Officer Lou Hernandez is surprised when he's asked to help Gideon Monahan catch an art forger. He's not too happy, though, when he meets the man he'll be working with. Lou thinks Rory Kinley is a supercilious pain in the ass. Rory, on the other hand, sees no reason why Lou has been brought into this. After all, he's just a cop, albeit one who is good at going undercover.
The art forger they're after--Nate Hanks--cons collectors, saying he has an undiscovered painting by a famous artist. He's killed one of his marks already to keep from being caught.
Lou and Rory will have to set aside their differences as they set up a sting to stop Hanks. When they do, they discover they may not be as incompatible as they thought. The question becomes, will their growing feelings survive what's to come--or be destroyed in the process? Views: 327
Sometimes the mannequins get behind my eyesI feel them tugging the strings of my nervesplaying with my mechanismsThey make themselves at home in the lumber room of my skullJames Knight's latest collection of poems and prose poems takes the reader to the other side of the mirror, where the Bird King reigns and mannequins are more real than people.Sometimes the mannequins get behind my eyesI feel them tugging the strings of my nervesplaying with my mechanismsThey make themselves at home in the lumber room of my skullImagine a chessboard made of an infinite number of squares, in which the pieces are locked in eternal stalemate. The mannequin is white to the Bird King’s black. Where he is broken, mad, risible, she is perfect, glacial, sinister. She is the mask Lady Macbeth presents to her haunted husband. The Bird King is, in part, me, by which I mean that his nest is somewhere in me, between memory and imagination. Although he is a tyrant, he is also vulnerable and silly. Aren’t we all vulnerable and silly? The mannequin, on the other hand, is totally alien to me. She seems emotionless and inscrutable. I find her mesmerising and nightmarish. What is she thinking? Like Lady Macbeth, she reveals nothing to me. She tells her secrets only to the night.The Bird King and the mannequin do have one thing in common, however, which is that it is impossible to attach to either of them a stable mental image. If we see either of them in their entirety, in the glare of the sun or a spotlight or headlights, what we see is provisional, a brief phase in their constant mutation. Despite this, the essential identity of each of them is fixed. They are both trapped by who they are. Views: 327
Agent Cleo Carras suddenly becomes aware that she is being pinned down by a heavy weight, and that she is holding a gun.Agent Cleo Carras suddenly becomes aware that she is being pinned down by a heavy weight, and that she is holding a gun. This undercover assignment has gone terribly wrong, and Agent Carras is on the run from an Ndrangheta crime family. She finds herself wearing various disguises and traveling from the bush, to the city, in her bid to resume her normal life and career, and hopefully, bring down one organised crime cell in the process. Views: 327
A groom promises to be at the church on time, even if he has to come back from the grave to do it.A man inherits a property where he discovers a portrait of a woman that will change his life forever.Two newlyweds find their dream country cottage, unaware of an ancient curse from the previous owners. A gripping, unsettling and utterly chilling collection of short stories from one of Britain's best loved storytellers. Views: 327
Imagine a book filled with stories and poems written by kids who love animals. Writing gives us the chance to use our imagination, to be creative, to explore our deepest thoughts and feelings, and to discover the gifts and talents we have inside. Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando is proud to present original works that showcase how young authors view the world around them.Imagine a book filled with stories and poems written by kids who love animals. Writing gives us the chance to use our imagination, to be creative, to explore our deepest thoughts and feelings, and to discover the gifts and talents we have inside.Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando is proud to present original works that showcase how young authors view the world around them. The writings and artwork are truly from the heart and strive to portray the hands-on experiences with shelter pets and knowledge gained during Shelter Friends Summer Camps. You will not find these imaginative and creative ideas anywhere else.Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando educates, shelters, places, and heals pets and their families with compassionate, responsible care maintained to the highest professional standards. We create more caring communities by promoting happier, healthier pets and their families. Views: 327
We live in a culture of casual certitude. This has always been the case, no matter how often that certainty has failed. Though no generation believes there’s nothing left to learn, every generation unconsciously assumes that what has already been defined and accepted is (probably) pretty close to how reality will be viewed in perpetuity. And then, of course, time passes. Ideas shift. Opinions invert. What once seemed reasonable eventually becomes absurd, replaced by modern perspectives that feel even more irrefutable and secure—until, of course, they don’t.
