John Johnson is tired of his family and name, and so his dreams weave elaborate stories to replace the mediocrity of his days. And then one summer night, a tattooed wizard arrives at the community park to unfold magic of the most incredible kind. With a final unraveling of chain, that stranger transforms John Johnson into a new man by replacing the bonds John knows with much more sinister knots.A tattooed wizard unleashes double-edged magic in this excerpt from the novel The Sisters Will Dance by Brian S. Wheeler. The wizard with the strange patterns of ink swirling across his skin discovers an audience of one in the young man named John Johnson. Spells of earth and smoke unfurl at the wizard's summons and captivate John, whose life until witnessing such magical powers felt timid and dull. The wizard saves his most amazing, and most diabolical, trick until the end. With water and chain, that wizard wraps John's soul into floating, iron chain, and so forever shatters the smooth conformity until then known by John Johnson's days.

Grandfather Henry clutches his granddaughter, his Sunflower, close as armies prepare to turn his village nestled in the valley into a battlefield. The roses still bloom no matter that the surrounding hills are so dry, and Henry knows the village defenders will once more rise to protect them. Only, Sunflower must know the dark, and bitter, tale of their defenders’ origins.The roar of cannons and the crack of rifles whistle over Sunflower's village as the frightened child clutches her grandfather. Sunflower's grandfather assures her that the legends regarding the defenders of that village nestled between the hills are indeed true, that the village's defenders will rise from the dust and destroy those who descend from the hills seeking to harm the blossoms that provide such uncanny color in a land teeming with dust. But the grandfather holds no detail of his story back from his Sunflower, aware that even his granddaughter must know the truth of those monsters she wishes would rise from the dirt.

In this haunting debut, Garth Stein brilliantly invokes his Native American heritage and its folklore to create an electrifying supernatural thriller. When a grieving mother returns to the remote Alaskan town where her young son drowned, she discovers that the truth about her son's death is shrouded in legend— and buried in a terrifying wrinkle between life and death. When Jenna Rosen abandons her comfortable Seattle life to return to Wrangell, Alaska, it's a wrenching return to her past. Long ago the home of her Native American grandmother, Wrangell is located near the Thunder Bay resort, where Jenna's young son, Bobby, disappeared two years before. His body was never recovered, and Jenna is determined to lay to rest the aching mystery of his death. But the spectacular town provides little comfort beyond the steady and tender affections of Eddie, a local fisherman. And then whispers of ancient legends begin to suggest a frightening new possibility about Bobby's fate. Soon, Jenna must sift through the beliefs of her ancestors, the Tlingit— who still tell of powerful, menacing forces at work in the Alaskan wilderness. There beliefs are shared by Dr. David Livingstone, a practicing shaman who had been hired to "cleanse" Thunder Bay of its restless spirits. The experience almost cost him his life, and he warns Jenna about the danger of disturbing the legendary kushtaka— soul-stealing predators that stalk a netherworld between land and sea, the living and the dead. But Jenna is desperate for answers, and she appeals to both Livingstone and Eddie to help her sort fact from myth, and face the unthinkable possibilities head-on. Armed with nothing but a mother's ferocious protective instincts, Jenna's quest for the truth about her son— and the strength of her beliefs— is about to pull her into a terrifying and life-changing abyss... Coloring powerful legend with universal emotions, Garth Stein masterfully evokes our most primal dreams and fears. Remarkably vivid and relentlessly suspenseful, "Raven Stole the Moon" marks the arrival of a stunningly imaginative new talent.

Llungruel linger in the lom fields around the village. The llungruel is a feared lizard, whose bite brings ravaging fever that drives the mind wild. Malek and Elloch hate the creature, but they must bear the poisonous lizard to grow a sustaining harvest. But after the llungruel kills a brother, Malek and Elloch vow to destroy the lizard, and so discover secrets more bitter than the choking lomMalek and Elloch's village has not hungered since the gray men and their gray ships transformed the surrounding swamps into fields by planting the lom seed onto the land. Though a prevalent and hardy staple crop, the lom is also bitter. The llungruel lizard, with its venom that turns its victims' minds wild, multiplies in the fields and plagues the villagers depending upon the lom. Malek and Elloch vow to destroy the llungruel after they must witness a brother succumb to the lizard's poison. They vow to ignore any of the gray men's rules that prevent them from banishing that fearful creature. Their quest will unveil bitter truths, and demand further sacrifice, before a more delicate balance can be rediscovered to bring relief from the llungruel hissing in the field

