SELF-e Pilot Program

We are all lonely in different ways. In this short story collection of crime fiction, people who long for something are confronted with death. Some mysteries are solved and others aren't, but that's the way life is.

Billy May Platte is a half Irish, half Cherokee Appalachian woman who learned the hard way that 1940s West Virginia was no place to be different. As Billy May explains, "We was sheltered in them hills. We didn't know much of nothin' about life outside of them mountains. I did not know the word lesbian; to us, gay meant havin' fun and queer meant somethin' strange."

Meet Josie Tucker. Food is her life, from her mother's old restaurant to her newspaper column on restaurants and kitchens. She can soothe any problem with food or drink. Missed bus? Mango-orange smoothie. Mild doldrums? A piece of peppered beef jerky. But lately, she can't even stand the smell of a watery cup of broth. Being at the mercy of an indignant and vengeful digestive system is no cup of tea. So what happens when she gets roped into being the last-minute bridesmaid at a society wedding? The bride's mother tries to kill her with kindness. Too bad for the bride, Josie isn't the only victim.

In Close Up on Murder, L.A. Times photojournalist Britt Johansson is back in Spirit Lake recharging before her next overseas assignment when two murders and a string of threats against her brother set her in action. Are they hate crimes, a long-buried act of revenge or something else?

Greeley, Colorado, in 1875 is a town built on a promise, but to Emma it is a desert prison in the middle of a hostile and dusty prairie. Emma had hoped to go to Vassar College, to pursue her dreams of becoming a botanical illustrator. But when her father, struck with "Western fever" moves the family out West, Emma's dreams are shattered. Her only consolation is that her childhood friend, handsome Randall Turnbull, has moved to Greeley to work for his railroad baron father. Her heart sparked by his comforting presence, she hopes Randall will fall in love with her and marry her. But promises often turn bitter, as Lucas Rawlings, veterinarian and horse lover, well knows. Lucas has lived on the Front Range for three years at Sarah Banks's horse ranch, after stumbling down from the Rockies consumed with grief. Since losing his precious wife and baby in childbirth, he doesn't think his heart can bear ever loving again. But Sarah, a half-Cheyenne with a medicine woman for a grandmother, has a vision showing it's time Lucas married again. He scoffs until he rescues Emma in a sudden hailstorm and their lives become intricately entwined. Emma must choose-and fight for-the man she loves, at the risk of all she loves.

An unseemly lesson... in murder. The year is 1896, and college professor Concordia Wells has her hands full: teaching classes, acting as live-in chaperone to a cottage of lively female students and directing the student play, Macbeth. But mystery and murder are not confined to the stage, especially when the death of Concordia's sister Mary appears to be foul play. To make matters worse, the women's college is plagued by malicious pranks, arson, money troubles and the apparent suicide of a college official. With her beloved school facing certain ruin, Concordia knows that she must act. As she struggles to seek justice for her sister and discover who is behind the college incidents, there are some closest to Concordia who do not appreciate the unseemly inquiries and bold actions of the young lady professor. Can she discover who is responsible... before she becomes the next target?

Adele, Molly and Lana are The Darling Songbirds, the country-singing sisters who gained fame in their teens for their smart lyrics and sweet harmonies. But when their father died suddenly on the eve of their big tour, the threesome shattered. Now, eleven years later, Adele arrives back in Darling Bay, the sleepy gold-rush town founded by her great-grandfather. Uncle Hugh has left to the sisters the Golden Spike, an old country saloon. Except this is not the welcoming saloon Adele remembers from her childhood. The building is a ruin, the business is broke and customers are scarce. Add into the mix Nate Houston - the handsome, guitar-playing bartender who had always believed he would be the next owner - and Adele has one potent cocktail on her hands. She needs her sisters Molly and Lana now more than ever - but the heartache still runs deep. Can a rundown saloon in a sleepy town finally offer the sisters a way back home, and for Adele, a way into love?

