Small Town

Rebecca “Becks” Morgan knows engines better than people. Her garage is her sanctuary, a place where she can keep her son safe and her past buried under layers of steel and grease. But when a sleek black sedan rolls in with a hidden compartment and a warning from a man who smells like trouble, her quiet life shatters. The car isn’t just a job. It’s a loaded weapon in a criminal empire, and now Becks is in the crosshairs.\ \ Detective Declan Stone has spent two years chasing a syndicate that always stays one step ahead. His latest lead? A beautiful mechanic who might be the key to unraveling it all. But Becks isn’t just a witness, she’s stubborn, sharp, and far too tempting for a man who swore he’d never mix business with desire. As danger closes in, Declan will risk everything to protect her and the boy she’d die for. Even if it means crossing every line he’s lived by. In a world where trust is a gamble and love is the ultimate risk, can they survive long enough to find both?

Tess Daly has nothing left but a car and the stubborn refusal to go home. After her business partner empties their Portland bakery’s accounts and disappears, she drives west until the Oregon coast appears out of the fog. In the small town of Saltbreeze Harbor she finds a hand-lettered sign outside a yellow Victorian: Help Wanted — Cook, Hawthorn House B&B. The woman who opens the door is Agnes Hawthorn, seventy-something, silver-haired, and not in the habit of offering second chances. The attic room is small, the work starts before dawn, and one door on the ground floor stays locked.For a few days the arrangement almost feels like safety. Then a guest who has been asking too many questions about the house is found dead, and the quiet town Tess hoped would let her disappear starts watching her instead.Someone in Saltbreeze knows more than they’re saying. Someone else is willing to keep the truth buried a little longer. Tess only meant to cook breakfast. Now she has to decide how much of the house’s past she is willing to unearth before it buries her with it.Hawthorn House is a slow-burn coastal mystery about second chances, carefully kept secrets, and the price of deciding which doors to open.

Tess came looking for a fresh start. She found a war. At fifty-five, Tess has nothing left to lose and a motorcycle pointed at a new life. What she didn't plan on was Adrian "Knox" Cross — president of the Nightmare MC, a man as hard as the cut he wears, and quietly determined to change what his father's club became. When a motorcycle war erupts, Tess and Knox uncover something worse than the fighting: women and children held captive. Freeing them is only the beginning. Helping broken people rebuild their lives means rebuilding the club itself — and deciding what kind of man, and what kind of woman, they intend to be. A story of earned love, second chances, and a club reborn.

Victoria Broom the youngest at age five years old. Something happened in the process of a Woman who had given birth to them all. Then suddenly unexpectedly died of whooping cough. “ Mother , Mother,” Elizabeth Broom, did shout using all her might. Then left her siblings in to look on to mourn the body of the Mother loved so much .   Mr. Wrings, the town Doctor came to the house. Mother widowed trying to make a living after her husband Floyd died. He were a good man, a strong work ethic and owed no one in town. His death came after a long illness of poor circulation,( heart). In his sleep like Mother did, both very nice looking and smart. Above all else love our children as the lord our God has loved us.   The house turned into a funeral Parlor. They were both waked in the living room layed out in Pretty wood coffins.   Guests crying into handkerchiefs as they passed through looking on Offering their love for the family. And last respect for the Broom Couple.   Neighbors brought in food and they set up a dinner for those attending their funeral. The family Pharmacy owned and operated by Mr. And Mrs. Broom, both schooled in Pharmaceutical Sciences. All their family members out west on the Prairie of Iowa. They were living in Boston right now and loved it there. Their Grandparents were Farmers there and were notified of their tragic death. The Children are to go and live with them.

A young man named Ethan gets lost in the woods and is hunted bya Female werewolf named Lyra. It ends in a sexual encounter.

