Late one night, Charles Appleton, Jr. pounds on the door of a house in a small New England college town. Believing he may be in danger, the homeowners let him in, but are forced to shoot him when he goes berserk. The police find no connection between the parties. The family is not charged.
Eight hundred miles south of Coulter, MA, in Charlotte, NC, the Appleton family grows impatient with the futile nine month police investigation by the Coulter, MA authorities so they hire private detective, Trevor Nash. Twice in the national limelight, once as a returning POW tortured by Cuban guards in Vietnam; later as the Naval investigator who prosecuted Operation Tailgate, a rape scandal involving male Navy flying officers, Nash is feeling sidetracked as a result of his over-zealous prosecution of a "good ol' boy" bank executive, and the local backlash against him. He eagerly accepts the case.
In spite of Nash's prickly reputation, Charles Appleton, Sr. decides that Nash is the man for the job. He puts aside his personal investigation into the fifteen-year-old assassination attempt of his friend, Owen Bannister, the former black mayor of Charlotte, NC and flies to Coulter.
Because one of the victims of Operation Tailgate was a Coulter native, the local authorities welcome Nash’s inquiry into the increasingly cold case.
Nash divides the case into three major areas: Peggy Loomis, the woman who was forced to shoot Charles Appleton, Jr. to death to protect her husband from Appleton's savage assault; Lush Puppies, Appleton Jr’s upscale Pet Shop business that continues to operate under his former partners; any and all information from former classmates and acquaintances on Appleton’s college career.
Over the course of the investigation, Nash discovers that the two cases are related and not only Owen, but many other friends, including his girl friend, Susie Putnam, are threatened by a sinister political machine led by Owen's principle opponent, Josh Reed, the state's senior senator ...
Professor Lachlan MacAndrews is in trouble: books go missing from his office, then reappear…his departed assistant's glove appears from nowhere…and a new doctoral fellow is a dead ringer -- no pun intended -- for his previous assistant. Is Lachlan being haunted by the ghost of Annie Cooper, the woman whose death he still blames on himself… is he losing his mind…or worse?
Amanda Sullivan considers herself lucky, indeed, to have a doctoral fellowship at Carlyle College with a man she's attracted to on myriad levels. Then, she starts to wonder. She's unnerved that the late Annie Cooper, a stranger, could have been her twin. But nothing can prepare her -- a feet-on-the-ground, practical soul -- for hearing voices and seeing visions warning of impending disaster.
Neither of them knows they have a mutual enemy who will stop at nothing -- forgery, double-dealing, even murder -- to keep them from discovering the truth…
Set in the turbulent 1970s when Patty Hearst became Tanya the Revolutionary, Hystera is a timeless story of madness, yearning, and identity. After a fatal accident takes her father away, Lillian Weill blames herself for the family tragedy. Tripping through failed love affairs with men, and doomed friendships, all Lilly wants is to be sheltered from reality. She retreats from the outside world into a world of delusion and the private terrors of a New York City Psychiatric Hospital. Unreachable behind her thick wall of fears, the world of hospital corridors and strangers become a vessel of faith. She is a foreigner there until her fellow patients release her from her isolation with the power of human intimacy. How do we know who we really are? How do we find our true selves under the heavy burden of family and our pasts? In an unpredictable portrait of mental illness, Hystera penetrates to the pulsing heart of the questions.
Dr. Sydney McKnight, a young physician battling the deadliest influenza pandemic of all time, joins forces with Dr. Casper Jones, an odd new research virologist whose arrival coincides with the virus’s advent, and whose presence raises more questions than answers.
As scientists around the world search for an explanation for the virus’s high mortality rate, Sydney’s distrust of Casper grows, especially after she discovers him injecting an unidentified substance into her patient. Despite a heavy patient load, rebuttals from her boss, and an increasingly strained relationship with her boyfriend, Sydney is determined to learn the truth.
