Life is complicated enough already, but when you try to solve your big sisterOCOs relationship problems, it can only mean trouble!
Rebecca isn''t looking forward to school after a summer full of music and excitement. To make it worse, her most annoying classmate Vanessa gets the starring role in a new ad campaign: now she''s going to be on television, on posters, on the radio and even in the charts!
Luckily a new arts and music studio space for teens has opened up where Hey Dollface and their summer camp friends can practise.
Then RebeccaOCOs sister Rachel is dumped by her longtime boyfriend Tom, and Rebecca is determined to cheer her up.
Throw in a dad who is trying to take over his amateur musical, a mum who keeps reminding her that it''s a big exam year, and an English teacher who has decided to become a novelist, and it''s another eventful term for Rebecca.
''It reminded me of being a teenager, the nice parts! It''s a perfect piece of hilarious loveliness! Gold Star!!!!'' Marian Keyes" Views: 639
This is a sampler of four of my short stories. Please leave a review if you like it.If you like them, I have other books available online. These include:The Eight Hour Hell - a paranormal action thrillerEmergency Protocol Nine - a collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror short storiesEcocide - an ecological sci-fi thrillerRichard Ross, joiner, part-time local football referee, ordinary man, is about to get a shock.It’s time to meet the relatives. But guess what? They’re all dead. Even worse, they are his past lives and all share the same soul - his!With help from his Strange Relations, an angel named Joe, and Roberta (Australopithecus Robustus), Richard has to learn the last lesson of life so all will be allowed to journey towards the Light. Richard is the last of a very long line and everyone’s last chance.One small problem though; Richard is in a coma and time is fast running out. Views: 639
*@*@* New Version! *@*@*In the footsteps of Poe and Montague James, this is an unusual and heart warming ghost story set in the late 1800's.Percy's misery knows no bounds, until an old friend offers to do him a favour.This is an example of the stories contained in my book, 'The Ghostly Victorians (Author's Edition).*@*@*Note To Readers*@*@*‘The Favour’ was first published in August, 2014. Thank you to the thousands who have downloaded it. This, the 2017 version, has been re-written with ‘a little something extra’ at the end. If you read the original, comments comparing the two would be welcome. Views: 638
The Snow Queen, beautiful and heartbreaking, comic and tragic, proves again that Cunningham is one of the great novelists of his generation.
Michael Cunningham's luminous novel begins with a vision. It's November 2004. Barrett Meeks, having lost love yet again, is walking through Central Park when he is inspired to look up at the sky; there he sees a pale, translucent light that seems to regard him in a distinctly godlike way. Barrett doesn't believe in visions - or in God - but he can't deny what he's seen.
At the same time, in the not-quite-gentrified Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, Tyler, Barrett's older brother, a struggling musician, is trying - and failing - to write a wedding song for Beth, his wife-to-be, who is seriously ill. Tyler is determined to write a song that will be not merely a sentimental ballad but an enduring expression of love.
Barrett, haunted by the light, turns unexpectedly to religion. Tyler grows increasingly convinced that only drugs can release his creative powers. Beth tries to face mortality with as much courage as she can summon.
Cunningham follows the Meeks brothers as each travels down a different path in his search for transcendence. In subtle, lucid prose, he demonstrates a profound empathy for his conflicted characters and a singular understanding of what lies at the core of the human soul.
The Snow Queen, beautiful and heartbreaking, comic and tragic, proves again that Cunningham is one of the great novelists of his generation. Views: 638
Judy Kozinski needs answers. Her husband, a prominent genetic scientist, has been found murdered and no one can find a motive.In Las Vegas, a showgirl sends a cryptic message to FBI agent Robert Cavanaugh from a murdered friend.How are the two related and what does it have to with the mysterious drug company Verico in New Jersey? Judy Kozinski and Robert Cavanaugh must work together to solve an intricate maze of deceit, murder and mysteries before the life of a whole town is put at risk. Views: 638
A short story for children of all ages with a soupçon of Sherlock Holmes.Short stories for children of all ages with a soupçon of Sherlock Holmes.On a warm spring morning, in France, Alexia’s absence disturbs a worried Walter. Happily enough for the schoolboy, he knows the perfect detective to solve this mystery: Hassan, a CM2 pupil, that is a fifth grader.Alexia’s bike is a short story aimed at primary school pupils who attempts to help them discover the world of detective stories. It was first published in French, in 2013. Views: 638
