The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories

Best known for the 1892 title story of this collection, a harrowing tale of a woman's descent into madness, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote more than 200 other short stories. Seven of her finest are reprinted here. Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naïve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories. These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women — and how they might be improved. The yellow wallpaper Three Thanksgivings The cottagette Turned Making a change If I were a man Mr. Peebles' heart.
Views: 4 939

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America

The bestselling, landmark work of undercover reportage, now updated Acclaimed as an instant classic upon publication, Nickel and Dimed has sold more than 1.5 million copies and become a staple of classroom reading. Chosen for “one book” initiatives across the country, it has fueled nationwide campaigns for a living wage. Funny, poignant, and passionate, this revelatory firsthand account of life in low-wage America—the story of Barbara Ehrenreich’s attempts to eke out a living while working as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart associate—has become an essential part of the nation’s political discourse. Now, in a new afterword, Ehrenreich shows that the plight of the underpaid has in no way eased: with fewer jobs available, deteriorating work conditions, and no pay increase in sight, Nickel and Dimed is more relevant than ever.
Views: 3 956

Echo

It's been said the longest echo ever measured lasted 75 seconds, but I can assure you, this will last much longer. The bang deafened the world around me, muting everything into nullity, allowing the reflection of its destruction to live far beyond its intended life. It will follow me forever, destroying me—destroying you. You want answers? So do I.
Views: 2 128

Emails from the Underground Lab

Scientific research can be hard enough without the added danger of zombies overrunning your lab, or someone tearing a hole in the fabric of space/time. Not to mention inconsiderate people throwing garbage down the bottomless pit. Luckily your new Occupational Health and Safety Officer is here to keep the risks to a minimum, so you can focus on the science, and not on the impending death.Scientific research can be hard enough without the added danger of zombies overrunning your lab, or someone tearing a hole in the fabric of space/time. Not to mention inconsiderate people throwing garbage down the bottomless pit. Luckily your new Occupational Health and Safety Officer is here to keep the risks to a minimum, so you can focus on the science, and not on the impending death.Presented here are the internal emails from the Henry Bishop Institute of Science, where OHS Officer Sarah Tanner does her best to ensure that when the question “What’s the worst that can happen?” is asked, the answer doesn’t have to be “Doom upon us all”.
Views: 804

Living With a Wild God

In middle age, Ehrenreich came across the journal she had kept during her tumultuous adolescence and set out to reconstruct that quest, which had taken her to the study of science and through a cataclysmic series of uncanny — or, as she later learned to call them, "mystical" — experiences. A staunch atheist and rationalist, she is profoundly shaken by the implications of her life-long search. Part memoir, part philosophical and spiritual inquiry, Living with a Wild God brings an older woman's wry and erudite perspective to a young girl's uninhibited musings on the questions that, at one point or another, torment us all. Ehrenreich's most personal book ever will spark a lively and heated conversation about religion and spirituality, science and morality, and the "meaning of life." Certain to be a classic, Living with a Wild God combines intellectual rigor with a frank account of the inexplicable, in Ehrenreich's singular voice, to produce a true literary achievement.
Views: 701

Moon Dreams

In the third decade of the twenty first century stagnation is driving the world to the brink. Into this world a pair of idealistic inventors introduce a technology that will give mankind the solar system, but will the forces of good or the powers of repression take hold of the technology and shape the future to their desires.The world has been treading water for the first two decades of the twenty second century, technology continues to evolve but in a zero sum world violence is creating the new barbarians that could bring civilization down. In this world Paul Richards and his genius friend Cooper Paaly are working on a source of clean and nearly free power, but unknown to them they have stumbled across much more than a source of energy. When Coop vanishes with his invention Paul is left to clean up the pieces, but when Coop calls to ask for help from a mysterious lab in a desolate desert town Paul cannot resist and is rapidly drawn into a plan to build an outlaw colony on the moon, driven by an industrialist with grandiose dreams. But just when the dream takes flight global realpolitik takes hold and it is left to Paul and his small group of friends and followers to try and save the world from a new Genghis Khan.
Views: 682