But what she finds will plunge her into danger and change her life forever…
Best friends and cousins, John Vacara & Harold Huddleston grew up on the family farm in rural Pennsylvania. Discovering at a very early age they possessed a very unique gift. This talent was a secret they kept from everyone including their mothers for years until it became too big to contain. Learn the many secrets John’s mother Amelia has kept from him. Harold’s mother Pearl, who is Amelia’s sister, kept her secret from her son and John. Find out how this twine of secrets fall into place as the story unfolds. Follow John and Harold as they discover and harness the power of this unusual talent taking them from the family farm to traveling half way around the globe. Learn of the fortune John and Harold left behind as they barely escaped the wrath of their enemy. The relationships and passions they encounter while traveling to their freedom adds to the excitement of this novel.
It’s June 1948, and Charlotte Mason’s father is tentatively backing the family’s Oldsmobile into the driveway of a small two-story home in northeastern Georgia. Only five minutes ago, almost 8-year-old Charlotte was excited to move into their new house, but now she’s not so sure when she sees how quiet and lonely it appears. Sent to help move boxes to her room, it’s not long before she proves to be “too much of an obstacle,” and is forced to sit on the porch with nothing to do. This is when, as if from nowhere, the cutest boy she has ever seen appears in the front yard of the house directly across the street. Jumping up, she rushes over to meet him. “Hi! My name’s Charley,” she says, because only special people get to call her Charley. She soon learns the boy’s name is Frankie, that he’s the same age as her, and what’s more, he’s wearing a baseball mitt. Pointing to the New York Yankees baseball cap on her head, Charley grins. “Well? What are we waiting for?” she shouts excitedly. “Let’s go play!”
It turns out that Frankie is amazing. Every throw and catch he makes is perfect, and because he thinks Charley is talented “for a girl,” he’s sure his friends would welcome her to join their team. Suddenly, Charley hears an unfamiliar voice calling her name. “Charlotte! Charlotte! Charlotte! Where are you? Charlotte!” A pretty blonde girl runs through the open backyard gate, and with fear and worry crawling all over her face, she stops short before screaming in outrage.
Inspired by the movie, The Sandlot, and the novel, Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm, The Last Summer is also based on Jacquelyn Eubanks’s personal fantasy of being a different person in another time period. Who is this mysterious blonde girl, and why is she so incensed? As the novel fast-forwards to 1955, it’s guaranteed readers aged 12-16 who enjoy novels with a theme of first love, enjoy baseball/softball, and are interested in 1950s America will keep turning the pages to find out. “I want my readers to know that with confidence and inner strength, they can accomplish anything,” says the 14-year-old author. “I would also like them to understand the importance of not conforming to societal pressures and staying true to themselves, and to realize the value of true friendship and faith.” Nostalgic, romantic, and sweet, The Last Summer is the sort of story that will stay with readers for a long time.
A curious tiny caterpillar named Ayanna lives in caterpillar village with a big loving family. She asks lots of questions, and she gets different answers from the entire family, so she must learn for herself which advice is the best, and then apply it. Her sisters, Rosie and Tulip, attend the local Bug High School and go through a lot of trouble each and every day to prepare themselves and make themselves different by applying caterpillar stickers. Caterpillar stickers are sticky butterfly wings, but they are not real, as they are just stuck on "stickers". Rosie and Tulip think wearing the caterpillar stickers make them beautiful. Ayanna wonders if there is a better way to look "butterfly beautiful", so she talks with her royal Papa Caterpillar and her wise Mama Caterpillar and learns that what she must do is transform into a butterfly. She finds out the process will be difficult, lonely and that many give up along the way. Ayanna is sure that she does not want to wear caterpillar stickers and pretend to look like a butterfly, as she wants to transform and be a real butterfly. Ayanna learns the secret of transformation and sets out on her journey to become a beautiful butterfly. Ayanna's name literally means "beautiful flower".
For hundreds of years tales of dragons have been told and cherished. What child hasn't wished to have his or her own dragon or to fight the great fire-breathers? Pegasus – A Dragon’s Tale is the delightful, heartwarming story of two young bear cubs and the dragon they find that changes their lives forever.