Heartbreak, betrayal, and a breathtakingly daring rescue: Olivia Tuffin's fresh and thrilling novel about a girl's fight for justice at her family's stables will have 9+ readers gripped. Hannah's dad, a former Olympic show jumper, runs a highly respected stables where they buy, train and sell ponies on for huge sums of money. The whole family helps, especially Hannah's older sister, Millie - a social media star on the rise. But when Hannah rescues Bella, a beautiful Connemara pony, and begins to piece together her tragic history, she discovers that not everything at Heartwood stables is as perfect as it seems. Love of ponies, or loyalty to family? Now that Hannah knows the truth, she faces an impossible choice. Olivia Tuffin, much loved author of The Palomino Pony and A Pony Called Secret series, breaks new ground in this dramatic story for older readers.

We all fall into ruts at times, with our jobs, our relationships, our lives. But these 101 inspiring personal stories of change will motivate and encourage you to find your own new path to happiness. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Reboot Your Life will inspire, invigorate, and empower you to break out of your rut. With its powerful stories of taking chances, positive life changes, and finding new paths to happiness, you will be inspired to find the courage to reboot your own life!

You're full of ideas,and they've got to come out. But what if you get blocked ? Failed projects hang around forever,haunting you. Sometimes you just have to apply a little pressure to get results.This is the 4th of an ongoing series of stories inspired by the Cthulhu mythos and the writing of H.P. Lovecraft. This story is from the villain’s point of view. It chronicles Dulfor’s life from receiving his Masters of Divinity, finding a mentor in his blasphemous obsession, and recruiting Sorush Al-Helzra to help him translate forbidden texts held within the vaults of the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary. The story ends with Dulfor’s profane ritual to release the Old One, Yelkat’hop, from the 1st story (The Second Coming) and the foreboding events that immediately followed.

Chuck Wuebbles has lost much since his relocation into Old Town. All of the possessions Chuck earned as a younger man have been noted in the Administrators' black notebooks, to be liquidated to pay for the care Chuck's age will inevitably demand. Yet the Administrators have not taken all. Chuck still possesses his old skills; and with a knife and cleaver, Chuck vows to keep one final freedomThe sick and the old fuel the modern world's economy. Age and disease supply a final, and renewable, resource for a new world's commerce. Chuck Wuebbles has turned old, and so the Administrators have assigned him to a housing unit in the Old Town district, where the care which Chuck will, surely, one day soon need may be delivered quickly. Only that care, that supervision and concern comes with a cost which forces Chuck to watch the Administrators claim possession of his wealth in order to pay for all the doctor and hospital bills eventual sickness will demand. Yet when the pain visits, Chuck vows to keep his suffering a secret with a plan to keep the last possession of his pride through the end.

When Foster Lanier and Ben Phelps are released from a professional baseball team in 1904, it is the only experience they have in common, until they meet a runaway -- a girl-woman named Lottie Parker -- on the train that takes them from Augusta, Georgia, and away from their dreams of greatness. Foster will marry her and father her son. Ben will escort her home. And Lottie will change the lives of everyone she meets, from the day she runs away until she finally finds the place where she belongs.

Thirty-six of the most interesting writers in the Pacific Northwest came together for a week-long marathon of writing live on stage. The result? Hotel Angeline, a truly inventive novel that surprises at every turn of the page.   Something is amiss at the Hotel Angeline, a rickety former mortuary perched atop Capitol Hill in rain-soaked Seattle. Fourteen-year-old Alexis Austin is fixing the plumbing, the tea, and all the problems of the world, it seems, in her landlady mother’s absence. The quirky tenants—a hilarious mix of misfits and rabble-rousers from days gone by—rely on Alexis all the more when they discover a plot to sell the Hotel. Can Alexis save their home? Find her real father? Deal with her surrogate dad’s dicey past? Find true love? Perhaps only their feisty pet crow, Habib, truly knows. Provoking interesting questions about the creative process, this novel is by turns funny, scary, witty, suspenseful, beautiful, thrilling, and unexpected.