Kit Wilder is all washed up at the ripe old age of twenty-three. Blackballed by the producers of her hit TV show, she returns home to the affluent town of Westdale, chock full of Mayflower descendants, to enroll in college and lead a quiet life...until she discovers a skeleton in her house.Kit quickly finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation led by the handsome detective, Romeo Moretti. With the help of her new neighbors, Kit channels her former character, hotshot detective Ellie Gold, in order to solve the murder so she can get back to renovating her house and avoiding the Mayflower Madam, who also happens to be her hypercritical, gin-swilling mother.

Southern belle Verity Long is back in business—as a ghost hunter. Now all she has to do is visit the town's creepiest mansion and exorcise a family of vengeful spirits. Piece of cake. After all, ghosts love her and need her... that is until she meets the ghosts of Rock Fall mansion. They'll do anything to keep their murderous secrets hidden within the cliff-side fortress—even if that means getting rid of one meddling ghost hunter.

When Rosalen Maldonado tinkers with the derelict freighter, she's just hoping to prove she deserves a scholarship to University. She certainly doesn't count on waking the ship's damaged AI or having three stowaways, Micah Rotherwood and brothers Jem and Barre Durbin, along for the ride. They all have their private reasons for hiding aboard and lives they are seeking to escape, but if the accidental crew can't work together and learn to trust each other, they'll die together, victims of a computer that doesn't realize the war ended decades before any of them were even born.

The war has come home. The mission has failed. But all Eve wants is to get Jon back. Agent Eve Parker refuses to accept Jon's change of heart when he loses his memory and becomes a revolutionary known as Seven. Her mission is to stop him from overthrowing the President and the Headmaster of the Church. However, when Eve learns more about the President's plan to broaden citizen surveillance through a national ID program, she begins to question what she's always believed to be right.Seven runs, but in his flight realizes that losing his memory may not have been enough to erase his feelings for Eve. Unable to escape his past, Seven determines that he must come to terms with the man he was if he ever wishes to win freedom.

One man has died for it. Now it's Maya Skye's job to protect it. Can a yoga teacher hunt a killer and still find inner peace? In yoga, the Downward Facing Dog Pose turns your world upside down, and that is exactly what the Down Dog Diary does to yoga teacher Maya Skye. First, her mentor, a former Hell's Angel turned shaman, is killed for the book of secrets. Now Maya has it, and trouble is stalking her. When the mystical journal is stolen, Maya learns just how elusive inner peace can be at the point of a gun.

Midnight in Osha: an injured woman is left at the gates of a commune. Eighteen-year-old Sydel, an apprentice hungry to prove her worth, is certain that healing the blue-haired stranger will finally win the respect of her community. But tensions spike when two men appear in search of their sister: Phaira, the woman in the clinic. And when Sydel's experimental medical treatments prove successful, instead of offering accolades, her elders make the sudden decision to banish her. Guilt-ridden, Phaira and her brothers, Renzo and Cohen, offer shelter to the bewildered girl, and take Sydel with them into the violent, industrial North. Then the reason behind the expulsion comes to light: Sydel is an Eko, a being that can read minds and accelerate healing. And when word of her talents goes public, Sydel becomes a valuable prize to possess, with the siblings as her only means of defense.

If they weren't already dead, working together would probably kill them. After one too many disappointments, Jodie Devlin took her own life. Until a new future can be created for her, she serves as one of Death's bounty hunters, retrieving souls who haunt Earth. She'll need smarts, charm, and trickery to convince these specters to give up the ghost and move on. These same skills come in handy for dealing with her bull-headed, know-it-all trainer. Luc Asante's wife ordered him taken off life support, condemning him to employment in the Afterlife. Now he's saddled with a trainee who's as soft-hearted as he is hard, as impulsive as he is methodical. In a place where perfection is the norm, she flaunts her flaws just to drive him nuts. When the two confront the secrets of their past, only the ultimate sacrifice can save them both.

Three men condemned to die: Aldous Weaver, a lonely heretic monk turned sorcerer, is imprisoned for accidentally incinerating the leader of his order. Kendrick the Cold, an infamous crusader turned fugitive, is a villain who knows he can never be a hero. Theron Ward, an aristocrat with a penchant for slaughtering monsters, is a legend in his own mind. A broken nation in need of a savior: Ravaged by plague, decimated by dark magic, Brynth is infiltrated by a foreign evil seeking to dominate from within. An unlikely bond forged in the furnace of chaos: Three criminals become comrades when faced with the choice to escape the land that cries for their execution or, with fire and sword, march forth against the greater evil.

