This is the inaugural volume in an annual showcase of new talent, complimenting our annual flagship anthology. This is comics pushing all the boundaries; surreal, edgy stories of wonder that shimmer with visual style and emotional power. They are presented here in a deluxe package to introduce them to new fans of illustrated fiction.

     Marcus White is wealthy, handsome, and charming. However, there’s a rather large fly in the ointment of his love life. Marcus is an assassin. With no desire for a typical relationship, he finds himself in a bar one night between jobs, fascinated by a girl with darkness in her eyes… Marguerite Grey is a very pretty, soft-spoken sales clerk with an insidious problem. She doesn't like people. At all. With no hope of ever connecting with someone, she finds the singular exception to her condition one night when becoming mesmerized by a man with poison-green eyes… A shared drink leads to Marguerite waking up in an airplane hanger and Marcus saying, “I want to buy your time. Half a million a year. One year minimum. You leave the country tonight. What’s your answer?” And so begins the unconventional romance of an assassin and the girl who completely captures his heart… ___________________ This is part one of a dark romance serial.

    Tom has a simple philosophy: you can treat Oracle as a black box and just stick data into it or you can understand how it works and exploit it as a powerful computing environment. If you choose the latter, then you’ll find that there are few information management problems that you cannot solve quickly and elegantly. This fully revised second edition covers the latest developments in Oracle Database 11g. Each feature is taught in a proof-by-example manner, not only discussing what it is, but also how it works, how to implement software using it, and the common pitfalls associated with it. Don’t treat Oracle Database as a black-box. Get this book. Get under the hood. Turbo-charge your career. Fully-revised to cover Oracle Database 11g Proof-by-example approach: Let the evidence be your guide Dives deeply into Oracle Databases’s most powerful features What you’ll learn Develop an evidence-based approach to problem solving Manage transactions in highly concurrent environments Speed access to data through table and index design Manage files and memory structures for performance and reliability Scale up through partitioning and parallel processing Load and unload data to interface with external systems Think for yourself; don’t take Tom’s word for it! Who this book is for This book is aimed at Oracle Database administrators, at PL/SQL and Java developers writing code to be deployed inside the database, and at developers of external applications who use Oracle Database as a data store. It is the go to book for those wishing to create efficient and scalable applications.

    Thrown away.Invisible.Every single one of those could be used to describe me. They can tell you my story—my sad past—without a single syllable passing through my lips.I hate them—those who lied to me. They claimed to love me, but in reality they used me when convenient. My parents. Sister. And now Talan. Loving them has left me empty. Sad. Alone.Not anymore. Screw them. My love has turned to anger…hate. Now, what consumes me is the urge to destroy, to force them to see what they wrecked with their carelessness. My name will never be forgotten. Not after I have my revenge.His tears will be my ultimate retribution.

    Or for Homer Simpson, who clearly thought he was buying this book in the first place.

    She lives on a farm in Texas, and keeps five little dolls in a homemade shoebox house she fixed up for them. The box children are her only friends, the brothers and sisters she never had, the babies her mother was supposed to have but didn't. This is her first diary, and it's hard to hide it from her bullying older brother, her philandering father, and her crazy pregnant mother. But these are her secrets, her hopes, her dreams. And this is the summer she will stop talking to dolls...and start thinking about people and places she doesn't know yet.

    A fortune being stolen by her guardian. She's found the perfect laird. Now, she just needs to convince him. And when he agrees, Laird Dunbroch's kisses convince her that passion is in her future. But will passion prevent the pursuit of her dreams?Conn Sinclair, Laird Dunbroch is in dire needs of funds. His lands have been left in terrible debt by his ne'er do well father! So, when Pheobe Danvers turns up on his doorstep and proposes marriage, he can't refuse. But first, he must extricate her from her guardian, and as they race to the highlands and the fulfillment of her dreams, he discovers that she is more than a plump purse. She may be the answer to his wounded heart... If he can but give it.

    The science-fiction television series Battlestar Galactica is known for raising thought-provoking questions concerning martial law, artificial intelligence, power and corruption, and ultimately what it means to be human. What ethical complexities come into play when one mistake could mean the anihilation of the human race? How do you maintain faith in the Gods when you're involved in an Armageddon of your own creation? What is the distinction between a terrorist and a freedom fighter? These questions are given an intelligent and insightful examination in this engaging collection of essays.

    After losing her job and winding up having to move back home, all she wanted was a night to forget herself in the arms of a random hookup. Someone had other plans for her though. When the night goes awry, Fennel finds herself more stressed out than she was before. Trent Stevens is both the man of Fennel's dreams and her nightmares. He swooped in to rescue her from herself and then disappeared without a trace, leaving Fennel confused and mentally scarred. When he resurfaces to save the day again, she can't figure out if he's good or bad. All she knows is that there's a darkness about him that intrigues her. This is part one of a three-part series.

