maritime industry hit rock bottom starting in the early 1980's, right around the time the author was graduating from the California Maritime Academy. Even in his yearbook it warned about how bad things were—it was a time of cost cutting, reduced wages, desperate shipping companies and a lack of jobs. Eventually he made his way out to sea as both an able-bodied seaman and as a third mate. He saw first-hand what it was like out there; from the crazy captains to the weary sailors, and from the bad food to the dangerous working conditions. This book covers it all, and while the ships he sailed on were all scrapped long ago, the stories of the industry and what it took to make it on them, are remembered. This is his story.

    Robert Hunter is eagerly awaiting the return of his father from the war. Next door, Ruth Cooper's family are also preparing to welcome her dad, whose ship was lost at Jutland. After five years of separation and anxiety - and, for Bob, the worry of caring for his frail mother - emotions are running high for both young people. But Alf Hunter, who saw action in the trenches, returns a changed man, and when he takes to drink, Bob must put his own happiness on hold to support his family.

    Easy reading and enjoyable.." - John P Sam's trousers were round his ankles. The microwaved chicken - long past its sell-by date - had made a hasty exit. He was down a ditch in the middle of nowhere, and there weren't any tissues. Suzy had dumped him. Things weren't going well. He was only one wipe away from his life changing forever when he found a blue IKEA bag packed with banknotes. Gary wants to kill him. So does Vlad. Ashton wants to paint him naked and then there's the Contessa. Suzy isn't certain they've broken up. One thing’s for sure: Sam's life has been turned upside down.

    After losing their small business and life savings to the government’s unfathomable shutdown, the author and her husband are forced to sell their home and move into a travel trailer. Still reeling from financial loss and the deaths of two of their beloved dogs, the pair embark on a new life in a trailer park, populated with some of the most unconventional characters you’d ever hope not to meet. There’s Gretchen, the park’s unsympathetic and conniving manager, and her puny, perverted husband, Lloyd, who “maintains” the park grounds and who gives pool algae a bad name. Daisy and Lonnie May are the author’s closest neighbors, and are, perhaps, the park’s most devoted couple. Only Daisy May happens to be Lonnie’s dog. Trailer Dogs will make you laugh, cry, and maybe even a little angry. But it will never make you bored.

    Holding on to those resources will be tougher.Three weeks after the mother of all solar storms, power is out, communications are down, and transportation is mostly non-existent. Fear and panic run rampant. Resources run scarce. Looting, rioting, and general mayhem advance as the dark side of humanity takes hold.Retired Air Force Major Sam Pratt, along with his best friend, Chet Stevens, their recent traveling companion, Tiffany Conway, and her parents double down on their plan to wait out the apocalypse at Sam’s cabin in the foothills of Tennessee. Food is the first order of business. They’ll need plenty to survive the two years or more they expect it will take for the lights to return. Should Sam and his friends make do with what the land provides, or claim their fair share of what food remains?Security is the second order of business. To defend against an expected onslaught of hungry people, Sam and his cadre form an alliance with the nearby town of Townsend. The population is small, manageable, and led by a select few with military experience. They anticipate no shortage of marauders willing to kill for what the town has. And Townsend, Tennessee, with its access to fresh water and miles of remote forest teeming with game and fish, is prime real estate for seemingly everyone with a gun. Sam and his friends have a decision to make. Stand and fight with the town, fall back to the cabin, or fade into the mountains?Decisions have consequences, and mistakes are often counted with lost lives. Is survival in this post-apocalyptic world even feasible?

    If you own a prior version, please go to Manage Your Content & Devices and update. Four former Army Rangers have been prepping for an eventual apocalyptic event for more than two years in the mountains of Tennessee. The four have made a wager on what the event would be, an economic collapse, a worldwide pandemic, a killer asteroid, or the eruption of a caldera in Yellowstone National Park. Nothing the men saw in the horrors of battle in Afghanistan or Iraq could begin to compare to the actual apocalyptic event that happens in their own backyard. The pure devastation and chaos caused by the event is unparalleled, and only the strongest will survive. Would you be able to survive? Join us for discussion on Facebook -- New Madrid Fan Club (@NewMadridBooks) OR if you prefer to be on our mailing list -- email the Author at NewMadridFans@aol.com

    

    Part One holds 12 stories of Family Annihilators - men who murder their entire family. It is more common than you might think. Part Two is called A Six Pack of Murder which is a random collection of six more true crime stories of murder.

    Besides her solid-as-a-rock husband, her only solace is her two dogs, her sewing students, and her new friends in the women's group her mother-in-law has introduced her to.Alice and Robin want to help Jean, but they don't know how. Alice is dealing with a pregnancy scare, and Robin is trying to help her oldest daughter navigate collegiate options.AJ has the best advice, as she's lived most of her life childless too. But her own baby is requiring more from her than she ever imagined. Eloise provides food and offers Jean a job at her inn though she's drowning to keep her head above water there. Kelli brings her son to Jean as much as possible, but it's not until Kristen convinces Jean to spearhead the new Seafaring Girls program in Five Island Cove that Jean starts to find some purpose to her life.Kristen is consulting on the program, as she ran it successfully many years ago, and her heart is happy as she watches a new generation of girls learn to love the sea while staying safe on it.But when someone returns to the Cove no one ever expected to see again, old wounds open just as they'd started to heal. This group of women will be tested again, both on land and at sea, just as they once were as teens.

