Through the charred wreckage of one man’s philosophy, an adventure into conscious delusion and dark dystopian fantasy begins as the survivors of The Nest find themselves on three paths where each will endeavor to rein their conscious minds to grasp the philosophy of existence and abate the shackles of conscious Famine as they march onwards towards New Utopia.Through the charred wreckage of one man’s philosophy, an adventure into conscious delusion and dark dystopian fantasy begins as the survivors of The Nest find themselves on three paths where each will endeavor to rein their conscious minds to grasp the philosophy of existence and abate the shackles of conscious Famine as they march onwards towards New Utopia.On one path, Marcos, having woken naked and amnesic at the scorn of ancient women whose immortality derives from the wearing of young girl’s faces like decorative dresses; is chased through a dense wilderness for the face that he wears whilst drifting in and out of conscious Famine, giving a glimpse into The City that was, one of obligation and Infant Industries.On the second path, in The Kingdom of the Hound, Ruff the dog is awoken to conscious debate, rationalizing and philosophizing with an ostentatious small Chihuahua called The Bitch Queen over the nature of unconditional love as he fights to save the lives of his human friends from being gamed by savage hounds and monolithic boars. While on a third path, The Woman will unravel, through conscious delusion, the true extent of her repressions and her loveless abandon as a young girl; Safrine, through childish rhyme, is challenged by a creepy old man into a game of coloured cubes to save her two companions from the effect of The Famine. Views: 429
Dennis Denton is a high–powered lobbyist in Washington, D.C. who owes his success to his beautiful wife and her extraordinary bedroom abilities. But there’s an important deal in the making and Mrs. Denton won’t be in the city to provide her usual services. It’s up to their gorgeous, adoptive daughter, Alana, to help her Daddy. Views: 429
Crooked Words is an eclectic collection of short fiction in pursuit of the many different shades of what it means to live queer.A young transgender magician travels the world on a quest for a mystical talking sword. A witch wonders why her would-be lovers can’t date her the old-fashioned way. A cross-dressing man meets a suit-clad soul whose gender defies definition. A non-binary zombie wishes ze were the hero in science-fiction stories. A genderqueer manservant tries to save her mentally-ill lover with a deck of tarot cards. A boy looks at himself in the mirror and ponders the fear of telling his family that his name isn’t Susan. Crooked Words is an eclectic collection of short fiction in pursuit of the many different shades of what it means to live queer. Views: 429
Lily Frazer would do anything to save the Frazer Center for the Arts—even take on the infamous billionaire Calder Cunningham. As it turns out, the arrogant billionaire is willing to give her the money he promised, but there's a catch: she must win it from him.And the games he has in mind aren't exactly... innocent.A sizzling billionaire romance from USA Today bestseller Ember Casey.Trapped with a billionaire in his mysterious mansion... Can she beat him at his own game?Lily Frazer would do anything to save the Frazer Center for the Arts—even take on the infamous billionaire Calder Cunningham. When Lily breaks onto the Cunningham estate, she only wants to find and reason with Calder. (All right, all right, she wants to punch him in the face, too, but that's Plan B.) As it turns out, the arrogant billionaire is willing to give her the money he promised, but there's a catch: she must win it from him.And the games he has in mind aren't exactly... innocent.Lily isn't about to give up the money without a fight (or let some haughty bastard seduce her), but she quickly discovers that there might be more to the brooding Calder than she initially perceived. As their games of cat and mouse become increasingly intense, she suddenly finds herself confused by her own emotions. Can she deny her attraction long enough to win the money she needs?His Wicked Games is a tale of devilish deeds, wild passions, and wicked romance.The Cunningham Family Reading Order:His Wicked GamesTruth or DareSweet VictoryHer Wicked HeartTake You Away Lost and Found Completely (short story)Their Wicked WeddingA Cunningham ChristmasTheir Wicked Forever Views: 428
Through memorable language and bawdy humor, Gurganus returns to his mythological Falls, North Carolina, home of Widow. This first work in a decade offers three novellas mirroring today’s face-lifted South, a zone revolutionized around freer sexuality, looser family ties, and superior telecommunications, yet it celebrates those locals who have chosen to stay local. In doing so, Local Souls uncovers certain old habits—adultery, incest, obsession—still very much alive in our New South, a "Winesburg, Ohio" with high-speed Internet.
