A short haunting tale by Vincent Bivona and Trevor Firetog.Andrew and James are looking forward to meeting their favorite author, but when a homeless woman, who claims to be the author’s “biggest fan,” begins to stalk the two friends, they have to wonder if this creepy old woman is who she appears to be, and why the sound of bells follows her wherever she goes.Middle school wannabe baseball hero, Tommy Velasco, gets more help than he expects from a mysterious two-headed coin. He discovers that bad pennies keep coming back, however much you want to get rid of them. When he passes the problem on to the class queen bee, things get even more out of control, with possibly lethal consequences.Book 5, "Time Before Color TV" series Views: 472
Peter has commandeered the Mars Explorer and Earthrise is about to make a fiery plunge into Mars’s atmosphere. What began as an holiday out of this world ends above an alien world.All boys enjoy wandering through the woods or fields.They are attracted to ponds and streams, where there is a whole world of fascinating creatures. This piece is just a short poem about such an encounter between a young boy and . . . a dragonfly. See if perhaps you can relate to your own childhood as you think about some of your own experiences with nature. This is a fun little poem that can be used at school, camp, or a quiet evening at home. Share it with your child and see what ideas he might suggest about such a meeting. Who is more curious -- the boy . . . or the dragonfly? Views: 472
When a rising country star is found dead in the Missouri Ozarks, sheriff's detective Katrina "Hurricane" Williams must confront the possibility that the man she loves is involved... Called to investigate the theft of valuable timber, Katrina finds the dead body of young singer Sharon Rose lying in the snow, shot execution style. When Sheriff Billy Blevins arrives at the crime scene, his strong reaction to seeing the victim is as baffling as a pretty corpse surrounded by tree stumps ... Until Katrina learns that Billy was involved with Rose. The sheriff's refusal to confide in her, coupled with his erratic behavior, not only puts a strain on their already complicated relationship, it hobbles her homicide investigation. With Billy going rogue, Katrina can't rely on anyone but herself. Secrets and suspects abound, even in the singer's own family, and the key to the murder may lie in the lyrics of what is now her swan song ... Praise... Views: 472
A middle-aged man's repressed childhood memories suddenly return.The world's #1 Big-Data Detective returns in yet another extremely unlikely, if not impossible adventure. This time the wrong things are happening at the wrong times in the wrong places while pasts and futures hang in the balance. Part Freakonomics, part Sherlock Holmes, part Doctor Who, part somewhere on the spectrum and 100% completely absurd, The Outlier series continues with "The Outlier #3, Lost Souls, another Dillon Sharif Tall Tale. Views: 472
Out of the ashes of evil Chris and Cathy made such a loving home for their splendid children...
Fourteen-year-old Jory was so handsome, so gentle. And Bart had such a dazzling imagination for a nine year old.
Then the lights came on in the abandoned house next door. Soon the Old Lady in Black was there, watching their home with prying eyes, guarded by her strange old butler. Soon the shrouded woman had Bart over for cookies and ice cream and asked him to call her "Grandmother."
And soon Bart's transformation began...
A transformation that sprang from "the book of secrets" the gaunt old butler had given him... a transformation fed by the hint of terrible things about his mother and father... a transformation that led him into shocking acts of violence, self-destruction and perversity.
And now while this little boy trembles on the edge of madness, his anguished parents, his helpless brother, an obsessed old woman and the vengeful, powerful butler await the climax to a horror that flowered in an attic long ago, a horror whose thorns are still wet with blood, still tipped with fire.... Views: 472
It is the 6th century of the common era. The vampire Saint-Germain, known in this time as Sangi-Ragozh, is peacefully doing business in Asia when, unknown to him-or anyone else in most of the world-Krakatoa explodes in a massive volcanic eruption. The island is nearly completely destroyed; tidal waves swamp harbors hundreds of miles away, ravaging trade ships and their cargoes; tons of ash and dirt are flung into the air. In the months to come, the world grows colder and darker as the massive cloud of dust and ash spreads across the globe, blocking sunlight. Sea trade is ravaged. Crops fail. Livestock, and then people, begin to starve. Disease spreads. Panic rises. What has caused the sun to go dark? With his scientific bent, Sangi-Ragozh suspects a natural cause, but most people assume a supernatural explanation-and begin to seek supernatural remedies. As always in times of trouble, foreigners-and the vampire is always a foreigner, wherever he travels-become targets. Fleeing toward the West, where he hopes to find safety and sanity, the vampire travels with a nomadic tribe led by Dukkai, a female shaman who soon becomes Sangi-Ragozh\'s lover-and main source of sustenance. But Sangi-Ragozh\'s problems are far from over. His vampire nature is discovered by an enemy; he is separated from Dukkai and begins to starve; he has lost everything, including his last sack of his native soil. With death no longer a distant possibility, Sangi-Ragozh desperately tries to reach sanctuary in the one place he truly belongs-his homeland, the country he first left centuries earlier. A land we now call Transylvania. Views: 471
