The enigmatic “Grayman” has been killing known terrorists throughout Europe in spectacularly brutal fashion. Captured by Coalition forces, he is recruited by a joint military and intelligence project to create the ultimate counter-terror force, only to find himself being carefully groomed into something unthinkable: a popular hero.Grayman chronicles a daring and disturbing experiment to decisively end the tenacious threat of global terrorism. A group of powerful corporate and political players lever a desperate world to create a multinational force of surgical strike teams, authorized to cross borders and pursue targets with impunity; armed with advanced weapons, technology and armor; and directed by a cutting-edge artificial intelligence. But more than simply employing high-tech military might, this new army is designed to fight a true “information war” by operating completely in the public eye, their missions crafted for maximum marketability, their operatives shaped into Hollywood-style action heroes.The series focuses on the man being groomed to be the wired public’s greatest hero: Given the “stage name” Mike Ram, he’s charismatic, talented and damaged unknown, pushed by circumstance to become a merciless predator. Initially little more than a trauma-driven serial killer, he’s given a new identity and is re-programmed to kill on cue to satisfy the media’s thirst for violent and visible retribution against an equally vicious enemy. Ram quickly rises from being a murderer on the run to being an untouchably popular celebrity and global leader, as his every action plays out on the public stage.In Book One: Acts of War, the enigmatic “Grayman” has been killing known terrorists throughout Europe in spectacularly brutal fashion. Captured by Coalition forces, he is recruited by a joint military and intelligence project to create the ultimate counter-terror force, only to find himself being carefully groomed into something unthinkable: a popular hero.

The survivors of a nuclear disaster on Mars awaken after a half-century in chemical hibernation, and try to unravel the mystery of why no rescue has come for them. Attempts to contact Earth fail, and they begin to encounter the descendants of other survivors...The God Mars is a pulp-style science fiction series set on a partially-terraformed Mars a half-century after a nuclear disaster cuts thousands of colonists off from Earth. Left for dead with few resources, the isolated groups of survivors develop their own unique cultures at different levels of technology, ranging from the primitive to the frighteningly advanced. And all fear the return of their home planet, because they believe that Earth intentionally tried to annihilate them, and will do so again.In Book One, a mixed group of military personnel and civilians awaken after fifty years in chemical hibernation, and try to unravel the mystery of why no rescue has come for them. Attempts to re-establish contact with Earth fail, and they begin to encounter the descendents of other survivors, radically changed after generations on their own.

When England's greatest hero is summoned to the estate of Aleister Crowley, he is expecting a leisurely evening of tale-telling with the assembled guests, among whom number Rudyard Kipling and Harry Houdini. But the evening will turn out to include kidnapping, murder, and blood sacrifice! Based on a true story.The Great White Lion is back! Though Mason Queensbury was once one of the most famous men on earth (he was reportedly the model on which both Tarzan and Indiana Jones were based) he’s been nearly completely forgotten by today’s public. “Mason Queensbury in the Parlour of the Occult” is the first new story featuring Victorian England’s Greatest Hero in over fifty years. The story, which tells the incredible tale of a visit by Queensbury and his faithful valet Pup-pup to the palatial country estate of the young occultist Aleister Crowley, contains all the elements the classic Queensbury books were well known for: suspense, action, frightening villains, a touch of the supernatural, and, of course, a great hero, the always-impeccable Englishman, Lord Mason Queensbury, the Earl of Daring. Experience the thrill of savage battle along with Queen Victoria’s chief adventurer as he protects the God-fearing people of England from the dark magic of Aleister Crowley!

A Hero Grows in Brooklyn is a thrilling novel about Steve Marino, a junior high student seeking respect. Should he take after his violent father whose actions have flung his family into poverty? Or can he discover another way? Amidst swirling emotions, suddenly Steve discovers he must face the Skull Bones, a knife slashing gang. Armed only with courage, he takes on thechallenge of his life.Steve Marino is not seeking to become a junior high school hero. However, he is interested in “respect.” Should he follow in his father’s footsteps, a big strong man who is quick to put others down, be provoked into violence and discipline Steve with the back of his hand? Or would it be better to adopt his Uncle Rickey’s approach, a guy who is just as big and strong as Steve’s dad, but with a knack for avoiding violence and developing a friendly loyalty by participating in fun activities?Before he can decide, suddenly Steve is shocked to find his father’s approach has flung his family into utter poverty. Now, forced to move in the middle of the school year, a deeply depressed Steve tearfully asks, “How can I start all over? I put everything into making things work right in Bensonhurst. I’ve lost everything.”Things turn dramatically worse. As Steve signs up to attend his new school, two police officers and several parents show up. “Who’s gonna be the next to die!?” screams one of the parents. “Huh!? Who’s gonna be next!? Answer me! ANSWER ME!”And so begins Steve’s first bleak day at Cunningham Junior High.In this deathly atmosphere, Steve seeks to earn the respect of his new classmates while trying to come to grips with his turbulent feelings for one of his classmates, the beautiful and strange Mysterious Jane.Amidst gut wrenching swirling emotions, Steve discovers he must face the Skull Bones, a knife slashing gang. Armed only with courage, he takes on the fight of his life.

