Yancy Lazarus—bluesman, gambler, mage, and professional fix-it man—has been working for the Guild of the Staff for over twenty-five years. Handling ugly problems no one else wants to touch. Mostly by breaking things, blowing ’em up, or otherwise meting out Guild-sanctioned justice, Rambo-style. His next assignment will be his last. A Guild operative, with a headful of dangerous secrets, has gone missing inside the court of the High Tuatha De Danann: ye olde Irish gods of badassery. Yancy—along with fellow wet-works man James Sullivan and Judge Ailia Levchenko—is dispatched to retrieve the missing operative or, barring that, make the perpetrators behind the operative’s disappearance pay a steep, bloody price for crossing the Guild. But with pissed-off godlings gunning for him on every side, a little kidnapping might be the least of Yancy’s worries. The Guild investigators are gonna have to navigate the murky waters of court politics, ferret out a traitor, and devise a way to put the kibosh on an inter-dimensional invasion if they want to avoid being murdered horribly. And even if they do get to the bottom of the diabolical mystery, nothing will ever be the same, because one of their number isn’t coming home …

    Forced to have words, after years of avoidance, the two sift through their own rubble, pulling to the surface the dark secret that caused them to prematurely split-up.

    Her husband had left her three years ago, and in spite of her best friends' efforts, she hadn't had a date since.Deb was a gorgeous woman with cropped but stylish blonde hair, sharp features, and an athletic build. In other words, the perfect woman in Jocelyn's eyes, and the last woman Jocelyn would expect to want her.Cooking for Love is an 8000-word short story.

    But that doesn't mean the people celebrating it are always so nice. Criminals get the Christmas spirit, too!In this collection of hilarious short stories, you'll see what the thieves, killers, psychos and scumbags are up to come the holidays...and it's not caroling door to door. Well, not unless they're casing the neighborhood for a break-in, as a rag-tag gang does in the title story. You'll also meet a mall elf menaced by a very, very bad Santa (in "I Killed Santa Claus"), a London police inspector hunting for the man who murdered Ebenezer Scrooge (in "Humbug"), a trucker out to save his shipment of Cabbage Patch Dolls from bumbling hijackers (in "Special Delivery") and many more characters you'll never forget.Originally published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, these nine tales from award-winning short story master Steve Hockensmith (Holmes on the Range, Dreadfully Ever After) are sure to have you ho-ho-hoing from the first page to the last.

    In a bid to escape his pain, Jonah moved halfway across the country to start over. Now, his mother’s death brings him home where he will discover a shared passion with his childhood best friend. Neil Brogan returns home hoping to reconnect with Jonah and ends up with more than he ever thought possible. They live on opposite sides of the country but the distance between them may be more than mere miles. Neil hopes to convince Jonah that some rules are made to be broken.

    Mind your manners and enjoy the chocolate in a dance of sparkling wit and political intrigue.Tremontaine is an episodic serial presented by Serial Box Publishing. This collected omnibus edition gathers all 16 episodes from Season 1.

    Drawing from the New York Public Library's archives, The Stonewall Reader is a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines and newspapers that documented both the years leading up to and the years following the riots. Most importantly the anthology spotlights both iconic activists who were pivotal in the movement, such as Sylvia Rivera, co-founder of Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), as well as forgotten figures like Ernestine Eckstein, one of the few out, African American, lesbian activists in the 1960s. The anthology focuses on the events of 1969, the five years before, and the five years after. Jason Baumann, the NYPL coordinator of humanities and LGBTQ collections, has edited and introduced the volume to coincide with the NYPL exhibition he has curated on the Stonewall uprising and gay liberation movement of 1969.

    Contains the first novel in the series, PRIMAL Origin, two action packed prequels, and the compendium.What is PRIMAL?PRIMAL is a team of elite operatives, hell bent on fighting for the downtrodden and oppressed. A renegade agency waging a secret war against the untouchables; powerful criminals, greed driven corporations, and twisted politicians. With cutting-edge technology and tactics they strike across the globe with impunity, stepping in where governments fail. PRIMAL books are dedicated to those who have fought for a just cause. The PRIMAL books are best read in order: 1. PRIMAL Origin 2. PRIMAL Unleashed 3. PRIMAL Vengeance 4. PRIMAL Fury 5. PRIMAL Reckoning 6. PRIMAL Nemesis 7. PRIMAL Redemption 8. PRIMAL Renegade PRIMAL Mirza and PRIMAL Inception are stand-alone prequels.

    Best Lesbian Romance 2009, edited by the award-winning author of such books as When Dreams Tremble and Turn Back Time, presents the juiciest, most seductive love stories written today. Putting a new spin on the subject, these stories explore the underlying emotions and complex relationships that help define love between women. From a shy glance across a crowded room, to a casual meeting at a dinner party, to an accidental encounter on a street corner, this collection of romantic interludes showcases the many ways love can be both lost and found. Contributors include Jennifer Fulton, Karin Kallmaker, Radclyffe, Rakelle Valencia, and Alison Tyler.