Elgin

An adventure set in a world at a slight angle from ours. Modern day Cowboy Elgin Chalmer’s finds that man eating lizard girls, spider monsters, Were’s and Vamp’s are far harder to deal with than steers.This isn’t SteamPunk or UrbanFantasy it’s QuantPunk SciFi and first of many stories mixing ‘quantum’ scifi and fantasy.This is a ‘cleaned up’ edition of my NaNoWriMo Submission Nov ‘12Elgin’s old life was nothing much, Beauty Wyoming was as beautiful and remote as one could get, a town of cowboys and Indians, in a setting of rangeland, mountains and lakes. Elgin Chalmer’s was a cowboy and a part breed black-sheep slacker living with his huge Siamese cat Humph in a forty year old trailer. Life was OK for Elgin, he didn’t want much and didn’t get any more. Then one raw snowy day he made the mistake of heading into the mountains with a gut full of whisky and a head muddled by rotten drugs...death came easily considering.And that was when things started to get really messy. A world of alien dangers and powers were waking up after two thousand years in hibernation and humanity’s protector needed a new helper. Now Elgin found himself dealing with flesh eating lizard girls, ancient spider monsters, along with werewolves and vampires who didn’t always play by the rules. And on top of it all he had to get used to eating sharks, raw and still fighting. But now of course he had a chance to meet up with the cool girls; The Wiccan proprietor of the local New-Age gift shop, with an ancient Indian totem in her basement, the pistol packing deputy with a secret, and the beautiful Russian spy with a heart of gold and the killer instincts of a she wolf.Elgin’s new life was....complicated.Some words of explanation. First, the National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo, (www.nanowrimo.org) is run by a tiny nonprofit called he Office of Letters and Light, an organization that promotes writing in all its glorious permutations among the young, young at heart, and not so young (among whom I fall in the right hand distribution tail these days.) I wrote the first 60,000 words or so of Elgin in November 2011 and finished the remaining half by February 2012, since then, among many other things, my father and I have been editing so I can submit it for publication at Smashwords.Second, this book isn’t SteamPunk, UrbanFantasy, Fantasy, I like to think of it as a type of SciFi, what I call Quantum Punk. Using the possibilities our quantum universe opens up to the imagination as a basis for something that tries to be Science Fiction with a very strong tint of UrbanFantasy and SteamPunk, I hope you enjoy.
Views: 672

Herland

On the eve of World War I, an all-female society is discovered somewhere in the distant reaches of the earth by three male explorers who are now forced to re-examine their assumptions about women's roles in society. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Views: 638

The Crux: A Novel

The Crux is an important early feminist work that brings to the fore complicated issues of gender, citizenship, eugenics, and frontier nationalism. First published serially in the feminist journal The Forerunner in 1910, The Crux tells the story of a group of New England women who move west to start a boardinghouse for men in Colorado. The innocent central character, Vivian Lane, falls in love with Morton Elder, who has both gonorrhea and syphilis. The concern of the novel is not so much that Vivian will catch syphilis, but that, if she were to marry and have children with Morton, she would harm the "national stock."
Views: 608

The Quest of the Silver Fleece: A Novel

Night fell. The red waters of the swamp grew sinister and sullen. The tall pines lost their slimness and stood in wide blurred blotches all across the way, and a great shadowy bird arose, wheeled and melted, murmuring, into the black-green sky. The boy wearily dropped his heavy bundle and stood still, listening as the voice of crickets split the shadows and made the silence audible. A tear wandered down his brown cheek. They were at supper now, he whispered—the father and old mother, away back yonder beyond the night. They were far away; they would never be as near as once they had been, for he had stepped into the world. And the cat and Old Billy—ah, but the world was a lonely thing, so wide and tall and empty! And so bare, so bitter bare! Somehow he had never dreamed of the world as lonely before; he had fared forth to beckoning hands and luring, and to the eager hum of human voices, as of some great, swelling music.
Views: 606

