Code Name Isaac was sent to find Level P. He doesn't know why or what his is supposed to do when he gets there. Isaac just hopes that he can find someone to give him the right directions.We're ending the year strong with a surprisingly wide variety of story types. But they all center around some significant, and usually life-changing realizations about life, no matter how fantastical it is. And that's why we love science fiction and fantasy: Even though the narrative elements aren't real in our lives, the sentiments, interactions, and life lessons are. It gives us a window in to the human soul, even when the window is decidedly non-human.Fiction Vortex publishes science fiction and fantasy stories every month. Check out FictionVortex.com for more great stories.

No longer with any memory of his past life JJ now has a new life as a not so normal teenage girl “Abbey”. Follow Abbey at High School as she finds that getting older does not mean life gets any easier, and she is sure that school anger management courses should not include Martial arts let alone firearm training. Abbey understood that School would be a place of learning; she just did not expect it was going to be on how to kill people. True it may be normal for a girl to love her hair, but with Abbey, she knew her hair also loved her and not just because she fed it chocolate. Being Host to an alien parasite had its advantages but being unable to wear underwear was not one of them.

“Hilarious, always inventive, this is a book for all, especially uptight English teachers, bardolaters, and ministerial students.” —Dallas Morning NewsFool—the bawdy and outrageous New York Times bestseller from the unstoppable Christopher Moore—is a hilarious new take on William Shakespeare’s King Lear…as seen through the eyes of the foolish liege’s clownish jester, Pocket. A rousing tale of “gratuitous shagging, murder, spanking, maiming, treason, and heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity,” Fool joins Moore’s own Lamb, Fluke, The Stupidest Angel, and You Suck! as modern masterworks of satiric wit and sublimely twisted genius, prompting Carl Hiassen to declare Christopher Moore “a very sick man, in the very best sense of the word.”

"If this keeps up, I'm going to blow my brains out."It wasn't until I actually said those words that I realized I'd hit rock bottom. I didn't just say them. I meant them.Think back to your school days. Do you remember the kid in the back of the classroom? That quiet one who was different from everyone else? Maybe he didn't dress the same as most kids. Maybe he had a different haircut or liked different music. Perhaps he came from a poor family and his clothes were often dirty. You picked on him for being different. It was no big deal; everyone else did it. You giggled at him and called him names. You knocked his books off his desk and pretended it was an accident. You shot spit-wads at him. You excluded him from games at recess. It was funny to you, and that's all that really mattered.Remember that kid? That was me.Now, I'm about to relive my past in an attempt to understand why God, the God of peace and love, permits the cruel injustices of the world.

From Beat It to Billie Jean, the songs we know and love take on a brand-new, thrilling connotation in this anthology edited by Don Bruns.In this second collection in the Music and Murder Mystery series, nine award-winning, bestselling authors have written their own interpretations of the Thriller song list. With original work from some of the best mystery authors out there, the anthology includes stories from Heather Graham, Jeffery Deaver, William Kent Krueger, Dahlia Rose, and David R. Slayton, among others.With poignant, frightening, and intriguing stories from some of the best writers in the genre, this eerie collection is sure to keep you up at night—and maybe even haunt your dreams.

Yes, it's Volume 2 of TIW shorts! Yet another collection of totally pointless exactly 500 and exactly 200 word nonsense to entertain you while doing whatever you do when reading.Yes, it's Volume 2 of TIW shorts! Yet another collection of totally pointless exactly 500 and exactly 200 word nonsense to entertain you while doing whatever you do when reading. Here are my own personal takes on the second 6 months of the Iron Writer Challenge, including Challenges, Weekend Quickies, Grudge Matches and Solstice Opens - plus an excerpt of 'How to' killing Brian (Cannibalising Brian) and a slice from the first ever Relays. I hope you enjoy these short snippets just as much as you enjoyed Volume 1.Thanks again to Brian and all the other Iron Writers for making The Iron Writers phenomenon the success that it already is.

A humorous retelling of Genesis from Eve's pole dancing to "Skippy" Noah surfing to Hagar in a french maid outfit and more.A humorous retelling of Genesis from Eve's pole dancing to "Skippy" Noah surfing to Hagar in a french maid outfit and more. Each chapter is a condensed scene making the flow pleasant and easy to follow. Weighing in at just over 10,000 words, this short novella allows you to breeze through the beginning of time in an afternoon, perhaps even saying to yourself, "I didn't know it happened like THAT."

Months after a bad breakup, Jacob Pierce is still more than a little fragile. With the encouragement of his friends he agrees to sign up for a film based photography class.Elijah Fall, a widowed photography teacher, is exactly the man to bring Jacob back to life. But, while Jacob has found the man of his dreams, will Elijah, someone who has lost everything once, risk his heart again?Short North - Book 1A simple story about moving past the terrible things that life throws at you and finding happiness on the other side.Months after his breakup with a long-term boyfriend, Jacob Pierce is still more than a little fragile, he has withdrawn from life, his friends are concerned and even he knows that something needs to change. With the encouragement of his friends and a nudge from the newest member of Jacob's small circle, he agrees to sign up for a film based photography class.Elijah Fall, a widowed photography teacher, is exactly the man to bring Jacob back to life. But, while Jacob may have found the man of his dreams, will Elijah, someone who has lost everything once, be willing to risk his heart again?

