ahead, creating a comforting, therapeutic confidence in your action. "Don't be so timid. That's where they found her, you know, on the first plateau more than 2,000 feet below, which now has a thin covering of desert grass, just enough to give it a tinge of green. That's where she stopped."This world is a stranger to you, to both of you. But with the untimeliness of her passing, you must take extraordinary measures. And surely, it was your fault. You, who see even the fall of the least sparrow, failed to see the fall of your only daughter, the Little One. And so you are here. And since you refuse to discuss it, he treats it as amnesia. You feel strange standing on the very spot where the accident occurred. It was a very human event, simply a death.Now taking his suggestion, you lean, tentatively at first, then take a short step, feeling the ground gently slope off, the gravel move under your feet. Knowing he's close, you touch the thick hair and flesh of his arm, then feel him move from you, slightly back but still in touch, leaving you a little unsteady. An updraft rushes by, and then you detect a difference, an absence of reflected sound, a void in front of you as deep as that left in the heart from a sudden death. You yearn to cry out, to bounce an echo from the far wall, to make the abyss finite, to make it part of the Canyon. Instead, from within it comes the wordless cry of a human voice, a sound so strange, yet so complete in intent, young and old at the same time like that of a reincarnated child, lost and doomed to walk the face of the earth as an unaging spirit. "Do you hear that?" you ask. "Do you hear the voice from the Canyon?""I hear nothing but someone on horseback hurrying away on the dirt path and the occasional caw of a crow." His voice is now stiff and unconvincing. "If I try to listen with the ears of the blind, I hear the claws of squirrels in the trees behind us and just now the sound of children's laughter around the bend. But if I can't hear it, perhaps it is she calling you. Perhaps it would be only fitting for you to follow.""No. This is nothing like that. It comes from below. Maybe a climber stranded on a cliff," you lie. "There. I hear it again. It comes on the updraft."He leaves your touch and moves away from the edge as if seeking some strategic position. You hear him behind you, shuffling among the rocks, and you wonder if he's moving your cane. You wish to feel the tip on the ground, rake it from side to side, feel the dirt and push around loose rocks. You reach out in front as if with cane in hand, the other arm out to the side for balance. He's talking to you again, his voice subtly changed, hardly disguising an air of inquisition, asking if you remember being here, asking if the presence of the Canyon is somewhat familiar? Is it filtering through your darkness? He's close behind you, too close. "In the past, your eyes would have filled with a palette of colors, painting," he suggests, "the layered rim that cuts off the blue sky and the strata that goes from dirt-pink to chalk-white to rust, and the cliffs that fall away to the green valley and the river below." Views: 560
Charlie Cradle’s life was going nowhere fast. Being awkward and shy made it difficult getting out, so she believed virtual sunshine from her video game world was enough for her. But one day, all of that changed when she was challenged to live a more fulfilling life by someone at her mundane telemarketing job. That's when she meets an unlikely love interest, who just so happened to be a wizard.Charlie Cradle’s life was going nowhere fast. Being awkward and shy made it difficult getting out, so she believed virtual sunshine from her video game world was enough for her. But one day, all of that changed when she was challenged to live a more fulfilling life by someone at her mundane telemarketing job. What she wouldn’t have guessed before embarking on her quest, however, was that she would meet an unlikely love interest, who just so happened to be a wizard.It’s a story about self-discovery and personal growth, and how love is never as easy as we wish it could be. But one thing is for sure… Charlie Cradle will never be the same again. Views: 560
These are OMR - One Minute Reads. Weekly when I attended Pomona Writers Group the facilitator provided us with a title to write and read to the other members.These are the stories I wrote for 2012.Hope you enjoy.This is a selection of OMR - One Minute Reads. Each week when I attended Pomona Writers Group 2012 the facilitator gave us homework to write no more than five hundred words on the title he chose.Hope you indeed enjoy reading these OMR - One Minute Reads as I have had in writing and publishing them. Views: 560