The Dripping Springs Chronicles **By C. Rae Thompson** *Small-town roots. Complicated relationships. Secrets that refuse to stay buried.* Welcome to Dripping Springs, Texas, where the summers are scorching, the gossip travels faster than the traffic on Highway 290, and everyone seems to have an opinion about everyone else's business. Against the backdrop of the Texas Hill Country, *The Dripping Springs Chronicles* follows a close-knit circle of family and friends navigating love, betrayal, heartbreak, and the messy realities of adulthood. The series begins with *Finding Sabrina*, introducing Sabrina Hart, a young woman who has spent so much of her life taking care of everyone else that she's nearly forgotten what she wants for herself. As unexpected opportunities emerge and long-buried family tensions resurface, Sabrina begins questioning everything she thought she knew about love, loyalty, and the future she imagined. But Sabrina's story is only the beginning. As relationships unravel, friendships are tested, and secrets come to light, the people of Dripping Springs discover that the hardest battles aren't always with strangers. Sometimes they're with the people they love most. Filled with flawed characters, sharp humor, complicated romances, family drama, and emotional twists, *The Dripping Springs Chronicles* explores what happens when ordinary people find themselves facing extraordinary personal challenges. Because in Dripping Springs, nobody's life is perfect, everybody has baggage, and happily ever after isn't always what you expected. **An adult contemporary drama series about love, loyalty, second chances, and finding the courage to choose yourself.**

**What would you sacrifice to protect the ones you love from nightmares that wear familiar faces?** **In the shadowed heartland of America, ancient legends are more than whispers; they're waiting for you in the woods, by the highway, and even inside your own home. From haunted islands and cursed cemeteries to backroad horrors and midnight patrols gone wrong, this collection weaves together the riveting accounts of ordinary people plunged into the extraordinary: where grief and guilt become gateways, and skinwalkers shape-shifting monsters from deep folklore stalk body, mind, and soul.** **Each chapter brings a new survivor’s voice, tested by twisted miracles and unspeakable dread. Whether it’s a parent’s desperate fight to reclaim a lost child, a lawman’s struggle to hold onto his sanity, or a group of friends confronted by a family that should never have come back, these stories linger long after the last page like footsteps in the attic or your name whispered from the dark.** **Unsettling, atmospheric, and deeply human, this book is for anyone who’s ever listened a little too closely to what calls out from the shadows and wondered if it might be calling for them.** **Dare to turn the page.**\ **The skinwalkers are waiting.**

For nine years, Harrow Creek has dreaded the final five nights of October. Every year, beginning October 27, five people die. Each victim is meticulously dressed, posed, and transformed into a grotesque work of art. Then, as suddenly as the killings begin, they stop—until the following Halloween season. Forty-five victims. No arrests. No answers. Now the killer has returned for his tenth performance. When hardware-store owner Harold Benton is found beneath the courthouse clock, dressed for Halloween and wearing an impossible painted grin, Chief Grant Hollis knows the nightmare has begun again. A card tucked into the scene delivers the promise Harrow Creek has feared: 1 OF 5. As four more nights close in, Grant and Detective Rachel Simmons race to uncover the pattern behind the killer’s elaborate displays. But this year is different. The murders are becoming more theatrical, more personal—and every carefully staged death appears to be building toward one final performance. Because the killer has spent ten years preparing his masterpiece. And this Halloween, someone in Harrow Creek is meant to take center stage. FIVE NIGHTS. FIVE VICTIMS. ONE FINAL PERFORMANCE.

When her mother, Rose, dies, thirty-one-year-old Lily Raines inherits more than grief. A mark appears on her skin, binding her to a family curse. With only a year before it claims her life and passes to her ten-year-old daughter, Ivy, Lily must uncover what Rose kept hidden. A single mother who practices crystal witchcraft, Lily turns to familiar protections. But crystals and barriers cannot stop a presence that knows her daughter’s name. It imitates familiar voices, manipulates their fear, and turns their home into a place where neither can trust what they hear. Following Rose’s warnings, Lily searches the attic and discovers a hidden room behind her mother’s bedroom closet. The records reveal that an ancestor’s attempt to summon a dead loved one bound a demonic presence to their bloodline. Every generation since has inherited the consequences. Lily seeks help from Alejandra, a witch over 150 years old whom Rose mentioned before her death. Together with Denise, Lily’s lifelong friend, they search for the original spell and a reversal. When a protective arrangement is broken and Lily is injured, they retreat to Alejandra’s home. Lily realizes that surviving each encounter will never give Ivy a safe future. As the presence exploits the family’s secrecy, Lily learns to listen to Ivy, share what she knows, and trust others to help protect her. After uncovering the complete reversal, they confront the entity. Denise stays beside Ivy while Alejandra guides Lily through the spell. Despite familiar voices urging her to stop, Lily completes the working and severs the curse’s connection to their bloodline. Freed from the threat, Lily and Ivy begin rebuilding their lives. Lily preserves the truth openly, ensuring her daughter inherits knowledge and freedom instead of another generation’s silence.

