Marvin Battles is the corporate big-shot and Scrooge. In a chance encounter with a panhandler, Joe Skives, his former boss fired for bribery and other crimes, Marvin’s bad holiday attitude gets turned on its head.A Christmas story that takes on the Corporate Monster and our ideas of true Christmas Spirit.Marvin Battles has lived a rough life but now finds himself at the top of the corporate ladder. It’s Christmas, and he is not merry with the season, a real Scrooge to say the least.In a chance encounter with a panhandler, Joe Skives, his former boss fired for bribery and other crimes, Marvin’s bad holiday attitude is turned on its head.The story ends in a real David and Goliath story as Marvin takes on the corporate monster in a real Christmas ending. Views: 575
Harry and his brother, Alex, are dying to fit in at Camp Spirit Moon. But the camp has so many weird traditions. Like the goofy camp salute. The odd camp greeting. And the way the old campers love to play jokes on the new campers.Then the jokes start to get really serious. Really creepy. Really scary.First a girl sticks her arm in the campfire. Then a boy jams a pole right through his foot.Still, they're just jokes...aren't they? Views: 575
Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks. “Alden Bell provides an astonishing twist on the southern gothic: like Flannery O'Connor with zombies.” ―Michael Gruber, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Air and Shadows Views: 575
A diseased town—long hidden beneath a lake—rises from the depths to become a focus of the war between humankind and the Kin.There exists a secret and highly illegal trade in mythological creatures and their artifacts. Certain individuals pay fortunes for a sliver of a satyr's hoof, a gryphon's claw, a basilisk's scale, or an angel's wing. Embroiled in the hidden world of the Relics, creatures known as the Kin, Angela Gough is now on the run in the United States. Forty years ago the town of Longford was the site of a deadly disease outbreak that wiped out the entire population. The infection was contained, the town isolated, and the valley in which it sits flooded and turned into a reservoir. The truth—that the outbreak was intentional, and not every resident of Longford died—disappeared beneath the waves.Now the town is revealed again. The Kin have an interest in the ruins, and soon the fairy Grace and the Nephilim leader Mallian... Views: 575
A romance between a castle servant girl in the 1430s and the page of a visiting bishop falls foul of social conventions, while one in the family of present-day occupants is imperilled by misunderstandings. Both are linked by a portrait of the girl that has somehow survived the intervening centuries and seems connected with the resolution of both difficulties.John Randall brings his friend Anne to visit his parents’ home, the small castle of Ernscar in northern England. Anne is fascinated by a mediaeval portrait in her room, believed to represent Alison Miller, daughter of the castle Fool in the fifteenth century, and on subsequent visits sees in it signs of anxiety reflecting Anne’s own concerns about the direction of her relationship with John.In the 1430s Alison forms an attachment to Nicholas, page to the then Lord Robert Ernscar’s friend Bishop Justin, who visits occasionally for conferences about their response to political problems under Henry VI. Justin and Robert are kindly disposed towards the couple, but like Alison’s own family recognise that the difference in social status seems to preclude their union. However, a scheme to resolve a particular problem of Justin’s requires that Nicholas be quickly married, and the difficulties are overcome by formal adoption of the youngsters into their respective patrons’ families.During a sleepless night Anne, worrying about the lack of the progress with John that she had been reluctant to urge on him for fear of rejection, resolves to force the issue one way or the other the next day. He then admits having been in exactly the same quandary which is thus resolved. After purchasing an engagement ring they visit an early church of architectural interest where they find records suggesting a happy outcome for the marriage of Alison and Nicholas. Views: 575
On an evening in late summer, the great financier Harry Wainwright, nearing the end of his life, arrives at a rustic fishing camp in a remote area of Maine. He comes bearing two things: his wish for a day of fishing in a place that has brought him solace for thirty years, and an astonishing bequest that will forever change the lives of those around him.
From the battlefields of Italy to the turbulence of the Vietnam era, to the private battles of love and family, The Summer Guest reveals the full history of this final pilgrimage and its meaning for four people: Jordan Patterson, the haunted young man who will guide Harry on his last voyage out; the camp’s owner Joe Crosby, a Vietnam draft evader who has spent a lifetime “trying to learn what it means to be brave”; Joe’s wife, Lucy, the woman Harry has loved for three decades; and Joe and Lucy’s daughter Kate—the spirited young woman who holds the key to the last unopened door to the past.