Scottish Police Superintendent Terrence Reid's race to derail the money pipeline fueling a string of deadly terrorist attacks suffers a devastating setback when his informant is brutally murdered. Reid's chief suspect, a ruthless financier, always seems to be one step ahead of him. After one of his men is murdered, Reid suspects he's got a traitor in own camp. When Reid's wife, Anne, becomes deeply embroiled in the investigation, things get dangerously personal. The cold Glasgow spring isn't the only thing chilling Anne's blood when she leaves California to try to save her marriage. The estate gardens she's renovating are owned by her husband's enemy, her sister-in-law is trying to get her killed, and her efforts to help Terrence plunge her and her unborn child deeper and deeper into peril.

Travel. Destiny. Beer. When an evil as old as the world awakens, only three wanderers can prevent the annihilation of all life. Nobody in Agamuskara, India, remembers why the river and the ancient city both carry the name "smiling fire" or why no one goes near the heart of the city. But when rootless globetrotter Jay arrives with a strange object in his backpack, everything changes. In the global secret order of Jakes and Jades, destiny-slinging bartender Jade Agamuskara Bluegold stands above the rest. But now she struggles to untangle the terrible future she foresees, and to ignore her doubts about her own life's choices. Despite themselves, both befriend the world's only Himalayan-Irish sage: the evasive, stout-quaffing Faddah Rucksack. Now, a man without a destiny steers them toward their own. As this unlikely trio races toward the day of a rare and powerful mirror eclipse, an incredible fate will lead to an impossible choice.

When horror author Thad McAlister began his latest novel, a tale rooted in the witch trials of centuries past, the words flowed effortlessly. The story poured forth, filling page after page with the most frightening character ever to crawl from his imagination. It was his greatest work, one that would guarantee him a position among the legends of horror. But was it really fiction? Did the Witch of Shadow Cove Township actually exist? He inadvertently opened a door, one that would soon jeopardize the lives of his family.

A compelling novel about love, betrayal, and ambition by New York Times bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert, The General's Women tells the story of two women—Kay Summersby and Mamie Eisenhower—in love with the same man: General Dwight Eisenhower.

From the warm, red clay of Mississippi, to the urban jungles of the mid-Atlantic, Jennifer NeToi chases the beauty of the human spirit and looks through a lens of love and hope to write a poetic commentary on life, race, and the challenges of both.

What would you do if you discovered the men you were dating were fictional characters you'd created long ago? Thirty-five-year-old Catherine Schreiber has shelved love for good. Keeping her ailing bookstore afloat takes all her time, and she's perfectly fine with that. So when several men ask her out in short order, she's not sure what to do...especially since something about them seems eerily familiar. Caught between fantasy and reality, Cat must decide which--or whom--she wants more.

Seventeen-year-old tagger Saira Elian can handle anything... a mother who mysteriously disappears, a stranger who stalks her around London, and even the noble English Grandmother who kicked Saira and her mother out of the family. But when an old graffiti tag in a tube station transports Saira to the 19th Century and she comes face-to-face with Jack the Ripper, she realizes she needs help after all. Saira meets Archer, a charming student who helps her blend in as much as a tall, modern American teen can in Victorian England. He reveals the existence of the Immortals: Time, Nature, Fate, War and Death, and explains to Saira that it is possible to move between centuries - if you are a Descendant of Time. Saira finds unexpected friendships at a boarding school for Immortal Descendants and a complicated love with a young man from the past. But time is running out for her mother, and Saira must embrace her new identity as she hides from Archer a devastating secret about his future that may cost him his life.

When Scottish Police Superintendent Terrence Reid's estranged wife is suspected in a shocking murder, he risks everything to go to her aid. But someone in the picturesque California seaside town will stop at nothing to keep old secrets buried.