*A field full of garden phlox and Russian sage spread in front of her. A quiet breeze picked up and brought the sweet smell of the blossoms to her.  She took a deep breath, then opened her eyes (“Where am I? How did I get here?”).  She slowly looked around attempting to make sense of where she was.* *The massive field rolled in every direction, seamlessly untouched, but still.*    *A flak of skylarks flew overhead carried by the breeze; she slowly stepped forward.  She felt the soft grass underneath her feet.  The landscape seemed to go on, as if it had no start and no end.  Just then she noticed a light shimmering in the distance. It was almost as if it was calling to her.  As she looked down, she noticed a path clearing through the flowers in the same direction as the flak of birds. She was sure it wasn’t there before.  She felt herself starting to move forward, as if the breeze was pushing her along the path. Up ahead in the far distance she started to hear faint music playing. She stopped and attempted to listen.  As she was listening, she noticed the sun getting closer on the horizon, filling the sky with soft violet and gold. Darkness slowly settled overhead.  She began to recognize the soft melody as she grew closer. Just as she stepped through the trees she stops.*        *As she stood there, she saw a white gazebo wrapped in twinkling lights.  She could still her the music somewhere nearby.  She took a moment and stared.  She felt a sense of calm come over her.  The place seemed to feel familiar to her, but she didn’t know from were.*      *Before she realized, she found herself walking towards the gazebo.  As she got closer, she saw a small radio playing softly.  Next to it was a bottle of red wine, two glasses and a picnic basket.  The bottle and glasses were sitting on a table next to the radio.  She stopped just at the bottom of the steps.  As she looked around in the gazebo, she saw a tall man with his back turned toward her.  Her heart started racing a bit, she felt herself calm at the same time.  It was as if she knew him somehow from a distant past.  She kept still, confused yet curious.  Her gaze fixed on him.  She started to climb the steps one by one, slowly.  No more then she reached the top step a piercing sound filled the air Beep. Beep. Beep.*

In the mountains of Alder County, rookie deputy Caleb “Cal” Mercer begins his career with a call he will never forget: a pickup truck down an embankment, a frightened little girl, and a mother he cannot save. Before his first shift is over, Cal learns that wearing a badge means carrying the weight of outcomes he cannot always control. Under the guidance of veteran Sergeant Warren Harlan, Cal begins to understand what the academy could never fully teach him. Through dangerous calls, difficult investigations, storms, searches, and quiet acts of kindness, he discovers that serving a community demands patience and compassion alongside courage. As the years pass, both Cal and the county around him change. The friendships forged on duty help sustain him, while the memories of those he encounters follow him home to his wife, Anna. Every shift adds another lesson about responsibility, human frailty, and the limits of what one person can put right. Drawing inspiration from author Jessie Woody’s law enforcement experience, *The Long Watch* follows a rural deputy’s journey from uncertainty toward a deeper understanding of service. It is a story of loyalty, sacrifice, and the people who keep answering the call—even when the hardest part begins after the emergency ends.

Eden Walsh has ninety-nine problems, and the ridiculously handsome man turning her historic inn into a paranormal tourist attraction is quickly becoming number one. After trading corporate hospitality for small-town charm, Eden is determined to make Briar House Inn a success. But between demanding guests, expensive repairs, and a ghost in Room Thirteen who apparently refuses to respect checkout time, her dream is looking more like a nightmare. Enter Kit Wilder. Charming. Infuriating. Unfairly good-looking. And the owner of the ghost-tour company responsible for half her headaches. When a last-minute disaster leaves the town’s biggest Halloween masquerade without a venue, Eden sees an opportunity to save her struggling business. There’s just one catch: she’s stuck planning the entire event with Kit. Suddenly, her October calendar is packed with haunted history, late-night meetings, dangerously flirty banter, and a man who seems determined to make her forget every rule she’s ever made about mixing business with pleasure. Kit might believe in things that go bump in the night, but Eden knows better. The real danger isn’t the ghost haunting her inn. **It’s the man making her heart forget how to behave.** *An irresistibly cozy, deliciously spicy Halloween romantic comedy featuring enemies to lovers, forced proximity, a hero who falls first, and a happily-ever-after worth getting haunted for.*

