A storm is brewing in the all-but-forgotten backcountry of Kentucky. And, for Orbie Ray, the swirling heavens may just have the power to tear open his family’s darkest secrets. Then Like the Blind Man: Orbie’s Story is the enthralling debut novel by Freddie Owens, which tells the story of a feisty wunderkind in the segregated South of the 1950s, and the forces he must overcome to restore order in his world. Evocative of a time and place long past, this absorbing work of magical realism offered with a Southern twist will engage readers who relish the Southern literary canon, or any tale well told. Nine-year-old Orbie has his cross to bear. After the death of his father, his mother Ruby has off and married his father’s coworker and friend Victor, a slick-talking man with a snake tattoo. Now, Orbie, his sister Missy, and his mother haven’t had a peaceful moment with the heavy-drinking new man of the house. Orbie hates his stepfather more than he can stand; a fact that lands him at his grandparents’ place in Harlan’s Crossroads, Kentucky. Orbie grudgingly adjusts to life with his doting Granny and carping Granpaw, who are a bit too keen on their black neighbors for Orbie’s taste, not to mention their Pentecostal congregation of snake handlers. And, when he meets the black Choctaw preacher, Moses Mashbone, he learns of powers that might uncover the true cause of his father's death. As a storm of unusual magnitude descends, Orbie happens upon the solution to a paradox at once magical and ordinary. Question is, will it be enough? Equal parts Hamlet and Huckleberry Finn, it’s a tale that’s rich in meaning, socially relevant, and rollicking with boyhood adventure. The novel mines crucial contemporary issues, as well as the universality of the human experience while also casting a beguiling light on boyhood dreams and fears. It’s a well-spun, nuanced work of fiction that is certain to resonate with lovers of literary fiction, particularly in the Southern tradition of storytelling. Then Like The Blind Man: Orbie’s Story wins Indiereader Discovery Award for literary fiction

Issue #92 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies online magazine, featuring stories by Tom Crosshill and Cory Skerry. 

He takes lives. She saves them. A supposedly hassle-free job for mercenary Cristian Slade becomes a mission of mercy when he saves a life instead of taking one. Slade's new mission might be his most dangerous yet, because the danger is to his heart. Tragedy has sent esteemed surgeon Alana O'Grady to a remote a remote Nicaraguan island where she immerses herself in the lives of a native American tribe, using her talents for goodwill instead of wealth and prestige. But life turns upside down when her work requires she protect a rugged mercenary who commands her attention when she's awake and dominates her dreams while she sleeps. Doctoring Christian puts her entire tribe in danger from the man who's hunting him. Is it her professional oath or her unprofessional attraction to him keeping her from sending him away to heal on his own? Alana's fire warms Christian's heart, but he's a hardened assassin and has no business falling for someone like her. Can they fight hard enough to...

Before evil had a name, there was LILITH. Something has come aboard the U.S. Navy’s newest state-of-the-art super carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, something supernatural and as ancient as time itself.  And it’s taking over the crew one by one.Reporter Hunter Singleton and his wife Lisa, guests invited aboard to witness a routine training mission off the coast of North Carolina, soon learn that the CIA is onboard as well, and that some of the ship’s crew are acting irrationally, even violently.  When an unexpected monster hurricane slams New York, the ship rushes to assist in the aftermath, and Hunter, Lisa and the crew are faced with the terrifying realization that whatever has come aboard the Ford must be stopped before it is set free on the streets of Manhattan.  But how do they fight something beyond human comprehension?  How do they kill something that may not even be alive?  The clock is ticking…and Time itself is running out.

Visions can kill you. Would you risk your life to save someone else’s?Kate sees psychic visions of the future and the past—but only when she's having an asthma attack. When she "sees" her sister being beaten, she needs more visions to try to save her, along with a suicidal classmate—but triggering her asthma could kill her. Parallel Visions is the story of one brave, caring girl whose unusual gifts put her own life in danger.A new YA fantasy from the award-winning author of SCARS and HUNTED.About the AuthorCheryl Rainfield is the author of the award-winning SCARS, a novel about a queer teen sexual abuse survivor who uses self-harm to cope; the award-winning HUNTED, a novel about a teen telepath in a world where any paranormal power is illegal; and the forthcoming STAINED, about a teen who is abducted and must rescue herself. Cheryl Rainfield is an incest and ritual abuse survivor, a feminist, and an avid reader and writer. She lives in Toronto with her little dog Petal.Cheryl Rainfield has been said to write with “great empathy and compassion” (VOYA) and to write stories that “can, perhaps, save a life.” (CM Magazine) SLJ said of her work: “[readers] will be on the edge of their seats.”You can find Cheryl on her website CherylRainfield.com or her blog http://www.CherylRainfield.com/blog

A single dad celebrates the engagement of his oldest son to his girlfriend of a couple years over dinner. However, there are some mixed feelings, because the dad and the fiancée have more of a history than just the two years she had dated his son. After the young couple go to a movie, Angela stops by the dad’s house to reconcile the history before planning a wedding. Eric, the son, finds out and wants to change the wedding plans. And his dad agrees, in a sense.

