Mr. James Fitzsimmons is the son of a well-to-do farmer, solidly among the ranks of the gentry but not privileged enough to move in the same circles as a duke’s daughter. Meeting Lady Cecilia seventeen years ago was pure luck, but falling in love with her was pure torment. When she refused his offer of marriage he vowed to put her out of his mind—and his heart. But when James discovers a powerful lord is threatening to take the farm and ruin the Fitzsimmons name, he knows he needs an influential ally. Can James agree to Cecilia’s terms and risk his heart once more to save his family?Lady Cecilia Maitland has everything an unmarried woman could want: money of her own, high social status, and the ability to live life on her own terms. What she doesn’t have is the only man she ever loved. She turned down James’s proposal all those years ago and didn’t see him again...until he turned up at a house party in search of a patron.... Views: 685
Brianna's rich, smart, and should've been popular; except she sees ghosts. Safe to say, it's not the life she expected. She's spent years being mocked and called a liar. She's seen more bodies than she ever wanted to. She's sought justice when nobody else would. She's enraged entire families and communities to get the truth to come to light. She's destroyed a hell of a lot more.She's ready to give it all up.Not if George has anything to do with it, though.A college student, he's a hit-and-run victim with no chance of finding his killer. Faced with an eternity in limbo, his only option is to try and convince Brianna to continue helping the dead. Like Ronnie, for example. He was murdered by his wife all for a million dollars. If Brianna can prove she did it, the money's hers.She just has to find it first. Views: 685
What if you knew the exact date of your death? How would you live your life? Midas Stanley wants to make the most of it.What if you knew the exact date of your death? How would you live your life? In a future that will hopefully never come to pass, people are euthanized on their 66th. One man, Midas Stanley, has two months to make a final impact and say his goodbyes. Midas can still apply for exemption but will he? Views: 685
In this steamy historical short, a debt-ridden Regency miss faces an indecent proposition from a wealthy nobleman.For debt-ridden Deana Herwood, losing a hand of cards to the wealthy Lord Rockwell was bad enough. To settler her loss, she must offer her body to him for one night of pleasure.When she expresses her reservations, he offers an even more outrageous proposition. Can she win the wager or will her body succumb to the wicked attentions of Lord Rockwell? Views: 685
A tale of the apocalypse or a tale of personal tragedy and psychological collapse? Originally published in Murky Depths magazine, then republished in Best Tales of the Apocalypse from Permuted Press.There are days when Abigail doesn’t think about them at all, the Luminissmus, days when windows are windows and bottles are bottles, when glass is just glass. On those days, she cooks, cleans, shops, sends out job applications by the truckload and spends the remaining daylight hours in the cemetery. Those days are the exception. Today is not one of those days. Today, she is thinking about the Luminissmus. It’s all she can think about... Views: 684
US Army Garrison Patch Barracks, near Stuttgart, Germany, 2 a.m., January 11
Sentries at the Main Gate of Patch Barracks had turned away the last of the local Fasching revelers an hour or so before, laughingly joking with them that the Barracks were too quiet for their parties. A few soldiers, somewhat worse for wear after joining the locals for the opening night of Germany’s “Fifth Season”, straggled in around midnight. They were cheerfully waved through the gate by the envious guards, who had pulled duty that night and didn’t get to celebrate.
Since then, the night had been still, only the night sounds typical of the region breaking the silence. The cell and radio tower behind the thick trees was lit by an eerie glow from the remains of the Fasching bonfire a few miles away. It would be six long hours until sunrise and their relief.
The peace of the night lulled them to silence.
Behind them, an eerie blue-white blinding flash bloomed.
No sooner had it lit the night sky than the first sentry opened his mouth to ask, “What was that?”
But the words never left his lips—before he’d even formed them, his lips, along with the rest of him, vanished. Had his mate not been meeting the same fate at the same time, he would have been shocked to see his comrade in arms evaporate into nihility.
Every living being, structure, and object within an 800-yard radius of the epicenter disappeared as if he, she, or it had never been there.
No one in the circumference of the blast zone survived to describe the beauty of the majestic, but fatal, blue-white flash. A few souls, lucky enough to be farther away, saw glimpses of it through the surrounding trees.
No one knew what it was.
The next person to arrive at the Main Gate of Patch Barracks found, much to his drunken confusion, nothing.
No gate, no trees, no cell tower. No barracks. No buildings. No guards.
Only emptiness.
Not finding the Main Gate where he was sure it must be, the soldier sat down on the ground. Alcohol and rationality have never been good stablemates.
His inebriated brain could not handle the duel, and mercifully, he passed out. He never heard the screams of pain and horror from the injured survivors far enough from the epicentre and fortunate enough to escape obliteration.
Later, first responders approached with caution, finding the drunk soldier passed out where the gate should have been and the void beyond, which had always been occupied by buildings.
They moved into the base to search for survivors. They found few, most of them critically injured and out of their minds with shock and confusion.
Everyone capable of speaking asked the rescuers the question the rescuers had wanted to ask the survivors: What happened?
THE NABATEAN SECRET, is a full-length novel, a nail-biting suspense-thriller about an ancient conspiracy set on total world domination, in every sense of the word — political, financial, energy, information technology... The Nabatean Secret is the fourth book in the Carter Devereux series, the sequel to the best-seller Alboran Codex. ** Views: 684
Magical realism meets coming of age as four Verona College students are thrown together by choice as well as circumstance. Views: 684
Jonas Lüscher, the author of Barbarian Spring—"a most humorous and convincing satire of the ridiculous excesses of those responsible for the financial crisis" (The New York Times Book Review)—returns to the topic of neoliberal arrogance in his Swiss Book Prize winning, hilarious and wicked novel about a man facing the ruins of his life, and his world.Richard Kraft, a German professor of rhetoric and aging Reaganite and Knight Rider fan, is unhappily married and badly in debt. He sees no way out of his rut until he is invited to participate in a competition to be held in California and sponsored by a Silicon Valley tycoon and "techno-optimist." The contest is to answer a literal "million-dollar question": each competitor must compose an eighteen-minute lecture on why our world is still, despite all evidence, the best of all possible worlds, and how we might improve it even further through technology. Entering into a surreal... Views: 684
She's everything a big bad wolf could want.Coping with a devastating injury is hard enough for Belinda “Belle” Campbell. Forced separation from her destined mate while she heals is almost more than she can endure. Until she is strong enough to take up her duties as Luna of the Poconos Wolf Pack, however, the safest place for her is Halle. Now, after months of being alone, she is more than ready to be claimed. But is the pack ready for a Puma Luna?Rick Lowell has waited long enough to bring Belle home where she belongs. He’s aware of the danger, as well—and it isn’t long before a bitch with an eye on Belle’s position issues a challenge. The only way to put down the threat is for Belle to defeat the usurper in combat.There’s only one problem. Thanks to the pins in her broken hip, Belle can’t shift. Without that tactical advantage, it won’t be a fair fight. With his new mate’s life on the... Views: 684