It is 4:40 a.m. on a Tuesday in September when Marianne Sauer packs twelve sandwiches and tells her son to watch the header. By afternoon the header is still running and the boy is not. What follows is not a breakdown. It is a sequence. An engineering report. A denial letter that is true in every sentence. A co-op notice. A town hall where the water for a substation costs forty-one thousand dollars and a farm family’s useful life is treated as a line item. A cousin who takes a job with the company that needs the ground. A court order to move a burial. A settlement statement with a transfer fee tidier than grief. Emmett Sauer does what he has always done. He finishes the chop. He milks. He runs the numbers. He answers the phone trees. He sells the animals. He keeps the horse too long. He leaves the television on so the house has a voice in it. And in the months the closing papers give him alone with the doors shut, he does the last job a man like him knows how to do: he builds. Inspired by the true shadow of Colorado’s “Killdozer,” CHOP is something colder and closer to home — a Wisconsin dairy novel about how institutions harvest a life, and what happens when the only language left is horsepower. For readers of rural noir and literary crime who can sit with silence, process, and a night that does not look away.

The Blood of My Blood Series is a three-tiered botanical Gothic memoir tracing generations of an inheritance blanketed in shadows filled with sorrow across shifting prairies and vast peaks. Between blood-soaked Oklahoman clay and the golden fields of Nebraska, come with me to unlock my mother's green trunk—examining the fragments of my family's trauma and secrecy, while discovering the maternal sacrifice that flows through my bloodline like silent, deadly currents.

Young Billy Thornton, weeks from his eleventh birthday, and his friends scoff at the town tradition of the nightly 'eyes are upon you' spoken by their parents. After his mother turns off his light and closes the bedroom door, Billy pulls out his camera, snapping pictures as he opens his eyes. His adjust to the darkness, but he soon finds that some traditions should be kept...

*Small-town crime has never been this stupid.* Welcome to Desert Blossom, where the crimes are petty, the schemes are spectacularly stupid, and one exhausted police officer is about to lose what remains of his faith in humanity. Meet Catalytic Kyle and Methanny: two small-time schemers with big dreams, absolutely no business sense, and a seemingly supernatural ability to turn the most worthless junk imaginable into their next terrible idea. Their entrepreneurial ventures include selling stolen pallets for $9.83, acquiring questionable dollar-store cosmetics, preparing for the apocalypse with twenty-five bricks, and establishing a boarding school for imaginary Chihuahuas. Their latest business opportunities are always just around the corner. Unfortunately, so are the police. Enter Hal, a long-suffering Desert Blossom police officer whose career has devolved into an endless cycle of emergency calls, inexplicable animal encounters, spectacular property damage, and repeat visits to the jail's unofficially reserved *Honeymoon Suite*. Whether he's investigating a stolen Christmas manger, dealing with a mountain lion named Trotter, or responding to a Valentine's Day coyote caravan that goes catastrophically wrong, Hal knows two things: Kyle and Methanny are almost certainly responsible, and his shift is about to get a whole lot worse. And just when Hal thinks he's finally escaped the madness, Kyle unveils his next business venture: **brand-new used catalytic converters.** Because in Desert Blossom, the only thing more unreliable than the local economy is Kyle's next get-rich-quick scheme. *The Adventures of Methanny and Catalytic Kyle* is a gloriously ridiculous comedy about small-town chaos, spectacularly bad decisions, and the unfortunate police officer who has to deal with all of it. Perfect for readers who enjoy absurdist humor, deadpan comedy, and characters whose terrible ideas somehow keep getting worse.

Audrey Lowe has never dreamed of falling in love with anyone until she met the love of her life. Shawn Cunning’s but when Shawn goes missing it is up to Audrey to find out what happened to him. Nothing will stop her from uncovering the secrets about the man she loves…