Wells Tower says of Gurganus, "No living writer knows more about how humans matter to each other." Such ties of love produce hilarious, if wrenching, complications: "Fear Not" gives us a banker's daughter seeking the child she was forced to surrender when barely fifteen, only to find an adult rescuer she might have invented. In "Saints Have Mothers," a beloved high school valedictorian disappears during a trip to Africa, granting her ambitious mother a postponed fame that turns against her. And in a dramatic "Decoy," the doctor-patient friendship between two married men breaks toward desire just as a biblical flood shatters their neighborhood and rearranges their fates.
Gurganus finds fresh pathos in ancient tensions: between marriage and Eros, parenthood and personal fulfillment. He writes about erotic hunger and social embarrassment with Twain's knife-edged glee. By loving Falls, Gurganus dramatizes the passing of Hawthorne’s small-town nation into those Twitter-nourished lives we now expect and relish.
Four decades ago, John Cheever pronounced Allan Gurganus "the most technically gifted and morally responsive writer of his generation." Local Souls confirms Cheever’s prescient faith. It deepens the luster of Gurganus’s reputation for compassion and laughter. His black comedy leaves us with lasting affection for his characters and the aching aftermath of human consequences. Here is a universal work about a village. Views: 428
YOLO. You Only Live Once. Or do you? Maybe there's another you living your own life somewhere else, right now.YOLO. You Only Live Once. Or do you? Maybe there's another you living your own life somewhere else, right now.When my friend received a postcard in the mail depicting his childhood home he had no idea who had sent it or why. Even stranger was the unknown address scrawled on the back in his own inimitable handwriting. Only one thing was clear. We had to go and find out for ourselves what this was all about. Our innocent little road trip down memory lane soon turned into something quite different, as one mystifying turn after another led us into a tangled knot of confused identities, alternate histories, unfathomable intrigues and sheer bewilderment in this short novel of the truth, the partial truth, and anything but the truth. Views: 428
Beatrice Lockwood, one of the intrepid ladies of Lantern Street, is in the middle of a case when her past comes back to haunt her. Joshua North, a former spy for the Crown, has come out of a self-imposed retirement after a disastrous case that left him scarred and forced to use a cane. He is hunting the villain who is blackmailing his sister.
The trail leads him to Beatrice who is his chief suspect. But when he realizes that she is not the blackmailer they set out to find the real extortionist. Passion flares between them as they dodge a professional assassin. Meanwhile a mysterious scientist intent on resurrecting his dead lover using an ancient Egyptian formula for preserving the bodies of the dead is also hunting Beatrice. He is keeping his dead love perfectly preserved in a special, crystal-topped sarcophagus filled with the special fluid. But he needs Beatrice's paranormal talent to activate the reviving properties of the preservative in the coffin. Time is running out for everyone involved.