    Here are two dark and dazzling classic tales of passion and peril by the incomparable mistress of romantic suspense, #1 New York Times bestselling authorNora RobertsHer voice was like hot whiskey, smooth and potent, but it was her contradictions that fascinated Detective Boyd Fletcher - the vulnerability beneath her self-sufficient facade. Radio announcer Cilla O'Roarke was being threatened, and it was Boyd's job to protect her. But though she protested his intrusion into her life, an undeniable attraction sizzled between them...and anything could happen on the Night Shift.He walked the night, a shadow among shadows. They called him Nemesis and he was everywhere. But the night he saved Deborah O'Roarke from an attacker he rediscovered the sweet ache of longing. As Gage Guthrie he could woo her. But the idealistic prosecutor abhorred his vigilante approach to crime fighting. So how could he reveal he was the phantom who lurked in the Night Shadow?

    "I think it is my most beautiful play since Streetcar," Tennessee Williams said, "and I've never stopped working on it....It is a cri de coeur, but then all creative work,all life, in a sense is a cri de coeur."In the course of its evolution, several earlier versions of The Two-Character Play have been produced. The first of them was presented in 1967 in London and Chicago and brought out in 1969 by New Directions in a signed limited edition. The next, staged in 1973 in New York under the title Out Cry, was published by New Directions in 1973 The third version (New York, 1975), again titled The Two-Character Play, is the one Tennessee Williams wished to include in New Directions' The Theatre of Tennessee Williams series. It is this version which is presented in this ND paperback.

    Her job is to pull a valuable warlord out of his black hole. The king wants Laird Tam out of the doldrums and back doing what he does best: killing in the name of Scotland. Juliette reluctantly agrees to the king’s task, because she has no choice. Lady Juliette is sweet, sassy, and determined, but also a little spoilt. She knows she’ll cope with the bleak north, the boredom and the barbarous Scotsmen, but when these two hundred days are done, she’s bolting back to England as quickly as her silk slippers will take her. Juliette underestimates the Scottish Highlands. She greatly underestimates Laird Tam. And there’s something else she doesn’t realise: the Highlands are never boring . . . “We’re going into the sea, Juliette.” “No, no, no . . .” “Aye, we are. You’re a strong Sassenach, remember that. You’ll survive this shipwreck.” “No. I won’t . . .” “I’ll find you, my darling, I’ll always find you . . .” Then the wave hits. Now Lady Juliette must survive the sea, the Irish outlaws, runaway nuns, and the ancient Caledonian Forest. Not to mention her growing attraction to Laird Tam . . .

    Frederick Barthelme creates an unforgettably wistful cast of characters, ordinary people moving carefully and curiously through a gently painful world.

    Do yourself a favor and check out Neon Fever Dream." -Popular Science A dark secret hides in the swirling dust and exultant revelry of Burning Man.Asha Amarasuriya is bored and struggling to get by as a martial arts instructor in Oakland. When an enigmatic seductress offers her a golden ticket, Asha decides to take a leap of faith and head to Burning Man. But there is more than meets the eye at the infamous desert pilgrimage and Asha gets sucked into a quest to unravel a sinister mystery at the heart of Black Rock City.Will Asha and her friends survive to expose the shadowy conspiracy? By the time the Man burns, their lives will have changed forever.

    In this series of perfectly rendered vignettes, written just as he was starting to find his comic voice, Kurt Vonnegut paints a warm, wise, and often funny portrait of life in post—World War II America–a world where squabbling couples, high school geniuses, misfit office workers, and small-town lotharios struggle to adapt to changing technology, moral ambiguity, and unprecedented affluence. Vonnegut explores the relationship between science’s pursuit of truth and the state’s need to control it in “The Petrified Ants,” a darkly whimsical story about two Soviet researchers who stumble upon an amazing discovery, only to learn that natural history is also written by the hand that wields the power. “The Petrified Ants” and the thirteen other never-before-published pieces that comprise Look at the Birdie serve as an unexpected gift for devoted readers who thought that Kurt Vonnegut’s unique voice had been stilled forever–and provide a terrific introduction to his short fiction for anyone who has yet to experience his genius.Other stories from Look at the Birdie available as single-story e-books:On sale August 25, 2009"Hello, Red"On sale October 20, 2009:"Confido""FUBAR""Shout About It from the Housetops""Ed Luby's Key Club""A Song for Selma""Hall of Mirrors""The Nice Little People""Little Drops of Water""The Honor of a Newsboy""Look at the Birdie" (Short Story)"King and Queen of the Universe""The Good Explainer"