Bert struggles with the recent loss of his wife Mira. On the morning of his first day back to work, he discovers that the salt in an ordinary salt shaker Mira stole on their honeymoon contains her memories of their time together.Bert struggles with the recent loss of his wife Mira. On the morning of his first day back to work, he discovers that the salt in an ordinary salt shaker Mira stole on their honeymoon contains her memories of their time together. “The Memory of a Salt Shaker” first appeared November 2011 in issue 15 of Up The Staircase Quarterly and was nominated for the 2012 Million Writers Award.Cover designed by Sabine KraussPhoto by Robyn Oliver Views: 360
Eaglethorpe Buxton, famed adventurer and story-teller is back, this time to put on a play about a sorceress. When the sorceress, subject of his play arrives with fire in her eyes, Eaglethorpe must pretend to be his good friend Ellwood. Will he pull off this charade and survive? And what happens when the real Ellwood shows up? One can never tell, especially when Eaglethorpe tells the story.***READERS’ FAVORITE AWARD WINNER***The Mortal Instruments meets Supernatural. Sixteen-year-old Kara Nightingale is unpopular, awkward and positively ordinary—that is until one day she is struck by a bus and dies...Within moments her life changes from ordinary to extraordinary as she wakes up in a mysterious world with a new career—as a rookie for the Guardian Angel Legion. Kara is pulled into the supernatural where monkeys drive the elevators, oracles scurry above giant crystal balls and where demons feed on the souls of mortals. When an Elemental child is kidnapped, Kara is sent on a danger-filled quest and plunges into a situation more dangerous and deadly than anything she could ever imagine. Don't miss this thrilling, action-packed fantasy adventure and first of the Soul Guardians series. Discover the world of Soul Guardians:Marked, Book # 1Elemental, Book # 2 Horizon, Book # 3 Netherworld, Book # 4 Seirs Book, # 5 Mortal Book, # 6 Reapers Book # 7 Seals Book # 8 Views: 360
He's one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy... so why can't she keep her hands off him?A junior nurse aboard the Combined Fleet Ship Valkyrie, Samara's days are usually filled with minor bumps and scraps and the occasional health or workspace check. But when a dangerous prisoner is transferred aboard, she finds herself on brig duty. Dealing with the big, lethal looking military grade cyborg should be terrifying, but one look into his green eyes and she can't think of anything other than what his big, hard body would look like under the grey ship suit...She's small, soft and fragile... he should keep his hands to himself and forget her. Captured and en route to a medical facility for dissection and study, cyborg Lyon expects nothing but pain and degradation from his captors. But Samara isn't like the others, treating his wounds with care and igniting a fire deep within.... Views: 360
She wants her boss, so she leaves. He wants her, so he follows. Negotiating for her time, he manages a date, and she begins dodging the alpha. Fate will have to take steps.
Nora was an excellent administrative assistant until the day a business associate of her boss made an aggressive pass. She tells her boss, and he tells her to thicken her skin, having heard the other male’s version of the event. She can toughen up or quit. She chooses the option that will stop the pain of the dismissal.
Sabin is shocked when he finds out she is leaving, and he’s devastated when he learns that it is her last day. He had enjoyed having her next to him, breathing in her scent all day every day and spent many hours trying to find a way around the whole employee-employer thing, but now, it was solved for him. A frantic kiss tells him what she tastes like at long last, and now, he has to find a way to get her back to his side.
Nora ends up in a situation where she smells like a hot omega and is at a party full of alphas. Sabin is there and offers his help for the bargain price of one night.
