When the chips are down, and they certainly are in these desperate times; friends and family stick together. Julie finds this out in an unlikely fashion. As the economy is crumbling around them, people are forced to make hard choices as to where they want to make their stand. They also must choose who to stand by. Julie's life is about to change, but not without a little help from a friend.When Victor Frankenstein crafts his infamous creature in Mary Shelley’s masterpiece, he creates something that is a patchwork not only of men but of ideals, of emotions. Out of many, he is one. Indeed, this anthology you read now is something similar, though I do say quite a bit more pleasant to encounter than the fruit of Victor’s labors!What precisely does the word creature conjure in the imagination? Something frightening? Something unknown? The authors of the stories you are about to read had this question to consider and not one of them came up with exactly the same answer as another of their collaborators. The initial reaction to such a question might be to recoil, to think of something unsettling or scary. But then one must consider the creature itself. How does it react to its state of being? It’s surroundings? Does it enjoy killing men or does it loathe violence? Is it predator or prey? Do humans simply fear it or try to combat the creature themselves?It’s the reaction that makes the creature, not the state itself of being an outsider to mankind. You will read in these pages about various supposed monsters, and they all behave differently. The creatures in these stories are everything from horrifying killers to sympathetic lovers to misunderstood beings trying to fit into human society, each one with its creator’s personal stamp placed upon it. This anthology was born out of a desire to come together as authors, out of a sense of community, and the reader can certainly feel this as well. Despite the occasionally-gruesome or unsettling subject matter, this is a labor of love, we promise!The idea to create a compilation was posed by author B.C. Sirrom on the Paranormal and Horror Lovers group on Goodreads in May of 2012. The idea took off immediately, with eight writers contributing to the work and several others offering to help with editing and cover art. But what was to be the topic of such an anthology?After much deliberation, the topic of creatures was chosen, an emphasis placed on the unique and the cultural. The rules were simple: the story must be in the paranormal or horror genre and between five and ten thousand words. While mature content was allowed, it was not required, and contributors had to be willing to assist with editing. With the ground rules in place, the authors set out to craft their tales.This specific topic is one that not only fit the overall theme of the group itself, but also one that allowed the authors room to breathe, room to create and thus, room to craft a collection of well-fitted stories that will entertain, thrill and horrify.No matter what the word ‘creature’ initially brings to mind for you, the reader, that is only the beginning Views: 711
Second Hearts (Book two, The Wishes Series) Available now.Storm Shells (Book three, The Wishes Series) Available now.*** Au & NZ iBooks Best of 2013 Breakout Book Of The Year ***For Charli Blake, being seventeen is a tough gig. She's been branded a troublemaker, her reputation is in tatters and she's stuck in Pipers Cove, a speck of a town on the coast of Tasmania.Thankfully, it's temporary. Her lifelong dream of travelling the world is just months away from becoming reality. All she has to do is ride out the last few months of high school, which is easier said than done thanks to a trio of mean girls known as The Beautifuls. When Adam Décarie arrives in town, all the way from New York, life takes an unexpected turn. His arrival sets off a chain of events that alters her life forever, convincing her of one thing. Fate brought him to her.Saving Wishes is the story of a girl who doesn't quite fit the life she's living, and the boy who helps her realise why. Views: 711
Near the end of Amor Towles’s bestselling novel Rules of Civility, the fiercely independent Evelyn Ross boards a train from New York to Chicago to visit her parents, but never disembarks. Six months later, she appears in a photograph in a gossip magazine exiting the Tropicana Club in Los Angeles on the arm of Olivia de Havilland.
In this chain of six richly detailed and atmospheric stories, each told from a different perspective, Towles unfolds the events that take Eve to the heart of Old Hollywood. Beginning in the dining car of the Golden State Limited in September 1938, we follow Eve to the elegant rooms of the Beverly Hills Hotel, the fabled tables of Antonio’s, the amusement parks on the Santa Monica piers, the afro-Cuban dance clubs of Central Avenue, and ultimately the set of Gone with The Wind.
With the glamour and grit of the studio system’s golden age as a backdrop, Towles introduces in each story a memorable new character whose fate may well be altered by their encounter with Eve. In following the thread of these varied encounters, we watch as Eve forges a new and unexpected life for herself in late 1930s Los Angeles. Views: 711
A broken woman . . .
Crystal learned long ago that love brings only pain. Feeling nothing at all is far better than being hurt again. She guards her wounded heart behind a hard exterior and carries within her a deep mistrust of men, who, in her experience, have only ever used and taken.
