A family's loyalty is put to the ultimate test in this haunting and unforgettable debut.Kirsten Hammarstrom hasn't been home to her tiny corner of rural Wisconsin in years-not since the mysterious disappearance of a local teenage girl rocked the town and shattered her family. Kirsten was just nine years old when Stacy Lemke went missing, and the last person to see her alive was her boyfriend, Johnny-the high school wrestling star and Kirsten's older brother. No one knows what to believe-not even those closest to Johnny-but the event unhinges the quiet farming community and pins Kirsten's family beneath the crushing weight of suspicion. Now, years later, a new tragedy forces Kirsten and her siblings to return home, where they must confront the devastating event that shifted the trajectory of their lives. Tautly written and beautifully evocative, The Mourning Hours is a gripping portrayal of a family straining against extraordinary pressure, and a powerful tale of loyalty, betrayal and forgiveness.About the AuthorPaula Treick DeBoard lives with her husband Will and their four-legged brood in Modesto, CA. She received a BA in English from Dordt College, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine and a practical education from countless students in her English classes over the years. The Mourning Hours is her first novel. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.1994-1995Everything you needed to know, Dad said, you could learn on a farm. He was talking about things my mind, shaped by Bible stories and the adventures of Dick and Jane, could barely comprehend—the value of hard work, self-sufficiency, the life cycle of all things. Well, the life cycle—I did understand that. Things were always being born on farms, and always dying. And as for how they came to be in the first place, that was no great mystery. "They're mating," Dad would explain when I worried over a bull that seemed to be attacking a helpless heifer. "It's natural," he said, when the pigs went at it, when the white tom from Mel Wegner's farm visited and we ended up with litters of white kittens.Nature wasn't just ladybugs and fireflies—it was dirt and decay and, sometimes, death. To grow up on a farm was to know the smell of manure, to understand that the gawky calves that suckled my fingers would eventually be someone's dinner. It was to witness the occasional birth of a half-formed calf, missing eyes or ears, like some alien-headed baby. We couldn't drive into town without seeing the strange, bloodied remains of animals—cats, opossums and the occasional skunk who had risked it all for one final crossing. By the time we got Kennel, our retriever-collie mix, we'd had three golden Labs, each more loyal than the last, until they ran away during thunderstorms or wandered into the path of an oncoming semi headed down Rural Route 4. When Dad had spotted him at the county shelter, Kennel had a torn ear, a limp in his back left leg and ribs you could spot from a hundred yards away—the marks of an abusive owner.Even humans couldn't avoid their fates. Sipping lemonade from a paper cup after the Sunday morning service, I weaved between adult conversations, catching little snatches as I went. A tractor had tipped over, trapping the farmer underneath. Cows kicked, and workers were hurt. Pregnant women, miles from any hospital, went into early labor. Machines were always backfiring, shirtsleeves getting caught in their mechanisms. This was to say nothing of lightning strikes, icy roads and snowdrifts, or flash floods and heat waves. This was to say nothing of all the things that could go wrong inside a person.So we were used to death in our stoic, farm-bred way. It was part of the natural order of things: something was born, lived its life and died—and then something else replaced it. I knew without anyone telling me that it was this way with people, too.Take my family, for example—the Hammarstroms. My great-great-grandpa had settled our land and passed on the dairy to his son, who passed it to Grandpa, who passed it on to Dad, who would pass it on to Johnny. Dad and Mom had gotten married and had Johnny right after Dad graduated from high school, leaving Mom to get her degree later on, after Emilie and I were born. I'd always thought it was extremely cool that our parents were so much younger than everyone else's parents, until Emilie spelled out for me that it was something of a scandal. Anyway, when Johnny had been born, Grandpa and Grandma had moved to the inlaw house next door, where Dad and Mom would someday move, when it was time for Johnny and his wife to inherit the big house. This was simply the expected order of things, as natural as the corn being sown, thinned, watered, fertilized and harvested. Everything that was born would die one day. I knew this, because death was all around me.There was Grandma, for one. I was too young to have any concrete memories of her death, although I'd pieced together