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Frank Fisher is nothing. He wants to be something. When a mysterious young woman named Bonnie offers assistance by injecting seeds of inspiration directly into his brain, Frank finds himself involved in a twisting mystery full of addiction, desperation and self-discovery. Broken Bulbs, a novella by Eddie Wright, tells the story of the lengths one young man will go in the pursuit of “somethingness.”
Praise for Broken Bulbs:
“…a brilliant and stunningly original work, by far the best novel I read in 2008.”
- Alternative Reel
“as authentic as they come, experimental without trying to be intentionally obscure, dark without making you doubt humanity, smart and energetic. In short, it’s great writing.”
“…it’s about obsession, self-negation, love, even God (“The Everything”), making Broken Bulbs an entirely unique take on a subject. It’s a science fictional, hard-boiled, poetic vision of drug addiction and hamsters (read it!) A great addition to a genre that has never existed before.”
- Self-publishing Review
“…this slim volume is the bastard child of Memento and William S Burroughs, absolutely not for the faint of heart nor for anyone seeking a nice, simple beach read.”
- Jason Pettus, The Chicago Center for for Literature and Photography
“An existentialist’s dream, the author has dug in deep and laid bare the raw emotion so candidly that we can actually feel the futility, the desperation, and the humour.”
“Philip Dick would be proud.”
- POD People
“…the absolute perfect spot-on portrait of the mind of an addict.”
“The first chapter alone is a nauseating churn of short choppy staccato sentences, random thoughts and actions, that read like beat poetry at a slam.”
“The whole thing is filled with crazy quips and one liners worthy of a high lighter so you can memorize and use them later.”
- The LL Book Review
“…strangely complex and fascinating.”
- Kaye Trout’s Book Reviews
You set the price
108 pages
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In the runup to the war in Iraq, dozens of intelligence operatives watched their careers evaporate when they spoke candidly about Saddam’s lack of weapons of mass destruction. One such case officer, now unwillingly retired and living in Las Vegas, finds himself a target for assassination.
The Last Days of Las Vegas is the story of Ashor dur-Shamshi, a powerful military exile from Iraq who pulls the strings of an international conspiracy that will return him as Iraq’s new dictator, and of Charles Remly, who struggles to dismantle the centerpiece of the ex-general’s conspiracy. Fueled with billions of dollars from Saddam’s looted fortune, the tentacles of Ashor’s plot reach from his war-torn homeland to the glittery streets of Las Vegas, and much of the world in between. At the heart of the plan is an event that will wake up the American people and confront the power brokers inside the Beltway with two grim alternatives: Reinstitute the military draft, or help install a military government in Baghdad that will end Iraq’s expanding conflict, while searching for the bogus terrorist organization that has created a mini-Chernobyl in Las Vegas.
The ragtag team that defends Vegas against a nuclear meltdown is led by Remly, a middle-aged spook who was forced into early retirement during the runup to the war against Iraq because he insisted on sending proof to his headquarters in Virginia that Saddam had no N-B-C weapons. Cynical and burned out, Remly has a serious heart condition and is a significantly less-than-heroic hero. Spiritually and philosophically Remly is closer to Leamas of le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold—and perhaps Meursault of The Stranger—than he is to the macho characters of modern spy fiction. He’s not entirely disconnected, but he is devious, seemingly unprincipled, and isn’t above shooting an adversary in the back. Best illustrating Remly’s take on the world is the opening of Chapter 10:
“Reality is negotiable, or so Remly was given to understand his first week on the Campus in Virginia. By the time he retired and moved to Las Vegas he concluded that reality was merely optional, and Vegas did nothing to disabuse him of the idea.”
Similarly betrayed, two old men on the team—retired from the upper echelons of the nameless intell agency in Virginia—were denied follow-on consultancy contracts because they refused to drink the Koolaid coming from inside the Beltway. One of them—an amateur magician—has a bit of a drinking problem … Leopold Gourmel cognac, not Koolaid. The other—a cranky old black-ops and regime-change specialist— has spinal disc damage and needs a walker to get around.
Another intelligence operative, described as being “a little light in his loafers,” was fired because of his sexual orientation, despite Remly’s defense of him. Then there’s a voodooman—an electronics genius also retired from the agency—who verges on a paranoid breakdown toward the end, when he’s strung out on sleep deprivation and gets wired on uppers. Rounding out the group are three sociopathic thugs from South Boston—”Neanderthals” the voodooman calls them—recruited for their black-bag skills.
Obviously, this is not a team of super-heroes.
