Intelligent, well-educated, perfectly isolated in his lofty rank, responsibilities, and privilege of the divine Imperial Dynasty. He's the most powerful boy on Atlantis and he's going into the real world for the very first time. . . .Now just another student in Fleet Cadet School, Aeson must learn everything normal people take for granted—including the basics of how to look after himself, how to interact with others his age, how to laugh, and how to make friends.As if that wasn't enough to boggle the mind of a confident but shy boy who's never had a real conversation with anyone but his mother, Aeson has one more lesson ahead . . . what it's like to fall in love.Get inside Aeson's mind and learn his story from the inside out as he forms the bonds that will change him forever—with Elikara, Xelio, Oalla, Keruvat, Erita, and other favorite Atlantean characters, long before they took to the stars as astra daimon! AESON: BLUE is the first in The Atlantis Grail Novella Series.

    She and her family had kept themselves hidden and isolated from the dangers of the outside world.When the storms returned, everything her parents had built over the years was destroyed. Even though she was afraid of what waited outside, she was left with no choice but to venture out and survive the brutal winter in an attempt to find a new home.Now, with nothing but a few supplies and the clothes on her back, she must figure out a way to get safe again.Alone.Afraid.Nothing will ever be the same.---The Last Disaster is the first book in a new series set in the Ravaged Land world. You do not need to have read the Ravaged Land series to enjoy this one, but each book within a series must be read in order.

    She is surprised to find the solution to her problem has been right next to her all along.It's the Fourth of July and more than one kind of fireworks are going to explode.

    She wakes to the sun breaking over Africa. She keeps watch over the experiments. She makes sure the station doesn't explode.And she's the only occupant of the space station when the world far below her comes apart in flame.

    and for a thousand years, they've hidden.The citizens claim they love Spes, the underground city where they evade the deadly toxins of the surface world, but the walls never end and the guards never cease to watch. There is a longing to escape, and a hope that someday the world might live again.But how do the people know what they are told is truth? How far will they go to trust the unknown, and how much will they fight for that they cannot have?

    Illustrator and writer's Carolyn Marie Castagna's first shared short story.A small icicle hanging from a roof peers inside a window at a small reading room, and learns about magical human qualities, and the importance of the one most special human feeling.

    That puts Ensign Jacob Renselaer on the spot. Can he find out why the aliens killed his ship’s officers? Can he take command of the Battlestar? Does he want to be the leader of ten heavily armed starships that never expected to encounter aliens? Deep in the Kepler 22 star system, mutual misunderstanding between two peoples who cannot speak to each other leads to multiple space battles. Somehow Jacob becomes the leader he never wanted to be. His close friend Daisy the pilot helps him, as do other friends on the Battlestar. On the alien side, Hunter One is determined to kill the invaders who threaten his new colony world. His people the Swarm have never been defeated. Now, he faces Soft Skins who do not flee at the loss of their leaders. In a distant star system, people human and alien die, scheme, and fight for survival. None of them have ever faced combat before. But now, both sides learn what it is like to have someone seek your death and the death of your friends!

    There's Luke Williams, a young American who's been left in a wheelchair by a drunk driver. Then there's Brian Tully, a wise-cracking bully with connections in Vegas, together with his sheepish family. And finally there's Dan Borowski, an Australian security analyst. Trouble is, Dan isn't there to relax, and though they don't yet know it, nor are any of the others... This short story first appeared in "Storyglossia" in May 2008. Dan Borowski first appeared as a character in "For the Dogs", and this is one of two short stories (the other is "Retrospective") to feature him.