the facts from whispered conversations. She'd been standing in her kitchen, peeling apple after apple, when it happened. A pulmonary embolism, whatever that was. A freak thing. I couldn't walk into Grandpa's kitchen without thinking: Was it here? Was this the spot? But life had gone on without her. Grandpa stood at that sink every morning, drinking a cup of coffee and staring out the window.The first funeral I remember attending was for our neighbor, Karl Warczak, who'd collapsed in his manure pit, overwhelmed by the fumes. An ambulance had rushed past on Rural Route 4, and Dad and Mom had followed—Mom because she had just completed her training as a nurse, Dad because he and Karl Warczak had worked together over the years, helping with each other's animals, planting, harvesting, tinkering with stubborn machinery. By the time they'd pulled in behind the ambulance, Dad had said later, it had already been too late—sometimes, he'd explained, the oxygen just got sucked out of those pits.Mom had laid out my clothes the night before the funeral—a hand-me-down navy wool jumper that seemed to itch its way right through my turtleneck, thick white tights and a pair of too-big Mary Janes with a tissue wadded into the toes. She'd always been optimistic that I would grow into things soon. During the service I'd sat sandwiched between Mom and Emilie, willing myself not to look directly at the coffin. The whole ashes-to-ashes, dust-to-dust thing made me feel a little sick to my stomach once I really thought about it, and so did Mom's whisper that the funeral home had done "such a good job" with Mr. Warczak. It was incredible that he was really dead, that he had been here one minute and was gone the next, that he would never again pat me on the head with his dirtencrusted fingers. There had been such a solemn strangeness to the whole affair, with the organ music and the fussy bouquets of flowers, the men in their dark suits and the women in navy dresses, their nude pantyhose swishing importantly against their long slips."It is not for us to question God's perfect timing," Pastor Ziegler had intoned from the pulpit, but I remember thinking that the timing wasn't so great—not if you were Mr. Warczak, who thought he could fix the problem with the manure pump and then head inside for lunch, and not for his son, Jerry, who had been about to graduate from Lincoln High School and head off to a veterinary training program. The rumor had been that Mrs. Warczak's cancer was back, too, and this time it was inoperable. "That boy's going to need our help," Dad had told us when we were back in the car, riding with the windows open. "It's a damn shame.""Why did it happen?" I'd asked from my perch on top of a stack of old phone books in the backseat. I could just see out the window from that height—the miles of plowed and planted and fenced land that I would know blindfolded."Why did he die?""It was an accident. Just a tragic accident," Mom had said, blotting her eyes with a wad of tissue. She'd been up all morning, helping in the church kitchen with the ham and cheese sandwiches that were somehow a salve for grief. When we'd parked in our driveway, she'd gathered up a handful of soggy tissues and shut the door behind her."Oh, pumpkin," Dad had said as he sighed when I'd lingered in the backseat, arms folded across my jumper, waiting for a better answer. He'd promised to head over to the Warczaks' house later, to help Jerry out. "It's just how things go. It's the way things are." He'd reached over, giving my shoulder a quick squeeze in his no-nonsense, farmer-knows-best way.Somehow, despite all the years that passed, I never forgot this conversation, the way Dad's eyes had glanced directly into mine, the way his mustache had ridden gently on top of his lips as he'd delivered the message. He couldn't have known the tragedies that were even then growing in our soil, waiting to come to harvest.All he could do was tell me to prepare myself, to buck up, to be ready—because the way the world worked, you never could see what was coming. Views: 17
Danny has survived everything life has thrown at him: being abandoned at birth, multiple abusive foster homes, life as a con man in training. But when his latest "protector" dies suddenly, Danny has to think fast or he'll be back in foster care again. He decides to assume the identity of a boy who disappeared three years before. If nothing else, he figures it will buy him a little time. Much to his astonishment, his new "family" accepts him as their own—despite the fact that he looks nothing like their missing relative. But one old cop has his suspicions about Danny—and he's not about to declare the case closed. Inspired by a true story, Who I'm Not is a powerful portrait of a boy whose identity is as fluid as a river and as changeable as a chameleon's skin. Views: 17