    That is the mind set of Pure Adams, who learned at a young age how to use what she got to get what she wants. No man is spared, nor off limits to Pure when it comes to feeding her lavish lifestyle and need for money, including her best friend’s husband, Isaac Washington. Since the day she laid eyes on Isaac, Pure felt that he was the man she’d been looking for her entire life. She concocts a plan that will tear Isaac and Autumn apart. But even Isaac {Pure’s dream man} has secrets of his own. To the world, he is a prestigious doctor and loving family man, but beneath the surface, he is a ruthless kingpin who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, which could have deadly consequences for Pure when she unknowingly steals his drug money. Despite the close calls, Pure continues to play her hand at the street life, committing almost every sin imaginable to man from theft, to fornication, and even murder. But one ultimate act spins her precious world spirally out of control which could be a devastating end to her games involving her loved ones when she kills the brother of an ex-hustler, Carlos Sanchez, who seeks revenge. Will Pure be able to withstand the tricks of trades of the streets, or will her past sins finally catch up with her.

    But what happens when a friendship fades, and people go their separate ways? Does it mean they won’t see each other again or does it make the friendship stronger when they reunite? Lexi is a college graduate who thought Frankie was the love of her life; until she met someone else. He swept her off her feet and promised to love her forever. Unfortunately, with every new person you meet, there’s always a hidden agenda. Frankie promised to marry Lexi when they were younger, but as fate would have it, nothing went as planned. She left for school while he stayed back and did his own thing. His new girlfriend, Crystal, has plans of her own for Frankie and will make sure nothing or no one stands in her way of getting him; including his long lost love Lexi. Take a journey with the characters you love to hate and see if Luvin' A Young Beast is everything it’s cracked up to be.

    Now an even larger one has been discovered, following the exact same trajectory as its predecessor. Scientists around the world theorize that this can no longer be passed off as mere coincidence—the new contact must be an artificial construct of some kind.With an ambitious plan to build a spacecraft and attempt a manned landing, a crew is formed. Disgraced astronaut Cassie Voges hopes to get selected for one last chance at redemption. Maverick billionaire Toby Merckx wants to beat his rivals to the extraordinary secrets he believes the object may unlock. And its controversial discoverer, Charles Hudson, seeks to escape his past and be remembered for something better.What they find will change humanity forever.

    Who doesn’t likes a good session of jokes? If you too are looking to add a little humor to your life and you would love to have some rib cracking laugher sessions, we have a perfect book for you. The internet is a vast repository of jokes and the list is practically too big to handle. However, not all jokes are funny and damn, we all know how much it frustrates to read a joke (and some pathetically long ones too) and then end up wondering WTF, where did that go!Heck, I didn’t even twitch an eyelid, leave apart laughing. So, to spare you from all such bloopers... We have brought for you the best jokes of 2016, compiled all together. We have spanned multiple dimensions and we are sure that you can’t have a straight face as you read the jokes. They are just too funny to simply smile. We had a cracker of a time compiling it as we broke into fits of laughter. So, are you all set to truly have a fun ride by dabbling on the best jokes that were hot on the internet?

    He has been especially trained by the newly crowned king to win over territories and annex them to the greatest empire of those times. The earth quakes and the skies shiver when Chamundeswari and Vijayendran come face to face. But is everything what it appears to be on the surface? Forget being docile, the princess with a tiger for her pet, appears to be a rebel through and through. And the warrior whose strength is to annex regions could be the very person the princess needs to save her kingdom. But will The Rebel Princess heed the words of the man who sets her on fire with a mere glance?

    She leaves him the unusual legacy of the translated journal of his ancient ancestor, who was one of the four Cathar perfecti who escaped from the castle of Montségur with the ‘treasure of the Cathars’ strapped to his back – a treasure which has never been found. She also leaves him a sum of money with the request that he travels to the Pyrenean fastness of le Bézu where she believes the treasure still lies.Meanwhile the famous young French archaeologist Jaqueline Blontard has arrived at le Bézu to start excavations as part of her new television series about the Albigensian Crusade. She believes her team will have the summer to uncover the secrets of the place before they are disturbed by the press and the authorities.However the Roman Catholic Church already knows about their plans and has arranged for their agent to join the archaeologists. Also a secret but very influential body in Paris is sending their man to watch the excavations. Furthermore a criminal gang in Marseilles has become involved in the search for the treasure.The archaeologists are suspicious of Philip but allow him to join them. As they start to uncover the secrets of le Bézu they find themselves in a race to make the information public before they are overwhelmed in a maelstrom of violence caused by the forces trying to stop them so that they can claim the treasures for their own illegal ends.