    Siljander takes us on an eye-opening journey of personal, religious, and political discovery. In the 1980s, Siljander was a newly minted Reagan Republican from Michigan who joined Congress in the same generation as Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay, ready to remake the world. A staunch member of the Religious Right, he once walked out of the National Prayer Breakfast when a speaker quoted from the Qur'an.But after losing reelection, Siljander dove into the Bible to look for the passage in which the Bible says it is our job as Christians to convert others in order to save them from eternal damnation. He couldn't find it; in fact, he couldn't even find a passage saying that Jesus set out to form a new religion. This discovery was the first step on a spiritual and political journey that started with an in-depth linguistic study of the Bible and led to the discovery that Christianity and Islam share many base words and concepts. In his role as ambassador to the United Nations Siljander began sharing his insights on the connections between Islam and Christianity, with surprising results. A Deadly Misunderstanding recounts Siljander's amazing discoveries as he travels to some of the most remote and hostile places in the world—deep into Libya, Sudan, Pakistan, and India—forging deep ties with both heads of state and religious leaders. What he has learned could radically shift the contemporary religious landscape and help heal the rift between Islam and the West. No Christian or Muslim will be unaffected after reading this book.

    Deeply religious, he sent his kids to Catholic schools and colleges.He was also, by all appearances, a trusted and loyal FBI agent. For years he had helped the FBI counterintelligence team track and protect against Russian spies. He helped the FBI set up its computer networks. He had almost total access to the most sensitive material, including information about Russians who were secretly working for the U.S. He was in a position to betray more valuable secrets than almost anyone else.And he did.Now veteran Time reporters Ann Blackman and Elaine Shannon reveal the truth about Robert Hanssen and his 15 years of exceptionally destructive espionage. Blackman and Shannon brilliantly explore why Hanssen decided to betray his family, his church and his country, and how he got away with it. And they reveal the vast extent of Hanssen's damage and why his actions shattered the confidence of a proud and mighty FBI."The Spy Next Door" doesn't just read like a spy thriller -- it is a spy thriller, full of stolen documents, battling agents, secret dead drops, lies and deception. Shannon and Blackman delve into how Hanssen used his Catholicism as a Biblical subterfuge, a cover so clever that only his Communist confessors would be privy to the deception.

    There is only the war.Otto Behr is a German agent, fighting his Russian counterparts across three millennia, manipulating history for moments in time that can change everything.Only the remnants of two great nations stand and for Otto, the war is life itself; the last hope for his people.But in a world where realities shift and memory is never constant, can one man’s destiny be the deciding factor in a war between the empires of time?

     Mine is a Cinderella story – just without the happy ending. I thought serving drunks at Hooters was rock bottom… Until Hound showed up. You might think he was my Prince Charming. But you’d be dead freaking wrong. He didn’t come to save me, or to sweep me off my feet. He came to chain me to his bed and make me moan his name. Hound is here to collect on what my father owes from gambling. He’s willing to negotiate… but he sure as hell won’t be leaving empty-handed. Matter of fact, he wants his hands on me. And he won’t take no for an answer. Because Hound needs a fake wife. In return for agreeing to play along, he’ll forgive my father’s debts. But what happens when pretending becomes something more? The longer I force myself to follow Hound’s orders, the more I want to do it for real. I want to be his toy, his slave, his plaything. I want to be his wife… For a price. WIFE FOR A PRICE is a full-length, standalone, bad boy heist romance. Includes additional bonus content so you can keep on reading 'til you've had your fill of hot sex, thrilling action, and HEAs that will melt your heart!

    Each one of them wants him dead. This book takes you on an exciting roller coaster through each of their lives. A breathtaking story of lives entwined in desire, passion, lies, deceit and epic betrayals. What makes one man so hated by everyone?*Important. This book is intended for over 18's due to the graphic sexual nature of some chapters. Contains Abuse/Taboo subject matter.

    Years later, their paths crossed again. But he wasn't the same man she once knew. Jaded by the world, he decided to use her as his pawn in a plan for revenge…British businessman, Mason Woodward, seems to have everything going for him. He’s handsome, wealthy, and knows how to get what he wants. His best friend, Travis, was like a brother to him, until the day he found him in bed with his girlfriend. Now, Mason has a plan for payback that involves Travis’ younger sister, Jillian."The plan seemed simple. I'd use her every which way, and then send her back to her brother with a clear message: You had your fun, and I had mine."Little did I know that I'd end up falling for her…