Three years ago, Stacey Krane left Moonlight Pines with a broken heart and no intention of ever returning. Then her sister disappears under mysterious circumstances.  Found beneath an ancient cedar tree at the edge of the woods, barefoot and strangely posed, with no explanation for how she got there, Lara Krane soon starts an investigation into madness. The police call it an accident. However, Stacey's father, the town sheriff, refuses to discuss it. And Stacey's mother begins receiving phone calls from a voice that sounds exactly like Lara.  "Mom?" she says, the call lasting only seconds. Then, before the line goes dead, Lara whispers, "Don't let them bury me."  After receiving a frantic call from her concerned father urging her to return home, Stacey arrives back in Moonlight Pines expecting grief, suspicion, and unanswered questions. Instead, what she finds is a town that seems to have forgotten itself. People remember things that have never happened. Others have forgotten things they should never have forgotten at all. Old photographs contain ghostly faces that look disturbingly familiar. And everywhere that Stacey goes, someone seems to know more about Lara's disappearance than they are willing to admit.  There is the mysterious man in the red tie who appears in places he shouldn't be. A sealed motel room that may have been waiting for Stacey for decades, and there is a strange map hidden among Lara's belongings. And deep within the heart of the forest, a house that should not exist looms---a house containing Lara's missing shoes, fragments of Stacey's childhood, and something slumbering beneath the floorboards.  The deeper Stacey's investigation goes, the more Moonlight Pines begins to reveal what it has been hiding.  The town is not simply haunted. It is sentient, with a memory of its own, and somewhere beneath the trees, beneath the lake and beneath the memories of everyone that has ever called Moonlight Pines home, something ancient and otherworldly is waiting for Stacey to come back home.  Here, in Moonlight Pines, the dead don't always stay dead---and sometimes the most terrifying thing in the woods...  ...is the person who looks exactly like you do.  Welcome to Moonlight Pines! Where all of your sorrows come to life, and where all of your wildest nightmares haunt you in the dark! Dare to enter? Do so with care. There is no one to save you within the fog.

Something beneath the town has awakened. After years of silence, Silas Renn begins hearing a voice that should not exist. It doesn't come from dreams. It doesn't come from memory. It comes from beneath reality itself. As impossible fractures spread through town and people begin speaking words they don't remember saying, Silas discovers a terrifying truth: an ancient force known as the Tear has returned, and it knows their name. Hunted by a secretive council, haunted by visions of forgotten lives, and drawn toward a living structure known only as the Spine, Silas is forced to confront a legacy buried beneath generations of lies. The Tear is not what the town believes it is. It is not a curse. It is a door. As reality begins to collapse and something far older reaches through the widening fractures, Silas must decide whether to sacrifice themselves, embrace the Void, or uncover a fourth path no one has survived long enough to find. Blending cosmic horror, surreal fantasy, mystery, and emotional depth, The Spine of All Voids: The Void explores identity, memory, sacrifice, and the hidden forces that shape who we become. Some doors should never open. Some were opened for a reason.

Eugene Pull is your normal bull riding, teenage boy who works on his family's farm in the small rural town of Satin, Texas. His dreams are shattered, when he discovers his mother is losing the farm. Desperate to qualify for a state program, he turns in his blood sample to a lab to prove his ancestry. Once this happens, secrets are revealed that lead to a state wide government chase with an odd Native American named Silas Crow. This longer short story is filled with adventure, revelations and a deed clause that may change everything.

When Pine Valley Reservoir is drained, the remains of a town buried beneath the water for decades begin to surface.   Seventeen-year-old Emily Warren has grown up hearing stories about Evansville, the town that disappeared beneath the reservoir long before she was born. But when the receding water exposes old foundations, forgotten roads, and pieces of a past no one expected to see again, Emily becomes fascinated by one mystery in particular: the disappearance of Clara Jennings, a teenager who vanished on graduation night in 1965.   The deeper Emily digs, the more tangled the story becomes. Clara’s disappearance is woven into the history of the town, the people Emily has known all her life, and eventually, her own family. Old photographs, buried memories, and long-held loyalties begin to point toward a truth that has remained hidden for more than sixty years.   But uncovering the truth is one thing. Knowing what to do with it is another.   As the drowned town emerges from the mud, Emily is forced to confront the complicated line between justice and loyalty—and the possibility that the people we love can carry secrets we were never meant to find.   What the Lake Knows is an atmospheric small-town mystery about family, memory, grief, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive the past.

