But when a terrified woman falls through his bathroom ceiling, he's forced back into a life of gunfights, double agents and paranormal research. The secret he's been keeping for nearly four decades might reunite him with his lost love, or kill millions.This new short story by John August falls into the genre of paranoid "spy-fi" popularized by writers like Jorge Luis Borges and shows like The Prisoner and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.== What Others Say =="I really dug the story. Gave it a glance just to see, got totally hooked, and blazed on through to the end."-- Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Yiddish Policemen's Union) "The Variant" is both a good, fun, smart story and an interesting experiment in indie self-publishing for fiction."-- John Gruber, daringfireball.net== About the Author ==An excerpt of The Variant is available at johnaugust.com/variant About the AuthorJohn August is the screenwriter of eight feature films, including Go, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride. He wrote and directed the 2007 movie The Nines.He can be found on Twitter, @johnaugust

    Standing, and straddling my broken body with a well-muscled leg on either side of me, she looked like an ethereal giant: a beautiful Amazon, impossible tall, and equally invincible. She fired immediately, spun quickly and fired again, then dropped down and crowded me against the antique safe that had become our sanctuary. Improbably, she grinned at me. "Two down, and one to go."A mass shooting, an FBI coverup, and a madman with his own militia and a political hit list. Adam Cain is caught in the middle with only one person to trust; the beautiful and mysterious woman that calls herself the Gypsy. She seems to have all the answers, and a hit list of her own.

    When a mysterious blast goes off in a small college town, triggering a blizzard, the few survivors must decide whether to stay or leave and face the monsters who came with the snow.

    With the page-turning suspense and unsettling found photographs from real asylums that led Publishers Weekly to call Asylum “a strong YA debut,” Escape from Asylum is perfect for fans of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.The nightmare is just beginning.Ricky Desmond has been through this all before. If he could just get through to his mother, he could convince her that he doesn’t belong at Brookline. From the man who thinks he can fly to the woman who killed her husband, the other patients are nothing like him; all he did was lose his temper just a little bit, just the once. But when Ricky is selected by the sinister Warden Crawford for a very special program—a program that the warden claims will not cure him but perfect him—Ricky realizes that he may not be able to wait for his mom a second longer. With the help of a sympathetic nurse and a fellow patient, Ricky needs to escape now.Set long before Dan, Abby, and Jordan ever walked the hallways of the Brookline asylum—back when it was still a functioning psych ward and not a dorm—Escape from Asylum is a mind-bending and scary installment in the Asylum series that can stand on its own for new readers or provide missing puzzle pieces for series fans.Don't miss Madeleine Roux's all-new gothic horror novel, House of Furies .

    But his luck is about to change on a mysterious island near South Africa, where he seeks a rare prehistoric fish. Deep inside the caves, John finds more than he bargained for. He encounters the tribal elder, Kota―practically the devil himself with a plan straight from hell. Within the caverns beneath the island, the tribe worships and nurtures a prehistoric marine reptile that could engulf T-Rex. The size of a sperm whale, and equipped with ten-foot jaws bristling with eighteen-inch teeth, this pliosaur is the last remaining member of the greatest predator species that ever lived. Only then does John realize Kota’s true agenda―to unleash the leviathan on the modern world to fulfill the tribe’s bloodlust for revenge. Now it’s all up to John to warn humanity of the fifty-ton killing machine headed its way―before the Ivory Coast washes blood red. But first, he has to get off the island . . . alive.

    Little did she know that she would defend it with her life. For the entire unarmed human settlement lies smack between two varieties of monster, one spider-like, one human-like, but infinitely stronger. Monsters who will simply never stop…HUNTER’S PLANET by David BischoffOn Hunter's Planet, populated by genetically engineered creatures of all kinds, it seems that Predators have begun to seed Aliens. This is bad, real bad, for business, which is why Machiko Noguchi is sent in to confront the Predators she once considered friends. The only way for her to win is to take control of the most deadly planet in known space…WAR by S. D. PerryMachiko Noguchi is an outcast being tracked by the Predators who used to be her hunting band. Jess, Lara, and Ellis are the remnants of a bug-hunting team that wiped out an infestation in a Company space station. All four humans must join a desperate fight on the swamp planet Bunda, where fearsome Predators are at war with a ferocious colony of aliens.