Meeting my mom did not go exactly as I had always envisioned it, but at least I wasn't sent on a mission to kill her. I still think the world may be a better place if that was a possibility though. It has been a couple of weeks since that great day and my life is moving forward at the speed of light.Plans are being made to welcome another new family member and that necessitates a change of venue from my cherished penthouse apartment. I knew it was coming, but I tried to avoid it for as long as possible. It is a good thing I don't totally hate the new place.I only have a chance to spend one night before I receive a call from my father, the non-biological one. It turns out the Collective hasn't given up on me, yet, and they think kidnapping my real father is the way to win my heart. They are hilarious.The gang and I have to rush to the rescue. With the new family member making my life just a little bit difficult, I have to rely heavily on my family and friends. It turns out there are some people I didn't know belonged in either one of those categories, but it is nice to have them along.This is book sixth in the Nyx Slaughter series. It is a companion book to the seventh book and will lead right into the next book. Views: 17
Reclusive movie star Jessica Lessing is finally coming out of hiding--to confront her father, a con man who has been selling her out to the paparazzi for years. On her four-day road trip to Las Vegas, she encounters three unexpected allies--Vivian, a teenager with newborn twins; Lynn, a dog shelter owner living in isolation on a ranch in rural Nevada; and Dana, a fearless ex-military bodyguard wrestling with secrets of her own. As their fates collide, each woman will find a chance at redemption that she never would have thought possible. MacKenzie Bezos's taut prose, tough characters, and nuanced insights give this novel a complexity that few thrillers can match.This ebook edition includes a Reading Group Guide. Views: 17
In a galaxy far, far away, the seventeenth installment of this perpetually preposterous military science fiction series continues Private Randal Telk’s travails as his psychosis hits full bloom. The Galactic Foreign Legion, stationed at planet New Colorado’s New Gobi Desert, goes on a manhunt to find and rescue the fair Elena, Telk’s legionnaire bride, after she is taken hostage by the Fist & Claw rebel alliance. The rebels continue to evade capture, to the consternation of the battalion commander, Colonel Joey R. Czerinski, and the rest of the Legion. Meanwhile, Private Telk falls deeper into the alternate reality of his psychotic delusions involving the super-hot Yolanda and his amazing 396 Steps to Sexual Bliss, providing world-famous science-fiction writer Private Knight with more fantasy fodder for his books. Time traveler and tank commander Captain Patton gives some sage advice about adapting and surviving, and Telk does his best to take it to heart as he tries to stay focused on finding his wife. However, it is an old Legion foe who provides the last bit of help Telk needs to push forward and rescue Elena. The question is, can Telk remain lucid long enough to get the job done before the terrorists kill Elena? America’s Galactic Foreign Legion has really gone off the reservation this time as the way-out wackiness continues to get even weirder.About the AuthorWalter Knight played football on Tucson High School’s last state championship team (1971). He served three years in the army, and the GI Bill paid for his college education, helping him earn degrees from Fort Steilacoom Community College, Central Washington State College, and the University of Puget Sound School of Law. Walter lives a very quiet and private life, residing with his family and horses, dogs, cats, and fish atop a hill in rural Washington. Walt enjoys taking road trips to explore ghost towns and casinos. To find out more about the author and his books, visit his web site. http://www.waltknight.yolasite.com James Boedeker was born in Lander, Wyoming, and grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania. James enlisted in the United States Navy shortly after graduating from high school. After serving honorably, James entered the private sector, working as an industrial mechanic and technician for Procter and Gamble. James lives with his wife in the country, enjoying the peace and solitude of the Endless Mountains in Pennsylvania. James enjoys the outdoors and target shooting. James is known for stalking and hunting the wily but dangerous bull woodchuck. To find out more about the author and his books, visit his web site at... http://www.counterpunchbooks.com/ Views: 17
