Alicia Baum is missing a deadly childhood memory. Located beyond life, The Library of Lost Childhood Memories holds the answer. The Librarian is Mr. Wicker — a seductive yet sinister creature with an unthinkable past and an agenda just as lethal. After committing suicide, Alicia finds herself before the Librarian, who informs her that her lost memory is not only the reason she took her life, but the cause of every bad thing that has happened to her.
Alicia spurns Mr. Wicker and attempts to enter the hereafter without the Book that would make her spirit whole. But instead of the oblivion she craves, she finds herself in a psychiatric hold at Bayford Hospital, where the staff is more pernicious than its patients.
Child psychiatrist Dr. James Farron is researching an unusual phenomenon: traumatized children whisper to a mysterious figure in their sleep. When they awaken, they forget both the traumatic event and the character that kept them company in their dreams — someone they call "Mr. Wicker."
During an emergency room shift, Dr. Farron hears an unconscious Alicia talking to Mr. Wicker — the first time he's heard of an adult speaking to the presence. Drawn to the mystery, and then to each other, they team up to find the memory before it annihilates Alicia for good. To do so they must struggle not only against Mr. Wicker's passions, but also a powerful attraction that threatens to derail her search, ruin Dr. Farron’s career, and inflame the Librarian’s fury.
After all, Mr. Wicker wants Alicia to himself, and will destroy anyone to get what he wants. Even Alicia herself. Views: 540
In his novels and stories, F. Paul Wilson has spent over four decades chronicling a Secret History of human civilization – the events, the conspiracies, the human and non-human forces that have shaped its course. A history of the world that remains undiscovered, unexplored, and unknown to most of humanity. Some of this Secret History has been revealed in his Adversary Cycle, some in his Repairman Jack novels, and bits and pieces in other, seemingly unconnected works. Taken together, even these millions of words barely scratch the surface of what has been going on behind the scenes, hidden from the workaday world. Running nearly 100,000 words, SCENES FROM THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE WORLD acts as a sampler and organizer of the thirty plus novels and various short stories that form the huge mosaic Wilson has assembled. It includes unseen artwork and a new timeline available nowhere else. Views: 540
In celebration of the forthcoming novel The Silent Sister, Diane Chamberlain introduces Riley MacPherson in the e-short story The Broken String.
As seventeen-year-old Riley MacPherson rushes to the side of her brother who has been gravely injured in Iraq, she recalls their growing up years when he was her protector and best friend. Why did that relationship fall apart? She longs for a second chance to connect with her brother, not realizing that family secrets may prevent them from ever having that closeness again. Views: 540
Dejected and jobless like so many other Servicemen after the end of the Great War of 1914-18, Tybalt Hampton escapes a ball in Berkeley Square and meets a delightful young girl who has also sought refuge in the little Temple in the nearby gardens because no one has asked her to dance. It is too dark to make out her face, but in an enchanted moment they kiss in the moonlight and a nightingale sings in the trees above as if just for them. Two years later the beautiful Aleta Wayte, the recipient of that anonymous kiss, and her brother, Sir Harry Wayte, are forced to let their beloved ancestral mansion to a millionaire American called Cornelius Wardolf, disguising themselves as servants in their own home and at their tenant's beck and call. Of noble birth but penniless, Aleta still dreams of that handsome stranger. So, when Fate in the form of a road accident brings him injured to her door, her hopes are raised and then instantly dashed. In her guise as a lowly servant how can she... Views: 540
Gunshots echo down an antebellum Charleston alley. Brack Pelton, an ex-racecar driver and Afghanistan War veteran, witnesses the murder of his uncle, Reggie Sails. Darcy Wells, the pretty Palmetto Pulse reporter, investigates Reggie's murder and targets Brack. The sole heir of his uncle's estate, Brack receives a rundown bar called the Pirate's Cove, a rotting beach house, and one hundred acres of preserved and valuable wetland along the Ashley River. A member of Charleston's wealthiest and oldest families offers Brack four million dollars for the land. All Brack wants is his uncle's killer. From the sandy beaches of Isle of Palms, through the nineteenth-century mansions lining the historic Battery, to the marshlands surrounding the county, Southern Heat is drenched in the humidity of the lowcountry. Views: 540