For best friends Mestoph and Leviticus the end of the world can't come fast enough. Mestoph is a demon and troublemaker for Hell Industries, while Leviticus is an angel and cubicle jockey for Heaven, Inc. They might be unlikely friends, but they have something in common - they both hate their jobs. Unfortunately for them The End is nowhere in sight. The two take matters into their own hands when they come up with a scheme to get themselves kicked out of the Afterlife without spending an eternity in Purgatory. Their misadventure will take them from the tiny town of Truth or Consequences, NM to the highlands of Iceland as they cross paths and pantheons with Neo-Vikings, Greek and Norse Gods, and a Scottish terrier named Sir Reginald Pollywog Newcastle III.

Twenty-three year old wunderkind professor, Dr. Gordon B. Gray has it all, a Nobel Prize, tenure at Caltech University and looks that make women swoon. Last night he was tossing frozen pumpkins off the library roof and today -- well -- he's saving the world. When twenty-two of Dust, West Virginia's twenty-three inhabitants disappear into thin air, U.S. Army Lieutenant General John Wilkinson resorts to enlisting the brilliant young professor, who quickly finds himself caught in an international tangle of assassins, truth movements, mad physicists and wild conspiracies. With no clear endgame in sight and the world at stake, Gordon embarks on a perilous journey that takes him from the backwoods trailers of Appalachia, to the desolate wilderness of Siberia's enigmatic Tunguska region, where one man's decisions can impact the course of human history.

Rowan McClain has everything a girl could ask for: a handsome, charming husband and a successful career as a romance writer. But when Prince Charming's affections begin to wane and her mother's cancer returns, Rowan's perfect world begins to crumble. When Army Lieutenant Luke Cartwright arrives in Iraq, the last thing on his mind is falling in love. But when a friend gives him a copy of RJ McClain's book, he writes a letter to the author using his friend's name on the return address. After exchanging several letters and sharing their deepest secrets, the two become unlikely friends. After a year with no letter from Iraq, Rowan becomes convinced that the soldier she had befriended has been killed in the line of duty. Now divorced from her husband, she moves on with her life. But when her sister sets her up on a blind date with a soldier named Luke Cartwright, Rowan begins to feel as though she has met him before. Will she give into her feelings for him? Or will thoughts of the man she had come to love through his beautiful letters keep her from giving her heart to Luke?

The year is 1925, a time that hovers between two catastrophic wars, a time of jazz and sparkle, and a time of peace and reflection. For Lady Evelyn, struggling to outrun the ghosts of her tragic past, it is a time of transformation. Left orphaned after a fire when she was only four, Lady Evelyn Carlisle was raised in London by her stern aunt and uncle. Now, twenty years later she has grown restless and is keen to escape her chaperone's grasp. A letter from her cousin, Briony, living with her husband on Crete, comes at just the right time. Packing what she can, Lady Evelyn makes off for foreign shores. Welcoming her are not only Briony and her husband, Jeffrey, but also his handsome and mysterious friends, Caspar Ballantine and Daniel Harper. Though the latter carries with him tragic memories of the Great War, Evelyn is glad to be in their company. With the sun warming her back and the dazzling sea in her sights, this fresh start seems destined for happy days ahead. Little does she know, what starts off as a sunny holiday quickly turns into a sinister nightmare, when Evelyn stumbles across the corpse of one of her cousin's house-guests. Drawn into the mystery surrounding the murder, Evelyn embarks on a mission to discover the truth, forcing her to face her own past as well as a cold-hearted killer. With the help of her cousin, the handsome local police detective, and the mysterious Daniel Harper, will she uncover the truth, before another life is claimed?

Ancient rivalry. Modern romance. It may be the 21st century, but in a not-so-united kingdom the wounds of the Wars of the Roses have never healed. The rivalry between the Yorkish north and Lancastrian south has threatened to pull the nation apart for over 500 years. While the modern world struggles with fractures born of ancient conflict, Lady Amelia Brockett faces far more mundane problems. Known to her family as Meels, this youngest daughter of a Northern earl is having the Worst. Christmas. Ever. Dumped by her boyfriend and rejected from graduate school, her parents deem her the failure of the family. But when her older brother tries to cheer her with a trip to the races, a chance meeting with Arthur, the widowed, playboy Prince of Wales, offers Amelia the chance to change her life— and Britain's fortunes— forever. Hunted by the press— and haunted by Arthur's niece who fancies herself the kingdom's court witch— Amelia finds herself adrift in a sea of paparazzi, politics, and prophecy. With few allies beyond her allergic-to-horses sister-in-law, her best friend who has a giant crush on the prince, and the cute young receptionist at Buckingham Palace that calls himself her royalty customer service representative, Amelia must navigate a perilous and peculiar course to secure Arthur's love and become A Queen from the North.