In the time of Genesis, an angel named Barakel meets and falls in love with a girl named Nissa. Complications ensue, which include a pesky god named Baal. Through reincarnation, their epic journey spans four lifetimes and takes them from biblical Genesis, to mythical Lemuria, to Tudor England, and to present day America. In each lifetime, they have to rediscover each other and face their own challenges with courage. In the end, you will discover what fallen angels are and find out why love exists.
The year is 1982, and a beautiful young woman, dressed in Edwardian clothing, is found floating unconscious in the North Atlantic with a 1912 boarding pass to the RMS Titanic.
Over in England, Callum Toughill, an insurance investigator, is assigned the case of a missing brooch that was stolen during a horrific, unsolved murder in 1909 Glasgow. He is chosen because it was his own grandfather who had botched the original investigation. Despite the painful family memory and likelihood that all evidence will be long gone, Callum dives in. As he begins to uncover the tangled truth that the missing brooch may have ended up on the ill-fated RMS Titanic, someone is one step ahead, trying to stop him.
Miraculously the mysterious young woman, nicknamed 'Myra' because of the inscription on her locket, survives and awakes in a Manhattan hospital with no memory of who she is. Myra’s vague recollections are from the gilded age of 1912 and she is lost in the alien, harsh world of 1982. A respected and wealthy Titanic survivor named Edward Hoffman assists in exposing her as a fake, but the plan backfires and stirs up more details in Myra's memory which include the fact that Edward may be her son. Is it a bizarre case of time-travel or an elaborate hoax?
“How can we most effectively approach today’s business sales environment?” This is increasingly becoming the challenging question facing marketing, sales, and sales management, and the challenge is only growing tougher. With each passing year, companies reduce the size of sales territories and the number and availability of professional sales-support personnel. At the same time, competition is getting better and more varied, and prospective customers are becoming more sophisticated.
Too often the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system has further burdened salespeople by automating the collection and analysis of transactional data and statistics. This automation has made it easier to quantify sales activity, but if that is all the CRM is used for its use is ultimately counterproductive. Only rarely does a CRM technology solution have a profoundly positive effect on sales. Problematically, companies end up using CRM systems to measure the quantity of sales activity rather than the quality.
The average company closes 15 percent of its forecasted sales pipeline. This means that sales, marketing, presales, sales management, post sales, and many administrative and professional employees waste 85 percent of their time on activities that will never produce revenue!
The best gift we can give our children is the art of resilience and the knowledge about the power they have within.
A story that will build character: self-empowerment, positive behavior, confidence, courage, strength, determination, friendship, good values and the importance of being thoughtful and thankful.
Join Daria Rose in a seven-day adventure as she discovers the powers she had inside her all along. She takes control of her days and learns how to make good choices. She discovers that her decisions can change the outcome of the different worries and fears in her life. Daria Rose learns that life is all about choices and it is up to her to make the right ones.
What would you do if you were losing the love of your life? Which would you choose, fame & fortune or love & happiness? If your friend tried to destroy you, could you find it in your heart to forgive? Could you lead a man to you? Four Journeys. Four Women. Each will learn that life, can be like captivating strings of color. Which way will they be pulled?
A story about finding love at any age, One Last Dance is the delightful tale of Morgan, aged 89, and Dixie, 79, two “mature” individuals on seemingly divergent paths. Despite their disastrous first meeting, complete with a dropped birthday cake, broken eyeglasses and insulting remarks, it was obvious to bystanders, even then, that the two were fated for each other.
Written with great humor and a deep understanding of the challenges associated with aging in America, One Last Dance is a joy to read and an inspiration to all generations, reminding us to live every day and always be in search of new experiences, regardless of age. Author Mardo Williams lived that philosophy, by writing this, his first novel, at age 92.