At Zoe's Rescue Zoo only the cutest, cuddliest animals need apply!Zoe loves living at her uncle's rescue zoo because there's always something exciting going on. And Zoe also has an amazing secret... She can actually TALK to the animals!When Zoe's school friends visit the rescue zoo to pick a class animal, Hugo the hedgehog wants to help. But he keeps getting into trouble! Can Zoe find a way for Hugo to be helpful?Another fantastic title in the perfect series for young animal lovers, beautifully illustrated throughout by Sophy Williams. Have you read Zoe's other adventures?The Lonely Lion Cub, The Puzzled Penguin, The Silky Seal Pup, The Eager Elephant, The Lucky Snow Leopard, The Pesky Polar Bear, The Cuddly Koala, The Wild Wolf Pup, The Happy Hippo, The Sleepy Snowy Owl, The Scruffy Sea Otter, The Picky Puffin, The Giggly Giraffe, The Curious Kangaroo, The Super Sloth, The Little Llama, The Messy Meerkat

Larry McPeak has come to the seer's crimson table in hopes of reaching beyond the veil separating the living from the dead. Among those gathered at the table, only Larry doesn't hide his face behind a mask, and he fears the oversight will prevent him from peering into the table's waters. But the seer promises him his turn, and so Larry stares in the rippling cloth hoping to touch the other side.Like all the others who shamble out of the shadows to find the light of the seer's crimson table, Larry McPeak's loneliness yearns to reconnect with lost loved ones. It is Larry's first time seated before the table, and he realizes as the others gather that only he does not cover his face with a ghastly mask. The seer assures Larry that the donning of any mask is not required to gaze into the waters that ripple from the crimson table. The seer promises Larry that he will get his to gaze into the table's vision, to hope that someone waits on the other side to hear his voice whispering across the divide. Larry gazes at what his companions seated at the table call into the waters, and in the end, learns we he too wishes for a mask.

Harmon’s heart breaks when his dog Tonka turns wild and and buries teeth into his master. The madness overtakes that mighty dog just as Harmon fears the third man drawing close. The third man brings the bullet and the blade. The third man reminds all the old pushers and pimps that the city never forgets. So Harmon hurries to train Tonka’s replacement, and in the end, Harmon succeeds too well.Harmon Fowler fears the past hunts him. Harmon could once count himself as one of the street princes, once as one of the street boss's trusted men, granted the permission to pimp women and peddle dope in the city's underground trade. But then one street boss replaced another, and Harmon was forced to flee the corner he once ruled, stopping only when he found a rural and ruined town in the heartland so forgotten that Harmon believed the village might hide him from the hitmen the new boss would likely one day send on his trail. He transformed himself into a breeder and trainer of fine dogs, and he strove to introduce a new canine line that would cement his fame. Harmon nearly had that goal in hand when the sheriff warned that strangers came to town, strangers who Harmon sensed came from those old street corners he long ago fled.

Mallory and Mitchell Howard hope a vacation to the woods will help them rediscover their chemistry. If a break from the responsibilities of their everyday lives fails to reignite their old passion, then Mallory and Mitchell hope they might return as changed partners thrilled by new love. Yet the woods hold something sinister, and soon neither Mallory nor Mitchell recognize their own reflections.Though they have settled into routine, Mallory and Mitchell Howard fail to feel content with their lives and marriage. Their passion for one another has faded as both begin to watch one aspiration after another slip beyond their grasp. Thus Mallory and Mitchell flee into the north woods, hoping an unplanned, spontaneous vacation will return some of the carefree splendor of their lost youth. But Mallory wakes in the night at the sound of a pounding at their hotel door and stammers to see a shadow at the foot of her bed. Mallory soon after trembles as she witnesses her face in the mirror transform into a woman she does not know, and fear chokes her as Mallory desperately runs from the reflections that suddenly haunt her. Mallory and Mitchell enter the north woods hoping for change, but neither anticipates the transformation the shadows between the trees deliver.

A young boy enters a graveyard at dawn with his dog. Both love the countryside and the wild-life they observe. Death is a part of the process of Life,but a surprise awaits them in the burial-ground.A thirteen year old boy and his dog enter the graveyard of the local church. It is a burial-ground that they are familiar with,a part of their regular walk at dawn. A fierce storm the night before has wrought changes on the landscape. The young naturalist fears little, and is not intimidated by the circle of life which always brings death to all of us. He has already had a close brush with the inevitable,saved by his dog,and has seen the torment of bereavement. The graveyard is more of a haven and refuge to some and he loves its sheltering atmosphere,but nonetheless he faces a strange discovery that serves as a reminder of his own mortality.