Married to the Bad Boy

✔ Mind Blown ✔Action Packed ✔Heartthrob ✔Page Turner ✔Bad Boy “I didn't marry him out of love, nor because I liked him. I didn't marry him for his family money or wealth, or for popularity. Truth be told, I could care less about this guy and who he was. I Married the Bad Boy for protection.” * Kami’s life was hell. Until the bad boy came along to save her. She never had an easy life. Most of her teenage years, all she had were bruises and bad memories. Her mother had married another man whose happiness came from hurting her. But when Brandon appeared in her life, some things were about to change. He had seen the bruises, and how it pained her. So he did something about it. He married her to protect her. But did Kami make the right decision marrying him? All the men in her life either left her, like her father did, or hurt her, as was the case with her step-father. There was no guarantee that Brandon wouldn't leave her, or hurt her. What would happen to her life now that she was married to the bad boy? Will he be able to keep her from harm?
Views: 597

Eire of Mystery

[Updated] The continuing story of Brody and Kate, and the new life they're creating for themselves. Along the way comes more visitors, some of them received with open arms while others are uninvited and unwelcome. Elders of Lore, having their own laws, have deemed that rules have been broken in the peaceful town that Brody now calls home. Their emissary, however, has his own version of law.[Updated version - dialogue revisions made, spacing and syntax modified] The continuing story of Brody and Kate, and the new life they're creating for themselves. Along the way comes more visitors, some of them received with open arms, while others are uninvited and unwelcome. The land of Lore, having their own plots and laws, have deemed that rules have been broken in the peaceful village that Brody now calls home. Their emissary, however, has his own version of law.
Views: 596

Eire of Aggression

In Brody and Kate's continuing story, pressures mount with the threat of a supernatural attack. Mercenary fae send hard luck and scouts to soften their target, while the few who know of the impending invasion struggle to understand the danger they face.Roland Barcus was just a maintenance guy with a good job and a good salary on the deep space survey ship The Ventura. The outer ring is the 2-G level on the ship where very few people live or work. People like Barcus and his friends.The last day of the Ventura would begin a series of events that would ultimately result in the Solstice 31 Incident.
Views: 580

Loss and Sacrifice

This collection contains three short stories in the genres of horror, science fiction and fantasy, all about the things we lose: our humanity, our souls, even our very selves, through choice, through sacrifice, or by the passage of time. All stories published for the first time.This collection contains three short stories in the genres of horror, science fiction and fantasy, all about the things we lose: our humanity, our souls, even our very selves, through choice, through sacrifice, or by the passage of time. All stories published for the first time.Contains:“Loyalty”: When his fields become mysteriously barren, a farmer makes a desperate bargain to save his land and his daughter, but he is unprepared for the new crop he must grow in his fields.“Of Memories Lost”: An old and worn out robot on an unfinished journey meets a strange creature on its travels.“To Die in the Spring”: They are the Lok’Chang, the Army of the Damned. They were sent against their will to a nightmarish world outside of their own, to find and bring back an item of immense power. They will do whatever it takes to get home again, even though it may cost them everything.
Views: 558

Blown

The wind had been roaring across the face of the planet for ten days with no sign of stopping. It felt like it had always been there, and always would be. Eternal. Sometimes, if you listened closely, it seemed to form words. But it didn't pay to listen too long to those words. The wind had way of getting into your head....Somewhere in space and in time, you will be introduced to Umas, the dominant species, and to Bovs, one of the subservient species. We follow these creatures through numerous adventures full of adrenaline and emotion. Gradually, we will come to understand the oppression of Bovs by Umas, its reality, its scale and its consequences. Why does it have to be so? Why is this deviance not obvious for all? Does it remind us of something?Some vegan Umas are struggling to abolish exploitation of other species, but their enemies are powerful.But, there is something , we will say no more...
Views: 534