At the tender age of 88, when many people would be content to sit back and reflect; Williams began a brand new chapter in his professional life. After over six decades as a journalist, many of those with the Columbus Dispatch, Mardo decided to write his first book, based on stories he’d been telling for years. The result was Maude (1883-1993): She Grew Up with the Country, a loving, humorous and meticulously detailed biography of his mother, an extraordinary woman who experienced our country’s immense growth and changes for over a century, until her death at the age of 110.
At Pembroke Castle in medieval Wales,11-year-old Prince Gavin, 13-year-old orphan Philip, and 15-year-old blacksmith's apprentice Bryan, brought together in friendship by the one they call The Wild Man, embark upon a quest to save The Wild Man’s life when he is accused of murder and robbery. If they have any hope of succeeding, the three will have to confront their fears and insecurities, and one of them will have to disclose the biggest secret of all. But it is the arrival of King Arthur and what he reveals that surprises characters and readers.
When Vivian and her husband Nowell are enlisted to prepare his late grandmother's country home for sale, they decide to take a break from city life. Nowell leaves before his wife to begin work on his second mystery novel and by the time Vivian joins him, a real mystery has begun.
A local girl has died in the woods behind the house. The tall line of trees separating the old white house from the thickets and wildlife beyond attracts Vivian, seems to beckon her within. Details begin to emerge about the victim and Vivian becomes enmeshed in the secrets of the girl's life and final moments.
Nowell's temperamental brother arrives with his new wife and the house gets crowded. A woman who befriends Vivian relays local gossip, including the questionable legacy of the town's founder, while a neighbor, a striking man with a buried past of his own, keeps appearing at strange moments.
Meanwhile, Vivian's marriage is unraveling as Nowell loses himself in his work and Vivian seeks purpose and ultimately, truth.
The Right Guard takes us on a suspense-filled journey through the world of intelligence and defense in the 1970's. Though set in 1978, The Right Guard resembles the present political and economic climate of the United States, giving the reader a sense that such a scenario is very conceivable.
Connecting "novel" with reality, Hamlet begins each of the first 38 chapters and chapter 72 with actual newspaper articles relating to the topics that are contained in the novel. A Senior Member of the Intelligence Community and former case officer said of The Right Guard, "This is the most realistic novel I have read about what it feels like to be in the field as a case officer."
Over one million military weapons and equipment are missing from the U.S. military inventories across the country. Where are all the weapons? CIA operative, Eric Brent is used to flush out a secretive, "phantom" group hostile to a wildly spending, intrusive U.S. Administration that threatens to destroy the American economy and shrink individual freedoms.
London - 1965. Dr. Michael Turner knows only that he was saved from certain death at the age of four and hidden in Paris during the Nazi occupation. Until the lawyer's letter, the misty photographs of a blond boy and two women. The revelation that his aunt survived the camps, that she had been injected with toxins by SS doctors. He is drawn inexorably into his past - to the stench of potato-sacks, the smell of cinnamon and almonds, the kiss of a fairy princess, the barking of dogs, the screech of trains, the wail of a woman tearing at his sleeve. Can he bring about the destruction of the doctors who callously tortured his last remaining relative? Is he capable of doing this without compromising his Hippocratic Oath?
TOXIC DISTORTIONS takes the reader breathlessly from extraordinary revelation to nail-biting resolution. Disturbing and intriguing. Packed with plot twists and incident. A rite-of-passage novel which is also revenge thriller. A Holocaust novel which is also a page-turner.
On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Aurora Valente goes through some disturbing changes. She purrs and craves raw meat. Most alarming of all, she’s taken to chasing wildlife.
Her aunt gives her a beautiful, antique choker and tells her a story about a shapeshifting Minder princess, and the beast that hunts the Minder’s descendants.
To Aurora it’s only a story...till later that night when her whole world takes a turn into terror. A horrific beast chases her through the woods, where a puma with the eyes of a stranger comes to her rescue.
While the beast and puma fight, she feels her bones break and reform. Her scream comes out a snarl. She lands on all fours, a beautiful panther.