That night spins into events that will echo through their lives, and defying families, a curse, and stalkers, they make their way to a family future. Views: 360
Between 1975 and 1978, Larry 'Pigface' Travers terrorised Camp Diamond Creek, killing more than a hundred horny, stoned teens, hacking them to death with his axe (the machete was already taken by some hockey guy over in New Jersey), and making a general nuisance of himself. Life couldn't have been better for a psycho slasher. But in '78, after being outwitted by that year's 'final girl', Pigface found himself trapped (and a little bit on fire). Presumed dead, Larry Travers disappeared, but his legend lived on. It's 2014. Now living in the woods with his overbearing - and slightly antique - mother, Larry's old enough to play bingo and enjoy jigsaw puzzles without feeling guilty. But the urge to kill has returned, and Larry thinks he still has what it takes to be a homicidal lunatic. Pigface is back. Trouble is, he's not as young as he used to be... Views: 360
Skelmersdale has always been a testing ground for pilot schemes.Nathaniel Myra innocently visits to investigate how the latest trial is going, but discovers that all is not as it seems in the quiet, dull town...The holidays can be overwhelming for anyone, but Zoey is ready to explode when Maurice, her closet-monster roommate, takes celebrations to the extreme. When Zoey ducks out for a little fresh air, she finds a boy with a big problem -- a problem only a mythical creature can have and only Zoey can solve.This story also appears in the short story collection, Transmonstrified.Hidden Holidays takes place between Monster Haven book two, Pooka in My Pantry, and book three, Fairies in My Fireplace. Views: 360
Nobody alive knew how the feud between Storn and Hammefell had begun, but that didn't stop the fighting. When Storn's men burned Hammerfell's castle, his infant twin sons were separated, and each grew up thinking himself the rightful Duke of Hammerfell. Conn, raised in the mountains by his father's paxman, continued to fight the Storns. Alastair grew up with his mother in Thendara and planned to marry his cousin Floria. But when Conn came to Thendara to seek King Aiden's help and the twins encountered each other, it changed all their lives. Views: 360
Adventure Seekers, Young and Old, Join Toby, Small, but Bold ...He was born underground, at the edge of the world’s destruction. Twelve years old, Toby has never seen the sun. Created by six scientists who accidentally gave him cat ears (and a tail), Toby decides to leave the safety of his cavern world to seek answers. Did anyone survive the Great Destruction?Adventure Seekers, Young and Old, Join Toby, Small, but Bold ...He was born underground, at the edge of the world’s destruction. Twelve years old, Toby has never seen the sun. Created by six scientists who accidentally gave him cat ears (and a tail), Toby decides to leave the safety of his cavern world to seek answers. Did anyone survive the Great Destruction? Why has he been hearing a mysterious Voice? And, most important of all, does he have a soul?“It has a strong message about God and how no matter how you look God loves you anyway.” S. Cu’Anam Policar“This book was heart-warming, full of beautiful prose, unexpected poetry, and lovable characters.” Joshua Allen Mercier, The Bearded Scribe“Toby is a really good role model for lots of people as he shows that you can do anything, if you trust in the right life mapmaker.” Em, Age 14 Views: 360
In 2006, Robert Silverberg published In the Beginning, a generous selection of stories from the early, developmental stages of his distinguished sixty-year career. Fast-paced, energetic, and unabashedly pulp-like in their origins and ambitions, those stories proved to be an unexpected gift to Silverberg’s many readers. That gift continues with Early Days, a second volume of apprentice fiction as wide-ranging and enjoyable as the first.
Early Days collects seventeen impossible to find stories from the years 1956 to 1958, supplemented by a fascinating introduction and extensive notes on the creation and publication history of each story. Together, these non-fiction pieces constitute both an episodic memoir and an affectionate history of an era when pulp magazines still dominated the SF marketplace.
Without exception, each of the stories in Early Days offers honest, unpretentious entertainment. The astonishingly prolific Silverberg may have had a bit to learn back then, but he had an innate understanding of narrative that shines through every one of these tales. The stories range in tone from the grimly dystopian future of “The Inquisitor” to the playful “Space Is the Place,” in which a maintenance technician from Crawford IX experiences comic culture shock during a mandatory vacation on Earth. “Rescue Mission” revolves around the telepathic connection between two interplanetary intelligence agents. “Housemaid No. 103” provides a humorous glimpse into the romantic difficulties of a far future matinee idol. “Harwood’s Vortex” combines a mad scientist, alien invaders, and the possible end of life as we know it into a single colorful narrative.
Silverberg, of course, would evolve into one of the genuine masters of the genre, and this retrospective collection of early work offers invaluable insights into his development. Silverberg himself calls Early Days “an affectionate tribute to my hardworking self of more than half a century ago.” It is all of that and more. Anyone with an interest in Silverberg’s career, or in the history and evolution of modern science fiction, needs to read this book. They may not write ‘em like this anymore, but once upon a time they did. And looking back has never been so much fun. Views: 360
This time, beauty is the beast. And she wants prince charming dead. At eighteen, Keira is a formidable dragon hunter bent on finding her parents' killer—a forest dragon she once helped escape her mother's laboratory. Biggest mistake of her life. Now, Keira pours her thirst for revenge into her mother's life-long mission: figuring out what a forest dragon's poison is . . . so she can destroy the murderers for good. But Keira's plan begins to unravel when she takes on a life debt to a forest dragon in order to save her brother. Trapped behind enemy lines, Keira's assumptions about dragons are turned upside down, and she must confront the possibility that everything she knows about dragons is wrong. As she gets closer to discovering the forest dragon's poison, she must decide if the price of this knowledge is worth the sacrifice. In this not-quite fairy tale, what the "princess" needs most is a change of heart. But... Views: 359
'A disturbing descent into a surreal world, written with a deft hand.' Adrian Tchaikovsky, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2016South America, 1990. Ben Ronson, a British police officer, arrives in a mysterious forest to investigate a spate of killings of Duendes. These silent, vaguely humanoid creatures - with long limbs and black button eyes - have a strange psychic effect on people, unleashing the subconscious and exposing their innermost thoughts and fears. Ben becomes fascinated by the Duendes, but the closer he gets, the more he begins to unravel, with terrifying results...Beneath the World, A Sea is a tour de force of modern fiction - a deeply searching and unsettling novel about the human subconscious, and all that lies beneath. Views: 359
