His is a voice combining humor and pathos with an edginess creating fresh new stories that are being published in great literary journals regularly.A boy acts out at the death of his father and abandonment by his brother through a savage playground beating; a young man confronts his own troubled history when asked to hire on his girlfriend's strung-out brother in an attempt to keep him out of prison; a teenage babysitter works through a scorching-hot summer afternoon that will prove to alter her life forever; a grieving widower finds comfort in the unlikeliest of places, a recently-built casino; an itinerant farm worker visits the same former lover in South Dakota year after year while following the Harvest north; two friends search for excuses and fail to claim responsibility for their own decisions after one loses his father, and the other's house burns to the ground; and a taxidermist falls in love with the ex-wife of his high school bully and tries to convince her to marry him despite her son who seems to share his father's bullying mentality."A brilliant, sometimes heartbreaking debut by this gifted young writer and Columbia writing teacher. Cross captures the angst and tenderness of the young men and women growing up in the rust belt with little hope and less luck. The moments of grace and redemption shine through. I loved every story." —Linda Bubon, Women & Children First Bookstore"There are countless moments like this in Fires of Our Choosing, lines that appear true from the moment they’ve been written and hang in the back of the mind for days afterwards... With Fires of Our Choosing, Cross climbs boldly into the ring with the greats, if only to deliver a decisive knockout punch." —Urban Waite, Fiction Writers Review"Cross offers no apologies for his characters: their poor choices, their lack of moral fortitude, their betrayals of each other and the poverty of their surroundings and, often, themselves; he leaves these things alone. They are who they are, and if dignity has been denied them by the rest of us, including us story-tellers, it is restored by this collection. That he has undertaken to serve as their raconteur should place Cross on the radar of all the big prizes that gift those blessed with talent, compassion and fearlessness, particularly during this present moment in our history." —Ru Freeman, Huffington PostEugene Cross was born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania and received an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh. His stories have appeared in Narrative Magazine (which named him one of "20 Best New Writers" and his story "Harvester's" a "Top Five Story of 2009-2010"), American Short Fiction, Story Quarterly, TriQuarterly, and Callalloo among other publications. His work was also listed among the 2010 Best American Short Stories' 100 Distinguished Stories. He is the recipient of scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Chautauqua Writers' Festival, and the winner of the 2009 Dzanc Prize for Excellence in Literary Fiction and Community Service. He currently lives in Chicago where he teaches in the Fiction Department at Columbia College Chicago.

    She's not counting on futures -- or meeting a woman like Tyna.15,500 words.**Please note: this novella was originally distributed by Bella Books starting in 2012. The differences between versions are minor. Please don't buy it twice! See the official URL for more info.**

    But Brian has spent his whole life being the invisible man, and he's used to looking below the surface. What he sees in Talker is a fragile and lovable human being. Brian is outwardly straight, but Talker is desperate for love, and when Talker's behavior leads to some painful consequences, Brian is forced to come out of his closet-in dramatic fashion. He'll do anything to make sure Talker sees that he's the Prince Charming Talker has always needed.

    But as the deal heats up, a few conceptual changes morph the project into Lev Disraeli: Freedom Fighter, an action thriller with a black Jewish superstar, a Yugoslavian location, a mad Polish director, and even a real-life kidnapping. Is Charlie Berns being eaten alive by the system? Or is he giving the Hollywood hotshots a run for their money? Peter Lefcourt's hilarious satire proves the old adage that in Hollywood you're never quite as dead as people give you credit for.

    A short story by Elif Shafak from the collection Reader, I Married Him: Stories inspired by Jane Eyre.In ‘A Migrating Bird’, a young Turkish woman is drawn to a Dutch student on foreign exchange at her university.Edited by Tracy Chevalier, the full collection, Reader, I Married Him, brings together some of the finest and most creative voices in fiction today, to celebrate and salute the strength and lasting relevance of Charlotte Brontë’s game-changing novel and its beloved narrator.

    However, she has never acted on her urges. But a night of drinks and a secret confession to her BFF changes all that. Her friend dares her to toss her inhibitions and take a walk over to the other side and invites her to The Stud Palace—an exclusive woman’s club where women go to indulge their bicurious, bisexual, lesbian fantasies. It’s a four-floored fantasy-freaks playground where the walls drip with lust, and the music pumps out seduction. Once inside, the women find themselves caught up in a whirlwind of seduction as they find the woman they want for their steamy, uninhibited night. The studs—women who don’t shy away from presenting a more masculine presence—of the club are there to cater to every fantasy their clients may desire. And it is inside the walls of The Stud Palace where Octavia is seduced out of her clothes and spends a night of passion with a nameless stud who introduces her to the world of unbridled passion and the joys of girl-on-girl sex.