     Annie Starling is missing her memory of the last eight weeks—the most devastating in history. It started in Russia and went global in a matter of days, the most virulent virus the world has ever known. It’s stripping its victims of every last thing that makes them human. And that’s just the beginning. The other survivors are no less dangerous than the infected. She meets Lane, who stops at nothing to assert power and control over everybody who’s left; Kyle, who dreams of building a new world upon the ruins of the old; Hughes, who lost the ability to feel after burying his family; and Parker, who threatens to tear himself and his companions apart. And when her memories finally return, Annie discovers a terrifying secret that could change everything—but she can’t tell a soul what it is.

    When eccentric billionaire, Ellis Holloway, hires renegade marine biologist, Sam Aston, to investigate the legend of a monster in a remote Finnish lake, Aston envisions an easy paycheck and a chance to clear his gambling debts. But he gets much more. There is something terrible living beneath the dark waters of Lake Kaarme and it is hungry. As the death toll mounts, Aston faces superstitious locals, a power-hungry police chief, and a benefactor's descent into madness as he races to find the legendary beast of the lake.

    Not thinking about what might be lurking in the shadows, he soon finds out that you are never truly alone in the woods.

    The offer on her desk from Corporate Financial Consultants included a high five figure salary, generous benefits and cushy perks. Finally, after a escaping the psychological abuse of an emotionally cold mother and a series of dead-end jobs she could start planning a future with her fiancé, Donald.However, Michelle forgot the cardinal rule for any job offer; always read the fine print. She really should have gotten more detail about her overtime hours,company policies, and exactly what they meant when they said “Welcome to the Corporate Financial family”.Michelle isn’t afraid of hard work. She’s a dedicated employee,the kind any manager would want for his firm. But this Corporation requires much more than just dedication...

    Democracy has been suspended while the reconstruction effort lifts the country out of the ruins of conflict. America's fate lies in the hands of a genetically-engineered soldier with the ability to move through time.The Road to Hell deals with a futuristic world and the advent of limited time travel. It explores social issues such as the nature of trust and the conflict between loyalty and honesty.

    The estate is in disrepair, but one couple is determined to restore the estate to its former glory. But when strange accidents begin to become more dangerous, putting their crew’s lives at risk, the fixer-upper couple realize they might have bitten off more than they could chew.The Haunting of Calhoun MansionThree murders. One night. No convictions.Nicole Harper, a hospice nurse with a floundering marriage, is assigned a new patient in the remote Northwestern wilderness. But when Nic meets her new patient, she discovers the old woman's family history is as troubling as her medical condition.The Haunting of the Holloway FamilyA job opportunity has brought the Holloway family to a small desert town on the Arizona/California border in the middle of nowhere. But what is thought as a godsend soon devolves into a parent’s worst nightmare.

    Where it fell, everything died and was consumed. The residents of remote outposts in Maritime Canada escaped the worst of the early damage, but that was a blessing in disguise, for they were left to watch as first North America, then the world, was subsumed in the creeping green carpet of terror.

    He built it for his own secret reasons--and now there is no untruth he won't tell, no subterfuge he won't pull, to help his estranged young daughter.To protect his troubled little girl, Trevor Lennox will change our world.He will give Amy what no one else can: a world without lies.But there are some secrets that should stay buried forever... When the base around him erupts in murder and mayhem, Trevor himself must face the horrifying truth.The lies we tell ourselves can be the deadliest of all..."Original and profound. Deliciously complicated... Trevor is an alluring protagonist." --Kirkus Reviews

    When stunning movie star Mercedes Calder drowns in her pool, her identical twin sister Marcie poses as Mercedes, discovers the starlet's shocking secrets, and must outwit a crazed killer.