But What If We’re Wrong? visualizes the contemporary world as it will appear to those who'll perceive it as the distant past. Chuck Klosterman asks questions that are profound in their simplicity: How certain are we about our understanding of gravity? How certain are we about our understanding of time? What will be the defining memory of rock music, five hundred years from today? How seriously should we view the content of our dreams? How seriously should we view the content of television? Are all sports destined for extinction? Is it possible that the greatest artist of our era is currently unknown (or—weirder still—widely known, but entirely disrespected)? Is it possible that we “overrate” democracy? And perhaps most disturbing, is it possible that we’ve reached the end of knowledge?
Kinetically slingshotting through a broad spectrum of objective and subjective problems, But What If We’re Wrong? is built on interviews with a variety of creative thinkers—George Saunders, David Byrne, Jonathan Lethem, Kathryn Schulz, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Greene, Junot Díaz, Amanda Petrusich, Ryan Adams, Nick Bostrom, Dan Carlin, and Richard Linklater, among others—interwoven with the type of high-wire humor and nontraditional analysis only Klosterman would dare to attempt. It’s a seemingly impossible achievement: a book about the things we cannot know, explained as if we did. It’s about how we live now, once “now” has become “then.” Views: 327
For Rebecca Gibson, her journey to a work convention will be one she’ll never forget. After driving around for four hours, Rebecca stops to ask for directions at an isolated house on the outskirts of Kirk Langley, Derbyshire.
Her initial meeting with the house’s attractive owner, Annabel Howell, seems strange and unsettling, but at her hostess’s insistence, Rebecca spends the night.
Plagued by nightmares, Rebecca senses that her dream world has blended with what she believes is reality. When she leaves the next day, her life has changed.
Can Rebecca solve a mystery that has been haunting a family for over sixty years? Will she find love along the way? Or will the events drive her mad? Views: 327
In 1943, in occupied Italy, Ines Santini's sheltered existence is turned upside down when she meets Norman, an escaped British POW. Years later, Anna Swillland, their daughter, starts to unravel romantic and historical accounts from assorted documents left to her after her mother's death. She travels to the beautiful Tuscan Apennines, where the story unfolds. In researching her parents' past, she will discover secrets about the war, her parents and herself, which will change her life forever. Views: 327
Meet four unlikely friends, desperate to become real-life magicians . . . Alex is amazing with a deck of cards; Zack's a pickpocketer like no other; Sophie convinced her Brown Owl that all the other Brownies were jelly fish thanks to her hypnosis skills; and Jonny mixes science and magic with spectacular consequences.They are thrown together for their induction week at the mysterious, secretive Magic Circle. But behind its doors, things are not quite what they expect.Then the Bank of England is broken into and its gold stolen. Or is it? Could this actually be the greatest magic trick the world has seen? And can the four Young Magicians figure out how it was done? Views: 326
The Moone having past the heaven, lost her bright splendor, by the arising of a more powerfull light, and every part of our world began to looke cleare: when the Queene (being risen) caused all the Company to be called, walking forth afterward upon the pearled dewe (so farre as was supposed convenient) in faire and familiar conference together, according as severally they were disposed, & repetition of divers the passed Novels, especially those which were most pleasing, and seemed so by their present commendations. But the Sunne beeing somewhat higher mounted, gave such a sensible warmth to the ayre, as caused their returne backe to the Pallace, where the Tables were readily covered against their comming, strewed with sweet hearbes and odoriferous flowers, seating themselves at the Tables (before the heat grew more violent) according as the Queene commanded.After dinner, they sung divers excellent Canzonnets, and then some went to sleepe, others played at the Chesse, and some at the Tables: But Dioneus and Madam Lauretta, they sung the love-conflict betweene Troylus and Cressida. Now was the