Something strange is going on at this corporation. Secret encrypted pathways connect to drives that shouldn't exist, to systems that defy location, and even to entire alternate Internets filled with news, information, and conversations that reference historical and cultural events that never happened. One timid and tucked-away off-hours network manager is faced with uncovering a horrifying truth.Something strange is going on at this corporation - the organization's network extends much further than it should. Secret encrypted pathways connect to drives that shouldn't exist, to systems that defy location, and even to entire alternate Internets filled with news, information, and conversations that reference historical and cultural events that never happened. The off-hours network manager, a glorified button pusher by his own admission, has nothing to do all night except browse the Internet. His own curiosity and desire to help lead him through a slow process of discovery; not only do these other networks and Internets really exist, they're being used by real people… living and breathing people in desperate need of help. It seems that something is happening on a grand scale out there - something horrible- and a great many scattered individuals have been left to face it alone… …until now. Can one timid and tucked-away off-hours network manager even manage a sliver of aid against the coming darkness? Or will his efforts to help these lonely guardians only bring him the same doom? Views: 471
A short story from the companion novella, 5 Perfect Days. The year is 2048 and 15 year-old, Gabriel, is one warning away from being taken to a Retraining Center and forced into a 30-Day program.King Arthur and Sid the dwarf from The Crying Pennant appear in the time backwater (they even have a Time War.) Experts are needed to stop the whole of time collapsing, however only Sid and Arthur are available.(Didn't I just say that?) Views: 471
When Rafe Serrano Beltran finally has the chance for revenge against John Ransom, the legendary "Hawk of the High Seas," he seizes it, agreeing to kidnap Ransom's only daughter. How could he have known she was blind? Or beautiful? Or clever enough to find the pair of manacles hidden in his stateroom, the pair without a key? Or that once accidentally chained to her side, he might not want to leave?"Wounded souls, passionate romance and swashbuckling adventure combine to make a remarkable love story."-- Kelley Hartsell, CK's Kwips and KritiquesWhen Kitty Ransom, daughter one of the most celebrated captains in the English Royal Navy, is abducted by pirates, she finds herself an unwitting pawn in a seafaring game of cat-and-mouse.When Rafe Serrano Beltran finally has the chance to seek revenge against John Ransom, the legendary "Hawk of the High Seas," he seizes it. A physician by trade, and unwilling pirate by honor bound, he agrees to kidnap Ransom's only daughter. How could he have known she was blind? Or beautiful? Or clever enough to find the pair of manacles hidden in his shipboard stateroom -- the pair without a key? Or that once inadvertently chained to her side, he might not want to leave? Views: 471
Charlie Gale heads east to join a Celtic band on the summer circuit, but faces Aunt Catherine instead. An offshore oil-drilling company hired Catherine to steal Selkies' sealskins. Charlie must teach being Wild to Jack - a Dragon Prince trying to be a real boy - and commit corporate espionage with a sobbing seal-wife and every fiddle player in Nova Scotia. Views: 470
Maria Isabella Boyd's success as a Confederate spy has made her too famous for further espionage work, and now her employment options are slim. Exiled, widowed, and on the brink of poverty...she reluctantly goes to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago.Adding insult to injury, her first big assignment is commissioned by the Union Army. In short, a federally sponsored transport dirigible is being violently pursued across the Rockies and Uncle Sam isn't pleased. The Clementine is carrying a top secret load of military essentials--essentials which must be delivered to Louisville, Kentucky, without delay.Intelligence suggests that the unrelenting pursuer is a runaway slave who's been wanted by authorities on both sides of the Mason-Dixon for fifteen years. In that time, Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey has felonied his way back and forth across the continent, leaving a trail of broken banks, stolen war machines, and illegally distributed weaponry from sea to shining sea.And now it s Maria's job to go get him.He's dangerous quarry and she's a dangerous woman, but when forces conspire against them both, they take a chance and form an alliance. She joins his crew, and he uses her connections. She follows his orders. He takes her advice.And somebody, somewhere, is going to rue the day he crossed either one of them. Views: 470
An epidemic that's turning humans into zombies has swept over the eastern United States and quite possibly the world, and Flex Sheridan doesn't like it one bit. Join Flex, his girlfriend Gem, British scientist Hemp Chatsworth, his foul-mouthed 6-year old niece Trina, and crossbow-wielding Charlie, as they use street smarts and technology to survive in this terrifying new world.An epidemic that's turning humans into zombies has swept over the eastern United States and quite possibly the world, and Flex Sheridan doesn't like it one bit. In an effort to save his younger sister, Flex re-connects with perhaps the strongest woman he knows - Gem Cardoza, his former girlfriend. Together they take his six-year-old niece Trina, the only uninfected survivor of his sister's famiy, and his infected sister Jamie, and make a run from central Florida back to his isolated home in Lula, Georgia.As they head north, they encounter another uninfected, Hemphill "Hemp" Chatsworth. A naturalized U.S. citizen, Hemp is British, and extremely smart. He holds multiple degrees, most significantly in Epidemiology and Mechanical Engineering, both of which this group will need in this terrifying new world.Along with the crossbow-wielding Charlene "Charlie" Sanders and a pregnant Great Pyrenees, this small group uses street smarts, book smarts, and technology to defend against the new "Abnormals" that walk the earth. But Hemp is also compelled to learn how they got this way, and if possible, how to reverse the condition and save Flex's sister.So grab your machine gun and take a ride in their fortified vehicles and mobile lab; you're going to want these people on your side when the Dead Hunger . . . Views: 470