A man in need of help . . .
Then Gabriel Dalton walks into her life. Despite the terrible darkness of his past, there's an undeniable goodness in him. And even though she knows the cost, Crystal finds herself drawn to Gabriel. His quiet strength is wearing down her defenses and his gentle patience is causing her to question everything she thought she knew.
Only love can mend a shattered heart . . .<
Crystal and Gabriel never imagined that the world, which had stolen everything from them, would bring them a deep love like this. Except fate will only take them so far, and now the choice is theirs: Harden their hearts once again or find the courage to shed their painful pasts. Views: 711
For fans of Nicholson Baker and David Mitchell, a multilayered, lively, and wholly original novel from bestselling author Keith Donohue.
Set in the bathroom of an old house just before dawn on a night in June, Centuries of June is a black comedy about a man who is attempting to tell the story of how he ended up on the floor with a hole in his head. But he keeps getting interrupted by a series of suspects--eight women lying in the bedroom just down
the hall. Drawing from 500 years of myths and legends in America, Centuries of June is a stunning tour de force. Views: 711
A Dance to the Music of Time – his brilliant 12-novel sequence, which chronicles the lives of over three hundred characters, is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.
The novels follow Nicholas Jenkins, Kenneth Widmerpool and others, as they negotiate the intellectual, cultural and social hurdles that stand between them and the “Acceptance World.” Views: 711
A brilliant and breathtaking debut that captivated readers and garnered critical acclaim in the United Kingdom, The Tenderness of Wolves was long-listed for the Orange Prize in fiction and won the Costa Award (formerly Whitbread) Book of the Year.
The year is 1867. Winter has just tightened its grip on Dove River, a tiny isolated settlement in the Northern Territory, when a man is brutally murdered. Laurent Jammett had been a voyageur for the Hudson Bay Company before an accident lamed him four years earlier. The same accident afforded him the little parcel of land in Dove River, land that the locals called unlucky due to the untimely death of the previous owner.
A local woman, Mrs. Ross, stumbles upon the crime scene and sees the tracks leading from the dead man's cabin north toward the forest and the tundra beyond. It is Mrs. Ross's knock on the door of the largest house in Caulfield that launches the investigation. Within hours she will regret that knock with a mother's love -- for soon she makes another discovery: her seventeen-year-old son Francis has disappeared and is now considered a prime suspect.
In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the crime and to the township -- Andrew Knox, Dove River's elder statesman; Thomas Sturrock, a wily American itinerant trader; Donald Moody, the clumsy young Company representative; William Parker, a half-breed Native American and trapper who was briefly detained for Jammett's murder before becoming Mrs. Ross's guide. But the question remains: do these men want to solve the crime or exploit it?
One by one, the searchers set out from Dove River following the tracks across a desolate landscape -- home to only wild animals, madmen, and fugitives -- variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for seventeen years, and a forgotten Native American culture before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good.
In an astonishingly assured debut, Stef Penney deftly weaves adventure, suspense, revelation, and humor into an exhilarating thriller; a panoramic historical romance; a gripping murder mystery; and, ultimately, with the sheer scope and quality of her storytelling, an epic for the ages. Views: 711
Devon Pierce lives a life of his own choosing, surviving by his wits and violent actions. For those in desperate need, he is the judge and executioner of last resort - above the law and incorruptible. Cleora Kinney has been wronged and the Afghanistan treasure of her deceased father has been stolen. Only Devon Pierce can set things right.Las Vegas. Devon Pierce lives a life of his own choosing, surviving by his wits and violent actions. For those in desperate need, he is the judge and executioner of last resort - above the law and incorruptible. Cleora Kinney, an exotic dancer, has been wronged and the Afghanistan treasure of her deceased father has been stolen. Only Devon can set things right. But first he must follow the clues found hidden deep in the shadowy underworld of the city of sin. Views: 711
short story: a middle aged man reminisces on his secret high school love.In this second collection of stories, Black Cat Tales: Black Anne and Other Short Stories you'll find more of the most popular spooky (and sometimes mischievous) stories and flash fiction from Black Cat Tales.Stories include:Black Anne;The River Rising;Squirrel Hunting;The Magic in the Stones; and more Views: 710