In the waning days of a war of independence, Commander Theo Paxton of the Dia Nova colony is sent to rescue a team of scientists who disappeared on the planet’s moon. When he arrives with his own team, he discovers a crash site and a single survivor. That survivor acts strangely, and then leads Theo to a discovery that has the potential to change the colony forever.For generations, the colonists of Dia Nova heard stories of a previous failed attempt to colonize the planet. According to Earth, that entire expedition failed with the loss of all colony ships, and half a million colonists. And the reason for that loss was a failure to remain in close contact with Earth. Theo Paxton, and the rest of the Dia Nova residents, had always seen this story as yet another piece of Earth propaganda.Now, in the waning days of their war of independence, Commander Paxton is sent to rescue a team of scientists who disappeared on the planet’s moon. When he arrives with his own team, he discovers a crash site and a single survivor. That survivor acts strangely, and then leads him to a discovery that has the potential to change the colony forever. Views: 540
McJone's Foundry School Choir is to represent California in the Children's Choir Tournament in Beijing, China! The girls face challenges from jet lag to chopsticks. Will they be able to get over the culture shock in time to capture the championship in the Tournament?A nostalgic short about the true meaning of Christmas. Through the voice of a young narrator we find out about Ralph, the eighty-year-old man who never learned to read or write. Ralph has a burning need to send a Christmas card to his estranged sister, and with the children's help, learns much more than the ABC's. Views: 540
Witches are real, and to be blunt, they’re all black-hearted, and evil. Charged with stopping the witches, taking whatever measures necessary are the witch-hunters, all reporting to the Malleus Maleficarum Council. The best the MMC has to offer, the talented seventh-generation witch-hunting Hunter Astley has his own part to play. In his own way.Witches are real, and to be blunt, they’re all black-hearted, and evil. These are not wiccans; witches are a different breed that use magic with devastating effect. Charged with stopping the witches, taking whatever measures necessary, there are witch-hunters, all reporting to the Malleus Maleficarum Council (MMC). For hundreds of years witches have been persecuted and when the powerful Shadow Witch rises again, they have their opportunity for revenge. The best the MMC has to offer, the talented seventh-generation witch-hunting Hunter Astley has his own part to play. In his own way. Views: 540
Stop what you're doing. Look around. Is this it? Snap out of it. Check your watch. Get back to work. Do not attempt to be different. Blend in. Buy something. The cycle must continue ... or does it? One man has broken free. Join him in his search for enlightenment, inner peace, and a really good pair of trousers.Stop what you're doing. Look around. Is this it? Snap out of it. Check your watch. Get back to work. Do not attempt to be different. Blend in. Buy something. The cycle must continue ... or does it?One man has broken free. Join him in his search for enlightenment, inner peace, and a really good pair of trousers. Witness his struggle to remain innocent in a world gone mad. Thrill to his rebellion against common sense. Laugh at his playful disregard for convention. Cry as layer after layer of modern life is peeled away like an onion.That man's name is Anthony Zen. Write that name down - that's "Zen" with a "Z". Now get back to work. Act normal. Check your watch. Do not attract attention. Buy something. Look both ways. Listen. No one is watching. Now is your chance. Diverge from the norm. Enter the wild world of "The Surreal Adventures of Anthony Zen". Escape. Laugh. Wonder. Check your watch. Sleep well and dream."The Surreal Adventures of Anthony Zen" is now available as a FREE eBook serial. Be sure to join us every two weeks for a thrilling episode!"Reminded me of ‘Rhinoceros’ - Ionesco."