Complicating Remly’s task are the alliances that Ashor forms with K Street lobbyists, pols on the Hill, and a cabal within the agency in Virginia - thus turning Virginia, which should be resisting Ashor, against Remly’s team. And so The Last Days of Las Vegas is as much a political thriller as it is an espionage caper.
Remly’s adversaries are equally complex and dysfunctional. Ashor is a loving husband, father, and grandfather who decides to nuke Las Vegas without a moment’s hesitation. The coördinator of the strike against Vegas is a pious, one-time Dzerzhinsky Square black-arts cadet, rumored to have chosen the Service over the Seminary on the flip of a coin, his piety no obstacle to his job of bringing death and disaster to thousands of people. Then there’s a flashy Crimean remote-control assassin, another Dzerzhinsky Square cadet, who trolls the vodka bars of Moscow in his Student Prince parade-ground uniform looking for casual sex. And an Iraqi pilot with little if any religious conviction, driven to this suicide mission by a military strike against his family at a wedding party.
The important conflict in The Last Days of Las Vegas doesn’t come from people shooting each other. Oh, there are gunfights and bombings and whole buildings destroyed, and all sorts of similar derring-do, but the real conflict comes from people trying to overcome one another through a sort-of mental kung fu— each trying to bring down his adversary with ideas and working deviously to sandbag the other’s emotions —something at which Remly excels. He likes to think of it as “manipulative empathy.” (Some might call it “mind ****ing” - though you and I and Remly never would!)
Roy Hayes is the author of The Hungarian Game, which sold just under 520,000 copies in 6 languages worldwide.
(1 votes, average: 8 out of 10)
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A man on the run from his wife’s wrath after selling her dog. A dozen crash-landed bounty hunter clones. An alien on the tracks of the man who scammed him. An intergalactic detective looking for a mysterious artefact. Above all, a world which is familiar but yet is slightly off - legalized bribery, cities run by gangsters, mysterious sects which believe in the power of jokes. This is the story of Normal Kint and Johnny Goolbhai the android, who are determined to get to Kabul City despite highwaymen, scheming opponents and the occasional cop on the take.
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The FREE e-book, Ripples of Difference, is a collection of unique and powerful stories written by volunteers from around the world. From refugee camps in Africa to orphanages in Asia, readers can learn about how volunteers are touching the lives of others and making a difference - a ripple of difference.
The book is not just a collection of stories; it is a call to action. Mahatma Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”. We want to challenge readers to stand up and create their own ripple and join the sea of change that brings hope to those in need around the world!
Ripples of Difference has been launched by Global Volunteer Network in recognition of International Volunteer Day, December 5th 2009, to celebrate the thousands of volunteers who have given their love, energy, and time to help communities in need around the world.
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Charlotte Rowe has been cast in the role of medium from childhood, and studied under a clever fraud. But does she have a real vision?
Divination from the spirit world. Con artistry. Cats and mirrors. The implications of Freudian psychology. Death. Life. Birth. Murder.
And ice cream.
“If you like intelligent, complex stories of paranormal horror and disturbed psyches, you might want to take on Ice Cream Memories. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Web Fiction Guide
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Allow me to introduce myself. I am Eaglethorpe Buxton, famed world traveler and story-teller. Of course you have heard of me, for my tales of the great heroes and their adventures have been repeated far and wide across the land.
Eaglethorpe Buxton, famed adventurer and story-teller is back, this time to put on a play about a sorceress. When the sorceress, subject of his play arrives with fire in her eyes, Eaglethorpe must pretend to be his good friend Ellwood. Will he pull off this charade and survive? And what happens when the real Ellwood shows up? One can never tell, especially when Eaglethorpe tells the story.
Praise for Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven Princess:
Haven’t read it. Won’t read it. End of Story. And I don’t think anyone else should read it.
- Dextius Winterborn, Story-teller’s Guild.
People aren’t really reading that? Are they?.
- Sir Roderick Bairn, Adventurer
You can’t believe a damn word that boy says. He was born to hang, I tell ya.
- Margram Buxton, Father
What is it exactly? Is it some kind of story book? No. No, I don’t want any.
-Queen Elleena I of Aerithraine
Join Eaglethorpe Buxton as he adventures across a magical world to in his quest for self-aggrandizement.
Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Sorceress is a short book by Wesley Allison, author of His Robot Girlfriend, and Princess of Amathar. Available now as a free ebook.