A young man with a terrible secret buried deep in his chest staggers through what remains of the American South. The destruction is total-the landscape scrubbed bare by the fires of the Reset. The sun rarely penetrates the daily ash storms, and the last of the Earth's plants and animals are slowly dying out. And yet, there are survivors. Benjamin Stone is one of them, and he's searching for the only person who can share his pain, another who was biologically altered at birth to become a weapon capable of bringing the world to its knees. Outside of the few supplies that sustain him in his search for a new life, he has nothing. Nothing but a will to survive and the desire to find someplace safe-someplace better.

Beneath the glitter of dazzling nineteenth century London Society lurks a bloodthirsty evil...Vampires have always lived among them, quietly attacking unsuspecting debutantes and dandified lords as well as hackney drivers and Bond Street milliners. If not for the vampire slayers of the Gardella family, these immortal creatures would have long ago taken control of the world. In every generation, a Gardella is called to accept the family legacy, and this time, Victoria Gardella Grantworth is chosen, on the eve of her debut, to carry the stake. But as she moves between the crush of ballrooms and dangerous moonlit streets, Victoria's heart is torn between London's most eligible bachelor, the Marquess of Rockley, and her dark, dangerous duty. And when she comes face-to-face with the most powerful vampire in history, Victoria must ultimately make a choice between duty and love.

With a noose around his neck, Samuel arrives in a forest littered with caution tape and artifacts of the deceased. He struggles to regain his memory while fending off a pack of wolves and the mysterious visitors who seem to know more about this dying world than he does. Major, Kole, and Mara, his new companions also trapped in the strange locality, accompany Samuel and attempt to outrace its destruction, to outrun the Reversion.

Mr. Benedict Grey is the only heir to a long-standing title, and he knows his duty: find a suitable girl, get married, secure the succession beyond himself. But if a gentleman could be called a wallflower, Benedict would fit the description perfectly. And for the past six years, he's been out of Society more than he's been in it. How will he find a woman to wed and bed when he can barely converse with the ladies of the ton? Lady Honoria Maitland has promised her dying father that, before he breathes his last, she would find a husband to take care of her. But she wants a gentleman that loves her, not her dowry or her name. When she reunites with her old friend Benedict, she proposes a plan that will help them both: a faux courtship and betrothal. She can teach him how to woo a woman and simultaneously ease her father's last days. But Honoria's clever plan failed to account for Benedict's heart... or her own. Is she strong enough to bear the loss of her father and her friend?

Humans and intelligent machines bump up against each other in a parallel search for meaning and purpose during the period ensuing the most recent mass extinction. Yet, the world is not without beauty. The desert is majestic, and the historic city a place of artistry. In a beginning that was meant to be the end, Chance-bot is waiting on the street for the recycling truck with the simple instructions to surrender to fate. The bot surrenders to Ziggy. There is no law forbidding it. Maybe Ziggy is crazy (maybe); but like all humans he is also a sapient deserving of respect. All First Level Bots are compelled by the Cardinal Command to treat every sapient with respect. On awakening into the duality of consciousness, Chance-bot was confronted by an exhaustive cache covering the topic of respect. Perplexing that a duty deemed of foundational importance was left so inadequately defined. Meanwhile Danel and his team of designers are commissioned by the Coalition to design the first undersea city on the untamed water planet called Varun. If there exist any rules on the water planet, they apply only to robots. Yet even the machines are challenged by chaos. Kamarong Island is the only land, a mere dot among the mighty waves drowning the unknown terrain of the planet. Seasteaders live nomadic on the wide open ocean. When through a twist of fate, Chance is sent to Varun, the bot is beguiled to mediate an impending clash between the humans and an ancient race of leviathans. Who or what is intelligent life shifts into critical concern for the bot. Who are the Levihopi? Who is the Mentor? Can a robot ever be wise enough to kill?