There is a deadly cloud swirling in San Fransisco and only the newest meta heroine in a sixty year legacy, Lora Summers the Pink Lemon is able to stop it. Joined with her partners, Frost and the Crimson Cherry, Lora must keep the cloud from sucking up San Fransisco as the shockingly liquid villain, the Electric Beaulieu stands in their way of calming the clouds young telekinetic creator.The God Mars is a pulp-style science fiction series set on a partially-terraformed Mars a half-century after a nuclear disaster cuts thousands of colonists off from Earth. Left for dead with few resources, the isolated groups of survivors develop their own unique cultures at different levels of technology, ranging from the primitive to the frighteningly advanced. And all fear the return of their home planet, because they believe that Earth intentionally tried to annihilate them, and will do so again.In Book One, a mixed group of military personnel and civilians awaken after fifty years in chemical hibernation, and try to unravel the mystery of why no rescue has come for them. Attempts to re-establish contact with Earth fail, and they begin to encounter the descendents of other survivors, radically changed after generations on their own.

As a University professor, Riley could see that the girl’s creationist views were nonsense and his evolutionary reasoning was reasoned. What he couldn’t see, was the chain of events about to unfold, leading to a man standing scared and a platypus swimming blind.Sometimes nature preaches silent sermons.Sometimes nature preaches silent sermons. For Riley, it wasn’t so silent. Standing on the cliff edge of hopelessness, a dark tragedy stood behind him, pushing him forward, shouting his sins. But a small animal swam near him, its very behaviour mimicking his own. He had always used the platypus to justify his position, but had never seen it as explaining his actions.His knowledge of the animal was renowned, and to Riley, knowledge was god. There were others in his life though, who had a different God. Flaming creationists! He couldn’t stand their ignorance, but neither could he choose his family, so he tolerated it and tolerated them. Barely. If only they would respect his wisdom like his colleagues did.As a professor, Riley was esteemed. It was hard to turn that down, even when it turned him into someone he didn’t want to be, and took him to places he knew he shouldn’t go… like this cliff, where a dark past shouted insult, and a small animal whispered wisdom while swimming blind.

A collection of Midwest and Southern short stories and jokes by the author.A collection of Midwest and Southern short stories and jokes by the author. Includes chapters from the novel Thibodaux's Trial.

Two experiences weave together to reveal an unspoken truth, a story never told. A teenager journeys to the site of an unfathomable atrocity, with a survivor in tow. Sixty years earlier, a small village comes together in the face of danger, to solidify an act of pure love. An Unspoken Truth reminds us of the human cost of war and its far reaching affects on future generations.Susie Meyers was one of the most beautiful women you ever laid eyes on. She had long wavy blonde hair and a smile that would melt any man's heart. The story begins at around midnight on October 31, 1953 Susie and her friends downed too many beers at a Halloween party. Then decided to pile into her friend Tommy's car with his friends Jack and Karen with their six packs of beer and drove down Hill Haven road. Just as they were all singing along with the radio, rain came pouring down and Tommy was having a hard time concentrating on the road because of the loud music and laughter coming from Susie and Karen in the back seat of Tommy's car. Jack was too busy handing out the beers to everyone to notice danger was on the way. Susie was the only one in the car not wearing her seat belt. The rain was really pouring down to where Tommy should have pulled off to the shoulder of the road and waited for the rain to stop before proceeding any further. Tommy just kept driving at a high rate of speed and drinking his beer when all of a sudden a driver on the other side of the road lost control of his vehicle causing Tommy's car to skid off the road and hit a tree head on. Unfortunately, Susie was the only passenger in the car that was not wearing a seat belt. Susie was ejected from the car and hit the tree head on decapitating her.

Erin has just recently been crowned Queen. Everything is going well until one cold night when an attempt is made to assassinate her and what remains of her family.An inventor has sunk all of his life savings into inventing a time machine, but discovers that using his machine to help people creates some very series and complicated problems.