(1 votes, average: 10 out of 10)
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A follow-up to 2006’s Single, Cassingle is a new collection of stories by Jim Hanas that originally appeared, individually, in Fence, McSweeney’s, Bridge: Stories & Ideas, and Twelve Stories.
Toronto’s Eye Weekly recently wrote of Cassingle, “No matter the cut, this is writing that speaks American, in all its complexity.”
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Free anthology of quality sci-fi & fantasy
Detective thrillers, political satire, family drama, fables, fable deconstructions, the mysteries of debugging: there’s something in this anthology for every fan. Contains nine original stories and five original artworks.
We found awesome fiction, bought it, and released it online under a Creative Commons license. We learned a lot, so the appendix, “How To Do This And Why,” has submission/rejection statistics, our budget, and some behind-the-scenes musings on process, supply and demand.
Some excerpts from the stories that got us over four stars on GoodReads:
Day-to-day life with a sponge golem was pleasant.
-“Daisy” by Andrew Willett (audio version)
Anyone who’d ever seen the Martian Ambassador would recognize it, the way he wielded it like his staff of office.
I frowned at Seeth. “So how does the Ambassador’s staff wind up broken on a street in the Crops, when the Ambassador is dying peacefully in his hotel room?”
“I guess that’s what I need you to find out.”
-“The Ambassador’s Staff” by Sherry D. Ramsey
Sarita kept feeding her, one bite after another. “You were the one who insisted on breast-feeding. Joshua and I would have been fine using formula. They’ve duplicated the ingredients found in breast milk, you know. Perfected it two decades ago.”
“It’s not the same,” Kate insisted. “I can’t prove it, but I’m sure it isn’t.”
-“Jump Space” by Mary Anne Mohanraj
Xanathan Kurtler didn’t die because of greed. Not his own, anyway. It wasn’t greed that made him plant those trees.
-“Goldenseed” by Therese Arkenberg
The technically proficient could breach the best software security systems by deliberately inducing errors in the hardware. Couldn’t the rational induce faith in themselves the same way?
-“Single-Bit Error” by Ken Liu
The crack of leather that followed hurt more than my own whipping.
You might think we’d never be dumb enough to eat Jilly Jallys again.
-“Friar Garden, Mister Samuel, and the Jilly Jally Butter Mints” by Carole Lanham
Those and more, available as HTML, PDF or print-on-demand physical book. Plus mobile editions:
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The Memory House
“I’ll leave you my fantasy,” he said. “It’s all I have to leave you in any case.”
Ip Dip
Ip dip, sky blue, who’s it…?
Fulcrum
Fulcrum, n. (pl. –ra). (Mech.) point against which lever is placed to get purchase.
Snow
Doesn’t anyone die for love nowadays?
That Celeb. Smile
Trouble is, any photograph worth taking, costs.
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TRASH PROOF NEWS RELEASES is a tool designed with one specific goal – to get you publicity in your target media that achieves a return on investment that rivals and even exceeds your best marketing. It offers media everything they need to run with the story using you and the resources you’ve arrayed and meet their needs in today’s fast paced environment and ever changing technologies.
Praise for Paul Krupin’s Trash Proof News Releases
In Trash Proof, Paul Krupin once again displays his unique ability to cut through the fluff and provide actionable advice right from page one. This book goes way beyond the competition. I would recommend it for the novice through the experienced publicist, to the “do-it-yourselfer”. There’s something valuable here for everyone.
– Barbara Kimmel, Publisher and Publicist
Wow! A results-only guide to getting free coverage in the media. This is the BEST book on the subject out there! The examples are priceless!
– Joe Vitale, author “The Attractor Factor”, and many other books
Updating his classic “Trash-Proof News Releases” for the Internet era, Krupin once again provides extremely useful guidance (successful press release formulas, journalist interviews, and plenty of examples) useful to both novice and experienced seekers of media coverage–including do-it-yourselfers who don’t do PR for a living.
– Shel Horowitz, author of Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers and other books
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In 19th Century New Zealand, there are few choices for a farm girl like Amy. Her life seems mapped out for her by the time she is twelve. Amy dreams of an exciting life in the world beyond her narrow boundaries. But it is the two people who come to the farm from outside the valley who change her life forever, and Amy learns the high cost of making the wrong choice.
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Giles, my sibling, my Mephistophilis. You lie whenever it suits you, but when you lie to me, surely you can take the trouble to make it convincing?
Simon Coltraine is a professional songwriter and musician. His brother Giles - trader, rogue and amiable bully - is a crook. When Giles is killed in a car accident Simon returns to their childhood home to confront his memories and his own complicity in his brother’s schemes.