A creepy house. A sinister old man. An innocent young boy...... why, it must be Halloween again!"Faith isn't faith until it's all you're holding on to."- Toralii ProverbHundreds of years before the Toralii attacked Earth, destroying the cities of Beijing, Tehran and Sydney, before they developed the voidwarp technology and destroyed their homeworld, they warred amongst themselves.The hills of the occupied Kaater Mountains were home to thousands of prisoners.Including Tami.A 1,947 word story set in the Lacuna universe suitable to read as a stand-alone story. Parts of the Lacuna universe:* Magnet* ImperfectThe Lacuna series:* Lacuna: Demons of the Void* Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi* Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion (Coming December, 2012!)

Satina knows more than anyone that gangs are bad news. As a Granter, she uses her magic to help people escape them. So far, her sole reward has been a life on the run, dodging from pocket to pocket and only landing in the ordinary world long enough to put her special skills to use.When the goodmother arrives in Westwood, however, a magic-hungry gang is just one step behind her, and their leader wants more than just the town. He wants Satina, and he'll do anything, use anyone, to get her.Though Satina finds an unlikely ally in Marten, the imp Skinner who manages to help more people than he hurts, it will take all the power they can summon to keep Westwood's secrets from falling into the wrong hands, to keep one wide-eyed girl from following the wrong man, and to keep Satina herself from falling in love with the only person in the world who knows how much of a fraud she really is. Kingdoms Gone series book one: A fantasy fairy tale

From USA Today bestselling author Leslie Langtry comes a former CIA agent turned Girl Scout troop leader and a laugh-out-loud mystery!Merry Wrath's summer plans didn't originally include an unexpected visit from her old friend, Hilly—a quirky CIA assassin who's been forced by HR to take her first vacation in...forever. The fact that Hilly chose a small town in Iowa for vacation doesn't bother Merry or her scout troop (especially since Hilly's teaching them how to kill a man with one punch), but her former handler, Riley, believes something sinister is afoot.After all Lana, Merry's arch-nemesis, is sighted all over town, and when a Chinese operative ends up murdered in her backyard, Merry starts to wonder if Riley is right and Hilly is secretly on the job. It doesn't help that a group of cosplaying teenage druids have targeted Merry for a misguided ritual sacrifice, or that Medea Jones, cub reporter, constantly harasses Merry, seeing the former spy as her...

From the comedian, actor, and former host of The Late Late Show comes an irreverent, lyrical memoir in essays featuring his signature wit. Craig Ferguson has defied the odds his entire life. He has failed when he should have succeeded and succeeded when he should have failed. The fact that he is neither dead nor in a locked facility (at the time of printing) is something of a miracle in itself. In Craig's candid and revealing memoir, readers will get a look into the mind and recollections of the unique and twisted Scottish American who became a national hero for pioneering the world's first TV robot skeleton sidekick and reviving two dudes in a horse suit dancing as a form of entertainment. In the book, there are some stories that are too graphic for television, too politically incorrect for social media, or too meditative for a stand-up comedy performance. Craig discusses his deep love for his native Scotland, examines his profound psychic change...

The New York Times bestselling author of Bet Me, Tell Me Lies and Welcome to Temptation *delivers her long-awaited novel * Andie Miller is ready to move on in life. She wants to marry her fiancé and leave behind everything in her past, especially her ex-husband, North Archer. But when Andie tries to gain closure with him, he asks one final favor of her before they go their separate ways forever. A very distant cousin of his has died and left North as the guardian of two orphans who have driven out three nannies already, and things are getting worse. He needs a very special person to take care of the situation and he knows Andie can handle anything. When Andie meets the two children she quickly realizes things are much worse than she feared. The place is a mess, the children, Carter and Alice, aren't your average delinquents, and the creepy old house where they live is being run by the worst housekeeper since Mrs. Danvers. What's worse, Andie's fiancé thinks this is all a plan by North to get Andie back, and he may be right. Andie's dreams have been haunted by North since she arrived at the old house. And that's not the only haunting. What follows is a hilarious adventure in exorcism, including a self-doubting parapsychologist, an annoyed medium, her Tarot-card reading mother, an avenging ex-mother-inlaw, and, of course, her jealous fiancé. And just when she thinks things couldn't get more complicated, North shows up on the doorstep making her wonder if maybe this time things could be different between them. If Andie can just get rid of all the guests and ghosts, she's pretty sure she can save the kids, and herself, from the past. But fate might just have another thing in mind…