One can live for several weeks without food but only a few days without water, a fact that seventeen year old Niko is only too aware of as she struggles to provide for her two younger brothers in a post-apocalyptic landscape where the rain burns like acid, food grows scarce, and any Slither that crosses her path is laid low before it can sink its teeth into her.One can live for several weeks without food but only a few days without water, a fact that seventeen year old Niko is only too aware of as she struggles to provide for her two younger brothers in a post-apocalyptic landscape where the rain burns like acid, food grows scarce, and any Slither that crosses her path is laid low before it can sink its teeth into her.Then one night everything she's ever worked for, everything she's ever loved is consumed by a raging fire, leaving her with one brother dead, the other missing and herself gravely injured.She's rescued by the Rose Circle, a rogue group of Slither hunters. They sneak her into Amaryllis City, a decadent metropolis where those able to afford the exorbitant entrance fee live a life of relative ease.But for Niko, Amaryllis City is not the haven she grew up believing it would be, the deeper she delves the nastier it gets and when her unique abilities as a Slither hunter are discovered things get positively filthy.All Niko ever wanted to do was find her baby brother but that's proving to be harder than she ever would have expected. Views: 560
The Earth has changed and the Animals fear they are in grave danger. Who can Lion send to travel to the end of the Earth to save them? And who is brave enough to go on this important mission?THE GUARDIANS BEGINS... An alien race flee their dying world... Welcomed by the hails and emissaries of the League of Eight, The Crulla instead make their way through the systems they come across, seeking worlds not to live on, but where they can harvest the blood of the inhabitants. After their advance leads them to a League outpost, where they decimate the population, the League are forced to act; going to war against the rampaging alien species, who are making their way slowly to the unprotected Sollus system, and it’s one occupied planet… Earth! Views: 560
Oscar Scheller lives in the small farming town of Jevoya, where his family holds major influence. He plans to marry his childhood love Alexandria within the month, but first he must embark on a journey to the mountainside city of Shantaram to deliver his bride's dowry. If you like heartfelt, substantial writing about medieval worlds, this short story is your cup of tea.It’s just an ordinary day for octogenarian sleuth Myrtle Clover—until her yardman discovers a dead body planted in her backyard. This death isn’t cut and dried—the victim was bashed in the head with one of Myrtle’s garden gnomes. Myrtle’s friend Miles recognizes the body and identifies him as Charles Clayborne… reluctantly admitting he’s a cousin. Charles wasn’t the sort of relative you bragged about—he was a garden variety sleaze, which is very likely why he ended up murdered. As Myrtle starts digging up dirt to nip the killings in the bud, someone’s focused on scaring her off the case. Myrtle vows to find the murderer…before she’s pushing up daisies, herself. Views: 560
A woman trapped in an abusive relationship breaks apart in a final act of defiance.How far would you have to be pushed to take another life? What is the cost of having to make such a decision, even if it is to defend yourself? A woman in an abusive relationship confronts these questions in a final act of defiance.A short sample - For some reason all she could hear was ringing in her ears. She could not understand why she smelled fireworks in the living room or why her arms were so heavy. Through a haze she could see him look at her with a look of shock, a growing stain spreading across the faded shirt she had given him for a birthday years ago. His lips formed two words before he fell face first on the floor. “I’m sorry.” As she looked at him on the floor she realized that the growing pool coming from under his body was his blood. She watched as the blood slowly spread across the floor like a lava flow threatening to burn all in its path. Reality seeped in further as she saw that a small pistol was in her hands even as she could not recall how it got there. A small voice in her head told her to leave and run but she could not. The world turned into shades of gray, everything in black and white. Everything but the crimson pool slowly spreading across the floor."A moving story that I enjoyed reading. I found it quite sad, but it mirrors countless real lives, so makes one sit back and think long and hard about the world we live in and our choices.""Was drawn in from beginning to end. I hate reading short stories for this reason, I WANTED MORE, wonderfully told. True gift he has with words.""Wonderful story. It's an age old tale retold in a fascinating and surprising way. The writer has a true gift for storytelling. I was spellbound from the beginning to the end.""I enjoyed reading I'm Sorry. A insightful yet emotional take of a young girl who fell onto an abusive relationship. Reading this short story was like viewing a abusive relationship right from the inside instead of hearing about one." Views: 560