The Devil has all the best tunes.
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Craig Edmonds, a successful stockbroker, reports the disappearance of his wife, Kirsty. What starts as a typical missing person’s case soon evolves into a full-blown homicide investigation when forensics uncover blood traces and dark-blonde hairs in the boot of the missing woman’s car. Added to this, is Craig’s adulterous affair with the victim’s younger sister, Narelle Croswell, compounded further by a recently acquired $1,000,000 insurance policy on his wife’s life. He is charged with murder but, with no body and only circumstantial evidence, he walks free when two trials resulting in hung juries fail to convict him.
Ten years later, Jacinta Deller, a newspaper journalist is retrenched. Working on a freelance story about missing persons, she comes across the all but forgotten Edmonds case. When she discovers her boyfriend, Brett Rhodes, works with Narelle Croswell, who is not only the victim’s sister but is now married to the prime suspect, her sister’s husband, she thinks she has found the perfect angle for her article. Instead, her life is turned upside down, as befriending the woman, she becomes embroiled in a warped game of delusion and murder.
THIN BLOOD is a suspense-filled mystery in a contemporary Australian setting. The novel also touches on deeper themes, like family and trust: protagonist Jacinta Deller discovers that blood is not always thicker than water, and sometimes the people you should count on are not the ones who are tied to you by blood or by marriage.
Vicki Tyley author website
$3.97 (FREE until 15 Nov ‘09 - enter code BV68V after adding book to cart.)
237 pages
(3 votes, average: 8 out of 10)
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“In ancient days, when only women were warriors … ”
“When was that?”
“I don’t know. A long time ago, I suppose.”
“How long ago?”
“I have no idea. It’s not important. It’s just the way you start a story.”
“Why?”
“All stories begin like that.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. They just do.”
In Book I of the trilogy, Tamras, our hero, arrives in Merin’s house to begin her apprenticeship as a warrior, but her small stature causes many, including Tamras herself, to doubt that she will ever become a competent swordswoman. To make matters worse, the Lady Merin assigns her the position of companion, little more than a personal servant, to a woman who came to Merin’s house, seemingly out of nowhere, the previous winter, and this stranger wants nothing to do with Tamras.
Tamras’s journey begins with the smallest of steps. She sets aside her disappointment and performs as well as she can the humble tasks given her, and eventually she succeeds in winning the trust and then the friendship of the cantankerous warrior to whom she has been assigned.
In the first year of her journey, Tamras will make a series of choices that often seem insignificant, but they will flow from her character and from her good intentions, and they will determine her destiny.
The Music of Words
… From the title the reader would expect simply a tale of battle and blood, but this story instead surprises and mesmerizes one in its wonderful intricate weaving of words that become a delicate fabric of story and feeling. Words flow like a gentle meandering stream and one is swept up in the actual thoughts and emotions of the main character as she experiences growth and change…
Well-written, well-conceived, polished
The world-building is solid, the characters feel true… These are fantasy books, but there’s no ring of power or glowing sword of specialness; the magic, like the tone of the book, is quiet. It feels real.
Perfectly believable, yet perfectly fanciful and imaginative
…(the hero) learns much of statecraft, friendship, loyalty, and duty… mostly, she learns what she wants most in her own life… Well written, a pleasure to read. On to Book 2!
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1963, and panic over the spread of heroin addiction in London. While the Profumo and Challenor scandals are exposing the dark underbelly of postwar Britain, a teenage heroin and cocaine addict undergoes a cold turkey in a padded cell. His escape from custody triggers a chain of events which ends in murder and mayhem.
A lyrical and triumphant elegy to a seedy, vice-ridden London of the 1960s.
(7 votes, average: 9.43 out of 10)
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Eva thought she could outrun the plagues, but she was wrong. The bio-hackers that ripped the world raw are targeting her hometown of Prague, and this time there may be no escaping it.
Now, hunted by police who think she’s a hacker herself, Eva must brave the rotting city streets to find her mother before it’s too late. But with a ruthless agent known as a “Healer” on the prowl, it may only be a matter of time before Eva becomes another victim of his blood-soaked carnage.
In this snowy, ash-strewn apocalypse, Eva’s greatest fear is this new threat may not be coincidence at all… it may be personal.
“A gripping, scary viruscore tale.”
— io9.com
“MCM is one of the most unique voices working in SciFi today.”
— Martin Gero, Producer, Stargate: Atlantis, Stargate: Universe
(4 votes, average: 5.25 out of 10)
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