The 2014 AuthorsFirst writing contests brought submissions from a wide range of profound and wildly entertaining talent. From this group of nearly a thousand entrants, we have chosen seventeen works of short fiction that will dazzle the imagination and thrill the heart. What happens when the most remarkable woman you’ve ever met disappears for weeks at a time leaving only magic and mystery in her wake? What happens when a hostel worker slowly loses his sense o...

I never thought I’d see you again. What comes to your mind when you see that phrase? A reunion with a former lover? A shocking encounter with a dark face from your past? A dearly held memory come to life . . . or one you’ve tried desperately to purge from your mind? In this extraordinary collection of original fiction, sixteen great storytellers spin the tales that filled their imaginations when considering that sentence: • New York Times bestselling author Allison ...

Ready to leave the traditional education system behind? Explore the rich tapestry of unschooling with three books by long-time unschooling parent Pam Laricchia.This informative and inspiring box set includes:Free to Learn: Five Ideas for a Joyful Unschooling LifeFree to Live: How to Create a Thriving Unschooling HomeLife through the Lens of Unschooling: A Living Joyfully CompanionStepping outside the classroom can be scary at first, ...

Her powers can make the elements change, but Elena will never change how the Fae see her… Half-breed. The lowest of low.Halven are the forbidden offspring produced by the mating of a Fae and a human. The only thing Fae despise more than Halven—well nothing.When a deadly virus sweeps their world, killing immortal Fae, a secret about a royal bloodline is revealed.The half-breed holds the key to their survival.And on her eighte...

When Gina Beaufort Kelly’s husband leaves her for a woman young enough to be his daughter, Gina doesn’t get mad... she gets even.Or at least she tries to, by targeting David’s assets in the divorce. She spent eighteen years of her life with him; it’s only fair that he should compensate her accordingly.However, David doesn’t agree, and when he ends up dead, on the evening before they were set to go before the judge, the police, in the attractive body of homicide detective Ja...

Real readers love this series and its "vampire to die for"(Kimberly Raye, USA Today bestselling author of Dead End Dating)-from the author of Real Vampires Get Lucky.Gloriana St. Claire-curvy, stylish, and undead-is spending New Year's Eve alone. And it's all because her boyfriend, Jeremy Blade, is traipsing off to parts unknown to rescue his supposed daughter from the clutches of "dangerous radicals." But just as Glory settles in for the...

This volume contains the first three Cats & Conjure novells: Cats in Heat, Cat Scratch Fever, and Stray Cat Strut. This is a serialized story following the same couple and plot line.Adelaide Deveraux has lived a quiet life in the country after inheriting her late grandmother’s home, but that life is interrupted when a tiger shows up at her door, shifting into a very injured—and very naked—human man in need of help.Erik Wells has been on the run his whole li...

Two aging rock stars plot against the manager who ripped them off in this witty thriller by "Canada's answer to Elmore Leonard" ( Toronto Star).The High, a band with a few hit songs back in the late 1970s, have reunited to play the nostalgia circuit at casinos. But for bassist Barry and lead singer Cliff, this tour will be more lucrative than it appears, as they team up to turn the tables on the gritty underworld of these gambling palaces—robbing the loan ...

She's sexy, plus-sized, and on a liquid diet-of blood.Plus-sized vampire Glory St. Clair takes on paranormal drug dealers who are selling a dangerous new fix for anyone who wants to live forever.

Secrets, spies, sexy guys. Staying alive is hard! In this fast-paced mystery, out-of-work actress Madison Cruz runs an obstacle course of singing telegrams and spies as she tries to connect with her FBI mother, yet hide evidence for her grandfather. Hilarious friends aren't helping even though they really, really, try to! As the mystery heats up, so does her attraction to a couple of steamy guys she just met. With two to choose from you'd think Madison could have double the fun. But she ca...

Jennifer Sharpe is a divorced mother of two with a problem just about any working parent can relate to: her boss expects her to work as though she doesn’t have children, and her children want her to care for them as though she doesn’t have a boss. But when, through a fateful coincidence, a brilliant physicist comes into possession of Jennifer’s phone and decides to play fairy godmother, installing a miraculous time-travel app called Wishful Thinking, Jennifer suddenly finds herself in poss...

Limehouse, 1880: Dancing girls are going missing from 'Paradise' - the criminal manor with ruthless efficiency by the ferocious Lady Ginger. Seventeen-year-old music hall seamstress Kitty Peck finds herself reluctantly drawn into a web of blackmail, depravity and murder when The Lady devises a singular scheme to discover the truth. But as Kitty's scandalous and terrifying act becomes the talk of London, she finds herself facing someone even more deadly and horrifying than The Lady....