It's 2022 and a left wing authoritarian Progressive Party seizes control of the government. The country spirals into chaos. The money is worthless and the cities are charred ruins after the food riots and epidemics. States are seceding and printing their own money. Mexican armies recapture large areas of the southwest. The nation is paralyzed until, finally, the people take action.The Constitutional Convention of 2022The Whig Party was once the majority party in this country but disintegrated in 1854. That year, in its place, the Republican party was founded. It quickly grew and took the White House in 1860.In 2016, after eight years of health care and immigration debacles, epidemics and lawlessness, the Democrat Party imploded. But from its ruins, a new, authoritarian Progressive Party rapidly rose on a sea of billionaire funding.The Progressive political philosophy was simple: representative democracy is an obsolete and outdated concept from another era. In the modern world, governments should be run by experts and charismatic leaders, not 18th century debating societies. Through clever changes to the voting laws, a few well chosen dossiers supplied by the NSA, and a general amnesty, the Progressives seize control in the election of 2020. They quickly consolidate their power by means of the endless alphabet soup of Federal agencies to which lazy Congresses, over many years, have delegated vast regulatory and rule making authority. Congress, shirking its duty, made itself irrelevant. The new Progressive executive knows this. Overnight, the nation slips into dictatorship.But things do not go well. Laws and policies once hammered out by political compromise are replaced by an endless stream of ill-thought-out central government executive decrees. The economy, now micro-managed from Washington, spirals into depression. The government, struggling to pay its debts and its hordes of EBT clients, prints ever more money to survive.The economy is so weakened that the Chinese decide the time is right to strike. Realizing they will never be repaid, they dump their trillions in Treasury bonds onto the world markets. The dollar collapses. Overnight, the Renminbi becomes the new global reserve currency. America is bankrupt.By 2022, all is chaos. The money is debased. The supply chain for food and fuel shipments grinds to a halt and the riots erupt. The large cities are soon charred ruins. Midwestern states begin seceding and printing their own money, backed by gold. Emboldened Mexican armies recapture large areas of the southwest. Russian and Chinese armies are also on the move. A desperate, enfeebled Federal government begins confiscating gold, silver, anything of value, and scrambles to sell overseas assets to buy foreign exchange. The nation is paralyzed.But when all seems lost, a brave governor in the Midwest organizes the opposition and calls for a Constitutional Convention to smash the Washington leviathan. But the federal beast, though wounded, fights back. Read it while it's still fiction! Views: 638
As a child, Becky fell in love with magicians and the magic they could wield. But like most, she grew out of her whimsical thoughts and wistful dreams. She attended college and joined her parents in the family business, resigned to a destiny she hated. Until she met a mysterious man that revealed possibilities she never thought imaginable. Could magic actually be real?Katherine Rebecca has always done exactly what was expected of her. Her prim and proper upbringing taught her the importance of family, sacrifice, and social stature. She has followed in her parents' footsteps, being trained and groomed daily almost from birth, to take over the family law firm. It was never a question of IF she wanted to but WHEN she would take the reins of the company. She worked rigorously toward that predetermined goal her entire life. She gave up friends, boyfriends, and an exciting social life in order to propel herself through school and college. Katherine Rebecca strives to please her parents. More than anything, she basked in their praise and approval. But now, at 21 years old, she finds herself leading a life that is nothing like the life she imagined for herself.Becky has always possessed a deep love of magic. Ever since she was a small child she has been fascinated with magicians, illusions, mystery, and the vague hope that there was some sort of real magic in the world. But this is a secret no one knows, or at least that’s what she thought. Until one day Becky finds a mysterious business card in her pocket that leads her to an equally mysterious man. He opens up a whole new world of possibilities to her, one with a tantalizing proposition that she never thought imaginable.Could magic actually be real? Views: 638
When his life takes a dark turn, billionaire Theodosius Vardalos purchases a deserted island in the Bermuda triangle- the better, he thinks, to hide his scars from the rest of the world. What Theo doesn’t know is that the island can give him hope… hope of future happiness, despite the horrible scars that make him a recluse. Hope to be had in the arms of a mysterious blonde he hasn’t yet met…When his life takes a dark turn, billionaire Theodosius Vardalos purchases a deserted island in the Bermuda triangle. It’s accessible only by plane- the better, he thinks, to hide his scars from the rest of the world. What Theo doesn’t know is that the island has an incredible secret, one that gives him hope… hope of future happiness, despite the horrible scars that make him a recluse. Hope to be had in the arms of a mysterious blonde he hasn’t yet met… Views: 638
Clan: Season 2, Episode 1. Calum’s Exile A Bitesize 1 hour Read. Season 2 kicks off at a cracking pace!Cumberland’s army, fresh from their easy victory at Culloden, is running amok right across the Highlands.And against the systematic slaughter ordered by the king, our heroes Calum Maclean and Big John Mackintosh must make a dash for Glasgow to find passage to the New World, or die tryingClan: Season 2, Episode 1. Calum’s Exile A Bitesize 1 hour Read. Season 2 kicks off at a cracking pace!Cumberland’s army, fresh from their easy victory at Culloden, is running amok right across the Highlands.And against the systematic slaughter ordered by the king, our heroes Calum Maclean and Big John Mackintosh must make a dash for Glasgow to find passage to the New World, or die trying.Their 150 miles journey is through a country swarming with English soldiers, murdering men, women and children and plundering anything of value.Every day they remain in their beloved Scotland, they’re in mortal danger, but they can’t just ride by and let the innocent perish. Colonel York is dead, but his hand reaches from the grave for one last act of vengeance. The assassin sent to kill Calum is the best of the worst. Unstoppable, and without mercy.The new journey has begun. Views: 638