    It means feeling the crippling fear and getting past it because love is stronger than fear. It's the most powerful force in the world."Stuck in the middle of a mess she can't escape and confused about who to trust as friends are revealed as enemies and those she fears turn into potential allies, Amanda could use the comfort and support of her big sister and Trey more than ever.But when the danger becomes deadly and it's unclear if any of them will survive, Amanda is left to do something she never thought possible - save herself and the people she loves. On her own.New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Clara Bayard presents the final installment of her steamy and thrilling new adult romantic suspense novella serial.Books in this SerialHELP METRUST METAKE MEMAKE MESAVE ME

    Unlike Frédéric Moreau in Flaubert's L'Éducation sentimentale (to which this book owes no meagre debt), Piet is magnificently gifted, not only "extremely attractive to most women and to many men," but also a fine pianist, draughtsman and lover. We first meet him interviewing for the role of tutor to the son of the wealthy hotelier, Maarten Vermeulen-Sickerts. All is not well in his gilded household. Egbert, the son, is agoraphobic. The matriarch, Jacobina, hasn't been touched by her husband in almost a decade. Into this highly strung atmosphere comes Piet, charged with the task of freeing Egbert from his paralysing fear of the outside world. We soon realise, however, that Egbert isn't the only one in need of help. Piet sets about liberating the libidos of the repressed family through music – championing bawdy Bizet over abstract Bach – and oral sex. While the setting is Dutch, the influences are French – think Bel-Ami, Les Liaisons dangereuses and Gide's L'Immoraliste.

    She's trying to blend in, but it just isn't easy when Daniel Perkins, the Chief of Police, notices Sophia, and then his brothers do, too. Daniel, Mosely, Mack, and L.T. have the ability to break down her defenses and make her want to take a chance. The brothers promise her honesty, protection, and even love if she just takes a chance with them. The road to freedom has been rough and violent for Sophia. These four men represent everything she is afraid of from her past, yet they are all she desires for her future. As she learns to trust again, the past returns and puts at risk everything she has fought for. ** A Siren Erotic Romance **Dixie Lynn Dwyer is a Siren-exclusive author.Note: Due to mature themes and content, this book is intended for readers 18+. Book length is 45,000 words.

    Lander Reeve is a mega-successful bond trader with a big mouth and an even bigger SUV. He's been running Gabriel's neighbour off the road and Gabriel decides it's time to put a stop to the man's behaviour. For good. A midnight mission to recce the bully's property gives Gabriel the idea for some poetic justice involving some heavy-duty steel cable and some emergency red triangles. No gunplay (or not from Gabriel) but plenty of action in this diversion from Gabriel's bloodthirstier exploits. We also learn more about the influences that shaped his character. Praise for Trigger Point, the first full-length novel about former SAS-captain Gabriel Wolfe... “Action, double-crosses, villains galore… a rattling good thriller! Early Bond meets Jack Reacher - a thrilling debut outing for a new action hero.” Damien Seaman, author of Berlin Burning and The Killing of Emma Gross.

    Friends seeing each other with new eyes. The hesitant touch of new lovers. A first glance. A first word. A first touch. A first kiss. Take a journey through thirteen erotic shorts, poems and art to relive that first-time feeling. Naughty Bedtime Stories: First Taste will stir the butterflies, curl the toes and send hearts racing. After all, nothing tastes as good as naughty feels…

    She’s happy—or is at least she’s willing to tell herself she is.But when a relationship from the past resurfaces, it throws Evelyn’s world into turmoil. Suddenly she finds herself tempted in a way she hasn’t thought about in years.Evelyn wants to do the right thing—but she wants to follow her heart more.As her passion and desires intensify, she’s forced to weigh the cost of stepping out of her old life and into the arms of a new lover—and decide whether she’s willing to lose the things she thought she held dear to reunite with the person she thought she’d lost forever.A riveting page-turner about burning desires and secret passions, Out of Bounds is a smoldering romance that will delight hot-blooded women of all ages.

    . . a beautifully wrought hymn of praise to readers and book-lovers in the most sacred of places, the libraries where we find both." --Cassandra King, author of the best-selling novels The Sunday WifeWHEN ADELE COVINGTON becomes an author in her sixties, she goes on a book tour to speak to the Friends of the Library groups in ten small towns in her home state of Mississippi. Chasing her personal demons through the Christ-haunted South of her childhood, Adele befriends an eclectic group of wounded people and decides to tell their stories. From Eupora to Meridian, from a budding artist with an abusive husband to a seven-year-old with a rare form of cancer, each story contains elements of hope and healing and honors the heart, soul, and history of the Magnolia State.

    Her wry, often darkly funny voice describes the repressed underside of a range of middle-class characters living in the South.

    Miss Selfridge is everything he detests in a woman; opinionated, flippant and far too independent. Their skirmishes become a thorn in his side and a major impediment to his wooing of the fair Felicity. The only way he can get to know his intended better - and advance his plans - is to invite Miss Wexford and her fiesty guardian to a house party over Christmas. Surely then he can get the girl alone? But things don't quite go according to plan. They never do when Jemima Selfridge is involved. And somehow, he discovers that the woman that he cannot abide has become the one woman that he wants for Christmas...