    Brownstone books 19 - 22 (The BBQ years)(including Road Trip: BBQ and a Brawl, BBQ Delivered with Attitude, BBQ With a Side of No Apologies, BBQ and STFU)Road Trip: BBQ and a Brawl:Barbecue is life. Everything else is just details...AGAIN!Things are going a little too well for Brownstone as he sticks around the house, and Shay is getting agitated. Can a bounty hunter be happy when he has nothing to do?James goes on a road trip expecting to just eat some barbeque. Unfortunately, trouble is waiting when he arrives. The bounty hunter likes to keep things simple, but those who are working to beat up the Oriceran BBQ pitmaster's new place didn't account for him arriving.Will those attacking give up? Is stupid contagious?Instead of a simple BBQ road trip, now he is embroiled in helping a fellow BBQ lover he followed on TV as he helps bring the BROWNSTONE BEAT DOWN.BBQ Delivered with Attitude:Can't a man just enjoy a bit of BBQ without getting into a fight?Apparently not.One day, James comes home and finds his pregnant wife with drawn gun, a ready knife, and an unknown assailant in their living room. The problem is, the person in the living room is hoping the Granite Ghost will help her retrieve some valuable cargo that has gotten...lost.Now, James has to decide if he will allow an annoying female to persuade him to go on another road trip. Even if the road trip takes him to Texas, a state known for its brisket.Will those who want the artifacts find out he is involved?Fortunately, there are a lot of BBQ places between Los Angeles and Texas. It just so happens Brownstone gets a chance to stop at a few.BBQ With a Side of No Apologies:It’s hard to live a quiet life when you’ve left a trail of beatdowns and men in walls, but sometimes that’s the only way to achieve peace.James isn’t happy when the head of a Mafia family comes into his restaurant and demands his help. The reputation of James Brownstone is supposed to keep peace in the L.A. underworld, but a few new arrivals didn’t get the memo.Sometimes you don’t preserve the peace by preparing for war. You go straight to war.All James’ local trouble might be annoying, but there’s a shining light in the distance: a respected filmmaker wants to film a barbecue documentary with James at the center.A documentary BBQ road trip up the West Coast is just what James needs to relax, but the filmmaker seems more interested in capturing him beating down magical criminals than his thoughts on brisket.At the same time, dark forces from beyond Earth are on the move, and they don’t care about barbecue.James thought he had settled certain problems at the Battle of L.A., but sometimes a personal demonstration is necessary for someone to learn their lesson.BBQ and STFU:There is one thing you do not do… go after Brownstone’s family.Powerful entities on Oriceran listen to prophecy and fear a threat to their home world.That isn’t the only threat they should worry about.Whispy Doom is forever trying to get James to upgrade, perhaps for the last time?What will happen when beings who believe themselves to be invincible do the unthinkable?Now, there are Brownstones on two worlds, and one young son growing up.And amongst it all, you have Shay Brownstone as well. There

    Despite the shaky conditions in the world, she and a friend embark on a cross-country bicycle trip. She's nearly two thousand miles from home when an EMP (Electro-magnetic pulse) over the eastern third of the nation takes out the power grid and cripples transportation. She must get home! Her husband, kids, and grandkids are back at their homestead in Montana! Ride along with Sue on her harrowing and often dangerous journey from Mississippi to Montana across a country just realizing that the world as they knew it is gone.(In January 2013 the author pulled the book file to rewrite some sections in response to reader comments and suggestions, which made a good story even better. This is the new version.)

    He's confused, he's disoriented. He asks himself what's going on. But he doesn't know. It's not like anyone's alive to tell him anyway. Just a short trip to the bathroom, a welcome break from the geology class that puts him to sleep and his world is turned upside down. He sees things that defy explanation: His classmate eating his professor, his professor getting up, shrugging off fatal injuries and coming for him.Zack knows he must get out of this nightmare. But when he's inadvertently trapped in the faculty building by a fellow survivor, he soon discovers that the living may be even more dangerous than the monstrous undead.

     Eve is an 18,000 word novella originally published as an ongoing story on Reddit's Writing Prompts forum by user /u/psycho_alpaca.

    What could possibly go wrong?This short story in the USA Today bestselling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series features one of the most beloved characters in the series, as well as giving the reader a tour of the boardinghouse itself. Chronologically, this story come soon after the events in Scholarly Pursuits, so if you don't like spoilers, you might want to wait to read it until you have finished that book.

    Not everyone can. Who decides? Desperate to save his daughter from a mysterious sickness, Daniel applies for the Methuselah Treatment. If she gets it, his daughter won’t just recover, she’ll live forever. But the drug is tightly controlled, and only the special, the talented, and the truly deserving ever receive it. There is nothing special about Daniel’s destitute ten- year-old girl—or is there?

    The darkness is here...3 high school seniors on a field trip sneak away from the rest of the class, and then massive destruction happens.The power is out, their phones aren't working, they can't find their class or others, and debris falling and crashes are happening all around them.Madison, Mason, and Becca must fight to survive in the aftermath, and they don't even know what happened.When normal systems and structures are broken down, the fight to survive becomes even tougher.Will they even make it through the first few nights alive?