As their stories unfold, secrets are revealed, courage is tested, and the bonds of love are strengthened. And always center stage is the place itself—a magical, forgotten corner of New England where the longings of the human heart are mirrored in the wild beauty of the landscape. Views: 575
A solitary Captain & his AI ship roam the depths of space charting new places and meeting new life forms.In a deadly game where chance counts has his luck finally run out?Angelina Marsh can find nothing in her life to inspire her. She cares little for her school work, and does not take any interest in the things most that girls her age do. Then she meets a strange-looking man in the town centre selling magazines to passers-by, and her perspective on life takes an unexpected turn. But can this man really be who he says he is, and if so, what does this mean for Angelina and the world she takes such a bleak view of? Only an open mind will allow her to find the answer. Views: 574
Prince Kristian's army was annihilated and his attempt to free his betrothed, Allisia, was a complete failure. Through his mistakes, King Kristian now understands what true honor means and what he must do to make amends.Can Kristian truly learn from the past and earn back the trust of those he needs to lead? Will Allisia ever escape Ferral?Prince Kristian's army was annihilated and his attempt to free his betrothed, Allisia, was a complete failure. Through his mistakes, King Kristian now understands what true honor means and what he must do to make amends.But the sorcerer-king, Ferral, still controls the demon and a vast army of the dead. It would seem that no one is left to challenge the evil man -- a power-hungry religious fanatic whose plans to subvert the Erinian continent are closer to becoming reality.Will Kristian be able to raise a new army when the only kingdoms with soldiers left have been at war with each other for one thousand years? Can Kristian truly learn from the past and earn back the trust of those he needs to lead? Will Allisia ever escape Ferral?Only with the help of Mikhal, the cavalier sworn to protect his king despite his anger and haunting dreams of the demon, and Cairn, the mysterious swordsman seeking revenge for the death of his love, can King Kristian hope to survive and get another chance at saving Allisia ... and defeating Ferral. Follow the continued epic fantasy adventure in Ferral's Deathmarch Army, Book Two of the Erinia Saga. Views: 574
One year after the fated outbreak of zombies in New York, the dreaded disease has reappeared. This time the zombies are too much for the military to defend and the United States is lost. After losing her entire family to the zombies, a young woman named Dany must seek shelter on her own. The journey, though hard, is not impossible because of one thing. Dany is immune to becoming a zombie.Sarah Amalfi and her best friend Samantha are headed to Tijuana looking for some summer fun after their high school graduation... but there’s something far more sinister looming over this road trip than an innocent shopping trip at Tijuana’s famous market place… Warnings from strangers, a vicious attack by a shadowy assailant, a charismatic stranger named Will…What do they want with Sarah?Sarah is forced to consider that there was nothing chance about her meeting with Will, but how can she accept the fantastic possibilities that Will presents to her? A hidden realm within our own, governed by cryptic magic, ancient alliances, demons… and passion beyond her understandingThe truth comes hard and fast in this riveting prequel to the romantic supernatural awakening of Gathering Storm! Views: 574
The Giving of Things Cold & Cursed is a haunting tale by critically-acclaimed horror author, Terry M. West. Baker Johnson is a flawed parapsychologist in the year 1925. After the death of Richard Johnson, Baker inherits his uncle's estate and moves into the legendary psychical researcher's home."[The Giving of Things Cold & Cursed is] beautifully written, superbly edited and trying to explain the incredible depth of aesthetic in this particular short is like trying to explain the virtues of a well aged Scotch vs moonshine."-Heather Omen, The Horror NationThe Giving of Things Cold & Cursed is a haunting tale by critically-acclaimed horror author, Terry M. West. Baker Johnson is a flawed parapsychologist in the year 1925. After the death of Richard Johnson, Baker inherits his uncle's estate and moves into the legendary psychical researcher's home. But he soon discovers that the Black Room of the property, the place where haunted items are safely contained, has been emptied. Views: 574
Harlan Ellison's masterwork of myth and terror as he seduces all innocence on a mind-freezing odyssey into the darkest reaches of mortal terror and the most dazzling heights of Olympian hell in his finest collection.
Deathbird Stories is a collection of 19 of Harlan Ellison's best stories, including Edgar and Hugo winners, originally published between 1960 and 1974. The collection contains some of Ellison's best stories from earlier collections and is judged by some to be his most consistently high quality collection of short fiction. The theme of the collection can be loosely defined as God, or Gods. Sometimes they're dead or dying, some of them are as brand-new as today's technology. Unlike some of Ellison's collections, the introductory notes to each story can be as short as a phrase and rarely run more than a sentence or two. One story took a Locus Poll Award, the two final ones both garnered Hugo Awards and Locus Poll awards, and the final one also received a Jupiter Award from the Instructors of Science Fiction in Higher Education (discontinued in 1979). When the collection was published in Britain, it won the 1979 British Science Fiction Award for Short Fiction.
His stories will rivet you to the floor and change your heartbeat...as unforgettable a chamber of horror, fantasy and reality as you'll ever experience.
-Gallery
"Brutally and flamboyantly shocking, frequently brilliant, and always irresistibly mesmerizing."
-Richmond Times-Dispatch Views: 574
