Stanley Thomas Ian Nigel Kevin Smith, otherwise known as STINKS, is in trouble. Big trouble. He's lost his football sock. And if he doesn't get it back, Mum won't let him go to football practice. So he goes on a hunt which involves friends, conkers, bullies, head masters, cows, rats and dinosaurs. And does he get his sock back? You'll have to read the story and find out for yourself!What happens when love turns toxic? Sam and Sandy had the best of starts. Most of their friends still think they’re perfect for each other. But behind the public façade lurks a skeleton in the closet: one of them is emotionally abusing the other, making their partner live in constant fear and guilt. Which one, and why does the other stay? Told from the author’s personal experience of a controlling relationship, ‘A Toxic Affair’ examines the ins and outs of emotional abuse and how something as innocent as young love can swiftly become something more sinister. Views: 408
Includes three flash fictions authored by Josh Thor, "Stewing Hot Car," "The Rescue," and "Hero of the Wood." Genres range from modern realism (the first two) to fantasy (Hero of the Wood)."A Compilation" is simply a compilation of three flash/micro fiction stories by Josh Thor.The first flash fiction, "Stewing Hot Car," is modern realism. It deals with a married couple in Alabama, Jack and his wife Dianne, who just can't seem to communicate to their respective spouse how they're feeling.The second story, a micro fiction, is named "The Rescue" and it is also modern realism. This piece takes the form of an excerpt from the autobiography of a protagonist who was held captive for a year. He explains in his autobiography his contempt for his rescuers and those that cannot understand his contempt.The third piece, "Hero of the Wood," is fantasy, and is a reimagining of Lewis Carroll's "The Jabberwocky" into prose form. Our protagonist is the young man noted in Carroll's original to have slain the Jabberwocky with the vorpal sword. Reading the original very short poem would be beneficial to anyone wanting to read Josh Thor's story, "Hero of the Wood." Views: 406
For four university students, it was all about fun. They had a week's holiday away from their studies and they intended to get completely wasted on the Suffolk coast. But when they drove though the Cambridgeshire Fenlands, things turned nasty. That was when they drove into the worst nightmare imaginable. An horror that no young people should have to endure.For four university students, it was all about fun. They had a week's holiday away from their studies and they intended to get completely wasted on the Suffolk coast. But when they drove though the Cambridgeshire Fenlands, things turned nasty.That was when they drove into the worst nightmare imaginable. An horror that no young people should have to endure.What began as a fun weekend soon becomes a fight for survival!Sudden Death is a novelette that will grip you from the start to the finish. Pray it never happens to you. Views: 406
"Father Sergius" (Russian: Отец Сергий, translit. Otets Sergiy) is a story written by Leo Tolstoy between 1890 and 1898 and first published (posthumously) in 1911.
For some weeks Father Sergius had been living with one persistent thought: whether he was right in accepting the position in which he had not so much placed himself as been placed by the Archimandrite and the Abbot. That position had begun after the recovery of the fourteen-year-old boy. From that time, with each month, week, and day that passed, Sergius felt his own inner life wasting away and being replaced by external life. Views: 405
For centuries, small towns were the hub of family life. Generation after generation stayed close to their roots. Friends and neighbors were for a lifetime. A life with good neighbors and great friends is better than wealth. This is a story of a town that was strong. It is one of many that know the value of Community.For centuries, small towns were the hub of family life. Generation after generation stayed close to their roots. Friends and neighbors were for a lifetime. As jobs and money moved into the big city many people followed. During economic slumps, businesses often folded. More people moved away and the breakdown continued. But some held on, supporting one another and refusing to give up. They know that a life with good neighbors and great friends is better than wealth. This is a story of a town that was strong. It is one of many that know the value of Community. Views: 405
(1977.Ace)The Isolation Station and Preserve on Antares IV had only one prisoner, a three-foot-tall gnome-like biped with skin like creased leather and eyes like great glass globes. His hair was silky white and reached down to his shoulders, and he usually went about the great natural park naked.The gnome was very old, but no one had yet determined quite how old. And there seemed no way to find out. The gnome had never volunteered any information about his past. In the one hundred years of his imprisonment he had never asked the caretaker for anything.The small staff of Earthmen and humanoids generally avoided him. Sometimes they would watch his small figure standing looking up at the giant disk of Antares hanging blood red on the horizon, and they would wonder what he was thinking.The most important fact about the alien was that sometime in the remote past he had been responsible for the construction of the solar system and the emergence of intelligent life on earth.—From Heathen God, only one of the fascinating stories in this outstanding collection Views: 405
Kate Gray takes an unblinking look at bullying in her debut novel, Carry the Sky. It's 1983 at an elite Delaware boarding school. Taylor Alta, the new rowing coach, arrives reeling from the death of the woman she loved. Physics teacher Jack Song, the only Asian American on campus, struggles with his personal code of honor when he gets too close to a student. These two young, lonely teachers narrate the story of a strange and brilliant thirteen-year-old boy who draws atomic mushroom clouds on his notebook, pings through the corridors like a pinball, and develops a crush on an older girl with secrets of her own. Carry the Sky sings a brave and honest anthem about what it means to be different in a world of uniformity. Views: 405
Jace has one last week of work with elder twin brothers, paroled thieves, both total jerks. On arrival at the eerie locale of their final contract, a crippled young girl warns him off Grey Manor. But a cameo is lost inside and it's two million reasons too tempting for his greedy brothers. Jace must keep them out or face the malevolent Lady Grey who never permits a guest to leave.After three trying months, Jace must get through one last week of work with elder twin brothers, both on parole for burglary, both total jerks. And then he's free of the family who've held him down for seventeen years. On arrival at the eerie locale of their final contract, a young girl with a crippled body warns him off Grey Manor, insisting no-one enter the abandoned mansion. But a lost cameo worth two million dollars is hidden inside and Jace faces the impossible task of keeping his greedy brothers out. When he witnesses a grisly death at the hands of the supposedly missing Lady Grey, Jace learns the girl's words are not easily dismissed, forced to unravel the mystery before it unravels him. Leaving has never been harder and the only one with answers is a comatose girl trapped by an entity whose vengeance knows no bounds. (Short Story) Views: 404
Quicksilver is the story of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and conflicted Puritan, pursuing knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe, in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.
