Instead, Tex gets dumped on his mother's doorstep, where Farley Dickerson, the big oaf she's just married, and his two kids have made themselves at home. Nobody's more surprised than Tex, then, when he discovers he likes his new stepfather, that he actually wants to spend the summer at Mom's, and that he - Tex Donleavy - is going to play ball on Farley's Little League team. And then there's the plucky and brooding Jack, Farley's daughter, who becomes Tex's closest ally, as well as his greatest source of confusion. In all, it's shaping up to be a summer full of surprises - though nothing can prepare Tex for the biggest surprise of all, a secret so terrible that it will change the lives of every member of his family. Through his careful, lyrical prose, Tim Johnston expertly balances the pain of inching toward maturity with sly humor, making his fiction debut an auspicious occasion.

    It's hot and sticky. The locusts are droning in the trees, and Robin Sherwood and her brother, Andy, are in trouble. Their parents have disappeared, and their crazy uncle Conrad with the silver claw where his hand used to be has shown up. Unfortunately for them, he's planning on killing them so he can inherit the Sherwood Fortune.They've run away to the bayou and the Voodoo Swamp in order to escape his crazy game. Robin would rather take the chance on becoming alligator bait than to face what's waiting for her in the cellar.This is a YA thriller that will keep both boys and girls turning the pages.

    Sleep overs in the backyard had turned into sleepovers in his treehouse into sleepovers in one of their rooms when they both decided sleeping closer to a toilet was actually great. Zane and Charley were just friends until his girlfriend dumps him and there’s the beginnings of a spark. But they’ve grown a little apart in recent years and neither of them think the other would possibly ever be interested in anything more. So Charley fakes a crush and it’s Zane to the rescue in helping her follow her heart.After all, there’s safety in the friendzone.Please be aware that this story is set in Australia and therefore uses Australian English spelling and syntax.

    But Paintbox was taken from her by his spiteful former owners and there was nothing Lucy could do. Despite having Hope, Lucy never got over losing Paintbox. The worst part was, she had no idea what became of him until, one day, a mysterious letter arrives…. www.whitecloudstation.com A White Cloud Station short story.

    Having successfully sold his business, he can look forward to an exciting new chapter in his life with his beautiful wife and teenage daughter. But his father shunned him as he was growing up, and the old man's coldness still causes deep pain.His father spent the war ferrying SOE agents across the channel into occupied France, and Iain knows that his change in personality dated from a mission in 1944 that ended in disaster, with his father barely making it home. Now, on her death-bed, Iain's mother gives him a clue about what happened on that fateful night, and Iain sets off for the tiny Breton village of St Cyriac determined to discover the truth. At first the villagers are welcoming, remembering his father as a hero, but as he nears the final, extraordinary revelation, Iain realizes that he has unleashed terrible forces that might destroy them all.

     After struggling with the death of her lifemate of over a century, Tara spends what the leaders of her clan considers an unreasonable amount of time in finding another. The clan needs offspring, they insist. While soaring over a meadow, Tara sees a dragon intruder attack a shepherd. Outraged, she intervenes and saves the young man from certain death. Breaking a two hundred year old pact between man and dragon forbidding any contact between the two, a powerful yet dangerous bond slowly grows between the dragon and her boy. This is a fun short story, at 5300 words. Stories two and three are already written. They continue the series and will be available shortly! I hope you enjoy them all.

    When a legendary cult director calls in Dervish as consultant for a new horror movie, it seems a perfect excuse for a break from routine and a chance for some fun.But being on the set stirs up more than memories – and soon, the Slawter commences…Bec:As a baby, Bec fought for her life. As a trainee priestess, she fights to fit in to a tribe that needs her skills but fears her powers. And when the demons come, the fight becomes a war.But the final conflict demands a sacrifice too horrific to contemplate…