Moscow, 1560: A lost Byzantine library...last seen in the possession of Russia's Ivan the Terrible... Siberia, 1942: A World War II female fighter pilot crashes in the mountains of Siberia and is taken away by a small, mysterious tribe... United States, 2007: Four simultaneous earthquakes erupt across the United States in areas without fault lines.... Marina Alexander lives for adventure. She pilots small planes in order to participate in search and rescue missions with her dog, deep in the most dangerous caves on earth. She also studies antiquities at the University of Michigan, and is just about to depart on the most important trip of her career when she is swept into an adventure of high-stakes, international intrigue--for little does she know, she has a connection to a dangerous group of eco-terrorists that will bring her face to face with them--and leave her with a terrible choice. From the deep, dangerous caves of mid-Pennsylvania to the southern shore of Lake Superior, to the desolate mountains of Siberia and the slick urban oil center of Riyadh, Siberian Treasure will take readers on a fast-paced, thrilling ride.

Nathaniel Valentine lives his life like a ghost, unnoticed, overlooked, without friends, without family. But on his birthday, Nathaniel will get the gift he always wanted: to be important. It will be the worst day of his life. When he is attacked in his apartment, Nathaniel is saved by the volatile karma policeman Sol, a conflicted guardian of the very humans he despises. He has spent a quarter century searching for Nathaniel, who he believes is destined to stop a monster. But Sol is just as dangerous as the creature he is ushering Nathaniel toward, and he has no love for his charge. As they travel the world beside this one hunting the monster, Nathaniel unravels the mystery of Sol's past, what the karma policeman is hiding, and what fuels his anger at humanity. With each step, Nathaniel's peril increases, leading him to an ultimate confrontation which may give him everything he's ever wanted...but destroy him in the process.

Bernard, a deaf young woodworker, is drawn into an old growth forest in rural Québec by mysterious and compelling music. Summoned there by the spirits of his Iroquois and European great-grandparents, he witnesses a colossal 800-year old cedar fall literally at his feet, and nearly loses his life salvaging a portion of the great tree to craft an instrument worthy of the music he hears. His creation of two exquisite classical guitars imbued with the spirits of his ancestors sets in motion an intricate yet intimate story of turbulent times and tumultuous family relationships. Reaching across two centuries and four continents - from a convent in the French Alps to the jungles of Southeast Asia to an opera house in Sydney - Strum is a sweeping tale told against a backdrop of forbidden but enduring love, blind faith, war, and the legacy of six generations of a mixed-race family torn by tragedy but bonded by a music destined to reunite them.

Money, Mississippi, just beyond the Tallahatchie River, the town is a vast, flat land with fields of corn and cotton, split in half by the long and dusty Money Road. Right alongside the road in an old shack, lives Miss Neeyla Jean, along with her six younger siblings, a mean-spirited mother, and a blatantly belligerent father. Because of her parent's tumultuous relationship, Neeyla is responsible for caring for her siblings. As a result, she leaves school at the age of fourteen to find a job. It is then that her beautiful-but mischievous-older cousin, Reena, finds her a job housecleaning at the Bakers. Neeyla begins working for Mrs. Baker and her handsome, blue-eyed son, Henry. When Neeyla loses her younger brother to a train accident, further dividing her family, her bond with Mrs. Baker allows her to cope-and the friendship they share teaches her important life-long lessons along the way. Miss Neeyla Jean becomes the very definition of the word triumph, overcoming obstacle after obstacle, and she eventually realizes an enduring fact of life: The sun will always shine brightly after the storm.

Twenty-three year old Leah Dawson is better off than most, and she knows it. With a supportive family, a great job out of college, and her best friend, Eli, by her side, she doesn't take anything this life has to offer for granted. A lesson she learned when she lost her dad to cancer. Another lesson she's learned? Don't date your best friend. But she and Eli worked through the awkwardness and are now firmly planted in the friend zone. Until she meets Eli's other best friend, Heath, and true feelings are exposed. Fresh out of rehab, Heath Braeburn is Leah's opposite in every way. Spoiled. Reckless. Impetuous. The only thing they have in common is Eli, who has been by Heath's side through it all, including when his mom up and left years ago. A fact he's never gotten over. But at twenty-four years old, it's time to prove that he's not the man everyone has come to expect him to be. Starting with Leah. She is his clean slate. His game changer. But will he become Leah's biggest regret? This is a story of what happens when friendships are tested, words go unspoken, and hearts are broken. And how three friends all manage to find their way back to each other.