A short collection of poetry written from the mind, from the soul, and From the Heart.William Shakespeare is back! According to ancient Mayan prophecies, 2012 is a portentous year for humanity. On the evening of 20th June, the hallowed midsummer night, William Shakespeare finds himself mysteriously transported from London in 1612 to London in 2012. Whilst exploring this shocking, strange new world, Shakespeare unwittingly becomes the only person who can prevent a cataclysmic disaster hitting the UK on the 21st December 2012, the day the Mayans predicted the end of time. Can the Bard save Britain ...?This is the second of five instalments. Views: 560
Turning Point is a collection of religious essays that will not only inspire you in your spiritual walk, but will give you helpful points to carry you through the journey of life. It will also encourage your walk with the Lord and bring you closer in your relationship with Him. The plain and simple essays may not turn the world upside down, but they will bring some joy to your heart.A centuries-old organization within the tiny town of Grayson protects many secrets - from unknown scientific discoveries to the truth about the mythical island of Atlantis, along with information that ties it to historical events from around the world.Thirteen-year-old Adam McTaggart and his wise-cracking friends have always assumed that Grayson is just another boring small town on the prairie, but the destruction of a nearby town and disappearance of all of its residents forces them to believe they might also be in danger.After listening to theories from one of the many unique townspeople, Adam and his friends begin a quest to uncover Grayson’s mysterious past. During their investigation they unlock a strange network of underground tunnels and find objects that seem straight out of science fiction magazines. When they discover the existence of the secret organization controlling everything in Grayson, the group soon understands that their boring small town is much more exciting than they had always believed it to be.But someone is coming, looking for an ancient power protected by the secret organization, and they are destroying towns as they draw near.Can Adam and his friends learn everything they need to know in time to protect their town, its people, and the biggest secret of all?If you enjoy a fast paced adventure full of humor and mystery with a bit of fantasy and science fiction, download a copy now!What Readers are Saying:"...I'm an avid reader and often get bored with the the same old stories over and over. This book was refreshing in its original plot. Was enjoyable to read." - Josh Hochman"...Excellent story / read from start to finish. good pace and characters. Best part is that there is closure at the end - even though this is a series." - Thomas DiMarino"...such a great story, not just for kids, but everyone. The characters are well developed and you get invested in their lives pretty quickly. Amazingly detailed and unique story! Definitely recommend this book, and I will go on to read the second one!" - Katherine Views: 559
Part 1 of a new serial. Moriarty Jackson is an English teacher in the idyllic Japanese countryside. Idyllic, that is, until he's called upon to solve a heinous crime. Now Jackson will have to turn this sleepy town and upside down if he's going to save the day.The first shot shattered the home's rear window and storm glass, plowed a furrow along the man's scalp and buried itself in the opposite wall. The second, without any obstruction to slow its velocity, tore through the wall and ended up in the bathroom medicine chest, where it nested between a bottle of aspirin and a toothbrush. The tall, thin man crumpled to the floor, unconscious, cold November air pouring over him like a waterfall through the broken window. It was a few minutes into a new day, two days before Thanksgiving. Views: 559
Paul Auster's most intimate autobiographical work to date
In the beginning, everything was alive. The smallest objects were endowed with beating hearts . . .
Having recalled his life through the story of his physical self in Winter Journal, internationally acclaimed novelist Paul Auster now remembers the experience of his development from within through the encounters of his interior self with the outer world in Report from the Interior.
From his baby's-eye view of the man in the moon, to his childhood worship of the movie cowboy Buster Crabbe, to the composition of his first poem at the age of nine, to his dawning awareness of the injustices of American life, Report from the Interior charts Auster's moral, political, and intellectual journey as he inches his way toward adulthood through the postwar 1950s and into the turbulent 1960s.
Auster evokes the sounds, smells, and tactile sensations that marked his early life—and the many images that came at him, including moving images (he adored cartoons, he was in love with films), until, at its unique climax, the book breaks away from prose into pure imagery: The final section of Report from the Interior recapitulates the first three parts, told in an album of pictures. At once a story of the times—which makes it everyone's story—and the story of the emerging consciousness of a renowned literary artist, this four-part work answers the challenge of autobiography in ways rarely, if ever, seen before.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2013 Views: 559