It is a chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of "Half-Cocked Jack" Shaftoe -- London street urchin turned swashbuckling adventurer and legendary King of the Vagabonds -- risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox.
And it is the tale of Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent Europe through the newborn power of finance.
A gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive novel that brings a remarkable age and its momentous events to vivid life, Quicksilver is an extraordinary achievement from one of the most original and important literary talents of our time.
And it's just the beginning ... Views: 404
In print for fifty years, this gem of lyric prose has enchanted both young and old from its very first edition.Dylan Thomas, one of the greatest poets and storytellers of the twentieth century, captures a child's-eye view, and an adult's fond memories, of a magical time of presents, aunts and uncles, the frozen sea, and in the best of circumstances, newly fallen snow. Views: 403
Before the world of Facebook, Chat Rooms & Blogs, there were online communities called Bulletin Boards… Beth Lynn, devoted teacher, has terrible luck with men. That is until The Keeper enters her life through the most unlikely of places – her computer. He saves her from a humiliating moment & begins his pursuit of her. There’s only one problem, Beth has an admirer who isn’t willing to let her go.**The entire novel, Phoenix of the Heart, is now available eBook and paperback.**in Before the world of Facebook, Chat Rooms and Blogs, there were online communities called Bulletin Boards…Beth Lynn, devoted teacher and animal lover, has terrible luck with men. That is until Scott Reiner, also known as The Keeper, enters her life through the most unlikely of places – her computer. Scott saves her from a humiliating moment and begins his pursuit of her. There’s only one problem, Beth has an admirer who isn’t willing to let her go.* Beth’s journey begins with the two lovers finding each other. Obstacles lie ahead for the young couple and a tragic event stands at the end that will change the course of Beth’s life forever. For you see, she is a Phoenix ~ her future requires the flame. Views: 403
The illustrious life of a wealthy couple is shattered.THE THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT ARE REAL.Kamlyn Paige is a young woman who has suffered great loss in her life. At nineteen, when she was seven months pregnant, her parents were in a fatal car accident. And at twenty-four, when her son was only five years old, he was murdered before her eyes by a cloaked figure in the middle of the night. It takes everything she has to hold on after the devastation.But when a mysterious neighbor sees her weeping on the sidewalk, he picks her up and introduces her to a new world. She goes with him to the Chamber of Darkness, an underground society, where she learns to fight evil beings and creatures as a Huntsman. The sole motivation to complete her training is getting revenge on the demon that killed her little boy. But while she's there, she realizes there are other beings that threaten the way of life on Earth. Prophetic dreams reveal there is a mysterious traitor in the Chamber's headquarters and he's trying to get his hands on a goblet that will open the portal to the demon world, unleashing them all on the humans.Will she be able to figure out who the traitor is in time to stop them from destroying the human race? With the help of her new friends and fellow Huntsmen, they may stand a chance at saving the world from a massive possession of epic proportions. Views: 403
Does Connor and Jacob have what it takes, to survive this Hellish nightmare, or will they become part of the missing?Getting kicked off of their military squad, Connor Pierce, and Jacob Winthrop decide to take matters into their own hands, and investigate the old saw mill, involving the Missing Persons Case file 967JD. Little do they know, bad luck begins to brew for them, leaving them fighting for survival. With evil lurking inside, these two Ex-military troops look to find any, and all possible clues that will help them uncover the truth about the saw mill, and the travesties that have happened there. Their fight to stay alive could prove costly, if one wrong move is made. Does Connor and Jacob have what it takes, or will they become part of the missing? Views: 403
What if you came back from the dead,came back to life.What would you do?What really makes one human, is it a fact of birth, the right of passage that is growing up, is it societies' influence on young impressionable minds, or is it something else? Is Humanity and all that goes with it in fact programmed into our DNA?These are questions that have plagued Shiva all her life. For most people, for Normal people, these are questions with easy answers, after all they were born human, raised human, and have always been 'Human'. But Shiva is not 'Normal', she might not in fact be 'Human'. She is or perhaps was a Weapon, she was created as a weapon, trained to be a weapon, and she sees the world as a weapon. But all that changes one day when she meets a girl and for the very first time, she feels something that defies all logic and all reason. Can a weapon fall in love, or this something reserved only for those who are humans?But there are those in her world who have never doubted these answers, to them she is a powerful tool created for a war not yet fought, and they cannot allow that tool to slip from their grasp. So from the shadows they strike at the very thing that threatens to take that weapon from their grasp, that person who might be the key to unlocking the heart within the weapon. Views: 403