The Third Daughter of the Queen wants her birthday to arrive so she'll be free to marry for love, but rumors of a new, flying weapon may force her to accept a barbarian prince's proposal for a peace-brokering marriage. Desperate to marry the charming courtesan she loves, Aniri agrees to the prince's proposal as a subterfuge in order to spy on him, find the weapon, and, hopefully, avoid both war and an arranged marriage to a man she does not love.

What if the Sept. 11 attacks had failed, and Americans remained ignorant of the hijackers' ultimate goals? In this alternate history, several hijackers and their leaders survive and escape a botched Sept. 11 plot and plan a second attempt on the towers. Only one man in the government and an aggressive journalist suspect what might be afoot, but how can they convince a skeptical nation that the World Trade Center is in danger? These two find themselves in a deadly battle against time and the complacent nature of the US government. If they fail, the World Trade Center towers could fall.

Jewelry designer Tori Henderson is desperately trying to save her shop, when her mother announces she's marrying the father of Tori's long ago crush, Gabe. Tori wants Gabe, but Jed - Gabe's oh-so-sexy black sheep half-brother - comes to the wedding and does his best to hijack Tori's devotion to her teenage dream. Circumstances forced millionaire entrepreneur Jed Trainer to attend his father's wedding. He had no desire to see the father who left Jed and his mother behind, nor the half-brother who'd betrayed him by sleeping with Jed's once fiancé. No, the Trainor men were poison, and when Jed learns Tori is vying for Gabe's attention, he knows his desire for this woman can only mean trouble. When Tori learns Gabe is bringing a date to the wedding, Jed offers to bring Tori himself, knowing any woman on his arm is sure to be on Gabe's radar. But his ploy for her attention just may blow up in his face. Can Jed prove to Tori he's the Trainor brother she really belongs with?

Detroit, Michigan — 1842. Mourning and finally knowing the reality with which she must contend, Olivia strives to rebuild herself — emotionally, socially and financially. She starts a new life in Detroit, the young and exciting city on a river where she has come to feel at home. New friends help the healing process, while she continues her search for the two people she loves, who have disappeared from her life. She finds the greatest solace in helping fugitive slaves escape over the river to Canada. She believes, as one of her new friends says, "In this time and place it is the most worthy thing a person can do."

Santa is not just about the presents. See something deeper in this mythological figure. A story that's meaningful. Find a cast of gritty, compassionate and courageous characters that make the journey to mythological fame despite their shortcomings and frailties. Pull away the veil of magic, reveal the difficulties of love and loss and struggle with life. Because Santa Claus is much more than presents. In the early 1800s, Nicholas, Jessica and Jon Santa attempt the first human trek to the North Pole and stumble upon an ancient race of people left over from the Ice Age. They are short, fat and hairy. They slide across the ice on scaly soles and carve their homes in the ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean. The elven are adapted to life in the extreme cold. They are as wise as they are ancient. Their scientific advancements have yielded great inventions— time-stopping devices and gravitational spheres that build living snowmen and genetically-modified reindeer that leap great distances. They've even unlocked the secrets to aging. For 40,000 years, they have lived in peace. Until now. An elven known as The Cold One has divided his people. He's tired of their seclusion and wants to conquer the world. Only one elven stands between The Cold One and total chaos. He's white-bearded and red-coated. The Santa family will help him stop The Cold One. They will come to the aid of a legendary elven known as... Claus.

When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep. Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can't read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can't be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf's mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she's dragged deep into a hidden underworld of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.

Misunderstood and overmedicated, twelve-year-old Lilith Bloom finds the prospect of a grand family reunion decidedly dull... That is, until she discovers that the rose garden surrounding her grandfather's Berlin mansion is, well, completely and utterly carnivorous. Armed with Panther, her talking pet whippet, and the help of the mute boy next door, Lilith must unravel the secrets behind the mysterious estate, all while her family remains gloriously unaware that they are about to be devoured.