houre come, of repairing to their former Consistory or meeting place, the Queene having thereto generally summoned them, and seating themselves (as they were wont to doe) about the faire fountaine. As the Queene was commanding to begin the first Novell, an accident suddenly happened, which never had befalne before: to wit, they heard a great noyse and tumult, among the houshold servants in the Kitchin. Whereupon, the Queene caused the Master of the Houshold to be called, demaunding of him, what noyse it was, and what might be the occasion thereof? He made answere, that Lacisca and Tindaro were at some words of discontentment, but what was the occasion thereof, he knew not. Whereupon, the Queene commanded that they should be sent for, (their anger and violent speeches still continuing) and being come into her presence, she demaunded the reason of their discord; and Tindaro offering to make answere, Lacisca (being somewhat more ancient then he, and of a fiercer fiery spirit, even as if her heart would have leapt out of her mouth) turned her selfe to him, and with a scornefull frowning countenance, said. See how this bold, unmannerly and beastly fellow, dare presume to speake in this place before me: Stand by (saucy impudence) and give your better leave to answere; then turning to the Queene, thus shee proceeded.Madam, this idle fellow would maintaine to me, that Signior Sicophanto marrying with Madama della Grazza, had the victory of her virginity the very first night: and I avouched the contrary, because shee had been a mother twise before, in very faire adventuring of her fortune. And he dared to affirme beside, that young Maides are so simple, as to loose the flourishing Aprill of their time, in meere feare of their parents, and great prejudice of their amourous friends. Onely being abused by infinite promises, that this yeare and that yeare they shall have husbands, when, both by the lawes of nature and reason, they are not tyed to tarry so long, but rather ought to lay hold upon opportunity, when it is fairely and friendly offered, so that seldome they come maides to marriage. Beside, I have heard, and know some married wives, that have played divers wanton prancks with their husbands, yet carried all so demurely and smoothly; that they have gone free from publique detection. All which this woodcocke will not credit, thinking me to be so young a Novice, as if I had been borne but yesterday.While Lacisca was delivering these speeches, the Ladies smiled on one another, not knowing what to say in this case: And although the Queene (five and or severall times) commaunded her to silence; yet such was the earnestnes of her spleen, that she gave no attention, but held on still even untill she had uttered all that she pleased. But after she had concluded her complaint, the Queene (with a smiling countenance) turned towards Dioneus saying. Views: 326
Hendrix Massey had a dream. That dream led him to a magic journal. That journal kept him going when the world came crashing down around him. But can happily ever after truly be found in the pages?The following work was originally published in the Gateways Anthology for Breakwater Harbor Book. The theme of the Anthology was to create a “Gateway” story from a previous or upcoming novel as an introduction to the larger work. Living in the Pages was my Gateway from the novel Hidden in the Pages, which was published in November, 2013. In Hidden in the Pages, Jantzen Burke was given a tattered old journal by his grandfather and told that the book could find his perfect match, the person he was meant to love. So while his life fell apart around him, he wrote in the magic journal and dreamt of a future with the girl who answered. In the end, when the magical promise was fulfilled, he vowed to get rid of the journal.But objects made of magic have a life of their own.I imagined that journal’s journey as it made it’s way to the hands of the next man meant to write his words inside. It may have been dumped in a Salvation Army bin and traveled to another town in a collection truck. It might have fallen from that truck at another pick-up location. It might have been picked up by a child running for a school bus, and unknowingly dropped again. It might have traveled a thousand miles to be washed down a street in the pouring rain just to lie under a purple table outside a bakery on Harris Street as it waited for the next man in need of it’s magic.And this is his story. Views: 326
