Pirates, a fiery magical bunny, rastafari elves and two princesses in exile, plus a retired thief, an aspiring bard, and an awkward sorcerer alongside flying ships, off-worlders and dimensional portals.How do all these mix together? They usually don't but when they do, they tend to explode."Party of Five" is the first book in a series of fantasy novellas by the same name.This short story addresses the flight and hopes of a family facing great changes. Live safely and die free. Views: 422
This story is based on this "Little Willie" poem:Little Willie Feeling MeanFed his sister paris greenAs she lay in agonyWillie boy was full of glee.Willie's mother passed away and now his dad has remarried. Now Willie has a new sister. He hates her. How far will he go to show her how he feels?Finding Unauthorized Faith in Harry Potter approaches the remarkable series as a storybook guide to life’s deepest truths, offering inspiration about faith, friendship, courage, loyalty, love, and other wisdom of the Bible. Nicole L Rivera advises us to live like Christ and Harry Potter heroes. Views: 422
Great Pyramid, rival priests, romance with a harem (perhaps royal) woman, and jealous Queen prey on God-king Khufu. In parallel to Khufu’s labors, Mehi labors to absolve his family’s crime by self-sacrifice as a pyramid worker. The crime also burdens his love for An-khi, a governor’s daughter who aspires to be governor herself. Will Mehi save Khufu from his enemies, including Mehi’s own brother?Great Pyramid, jealous Queen, rival priests, ambitious princes and drought all prey on God-king Khufu. Frightfully, his most potent protector is a mere commoner, Mehi, the son of a tomb-robber.Khufu’s external trials are the nomad invasions and regicide attempts conspired by the priests, his gold treasury’s depletion he requires to perfect his pyramid, and his Queen’s sterility that extends into Khufu’s romance with Theormi, a harem woman. As a result, Theormi embarks on her own path to prove her royalty.Yet Khufu’s inner and ultimate battle is with his own kingship. While his desire for Theormi proves his humanity, Egypt’s people require his divinity. The God-king’s divine magic raises the annual Nile inundation, irrigates the ribbon of Egypt’s farmland, and feeds his people who would otherwise starve in the desert that creeps in on all sides. But when the Nile doesn’t rise in this year of the novel’s setting, Khufu searches for the magic in his body, apparently abandoned like love has abandoned him. Do the Gods disfavor him against protecting his people as they have in, or perhaps because of, his quest for human love? In parallel to Khufu’s labors, Mehi labors to absolve his family of its crime by self-sacrifice, physically and mentally, on the pyramid. The crime also burdens his love for An-khi, a governor’s daughter. In the course of the year, propelled by the Nile’s seasons of inundation, harvest and drought, Mehi’s brother enters as a rival for An-khi’s love. Meanwhile, she aspires to be governor herself. By year’s end, will Mehi save Khufu from his enemies, including Mehi’s brother? Views: 422
The Hillbilly Jungle: Part One"Wouldn't that be trading rednecks for rednecks?""Hillbillies, there's a difference. Let me explain..."Read the story of Helmut who was involved in an accident and only his eyes, ears and brain could be saved, and the tale of an extremely homely and self-conscious girl who is given a mask that transforms her into a ravishing woman. Explore the horrors of becoming totally disconnected from one’s world in a science experiment gone wrong, and the pain of discovering that leaving the city for the natural world does not always deliver its promise of peaceful redemption. A small collection of Kafkaesque short stories, they include 'Brain on a Platter', 'Dark Night of the Soul', 'The Mask' and 'This Wicked World' which were described by ForeWord Clarion Reviews as " ... creative, fascinating in content, eerie and dark in interesting ways, …" Views: 421
Shane and Fiona are cyborgs on Senate guard duty, which for them means terrifying the inhabitants of suburban Belfast into submission. He wishes the job hadn't been forced on him. For her, it couldn't come soon enough. Follow them on an ordinary night patrol, where something extraordinary might happen...This book is a collection of 3 short stories about outer space, aliens, astronauts, and robots. Each story using science fiction to teach a valuable life lesson. The protagonists include children, a hotshot astronaut, a weird looking alien, and a homemade robot. Views: 421
There were very few people upon Platform Number Twenty-one of Liverpool Street Station at a quarter to nine on the evening of April 2—possibly because the platform in question is one of the most remote and least used in the great terminus. The station-master, however, was there himself, with an inspector in attendance. A dark, thick-set man, wearing a long travelling ulster and a Homburg hat, and carrying in his hand a brown leather dressing-case, across which was painted in black letters the name MR. JOHN P. DUNSTER, was standing a few yards away, smoking a long cigar, and, to all appearance absorbed in studying the advertisements which decorated the grimy wall on the other side of the single track. Views: 421
