And what happens in between—well, that's Decker's story. This is the story of those eleven minutes, and the six days that follow, from his perspective. Because while it must be terrifying to be trapped under the ice, it's a different kind of terror seeing your best friend trapped... Especially if it's your fault.

    Not in high school, not in art school, and not since she’d gotten her work into major galleries across the country. It’s not that she doesn’t want it—she’s just never found the right woman—until a trip to the beach put her right onto Cammy’s canvas. The mysterious surfer in red. She’s charming and sexy, and Cammy can’t get her out of her mind… but there’s only one problem: The girl is 100% undeniably straight. Lei Castle is a real free spirit. She’s traveled the world with only her surfboard, and now she’s finally back home in the California. With her van set up on the beach, her only worry is how the waves are going to be that day. When Cammy shows up at her private cove the two are drawn into a close friendship, and Lei takes it upon herself to show the risk-averse painter how to have a little excitement. As Cammy falls deeper in love with her friend, it becomes harder and harder to keep her tremendous desires a secret. Will she suffer the pain of unrequited love for as long as they’re together? How can the tides of fate make an impossible love a reality?

    Things might go easier for her if she didn’t almost run over the standoffish, beautiful local cop on her first day in town. And it’d really help if her film set was being mysteriously sabotaged.When Ika Whenu’s Senior Constable Sam Keegan isn’t trying to stamp out a motorcycle gang drug problem afflicting her town, she’s publicly slamming everything about the exploitative film, Shezan, and the Hollywood blow-ins making it. That includes its nerdy, cute director, Alex, who has woeful driving skills to go with her smart mouth.Against the stunning scenery and chaotic film-set backdrop, attraction flares between the two warring women as they’re forced to work together to find the set saboteur.A funny, small-town lesbian romance about clashing cultures and daring to dream big.This is a Breaking Character spin-off novel that can easily be read as a standalone story.Themes: female police officer · lesbian cop · New Zealand104,000 words

    One shopkeeper.And the one wish that brings them together.Candy shop provisioner Emma has more than enough on her plate: her small-town business is struggling, the weather is cold and rainy, and her young daughter is a precocious handful.Yet when daughter Dani asks Santa for the impossible, Emma has another problem on her hands.Because Dani wants a stepmom. More specifically, she wants her mom Emma to get married!Enter city girl Tamryn, who is on assignment on behalf of her law firm. From the moment Emma sees her in a coffee shop, she’s infatuated – and from the moment Dani sees her mom’s eyes wander?Nothing will stop one little girl from bringing Emma and Tamryn together!The cozy tourist town of Cannon Beach is about to vibrate from the cosmic electricity of fate. Good thing Christmas is the season of everything sweet… with just a hint of spice.

    Even if it means doing the one thing she’s worst at - dealing with other people.Detective Mina Sharma is determined to prove herself.Her new promotion is the one thing going right in her life as a newly-divorced single mother, and she’s not going to let anything stop her from solving her first case.Not even the aloof and enigmatic blonde with crimson eyes telling her to drop it if she values her life.Especially not when this Caroline is just as much of a puzzle to solve as the case itself.And Mina has always loved puzzles.You’ll love this F/F urban fantasy because the fast-paced writing will keep you hooked until the end.

    History tells us that mankind developed along its own path, and that many ancient kings believed themselves to be gods and were revered as such. But what if the truth were something in between? This is the reality that master thief Greg Cross now finds himself facing. What started out as a simple job for a trusted associate has quickly spiralled into a race to uncover secrets hidden since the dawn of civilisation. A race between those who seek the truth in order to take the next step in mankind’s destiny, and those who wish to claim it for their own and use it to rebuild an empire lost to them millennia ago. It is a mission that Greg cannot deny his role in; because he now possesses an ancient power that is the key to unlocking the secret of the Nexus. Allied with those who have fought all their lives to find and protect the truth, Greg must now learn to accept what he has become if he is to master it and survive the trials to come. For although he now embodies a potential seen in man long ago, his is not the only secret of the past to have resurfaced... Length: 480 pages hardback

    Squire. Hockey fan. Canadian. And Crown Prince to the entire continent of North America, known as “the Westlands” to the fae, currently ruled by his parents, High King Aethlin and High Queen Maida. Not that most people know that, since he’s a blind foster squired to a changeling—not exactly something that screams “hidden royalty.”But with a new Queen on the throne in the Mists, his parents have finally come to town to see how he’s doing…and to take him home with them. That’s going to be a problem, since Quentin doesn’t particularly want to leave, and his knight, Sir October Daye, doesn’t particularly want to let him go.Set after Chimes at Midnight and before The Winter Long, it’s finally time to meet the parents in our first-ever story narrated by Quentin himself.