An ancient alien ship is found, giving us the ability to travel outside of our solar system. Some view this technology as our savior, and others, our destroyer. In this episode, a prototype test crew disappears, forcing a political cover-up as UNSA Adrian Commander Daniels struggles with the loss of his friends while hiding a truth which could end humaniy's hope for galactic colonization.In the late 21st Century, Earth's ecosystem is rapidly approaching the point of complete collapse. In a stroke of luck, an ancient alien ship is discovered on Mars with technology that could allow mankind to relieve the pressures on their homeworld and settle the stars. Many people view this wondrous technology as a gift, but there are those on Earth who wish to see it destroyed as a danger to everyone. When a team of researchers is lost after receiving an ominous alien warning during a prototype test, UNSA Commander Adrian Daniels is forced to participate in a political cover-up and lead his remaining crew into unknowable danger, while struggling against a tide of deadly intrigue. Meanwhile, Sally Yeung, the young prodigy who leads Commander Daniel's research team, must race to uncover the secrets of a vanished alien civilization to not only save the crew, but possibly all of humanity as well. Views: 710
In 1959, Homestead was rocked by a shocking murder. Forty years later, an unsuspecting visitor is haunted into discovering the truth behind what happened.Ginny Webster is a big city girl who doesn’t want to be recuperating in a sleepy little Alabama town, especially when her days and nights are repeatedly disturbed by strange dreams and events. Then there’re the woods out back that seem to call to her and the inexplicably dry patch of earth out under the old cypress tree. Pretty soon Ginny is immersed in a tragedy that has hung over the town of Homestead for forty years, but the story of where the pastor’s daughter was buried isn’t what anyone expects. Views: 710
Aliens have arrived, and they're going to kill most of us - but it's for our own good.(First 2 months of Robbie Taylor's 250 Word Project)Cal Minkowski is just a computer nerd at the Department of Justice until he encounters an alien at his friendly local game shop and invites her to game night at his place. Over the months that she plays with his group, her people negotiate the demise of 95% of the human population on Earth - so that they can bring the rest of humanity onto their level of evolution.Soon, Cal will take that next step in evolution, and ascend to a god-like state. But for now, he must struggle with being left behind, LB'd - an Elbie.ELBIES is the inaugural 250 Word Project, an attempt to create a novel in public, 250 words a day - and 250 words ONLY. Every two months, the story so far will be collected and sold for a buck - until the completion and release of the novel on August 14th of each year, when the collections will be taken offline and the full novel will be available for $3.99. Part 1 of each novel will be free for download so that readers can see how the story begins. Views: 710
"The fear froze across her back and chained her forehead in sweat."Naomi Zhu is a citizen of Maple Falls, a town where locking doors is considered optional. Then, at 1:46 PM on a typical summer's day, Broc Avery is murdered. Naomi's boyfriend is accused of manslaughter. To free him, Naomi must break-free of her sheltered life and ride a whirlwind of love, danger, revenge, and bone-chilling fear."The ground rushed at her dying eyes. Although the fall itself wouldn’t kill her, the killer opening the door most certainly would..."Meet Naomi Zhu, citizen of sparsely-inhabited Maple Falls. In the last ten years, the biggest crime to hit Maple Falls was the theft of a hideous abstract art statue. Then abruptly, at 1:46 PM on an inconsequential summer day, Broc Avery is murdered. Al, Naomi's boyfriend, is accused of manslaughter. Naomi must break-free from her sheltered life and fight for the freedom of an innocent man. Along the way, she rides a whirlwind of love, danger, revenge, and bone-chilling fear. Views: 710
Once bullied to the brink of suicide, 16-year-old Adam Reaper discovers extraordinary powers within himself. Will he use these gifts to save the world from impending doom or to take vengeance upon his enemies?Once bullied to the brink of suicide, 16 year-old Adam Reaper discovers extraordinary powers within himself. As the ungovernable changes within unleash a burning hatred for all who once wronged him, Adam is faced with choosing between using his gifts to save the world from impending doom or to take vengeance against his enemies. For a time, Monica, the love of Adam’s life, is able to keep the newfound darkness in his heart at bay, but tragedy strikes when Adam’s older brother, PJ, is murdered after insidious forces give rise to a formidable domestic terror cell known as The Strangers. As he pursues his brother’s killers, Adam and his friends, Howie and Ace, find themselves thrust into an unthinkable conflict that could ultimately lead to the destruction of the world. As Adam storms farther away from Monica and deeper down the dark path of revenge, the edges of his own darkness begin to fade once again. Daring, complex, and unforgettable, this unique take on the Hero’s Journey delivers a perfect blend of captivating action and suspense. Views: 710
