Kendell Summer, lead guitarist for Polly Urethane and the Strippers, has always been interested in the unexplained. So when she sets off on a paranormal research romp with Myles, a former classmate, to explore his skills in psychometry, she’s ready for a little adventure. But she gets more than she bargained for when her Lhasa apso, Cheesecake, is dognapped. Kendell will do whatever it takes to get her dog back. While rescuing the pup, Kendell and Myles learn that the touristy glitz of New Orleans’ voodoo shops hides a dark history few understand—a truth that some in the city plan to use for their own gain. Soon they uncover more than they ever wanted to know about New Orleans’ unsavory past and a curse that threatens to change everything. Only Kendell can prevent the evil they’ve uncovered from doing more damage, but she’ll need Myles’s support and psychometric abilities—and the vigilance of the ever-watchful Cheesecake.

    Witch Central goes to Costa Rica for summer vacation.

    As a medium, the prospect of tackling a haunted house is less daunting than seeing Max Baron again. Throughout their passionate college relationship, he promised to love her forever. Then, without explanation, he abandoned her on graduation day.Max never intended to break Claire's heart—a cruel ultimatum forced him to disappear from her life. While he's shocked to find her in Gull Harbor, he isn't surprised by the bitter resentment she feels for him...or the fiery attraction that remains between them.Claire is determined to rid her temporary home of its aggressive ghost, but Max soon realizes she's facing a danger beyond the paranormal. When Claire risks everything to help a desperate spirit, Max must race to save her—before another tragedy tears them apart forever.

    She knows the Crusades, the Black Death, and the other horrors of the Middle Ages all too well, but it is another kind of atrocity that has begun to haunt her dreams. She sees forces of evil assaulting a beleaguered kingdom, whose kind people are on the brink of annihilation, and awakes each morning in a cold sweat. In The Time of the Dark, Gil dismisses the dreams until a wizard appears in her apartment. He has crossed into her dimension, passing through the fraying fabric of the universe, to ask her help. For mankind to survive he must protect an infant prince, whom he plans to hide in Gil's world. She is about to get much closer to evil than she ever imagined. In The Walls of Air and The Armies of Daylight, Gil and Rudy know the world is no longer safe and there is nowhere to hide from the Dark. Since the Dark Ones returned, the world has been laid to waste. The land’s wizards have been slaughtered, its cities destroyed, and its people scattered in terror. Few have witnessed more of the destruction than Gil and Rudy, and both of them will need all their strength to survive this final challenge. Ingold, the master wizard, has devised a spell to hide the user from the deathly stare of the Dark, and he intends to use it to strike at their very heart. Finally, Gil, Rudy, and the rest of mankind’s survivors will take the offensive, bringing an end to this terrible war, for better or for worse.

    But those days are gone as the galaxy becomes the stomping ground for humans encountering strange new machinery and green-faced Martians. Depicted with stark realism and meticulous detail, this novel tells of the dangers, despair and unbelievable pleasure that awaits the men and women who are to populate the first ever station in space.

    

    For fifteen years, the Sleepy Valley Nudist Colony has provided a safe haven for Addie to hide from the crime she committed. But when the residents pack up to go on exhibit at the 1935 world’s fair in San Diego, Addie returns and must face the thrilling yet terrifying prospect of reuniting with her estranged sister, Wavey.Addie isn’t the only one interested in a reunion. When her niece, Rumor, discovers she has an aunt, Rumor is determined to bring her family together. But it’s not so easy when the women are forced to confront family secrets, past and present.Set against the backdrop of the 1935 world’s fair, Whistling Women explores the complex relationships between sisters, the sacrifices required to protect family, and the devastating consequences of a single impulsive act.

    so when Jahir invites him home for a cousin's wedding, he is eager for the chance to find out more about these enigmatic aliens, and his friend in particular. Naturally, he gets more than he bargains for. By the end of his trip, he'll either know all Jahir's secrets...or he'll be dead... A 92-page novella set in the Pelted Universe.

     Trouble seems to find them anyway, and a panicked phone call from Leah's younger sister, Rowena, prompts Leah to leave in search of treatment for Anna and to rescue Rowena from the cycle of abuse that Leah herself narrowly escaped years ago. But when a twist of fate leaves Anna in her care, Rowena may have no choice but to return to the community that she was so desperate to escape.

    And writers love to attend and document these occasions. The party is a useful literary device, not only for social commentary and satire but also as an occasion where characters can meet, fall in and out of love, or even get murdered.A Curious Invitation is a humorous and informative guide to literature's most memorable parties. Some of these parties are depictions of real events, like the Duchess of Richmond's ball on the eve of battle with Napoleon in Thackeray's Vanity Fair; others draw on the authors' experience of the society they lived in, such as Lady Metroland's party in Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies; while others come straight from the writer's bizarre imagination, like Douglas Adams' flying party above an unknown planet from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.Witty, entertaining, and full of fabulous detail, A Curious Invitation offers readers the chance to crash some of the great parties in literary history.