    What is his real mission and will his Aunt Archangelica approve of his treatment of her cat?In this short story, New York Times Bestselling Author Gail Carriger uses her comedic voice to delve into the history of one of her most beloved characters. If you have ever wondered about Alexia's father, this will give you a glimpse into his adventures and character.This story was first published in The Book of the Dead, a Jurassic London anthology.

    Hanna, an English teacher at the local high school, falls for Jo. Literally. She falls over right in front of Jo one morning in the school's foyer.17,200 words; novelette

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    Dealing with her overwhelming grief is a struggle as she adjusts to life in a small town. And, just as she’s beginning to feel more comfortable, life takes another unexpected turn. The Alexa unit in her son’s bedroom starts to cry, and a little girl’s voice comes out of it asking for help. At first Kelly is unnerved by the presence of the voice. After ruling out all the other likely possibilities, she begins to put the pieces together, and suspects the girl is a ghost. Unwilling to be uprooted from another home, she decides to find out what the child wants. Maybe she can help. Kelly isn’t the only one interested in the voice. Detective Rob Porter is investigating the disappearance of a child named Marilee. As the two cross paths, Porter is taken aback when Kelly’s ghost mentions Marilee’s name. In fact, the ghost says “Marilee’s with me.” Whether that means the child is a ghost as well is a question Rob and Kelly hope to answer.

    Now, after twenty years away, Jay has come back to his hometown of Garron, Ohio, to uncover the truth about his brother’s death.

    After a night out with his girlfriend in one of the country's remote provinces, he wakes to find himself in a pitch-black coffin—and quickly running out of oxygen. With only his cell phone and his own wits to rely on, it's a race against time to escape the claustrophobic death trap. SIX BULLETS The end of civilization arrived in the form of a giant asteroid thirteen months ago. For Burt James, a survivalist, it was not a complete surprise. He'd spent much of his adult life prepping for such a catastrophe. Consequently, while the majority of the population scoured the post-apocalyptic landscape for water and food, regressing into primitive killers, he bunkered down in his fortified hilltop home in a small town in the middle of the Australian Outback. But now he's out of food and down to his last six bullets, and he will have to make the most difficult choice of his life. THE MAILMAN Los Angeles, 1985. Never was the motto sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll more apt than the scene on the legendary Sunset Strip with the arrival of the underground Hollywood glam bands. While Mick Freeman, a record executive with a major label, works tirelessly to sign five toxic rockers whom he believes might flip the entire music world on its head, his wife, Jade, spends her days bored and alone at home, struggling with a midlife crisis that threatens to topple their twenty-year marriage. And then she meets the new mailman. Young and handsome, he sweeps her off her feet—straight into a nightmare the likes of which she could never have imagined. RE-ROLL In the near future, breathtakingly humanoid robots called Mechs are for sale, and they're designed to fulfill whatever role you want: husband, wife, best friend, slave. Manufacturers allow new owners one free "roll" to randomly determine their Mech's three leading characteristics. But as everybody knows, scoring your ideal traits is a crapshoot, though you can always re-roll—at a price.

    Not stories of triumph over adversity, but something completely other. Described in language that is brilliantly sardonic, Woods's characters return repeatedly to places where they don't belong—often the places where they were born. In "Zombie," a coming-of-age story like no other, two young girls find friendship with a mysterious woman in the local cemetery. "Take the Way Home That Leads Back to Sullivan Street" describes a lesbian couple trying to repair their relationship by dropping acid at a Mensa party. In "A New Mohawk," a man in romantic pursuit of a female political activist becomes inadvertently much more familiar with the Palestine/Israel conflict than anyone would have thought possible. And in the title story, Woods brings us into the mind of a queer goth teenager who faces ostracism from her small-town evangelical church.In the background are the endless American wars and occupations and too many early deaths of friends and family. This is fiction that is fresh and of the moment, even as it is timeless.

    It was a world I had no experience with, outside my purview, and something that, admittedly, excited me greatly. I wanted to know more about her.A stressful job in finance and investing has made it impossible for Netty to have any semblance of a functional love life. The long hours are taking their toll and as a huge new project falls in her lap, Netty is just about at her wit’s end. Late one Friday night at work, however, life brightens when a knock on her office door unveils adorably geeky Henrietta, her company’s computer consultant.Henry — computer geek, gamer, sweetheart — takes Netty on a ride that makes her question her notions of life and love, work and play, and acceptance of herself and others. Always the pretty popular girl, Netty finds herself irrevocably changing as she gets intimate with nerdy Henry, prompting her to wonder whether the path she’s been on has actually been the right one for her.Will Netty be able to shrug off the negativity around her relationship at work, navigate the conflict of interest in getting involved with her company’s consultant, and finally start living true to herself? Or will this lesbian love affair end like all the rest?