    They realize this was not another earthquake, but a Nuclear Attack. David knew they would have to work together to escape from the rubble, then shelter for 14 days to survive the fallout. If, as he feared, their parents were dead, then they should trek east,hopefully staying together.They would have to adapt, improvise, and overcome. They rescued a 4 year old orphan and realized how much they had learned from their parents. They became the Nuclear War Club. David had been the starting quarterback on his football team in Alabama.He had just transferred to this California High School as a Senior, when his Dad was reassigned to an Air Force Base. David organized the human chain to escape from the rubble. The clock was ticking, they would have to find, or make, a shelter from the fallout within 30 minutes or die from the radiation. David looked over the other 6 detention survivors and was disappointed at this soft, pampered, self centered, dysfunctional group. But you go to nuclear war with the survivors you have, he thought, as he explained what had happened and his plan. He invited them to follow as he began to hike to where his truck and camping equipment had been. Zeke's stomach churned, and he struggled to control his panic as he viewed the nuclear debris as far as the eye could see. What had happened to LeShawn and Monique? Were they trapped in rubble, crying for their big brother to come? His Mom was a drug addict, he was all his preschool brother and sister had. He would rescue them,or die trying. But he was miles away from home-the football boosters arranged for special transportation to get the heavily recruited, All State football running back, to this wealthy school everyday. He would stay with this group, they were his ticket, until he found a way to rescue LeShawn and Monique. Karen had grown up on a ranch where her father was hired to care for the horses. She was tough from working with the horses, self sufficient,and was instinctively wary of how David had just naturally assumed command. Karen had just transferred to this school under redistricting, and she didn't know any of them well.But the school, and the entire City were totally destroyed, there was no other option. Karen grabbed her backpack, stuck a knife from what was left of the underground school kitchen in her hiking boots, concealed it with her sock, then followed. Liu was a first generation Vietnamese immigrant who excelled at school. She had been utterly humiliated and shamed that she had even been sent to detention. Liu had carefully noticed how David had organized their evacuation and got everyone out. David was a natural leader, and he seemed to know a lot about Nuclear War. She would stay with this group until her Dad found her. Jorge was going to be an architect and was dual enrolled in engineering classes at the Community College. His leg had been broken when the ceiling collapsed, David and Karen had helped set his splint. He was all in, hobbling behind. Karen loathed Ashley Kensington, and wondered if the cheerleaders required DNA test confirmation that you had blond hair, blue eyes, long legs, and no brain to be the cheerleader captain. Ashley considered staying at what was left of the school. Surely her wealthy parents would send the maid or someone to get her. But David sounded like he knew all about Nuclear attacks when he told her that was stupid, and she was terrified of being left behind, alone. Doron was a genius who was also popular as the creator of the encrypted "geek.peek" homework school website.

    Holed up with her mum in a Newcastle suburb and living on a steady diet of Bailey’s and chips, Rowena fantasizes about her absent dad and plans her own funeral music. But when she embarks on an energetic campaign to eliminate her mother’s new boyfriend, Bernard “Filthy” Luker, Rowena starts to lose her slippery grip on reality and is packed off to a teenage therapy group. Meet the Madolescents.

    Marks the seasons of the author's life, her early writing, her work as active media practitioner, and her religio-spiritual writing.

    But when Kieran Lanier moves to town and passes out on her desk on his first day at school, Zip’s life gets complicated in a way she never dreamed. Kieran has narcolepsy, and although he sometimes struggles to stay awake, he has no trouble capturing Zip’s heart and trusting her with his most guarded secret—he sees bits and pieces of the future in his dreams. And while he didn’t know who she was at the time, Kieran had seen Zip in his dreams over five months before he moved to Titusville from North Carolina. But just when Zip thinks that maybe she can handle having a boyfriend who sees things before they happen, her budding relationship with Kieran gets a jolt. She and Kieran learn that his sleeping disorder and the future flashes were likely caused by a drug invented by his birth father, Morgan Levert, a convicted felon who plays a starring role in Kieran’s nightmares. And when Zip begins to have unsettling dreams after chance encounters with Morgan's former partner-in-crime, she must decide if she can live with the possibility of seeing the future when she doesn’t always like what she sees.

    In The Road Show we meet Zachary Edge, a Confederate soldier, on his way home at the war's close. He stumbles upon a traveling troupe, a chance encounter that is the start of an unforgettable odyssey. Edge hits the road with bawdy showgirls, roguish tricksters, and a host of colorful characters. He soon finds himself in the arms of Autumn Auburn, the lithesome artiste known for her breathtaking sensuality.

    Gisele's great nephew, the gifted Micah, and his distant cousin, Selena, arrive to assist. Together with Gisele's summer students, twins Haley and Lacey, they will try to help the magical forest. Much to the consternation of the beautiful Selena, Micah identifies Haley as The One whom he'll share his future. But after witnessing a terrifying display of Micah's Gift, Haley cools to his advances and unexpectedly discovers her own Gift-- she can heal the earth. Monsters, mayhem, and teenage angst follow the small group as they confront evil in the forest and a dangerous prediction that 'one will fall'. Will they heal the rifts in time? Can they save the unicorns? And is Haley really destined to be with Micah?

    They talk like it is, but really and truly it's black against white, young against old, authorities against the rest. It's countless of things. There's bare reasons for feeling vexed right now. Growing up on a south London estate and excluded from every school that would take her, Alesha is the poster girl for the nation's 'feral youth'. When a young teacher makes an unexpected reappearance in the 15-year-old's life, opening the door to a world of salaries, pianos and middle-class housemates, Alesha's instinct is to pull up her hood and return to the streets. But fuelled by a need to survive, she falls into a cycle of crime, violence and drug-dealing, her one true ally deserting her when she needs him most. While everyone around her is rallying against the authorities in a war of haves and have-nots, Alesha finds herself caught in the crossfire, inextricably linked to the people she is trying to fight against. Can she see a way out? And as riots sweep the nation, whose side will she take? Born in South London and a resident of Ealing, an area affected by the London riots, Polly wrote Feral Youth 'to give a voice to the thousands of frustrated youths who, like Alesha, feel marginalised and ignored by the rest of society'. She believes that the real causes of the riots have not gone away and that further unrest will happen in a matter of time. Feral Youth is a work of contemporary adult fiction that covers various topical themes, including the riots, youth culture, gangs and knife and gun crime. It is aimed primarily at the adult reader and provides an alternative perspective on a world we think we know.