The two cases collide at a mysterious country-house filled with artifacts from ancient Egyptian tombs. The drama concludes in the mad scientist's laboratory where Joshua discovers that the past he thought was dead is still very much alive -- sort of. Views: 428
A chaplain sex-chats with an Iraqi girl who tells her eerie tale.To overcome the grief of losing her twin brother, the director-husband of a talented but naïve and head-strong young actress persuades her to appear in a one-person show he has written for her, at an old, disused theatre in a small East-coast town. The show bombs on the first night, after she fails to take heed of the advice offered by an unseen, enigmatic member of her audience. As she opts to stick with the direction of her writer-director husband, she puts her sanity and their lives in jeopardy. After her husband suffers a tragic accident, she has only two nights to turn her show into an overnight sensation and avoid further tragedy.As the, now imprisoned, actress recalls her story to a visiting psychologist, the dark and far-reaching consequences of her final night's performance are revealed. Views: 428
When Differel Van Helsing married Victor Plunkett in the Dreamlands, it was between crises, so they never had a proper honeymoon. As such, when the opportunity arose for them to spend a week all alone on a deserted island, they jumped at it. Unfortunately, an old enemy has decided to crash the party. This is a short story.Differel Van Helsing had been married to Victor Plunkett in the Waking World for four years before he was killed by an assassin seeking to kill her. The loss devastated her, and she very nearly resigned as Director of the Caerleon Order as a result.Years later, when she learned how to sojourn to the Dreamlands each night, she discovered that he had been a Dreamer himself, and that after his death he had retired there to live out the rest of his Dream-life. By the time they were reunited, he had become a diplomatic troubleshooter for the Island Nation of Punica, and had been made the Marquis of Elissa. They discovered that their love for each other was just as strong as ever, and he proposed to her. At first she was not certain if she should remarry him because of the time they would be separated when she awakens each morning, but finally she yielded to her heart and said yes.They wed between crises, so they never had a proper honeymoon, but then an opportunity presented itself that allowed them to spend a week alone on a tiny deserted island. They jumped at it, and spent six days in connubial bliss, doing little beyond eating, sleeping, the occasional swim in the ocean, and making love.On the seventh and last day, however, an old enemy, bent on revenge, crashes their party. Taking them prisoner, he intends to sell them as toys for others' amusement: Victor to a wealthy matron, Differel to the Moonbeasts. In both cases, they are unlikely to survive for long with either their lives or sanity intact.Differel and Victor have no weapons or retainers to help them, but they are far from helpless. Views: 428
This Investment Newsletter provides you with an in-depth analysis of the current state of the market, updated goal prices on recommended stocks, model portfolios, as well as what Editor and Chief Investment Officer, and regular CNBC guest, John Buckingham, is holding in his own personal portfolio. Each monthly issue includes our Portfolio Builder, detailing our current 10 favorite stocks.New Girl (Anti-Heroes Book I) by Louise Bohmer & K.H. KoehlerGet Ready to Root for the Villain...Serena is the new girl in a school that caters to not just "Norms," but the sons and daughters of the world's greatest Superheroes. The problem? She's the daughter of the Night Witch, a cardinal member of the League of Extreme Evil. She'd love to join the other super teens and prove she isn't the villain that her mother was, but it isn't long before she falls in with a group of Supervillains that the school calls the Geek Squad, which includes a biochemically created vampire named Nikki, a genetically altered jock named Isaac, and Jinx, the son of Satan himself!She's immediately attracted to Jinx, but Serena has vowed to do what's right. But there are secrets buried deep within Serena's past that threaten to kill her, and even rock the foundation of Earth itself! An evil decay is reaching out from a distant star, and the Supers and Geeks will need to work together in order to defeat it--if they can keep from killing each other. The Supers thought the greatest battle for control of Earth had been fought and won, but a cosmic war is coming, and it isn't long before it's difficult to tell the difference between hero and villain.Book I in a new online serial! Views: 427
Who is sovereign in the United States? Is it the people themselves, or is it an elite determined to rule citizens who are seen as incapable of making choices about their own lives? This is the central question in the American gun-control debate.In this Broadside, David Kopel explains why the right to keep and bear arms has always been central to the American identity and why Americans have always resisted gun control. The American Revolution was sparked by British attempts to confiscate guns. After the Civil War, the U.S. changed the Constitution to defeat the nation’s first gun-control organization, the Ku Klux Klan. When Hitler and Stalin demonstrated how gun registration paves the way for gun confiscation, which paves the way for genocide, Americans resolved to make sure it never happens here.Gun control is not an issue of left vs. right or urban vs. rural. The right to bear arms is crucial to prevent large-scale tyranny by criminal governments and... Views: 427