This book has everything, a dark family secret, adoption, a Scottish/Chinese social worker, a gay physiotherapist, romance, an Asian matchmaker, a fatal degenerative disease, a catholic funeral, a talking dog, religious conflict and much more, in a fast paced Scottish family saga set in the village of Carfin in Lanarkshire. Despite the drama it is a book that will hopefully make you laugh and cry.The story takes place in a village in Lanarkshire, Scotland, called Carfin. This is a unique place as it has a large Catholic population, a replica Lourdes grotto, an Islamic Mosque, a greyhound racing track, and a small Lithuanian community.Mags (Margaret O’Hara) is a twenty eight year old single Mother of three children. She is emotionally strong and capable, and has a sense of humour that sees her through most situations. She has a close relationship with her brother and sister, and tries hard to keep things on an even keel with her Mother. She has a romance with her sister’s social worker which is fraught with doubts, and she has a reasonable fear that there is Huntington’s Chorea (sometimes called Huntington’s disease) in her family history, but it has been kept a secret. As this is a hereditary condition with an onset in the middle years, sufferers often have their own children, and have passed on the gene, before they show any signs of the disease. If people were aware of their family history and the odds of having the damaged gene, they might wish to put off having their family till later, but Catholic teaching does not allow contraception, so there is a real dilemma for the religiously inclined.Tommy is a social worker in the nearest town of Motherwell, he is single, knows the family through Mags’ sister Kate, and has a romance with Mags. He finds it difficult to make decisions in his own life, but has to make life and death decisions at work.Mary Coyle, Mags’ Mother is a middle aged respectable member of the local community, early widowed and lives alone. She has kept secrets, family and personal, for years and finds it hard to give emotional love to her children unless they behave as she wants them to. She realises that the truth has to come out in the end.Mickey is Mags’ brother he gets involved with an Asian doctor who already has an arranged marriage planned. He is gay but has kept this a secret from some of his family.Harry Wang is a Scottish/Chinese social work manager who tortures the English language with inaccurate clichés.The story opens with the death of an Uncle and the funeral. It describes Mags, her children and her relationship with her ex-husband. Kate is the older sister and she and her husband are going through an assessment to be adoptive parents. Tommy the social worker is preparing the assessment. Mickey, the younger brother, is gay and has a relationship with a Pakistani Doctor whose nephew is in school with Mags’ oldest child, John.Mary Coyle (Mags Mother) drifted into marriage just after the war and made the best of her life, with a few mistakes here and there. She has knowledge of the family illness, and another big secret, but has delayed telling her children.Twins become available for adoption and there is great excitement in the family, at the same time Mickey’s romance goes wrong because he discovers that the Doctor has an arranged marriage planned. Mags tries to root out the truth about the Huntington’s Chorea from other family members and comes up against a lot of avoidance.. Issues of religious differences and hatred and a divided education system are also highlighted as they play a big part in Scottish culture.There are many more characters that play minor but colourful parts in the story. It is told in a fast paced style, and takes place over only about seven weeks. The mood is humorous and emotional with plausible characters.

In this third novel in the Darby Holland Crime Novel series, Darby's past rises up to do more than haunt him. You can run, but in the information age you can only hide for so long. Midnight Rider Productions is a dark web nightmare machine, headed by the one man who years ago drove Darby to hide in the seamy environs of Old Town and make his life there. But Darby left his own mark back in the day and the shadowy head of production has a grudge to settle. Rider has found him at long last and plans to make an example of him. Every dark secret of Darby's is exposed, every triumph reversed, every dream made real is set on fire, and as the Feds circle, smelling blood in the water, Darby has to run the most brutal rearguard action in the history of crime-meets-crime and gamble that he has finally grown powerful enough, crazy enough, and hard enough to beat the Devil himself. Meanwhile is best friend and should-be lover Delia, is about to be married to someone with his own dark secrets....

A short story by William Butler, author of the novels Bang and The House of Balestrom. Jean had it all planned out on how she was going to get Linda out of the house before, Kevin (the controlling father) gets home. It doesn't work out as planned when a terrible storm hits the town trapping the three family members in the house while they wait it out.A short story by William Butler, author of the novels Bang and The House of Balestrom. Jean has decided to help her daughter, Linda, run away from home so Linda can be with Beth, the woman she loves.She had it all planned out on how she was going to get Linda out of the house before, Kevin (the controlling father) gets home. It doesn't work out as planned when a terrible storm hits the town trapping the three family members in the house while they wait it out.

With murder, mayhem and hot sex, Kitty-Kitty, Bang-Bang is a wickedly delicious sequel to The Kat Trap .It was her cutthroat ambition and ruthlessness that got Katrina, or Kat for short, out of the hood and on top of her game. Once a murderer on a seductive prowl with two missions in mind--satisfying her insatiable libido and killing unsuspecting marks--Katrina has lain down her guns. Having once used her alluring charm and exotic beauty to lure men to their deaths, Katrina has had a change of heart.She's settled for a simpler life and traveling, partying, and shopping have become her only guilty pleasures. In addition, she's avoiding relationships and men like the plague. For her, life couldn't be any sweeter--at least that's what she wants to believe. But, when drama rears its ugly head, Katrina returns with a vengeance. There's the issue of confronting her ex-friend who she learned had slept with an old boyfriend. Then there are her three aunts--who...