    

    Extreme danger. One fearless woman.Passerina Fowler just wants to be a professional fighter. She has struggled for years to make a name for herself. But then her life abruptly changes when she's discovered by a recruiter from SafeTrek Bridging, a company that transports clients to alternate versions of Earth.With nothing to lose, Passerina accepts a job as a bridger, an elite fighter who protects clients on excursions to alternate worlds. However, on her first day she witnesses a horrifying event and realizes bridging can be downright deadly.In spite of the risks, she is determined to complete her training program. But she soon realizes the training is more focused on her fears than her strength and endurance. And for good reason—there is much to be feared when bridging to alternate worlds naked and unarmed. Passerina must steadily transform herself into a bridger, with a new name: Infinity.Infinity grows impatient for the excitement and danger of her first bridging excursion. But when it finally comes, she finds herself in a world of vicious predators, and the danger becomes all too real.

    The throne has been lost for millennia, but now one man seeks to find it, and harness its secrets to unleash hell upon the world. Jonathan is the most powerful psychic on earth, and in service of his god Lucifer he will tear civilization apart. To combat his dark designs, mankind’s hopes rest on a half-mad alcoholic named Edgar Allan Poe.In the shadows of New York City, Poe drowns his talent in rotgut gin, trying to forget the death of his beloved wife. A bare-knuckle fighter named Pierce James Figg arrives with a letter of introduction from Charles Dickens, to beg Poe’s help chasing down the power-mad devil worshiper. Writer and fighter will stand together, to save humanity from a darkness beyond even Poe’s tortured imagination.

    No Sparkles. Serious Snark.REVIEW: "Honestly, this is one of the best books that I've read this year and certainly a new series that I will be following." —Black Lagoon ReviewsBOOK ONE: HARD DAY’S KNIGHTChildren are missing. The police are stumped. Halloween is coming, and an ancient evil is on the horizon. The vampires are the good guys. This is not your ordinary fall weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina. Vampire private detectives Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood have been hired to save a client from being cursed for all eternity, but end up in a bigger mess than they ever imagined. Suddenly trapped in the middle of a serial kidnapping case, Jimmy and Greg uncover a plot to bring forth an ancient evil. Soon, they’ve enlisted the help of a police detective, a priest, a witch, a fallen angel and a strip club proprietor to save the world. This unlikely band of heroes battles zombies, witches, neuroses and sunburn while cracking jokes and looking for the perfect bag of O-negative.BOOK TWO: BACK IN BLACKVampire detectives Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood investigate a series of assaults plaguing the alleys of Charlotte, North Carolina. The string of hate crimes becomes personal when Jimmy’s just-maybe-main-squeeze Detective Sabrina Law’s cousin is attacked. Helping a lady out could get the boys killed when they end up in Faerie. Before long, they’re up to their butts in trolls, dark fae and a grand battle royale. The odds are against them, but to the boys, this is just another day on the night shift—if the night shift included a steel cage match of supernaturals.BOOK THREE: KNIGHT MOVESEt tu, Vampire? The boys discover they may be tied to a string of serial killings at the college and that they suddenly aren’t the only vampire game in town.The vampire count in Charlotte is at least three. Or more. As far as the unhappy boys are concerned, anything more than two is a crowd not to be tolerated. While tracking down the killer and the competition, they encounter coeds, booby traps (not related to the coeds) and a hirsute bounty hunter with a moon fetish and a bad attitude. To catch the killer, Jimmy will have to survive a dive headfirst into the great unwashed horde of Dorkdom (game night at the local comic shop).What’s a red-blood-drinking vampire to do? His job. Again. Praise for the Black Knight Chronicles—"This is another great book in what will hopefully be a large and successful series. I know I will be eagerly awaiting the next installment." — Indie Book Blog"I love this book. It makes me happy in a way that hasn't happened in a long, long time." —Keryl Raist, Author of Sylvianna

    A sorcerer, sage, prophet, and teacher, Merlin’s mysterious life has inspired a vast array of classic works while giving rise to numerous conflicting legends. Here, award-winning author Jane Yolen, one of the most acclaimed fantasy writers of our time, retells Merlin’s tales as never before. Through a series of stories and poems ranging across centuries—from the days of Merlin’s childhood as a feral boy to the possible discovery of his bones in a much later era—Yolen reimagines both the glory and grimness of Camelot, recalling characters and events from Arthurian legend, while ingeniously inventing new myths and dark fables. Merlin’s Booke is a brilliant patchwork, made up of tales that explore the mysteries of King Arthur’s world and the terrible magic that pervaded it. This ebook features a personal history by Jane Yolen including rare images from the author’s personal collection, as well as a note from the author about the making of the book.