Just in time for the holidays, Andrea Kane's beloved short story Yuletide Treasure is available as an eBook for the first time ever.Yuletide Treasure captures holiday magic as it transports us to a village in Victorian England, where an embittered earl seeks a governess for a lovely, defiant little girl named Noelle.

Created by the most respected American publisher of dictionaries and supervised by the editor Philip Gove, Webster's Third broke with tradition, adding thousands of new words and eliminating "artificial notions of correctness," basing proper usage on how language was actually spoken. The dictionary's revolutionary style sparked what David Foster Wallace called "the Fort Sumter of the Usage Wars." Editors and scholars howled for Gove's blood, calling him an enemy of clear thinking, a great relativist who was trying to sweep the English language into chaos. Critics bayed at the dictionary's permissive handling of ain't. Literary intellectuals such as Dwight Macdonald believed the dictionary's scientific approach to language and its abandonment of the old standard of usage represented the unraveling of civilization.Entertaining and erudite, The Story of Ain't describes a great societal metamorphosis, tracing the fallout of the world wars, the rise...

A note on the kitchen table was the last that her boyfriend, Jason, heard of Amy Sinclair. At first, he had let her have her space but as the weeks turned to months the worries had set in… and eventually he went after her. What he found appalled him.

RED HAZE: THE LURE OF THE PACKBOOK 2 OF THE RED HAZE CHRONICLES He is part man, part wolf.He is terrorism’s worst enemy.His NATO codename is Red Haze and he is about to do battle with the greatest threat to European peace and stability, since the Second World War. Dateline: 19 March 2003 22.00 HoursThe South Rumaila Oilfields, Southern Iraq A Special Air Service Recon Team parachute behind enemy lines at the beginning of Operation Telic, the British controlled section of the second allied invasion of Iraq.Among the four-man team is Trooper Ashley ‘Ash’ Piper.After an initial attack on an Iraqi armoured column, Piper and his team are ambushed by Iraqi troops. Bloody mayhem and chaos ensue, with Piper suddenly, unexpectedly transforming into a horrifying wolf-like creature, eviscerating and ripping his enemies to shreds whilst saving the lives of two of his terrified colleagues. But why has this happened, and what disturbing secret is the SAS Trooper withholding, a secret originating from within the darkest recesses of his boyhood past? Only time will tell as Europe suddenly faces a series of sickening terrorist attacks across England, France, Germany, Holland and Belgium. Taking responsibility for the dreadful atrocities are a newly formed Islamic Fundamentalist Terrorist Cell, ‘The European Muslim Freedom Fighters’, seemingly in response to the American and British invasion of Iraq. But what are the real facts behind the brutal carnage and mayhem engulfing Europe, bringing about dire retribution against the target countries innocent Muslim and immigrant populations? In response to this new, insidious threat, Ash Piper finds himself embroiled in a world of sexual sadism and vicious close combat as he begins to unravel the truth regarding the dealings of German microchip magnate Otto Von Kurst and his mistress, the beautiful, sadistic physician, Doctor Lana Franke. But all is not what it seems as Piper discovers Von Kurst has shadowy links to Nazi Germany’s Waffen SS ‘Totenkopf’ (Death’s Head) division and the highly respected Russian businessman and entrepreneur, Vitali Menkov. In this, the second in a series of open ended, ground breaking werewolf novels to be published exclusively on the Kindle, Ash Piper continues his descent into a horrifying web of intrigue, suspense and merciless action in a labyrinthine tale stretching across Europe and the Russian Federation. From the back streets of Rostov, Moscow and St Petersburg to the deserts of Iraq, to the cities of Amsterdam, Düsseldorf and Paris, the Ardennes Forest, Germany’s Rhineland and deep into the Vatican itself, Ash Piper fights against a sinister plot by Neo Nazi terrorists who are hell bent on bringing Europe into civil war and incinerating the very heart of the Roman Catholic religion. The countdown to anarchy has begun and for NATO’s new breed of covert assassin, not only must he face a shocking world of violence, pain and torture, he must also confront his own horrifying past and a truly terrifying future. For Ash Piper and the wolf inside him…are not alone. PREPARE FOR COMBAT! THE HUNT…CONTINUES!