-- Colette Stevenson"Your stories reminded me of a cross between Lewis Carroll and Richard Brautigan" -- Larry Logan SATIRE - THE JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY SATIRE"North American authors, with the exception of a few (Kurt Vonnegut Jr., et al.), have very little sense of the absurd, something you’ve been cultivating, I think."-- C.F. Kennedy DRIFT/NECESSARY PRESS"We like the character and the writing." -- The Editors BLOOD AND APHORISMS"I enjoyed reading all four of your submissions [including the Anthony Zen stories 'Anthony Has Some Fun' and 'Another Day at Work']. You obviously have a well-developed sense of humor." -- Lisa B. Neuberger AMAZING STORIES"I [found] your Anthony Zen stories funny. In fact, I really enjoyed them. You obviously have a flair for nonsense, and a knack for turning cliches on their heads. The ability to find comic potential in the everyday mundanities of life is pretty rare, and the stuff that good comic writers are made of. I think it's obvious you have this same type of funny bone." -- Tim Bowling FLASH MAGAZINE Views: 540
Sage Kennedy was a 20 year old virgin in New York, until she meets Dylan Dubois, and falls madly in love with him. He takes her back home with him to Louisiana, and her life takes a vastly different turn.***Please write a review of this short story***ThanksThe authorA collection of six short-short science fiction stories. Androids, advanced battle suits, murder, brain implants and a strange case of writers block, this collection of short-short stories has it all. Views: 540
“James J. O’Meara is my favorite literary and cultural critic. A virtuoso essayist who can reveal the most starting connections, O’Meara brings Traditionalist spirituality and a New Right sensibility to bear on both high and popular culture, showing that Tradition, like Cthulhu, still lives in the depths and can rise to the surface again, if you know what to look for . . . or if the stars are right.” – Greg Johnson, author of New Right vs. Old Right “James J. O’Meara is the Camille Paglia of the Alternative Right.”– Andy Nowicki, author of Lost Violent SoulsTradition never died. Despite the complacent triumph of Modernity, it lurks, like a never-rotting Gothic revenant, just beneath the surface of our materially bloated and spiritually empty world. In these 16 essays, James J. O’Meara uses the Traditionalism of Julius Evola and René Guénon to bring to light the spiritual and philosophical dimensions of the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft, Henry James, Mickey Spillaine, Olaf Stapledon, Owen Wister, and Andy Nowicki; the music of Richard Wagner, Harry Partch, and Scott Walker; and the lives and works of architect Ralph Adams Cram and economist Thorstein Veblen.In O’Meara’s lens, the doomed WASP gentry in the weird tales of H. P. Lovecraft and Henry James are on Sufi-inspired vision quests, while Mickey Spillane’s brutal but equally doomed Mike Hammer is an occult detective in the Atom Age. Hobo and microtonal composer Harry Partch is a Dionysian shaman for mid-century America, while the transatlantic Scott Walker enacts Aryan musical archetypes in the 30th century. Even the Episcopal architecture of Ralph Adams Cram barely conceals the hideouts of the Wild Boys, the primal male hordes of culture creators feared by conservative and liberal alike.The Eldritch Evola . . . & Others firmly establishes James J. O’Meara as one of the most original voices of the North American New Right.About the AuthorJames J. O’Meara is the author of The Homo and the Negro: Masculinist Meditations on Politics and Popular Culture (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2012) and A Review of James Neill's "The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies" (Amazon.com: Kindle Editions, 2013). He currently lives in an abandoned glove factory in Rust Belt, USA but dreams of relocating to a quaint small town like we see on TV. Views: 540
In this short supernatural horror story set in Jaco Beach, a visit to a Costa Rican nature sanctuary turns very strange indeed for Joshua when the tourists he'd hoped to fleece turn out to be something other than expected.World Fantasy, Nebula, and Endeavour Award nominated speculative fiction writer/editor Cat Rambo is a leading voice in science fiction and fantasy stories, spinning tales of emotional richness set in worlds that are imaginative, evocative, and above all compelling. Find out why Don Sakers of Analog declares, "Cat Rambo is a great storyteller." Views: 539