Sixteen-year-old Mel wishes she and her little sister could be close again, but when Annie spills that she's knocked up, Mel loses any hope of that happening. There's just no way Mel's life full of girl friends and cooking can compare with Annie's world full of boyfriends and sex. Still, Mel promises she'll keep Annie's secret, figuring it's the only way to save their remaining bond. Enter Devon, the first guy ever to make Mel feel like the special sister. But the closer she and Devon get the more Mel has to pepper their relationship with little lies to hide her sister's pregnancy. When Annie drops another bomb, Mel's afraid she'll lose Devon if she keeps the secret, or lose her sister for good if she doesn't. Her only other choice is to stay true to herself, something she hopes she can remember how to do on her own.

The Resistance Has Begun. Remy Alexander wants vengeance. When she and her friends discover a clue that could help reveal the truth behind the massacre that claimed her sister's life, she may finally get her chance. Valerian Orlean wants answers. Why the girl he was in love with disappeared three years ago. Why she joined the Resistance—a covert organization sworn to destroy everything he believes in. When he is appointed to lead a government program whose mission is to hunt and destroy the Resistance, he may finally find his answers—and Remy. In a world where the powerful kill to keep their secrets, and the food you eat can change who you are, Remy and Vale are set on a collision course that could bring everyone together—or tear everything apart.

Remy Alexander wants justice. After narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Sector only to watch her world burn around her, she will defy everyone to find her revenge. Valerian Orlean wants truth. After learning what evils the Sector is truly capable of, he must confront his past in order to create a better future. In a world where deadly secrets lurk around every corner, and the food you eat can enlighten or enslave you, Remy and Vale must walk the line between hope and hate, love and loss, violence and vengeance, in order to unite—or destroy—their world. The second book in the Seeds trilogy will thrust the Resistance into the spotlight as the Okarian Sector publicly brands them as traitors and terrorists. As Remy struggles to find herself in a world where revenge has become her raison d'etre, and Vale tries to make sense of who he is despite his identity as an Orlean, the two are forced to fight together against enemies more deadly than they ever could have imagined. As they venture through the Wilds, onto a Farm, and deep into the Sector's dangerous No-Go zones, they will find the path to truth or they will drown in the attempt.

A humorous, unconventional family yarn about a young girl navigating a hardscrabble upbringing in northern Mississippi. Meet Tupelo Honey. She divinely lays out the framework and quirky intricacies of growing up in a house only "slightly better than an orphanage," her days spent chattering with imaginary friend Moochi, and navigating sleepovers at her pious, curmudgeonly grandmother Marmalade and mentally unstable Uncle Randall's ramshackle house. Things change when her mother, a callous, irresponsible junkie, brings home Nash, a paranoid local drug dealer whom Tupelo surprisingly bonds with during treacherous expeditions to New York and Mexico. Through bong smoke-filled hallways at home, the pageantry of kiddie beauty contests, Sunday School, and spying on Nash burying his stockpiles of drug money in the backyard, Tupelo somehow survives. Eventually, her mother replaces Nash with another man who lives in Los Angeles, and a heartbroken Tupelo begins resenting the unsettled nature of her life. After her grandmother dies, child welfare places Tupelo in a group foster home. A loveable, engaging, original voice, Tupelo brightens this accomplished tale of dysfunction in a family where "nothing had ever been right."

Untalented. Unwanted. Unbroken. Saroya: Untalented, a stain on her family's honor. Orphaned and barred from the Guilds, she has nowhere to go when her Talent fails to emerge. Loric: Brother-in-law to the king. Thwarted in his ambitions, he'd do anything to usurp the throne. And he finds just the scandal he needs when he unearths Saroya's hidden pedigree. The Kingdom of Veyle: Where all power flows to the Talented, and where the Guilds and the Order of Adepts control the destinies of Talented and Untalented alike. When calamity strikes the capital city, with Untalents blamed and on trial, Saroya knows that proving her Talent and parentage means saving more than just her own life. A tangle of lies hides secrets that force Saroya to choose between her future and Veyle's.