History comes alive in this stunning epic about the heroes of antiquity. Journey back to 301 BC: it is 22 years after the death of Alexander the Great, and a young king named Pyrrhus is about to enter the world stage as two armies prepare for battle. He will later be described by Hannibal as the finest commander the world has seen, after Alexander.
This phenomenal book is more a story than a history, yet it is based on fact and reaches out to make this period come alive for readers. A Pyrrhic Victory refers to a win that comes at such a high cost that it may well destroy the victor.
“Writing with great style, Dr. Crouch brings this ancient age to life once more; maintaining an expert balance between historical accuracy and creative imagination … The book takes up the story of the gallant Pyrrhus: the most worthy of all the successors to Alexander the Great, he is the vivid central character who guides us through his world … It is a journey detailed throughout with real authority, great care, and unflagging energy. Dr. Crouch succeeds splendidly in conveying a compelling interpretation of the lives and loves, the achievements and aspirations, of great men in a great age.”
– Dr. Eoghan Maloney, lecturer in ancient history at the University of Adelaide
Butcher of Dreams is a gripping suspense thriller set in the 1980's Hell's Kitchen when porno shops, girlie shows, prostitution and crime ran rampant. With this seedy and ominous off-Broadway theater district as the backdrop, Lee Fairchild is attempting to start a repertory theater in an abandoned burlesque house. Not only is someone or something threatening the future of the theater (Lee's dream-come-true), but this force threatens her very existence. Who is responsible for the ritualistic sacrifice on the third floor of the theater? Is the stolen Aztec mask and its ancient curse somehow connected to the bizarre events? Who is the psychopath/sociopath behind the destruction that begins to affect the entire company? Lee's mercurial cast members and stage crew become suspects as events begin to spiral out of control. The authors' command of the English language as well as their knowledge of literature adds both nuance and interest to this well-plotted white knuckle read.
Dive into a world full of shrinking husbands, one-night stands, and President Lincoln doppelgangers. Flip through FictionBrigade’s first collection of flash fiction stories, where death meets love meets politics. Here, 25 talented writers, plus poets and artists, embrace the challenge of short form storytelling and deliver page-turning fiction. Enjoy it all in one sitting, with your morning cup of coffee.
Flash fiction by: Kaj Anderson-Bauer, Eleanor Bennett, Roy Buck, Brian Cooper, Jacqueline Delibes, Shawn Duyette, Christopher Hackbarth, Richard Helmling, Walter Holland, Sean Lefler,Danilo Lopez, Catherine A. MacKenzie, Monica Martinez, Debra Mathis, Melanie McDonald, Peter McKenna, Melissa Mendelson, Brandon Meyer, Shelley Muniz, Ryan Moll, Brittany Newell, Vincent Rendoni, Allie Rowbottom, Jessica Simms, Louise Farmer Smith, Simone Stedmon, Clare Tascio, Ling E. Teo, Valerie Tidwell, Lauren Tolbert, Gina Wohlsdorf, Meirav Zehavi
Reporter Molly Darter must obtain the family-placed obituary of a dead nudist to keep her job at the weekly paper. With her husband’s infidelity stamped on her mind, she doesn’t want anything to do with naked people. But the dead woman is a friend, the nice lady from the Marshview organic produce stand.
The nudists insist Barbara Jean didn’t die of natural causes. Though their murder claim rattles Molly, she has no intention of looking into a law enforcement matter. She has enough trouble on her plate dealing with her cheating husband, taking care of her precocious son, and waging war on her trampy sister.
When revealing photos of her father and other community leaders consorting with Barbara Jean at the produce stand come her way, Molly must act. To protect her father, she delves into the dead woman’s past. Barbara Jean had former ties to the community and hidden wealth.
Things heat up when her estranged husband’s undercover drug ring investigation collides with her murder probe. While the sheriff eventually labels the death a homicide, Molly’s questions place her in jeopardy.
Who killed Barbara Jean? Was it the judge, the preacher, or the banker? Or was the killer someone she knew intimately? Only one thing’s for certain. The killer is watching every move Molly makes.
