NEVER SAY NEVERSadie Gold is ready to take her career to the next level with the role of a lifetime. Finally, she can shake her reputation as a pretty face with more wealth and connections than talent. But Sadie is not prepared for the wild turn her own life is about to take. The man in charge of training Sadie for her most demanding role yet is none other than her first real boyfriend—the one who took her heart and ran away.WHEN IT COMES TO LOVEBo Ibarra is as good-looking and irresistible as ever. Maybe even more so, now that everything once worked against them—Sadie's pampered and privileged upbringing and Bo's childhood in a family struggling to make ends meet—is in the past. But the future is still unwritten...and getting there, together, means coming clean about painful secrets and slashing through nasty tabloid rumors while trying to control the attraction that crackles between them. Maybe it's finally time for them to walk... Views: 434
Welcome to Hotel Z, the best place to sample merchandise anywhere in town. We catch them fresh and don't keep them too long – that's the secret. But be careful, sometimes they bite!The Plastic Christmas Card is a quirky little ‘wodzeon’ Quick Flash story about creating Christmas happiness. But, what is happiness? This following ‘history’ took hours and hours of research in huge libraries and on the net. Wodzeon? That’s what sometimes happens when someone reads my stuff, they say ‘what’s he on?’... fresh air actually.Happiness’s root is an old Latin word ‘Hopiness’ meaning ‘to feel good’. It hailed from the hop plantations of Evesham i.e. hops (as in malt and) meaning ‘happy crop’, planted and tended originally by Latins. That’s because Latin people (originally French tin miners i.e. ‘La-Tin’) felt happy when they drank the liquid made with hops (and malt). That’s why at Christmas, the hopiest time of year is when people are at their happiest (or hopiest). All the dancing at Christmas is due to these sacred flowers that grow on countless bushes in Evesham, the organic mothers and fathers of Eveshams favourite dance, invented by actor and dancer and buddy of William Shakespeare, William Kemp (Kempe) The Evesham Hop, full of quirky skips and jumps. Evesham was named after the church managed to convince the world that the serpent tempted Eve to eat an apple, when really it helped her discover the magic of the hop; yes you’ve guessed it was actually a hop plant/bush the serpent was on/in and not the church’s apple tree which was a thought constructed Eve ‘Sham’. The serpent was a bit fed up (although it is impossible to tell when a serpent is fed up due to limitation of facial expressions) because it was a very mild Christmas (hence the nudity) and it fancied a few drinks while chilling on the branch, but needed someone to make it first from hops (and malt); the serpent was very wise and knew how to have a good time by making hop juice so it spoke instructions to Eve; God had taken the serpents arms away to save its liver, not to mention the livers of several local hedgehogs that also liked a drink, especially after eating a sticky slug. Adam was therefore the first man to get drunk and hop around dancing. How would Adam have got home from the garden? Easy! Eve would have driven him, and that is why when a woman drives a bloke home from the pub it is seen as natural, simply because it is. Christmas is so good because of that serpent. Kane and Abel were both the results of hopiness and man’s downfall was the hangover, making it hard to make a choice between bad and good ideas.Whisky is also good and the history of it could be called ‘The magic of Bar LEY’ a wine bar near a barley field where whisky was discovered. If the sign-writer had been rubbish and written Bar LEE, anybody called Lee would have felt honoured and gone for a discount, but whisky would have remained obscure. Views: 434
William Makepeace Thackeray (18 July 1811 - 24 December 1863) was an English novelist of the 19th century. He is known for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society. BIOGRAPHY: Thackeray, an only child, was born in Calcutta, British India, where his father, Richmond Thackeray (1 September 1781 - 13 September 1815), was secretary to the Board of Revenue in the British East India Company. His mother, Anne Becher (1792-1864), was the second daughter of Harriet Becher and John Harman Becher, who was also a secretary (writer) for the East India Company. Richmond died in 1815, which caused Anne to send her son to England in 1816, while she remained in British India. The ship on which he travelled made a short stopover at St. Helena, where the imprisoned Napoleon was pointed out to him. Once in England he was educated at schools in Southampton and Chiswick, and then at Charterhouse School, where he became a close friend of John Leech. Thackeray disliked Charterhouse, and parodied it in his fiction as "Slaughterhouse." Nevertheless, Thackeray was honoured in the Charterhouse Chapel with a monument after his death. Illness in his last year there, during which he reportedly grew to his full height of six foot three, postponed his matriculation at Trinity College, Cambridge, until February 1829.[citation needed]Never too keen on academic studies, Thackeray left Cambridge in 1830, but some of his earliest published writing appeared in two university periodicals, The Snob and The Gownsman. Thackeray then travelled for some time on the continent, visiting Paris and Weimar, where he met Goethe. He returned to England and began to study law at the Middle Temple, but soon gave that up. On reaching the age of 21 he came into his inheritance from his father, but he squandered much of it on gambling and on funding two unsuccessful newspapers, The National Standard and The Constitutional, for which he had hoped to write. He also lost a good part of his fortune in the collapse of two Indian banks. Forced to consider a profession to support himself, he turned first to art, which he studied in Paris, but did not pursue it, except in later years as the illustrator of some of his own novels and other writings. Thackeray's years of semi-idleness ended after he married, on 20 August 1836, Isabella Gethin Shawe (1816-1893), second daughter of Isabella Creagh Shawe and Matthew Shawe, a colonel who had died after distinguished service, primarily in India. The Thackerays had three children, all girls: Anne Isabella (1837-1919), Jane (who died at eight months old) and Harriet Marian (1840-1875), who married Sir Leslie Stephen, editor, biographer and philosopher. Thackeray now began "writing for his life," as he put it, turning to journalism in an effort to support his young family. He primarily worked for Fraser's Magazine, a sharp-witted and sharp-tongued conservative publication for which he produced art criticism, short fictional sketches, and two longer fictional works, Catherine and The Luck of Barry Lyndon. Between 1837 and 1840 he also reviewed books for The Times. He was also a regular contributor to The Morning Chronicle and The Foreign Quarterly Review. Later, through his connection to the illustrator John Leech, he began writing for the newly created magazine Punch, in which he published The Snob Papers, later collected as The Book of Snobs. This work popularised the modern meaning of the word "snob."Thackeray was a regular contributor to Punch between 1843 and 1854.......... Views: 434
A boy finds a vocation as a weaver of bread. A Russian woman, thought dead, e-mails greetings to her adolescent sister in a Canadian suburb. An investment banker vanishes and is found fifteen years later when his daughter discovers a painting of herself in a distant gallery. With wit and ache, Daniel Karasik's Faithful and Other Stories evokes a world of seekers, characters panning for meaning in environments by turns hostile, mystifying, and enchanted. This collection brings together stories honoured with the CBC Short Story Prize, The Malahat Review's Jack Hodgins Founders' Award for Fiction, and the Alta Lind Cook Prize. Views: 434
Shapeshifting can be a beautiful and deadly secret. Gwen hasn’t even told the truth to her boyfriend, Zack, who she hopes will be the boy to take her virginity. When a pack of werewolves claims the national forest behind her house as their territory, the tensions in town escalate—into murder. Can Gwen find the killer before he finds her, or will her identity be the death of her?Shapeshifting can be a beautiful and deadly secret. Gwen craves the forbidden rush of leaping from her bedroom window and transforming into an owl, but she could lose it all if anyone caught her. Most Americans don’t exactly roll out the welcome mat for Others. In the small town of Klikamuks, Washington, coming out as a person with paranormal abilities means staring down the barrel of a shotgun. Gwen hasn’t even told the truth to her boyfriend, Zack, who she hopes will be the boy to take her virginity.When a pack of werewolves claims the national forest behind Gwen’s house as their territory, the tensions in Klikamuks escalate—into murder. Prejudice slows the police investigation. It doesn’t take Gwen long to realize a serial killer is targeting Others. On the hunt for clues, she meets Tavian, a sexy Japanese fox-spirit who rivals Zack and challenges her to embrace her shapeshifting. Can she find the killer before he finds her, or will her secrets be the death of her? Views: 434
Cody Walsh leaves Arkansas for California. Lured by stories of opportunity, even for women, Cody disguises herself as a man and prepares for the arduous journey west. Lillie Ellis leaves New York to accept a post as a schoolteacher on the frontier near a small homestead she just inherited from her uncle. Lillie's ultimate desire is to become a painter, and she hopes the Kansas frontier will offer her the freedom to follow that dream. In the nineteenth century, a young woman has few options in the East that don't revolve around marriage and motherhood. Lillie is interested in neither. Cody rescues Lillie after a chance encounter in Independence, Missouri. Their destinies and desires become entwined as they face the perils of the untamed West. Despite their differences, they discover that love's uncharted frontier is not for the weak in spirit or the faint of heart. Views: 434
As war crimes prosecutions seize Australia, Fiona Kovalenko discovers her own Ukrainian family is implicated in the darkest events of the twentieth century.The Hand that Signed the Paper won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 1993 and, in 1995, the ALS Gold Medal and the Miles Franklin Literary Award. First published in 1994, under an assumed identity, it's a book that continues to raise urgent questions about history, responsibility, and truth. This edition includes the introduction Dale wrote for Untapped publishing partner Ligature's edition, revisiting the scandal the book caused.Helen Dale grew up in Australia but now lives in London. The Hand that Signed the Paper was her first novel and she was the youngest winner of the Miles Franklin. She is also the author of the speculative fiction novels, Kingdom of the Wicked: Rules (2017) and Kingdom of the Wicked: Order (2018). Views: 433
PART TWO of a serialised novel - a heartwarming and inspiring story about living the simple life and the joy of animals.Working as the receptionist at her local London vets, Sam dreams of escaping to a quieter life in the country. Spending time with her Nana and her lovely but elderly dog Rufus has sparked something within Sam, and all she wants is to start afresh. But her boyfriend Adam is in London, and something tells her that it won't be an easy conversation.But then something happens that makes her going-nowhere receptionist job seem much more appealing: she finds a little stray cat called Ebony, in need of love and nurturing back to health. Faced with a dilemma, she must choose between her heart's desire and the little ball of fluff burrowing her way into Sam's heart...Is it possible to have it all?Note: this is part two of a four-part serialised novel. The full length paperback will be available in June. Views: 433
"We were in for a heap of trouble..."*
The journey continues in A Hunt of Fiends.
Reunite with the Shadians.
Pre-order now! Views: 433
A Russian politician and high level Western Oil Executive have been assassinated within minutes of each other. Their murders become inadvertently linked through the everyday work of an oil analyst, Jonathan Marshall. A leak of Jonathan’s work causes consternation at the highest levels of Governments, business and beyond, sparking deployment of assassins and agents to silence the source and prevent the uncovering of global corruption in the oil industry. With his life in danger, Jonathan battles to discover the truth and stay alive… Views: 433