Franz Kafka's letters to his one-time muse, Milena Jesenska - an intimate window into the desires and hopes of the twentieth-century's most prophetic and important writerKafka first made the acquaintance of Milena Jesenska in 1920 when she was translating his early short prose into Czech, and their relationship quickly developed into a deep attachment. Such was his feeling for her that Kafka showed her his diaries and, in doing so, laid bare his heart and his conscience. While at times Milena's 'genius for living' gave Kafka new life, it ultimately exhausted him, and their relationship was to last little over two years. In 1924 Kafka died in a sanatorium near Vienna, and Milena died in 1944 at the hands of the Nazis, leaving these letters as a moving record of their relationship. Views: 420
Generations struggle in the American frontier West. "Every ranch...had lost a boy," thinks Dakotah Hicks as she drives through "the hammered red landscape" of Wyoming, "boys smiling, sure in their risks, healthy, tipped out of the current of life by liquor and acceleration, rodeo smashups, bad horses, deep irrigation ditches, high trestles, tractor rollovers and 'unloaded' guns. Her boy, too...The trip along this road was a roll call of grief." Views: 420
The mental hospital was all Sarah had known for as long as she remembered. Her and the others were trapped but there were whispers of freedom in the infirmary. All she has to do is make it there. What would you do for freedom? Would you die?A collection of six short-short science fiction stories. Androids, advanced battle suits, murder, brain implants and a strange case of writers block, this collection of short-short stories has it all. Views: 420
All stories are true. To save those she cares about, the diminutive Emma will have to face an impossible monster. She will discover that also at stake is the fate of the entire world.All stories are true.Emma Wilkins is eleven years old and she lives on Belle Street.In the forests of Saint Martin, a great power has awakened. Whispers abound of a monster that lurks in the darkness as more and more of the city's residents go missing. Called by the song of a tree, the diminutive Emma finds herself face to face with the colossal Minotaur. Following a narrow escape, Emma discovers that she is the only one who has any chance to stop him.On her way to an impossible confrontation, Emma will learn that the crisis is greater than it seems, and that at stake are the fates of those she cares about the most, and that of the entire world. Views: 420
Animals, strange beasts, bureaucrats, businessmen, and nightmares populate this collection of stories by Franz Kafka. These matchless short works, all unpublished during Kafka’s lifetime, range from the gleeful dialogue between a cat and a mouse in “Little Fable” to the absurd humor of “Investigations of a Dog,” from the elaborate waking nightmare of “Building the Great Wall of China” to the creeping unease of “The Burrow,” where a nameless creature’s labyrinthine hiding place turns into a trap of fear and paranoia. Views: 419
Wilhem Walengrave has the title of Master of Fort Worth, but he doesn't take it very seriously. Until it gets him wrapped up in a love spell, followed by a couple of Hunters, and is needed to help stop an Elven Goddess from destroying the world.The world is coming to an end. It could be worse.The first book in the Wilhem Walengrave Vampire series. Here Wilhem meets Katie the Elf, and through her, the Goddess Desiara. Along the way we met Andy, a former Hunter, Kiletra, a fellow vampire, Sally, one of Wil's Chosen, and many others. The fate of the world hangs in the balance and Wil wants to do something about it. Just not right away.Wilhem does a little bounty hunting, ends up with a slave named Katie, and finds himself magically bound to his boss’s secretary Jackie. He also attracts the attention of a pair of supernatural Hunters, a Werebear named Raoul and a death goddess name Izumi. He also spends a bit of time with a vampire stoner named Billy and his old flame Kilestra.In this urban fantasy, vampire Wilhem Walengrave battles to keep his priorities straight. The world is coming to an end. It could be worse. Views: 419
What would you do if your lover since a thousand years back in time suddenly reappears in the public light, posing as a popular movie star? Nordic Liosálfar Svala and Viggo have been in love for a thousand years. After two years apart Svala turns on her TV to find Viggo in the public light, posing as a movie star. She tries to seek him out and the events that follow forces some deep buried secrSvala and Viggo have spent a hundred lives together over the last thousand years. As Liosálfar, Nordic light fairies, their job is to do good and to uphold a balance in the mortal world. A balance, often compromised by the Döckálfar, Nordic dark fairies. But even good fairies need incentive. Svala and Viggo are kept apart each life until they fulfill their assignments. Only when, and if, they succeed are they allowed to be together for whatever period of time the powers that be decides. Sometimes they are together for decades, other times years and during the last union once only three weeks. In this life, Svala turns on her TV and learns that Viggo has become a popular movie star. This is not only highly unexpected, it indicates something is wrong and that Viggo is attempting to contact Svala before their assignments are carried out, an action which is strictly forbidden.Svala seeks him out, but not without breaking a few rules of her own, and learning that things are not always as they seem. Views: 418