Fallen- EPISODE 6 of the Debt Collector serial. Contains mature content and themes. For young-adult-appropriate thrills, see Susan's bestselling Mindjack series.What's your life worth on the open market? A debt collector can tell you precisely.Lirium's hopes for escape from Kolek's mob are threatened when Valac seems to be coming unhinged.Fallen is approximately 13,000 words or 52 pages, and is the sixth of nine episodes in the first season of The Debt Collector serial. This dark and gritty future-noir is about a world where your life-worth is tabulated on the open market and going into debt risks a lot more than your credit rating. Episode 7, Promise, releases 5/29/13. For more about the Debt Collector serial, see DebtCollectorSeries.comDebt Collector (Vol 1-3) - Delirium, Agony, Ecstasy - NOW AVAILABLE.Debt Collector (Vol 4-6) - Broken, Driven, Fallen - NOW AVAILABLE.EPISODE LISTDelirium - Debt Collector 1Agony - Debt Collector 2Ecstasy - Debt Collector 3 Broken - Debt Collector 4 Driven - Debt Collector 5 Fallen - Debt Collector 6Promise - Debt Collector 7 (releases 5.29.13) Views: 17
These twenty-two tales open to Western readers the world of fantasy in the legendary literature of Japan—a world of ogres, monkeys, goblins, and priests, of spell-casting and rescuing people. Rich in variety, Legends of Japan includes tales of the supernatural, magic, and deities, as well as tales of romance and intrigue. The vividness and esthetic appeal of these stories is enhanced by twenty-two woodblock prints from the studio of a modern Japanese illustrator,Masahiko Nishino. The tales are drawn from two Japanese masterpieces of the Heian (794-1185) and Kamakura (1192-1333) periods. The earlier and main source is the 31-volume Konjaku Monogatari, a collection of tales of Japanese, Chinese, and Indian origin. The other source is the miscellany Tsurezure Gusa, by Kenko Yoshida, a monk of noble birth who was well versed in Japanese and Chinese literature. A reader's delight, this little book distills the color and charm, the wisdom and humor of two great treasuries of... Views: 17
The full shooting scripts for the global phenomenon, Downton Abbey's second series. Complete with unseen scenes and Julian Fellowes' own commentary. Downton Abbey has become a national phenomenon and the most successful British drama of our time. Created by Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes, the two series have delighted viewers and reviewers alike with stellar performances, ravishing sets and costumes and a gripping plot. The second series of Downton Abbey opens in 1916 as the First World War rages across Europe. The Crawley family and their servants play their part on the front line and the home front, their lives intensified by the strain of war. Julian Fellowes succeeds in not only riveting his audience with cleverly woven storylines of love, loss and betrayal but also in delivering a social commentary of British life. The Series 2 scripts give readers the opportunity to read the work in more detail and study the characters, pace and themes in depth. With an introduction... Views: 17
Ruler – [Arie]Arie is having a bad night but what else is new? When vampires deal with demons nothing less can be expected. He heads to the Hellfire Club to report back to his sexy boss, Tessa Green, anticipating that she’ll be less than satisfied with the details of his night. Instead he finds a hot new hire waiting in her office. Alone in the office, she offers him an intriguing opportunity to improvise. Bound – [Luna]Luna is always tied up in difficult situations. Obsessed with someone she can never have. From the moment Luna first met Victoria, she knew she was different—hot, dangerous, and unlike anyone she’s ever known. Luna can't stop thinking about her. Can't stop fantasizing about her. Can't stop craving the one thing she knows she can never have. The one she wants—the vampire she wants abstains from blood and sex.To distract her from her obsession, Luna begs Tessa to find an appropriate diversion. Bound and gagged in her dungeon at the Hellfire Club (HFC), Luna gets an unexpected visit from a sibling that leaves her feeling conflicted and heartbroken. Arie steps in when Luna is vulnerable. Is there more to this hot alpha vamp than his hard-ass facade?Burned – [Victoria]Victoria has a sordid past and this macabre tale is woven with lies, blood, betrayal, and vengeance. In the far north of France in the 1700s she took care of a young girl and her ailing mother. She never planned on falling for Henri in the process—except she fell in love with the wrong man. She fell in love with a monster. Sometimes evil hits too close to home. And when you trust the wrong person you might just get burned.Chained – [Tessa]Tessa Green is the most famous dominatrix in Chicago and rules the notorious Hellfire Club. She also happens to be a vampire. And the senator is just another toy for her amusement. Sometimes the power and authority that comes with leadership can be a strain. He relishes her dominance, her demands, and her control. Sometimes being free happens only when chained and who better to keep his secret than Tessa.Plus as a special bonus you get a sneak peak at Eternal Ever After!“Rich and dark, a supernatural and sensual delight of erotic passion.” —Kathy Kulig, Ellora's Cave Award Winning Author Views: 17