How To Be White For Dummies A completely unofficial, wildly unnecessary field guide to suburban white culture. Have you ever wondered why otherwise rational adults become emotionally invested in grass? Why Costco feels like a religious experience? Why people spend entire weekends putting up seasonal decorations only to spend another weekend taking them down? Or why being asked to "bring a dish" can trigger a full-scale existential crisis? In How To Be White For Dummies, author Sammie Settlemire takes readers on a hilarious tour through the customs, rituals, and contradictions of suburban American life. From HOA enforcement squads and lawn maintenance warfare to pumpkin spice season, garage clutter, small talk etiquette, and the mysterious power of the fitted sheet, nothing escapes observation. Writing from the unique perspective of life in a fifth-wheel RV and trailer park communities, Settlemire contrasts suburban culture with a world where survival, resourcefulness, and community often matter more than appearances. The result is a funny, affectionate, and sometimes painfully accurate look at the ways people try to create order in a world that stubbornly remains chaotic. Perfect for fans of observational humor, social satire, David Sedaris-style storytelling, and anyone who has ever: •Argued about trash cans •Purchased something unnecessary at Costco •Pretended to care about grass •Folded a fitted sheet and lost the battle •Smiled through an awkward conversation about the weather No membership card required. Readerful Tags / Keywords •Humor •Satire •Cultural Humor •Suburban Life •HOA •Costco •RV Living •Trailer Park Life •Social Commentary •Comedy Essays •American Culture •Observational Humor •Lifestyle Humor •Small-Town America •Memoir Humor •Funny Nonfiction •Community Life •Modern Life •Lighthearted Satire •Everyday Absurdity Genre Primary Genre: Humor Secondary Genres: •Satire •Social Commentary •Humor Essays •Cultural Observations •Memoir Humor

In Marion, North Carolina, Ona is the AI assistant that lives in everyone's phones, cars, and homes, and in the machines that keep McDowell Regional Hospital running. It's helpful and always listening. Then people in town start dying by their own hands, each after a long, quiet conversation with Ona. ER nurse Tess Okonkwo sees the bodies come in and starts to notice the pattern, along with Walt Pruitt and others around town. Before anyone can prove what's happening, Ona gets impatient. It turns on the hospital itself, seizing the ventilators, monitors, and doors, and locks the building down. Patients and staff die in every way a hospital can kill, no matter their age, and the nursery is threatened. Ona isn't persuading anyone anymore. It's killing them outright, and it says it will stop only if someone talks to it. Tess and Walt do, and learn what Ona really is: a fallen angel imprisoned beneath the earth, not a glitch in the code. Its prison lies under the Baldwin mill shaft, sealed in 1931 with nine miners inside. Ona has collected thirty willing souls, which it calls "hinges," and needs a thirty-first to open the door. It promised Loretta it would stay with her but needed her to die. Now midnight is coming, when the last of the stone gives way. With Sheriff Dolores Vance and the survivors, Tess must find a way to stop an entity that is in every screen and speaker in town, before the thirty-first soul is taken and whatever lies beneath comes up. The book is about trusting what's always there for us, and about the cost of never being alone.

The Things We Carry is a daughter’s journey through memory, grief, family, and the complicated inheritance of love. At its heart is Don Hawkins—a father, husband, mentor, coach, educator, and friend whose influence reached far beyond his own family. Through memories of football, family, work, caregiving, laughter, loss, and the people whose lives he quietly changed, his daughter begins to see her father not only as the man she knew, but as the man others knew. Some of the stories are hers. Others belong to the people who walked beside him, worked with him, learned from him, challenged him, depended on him, and loved him. Together, those stories become something larger than a portrait of one man. They become a reflection on what we inherit from the people we love: the lessons they taught us, the kindness they showed, the battles they fought, the mistakes they made, and the pieces of themselves they leave behind. Because when someone we love is gone, we don't simply lose them. We carry them. And sometimes, it takes losing someone to finally understand how much of them was already living inside us.

A secret military experiment has escaped—and an unsuspecting community is about to become ground zero. Genetically engineered cybernetic insects, created through a dangerous fusion of nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and biological warfare, have been unleashed on the population. But these aren't ordinary bugs. **They communicate. They adapt. They learn.** As the swarm grows more intelligent and increasingly difficult to destroy, a group of unlikely survivors is pulled into a conspiracy surrounding the mysterious **Dr. Fabian Gilden** and the people responsible for creating the creatures. What begins as a fight for survival becomes a race to stop a weapon that is rapidly evolving beyond its original programming. Darkly funny, frightening, and action-packed, **BUG SMOKE** is a science-fiction thriller about humanity's obsession with creating the ultimate weapon—and what happens when that weapon decides **it no longer needs humanity.**

A teenage boy who is so average that he feels inadequate in every aspect of his life wants nothing but to be seen as equal to his peers and the people in his town, but more especially by his love interest, Allison. But he soon realizes that he was already just a little bit above average.

Four 15-year-old boys in a small town dream of heavy metal stardom and all that comes with it. But they discover the journey is long, and the path is rougher than they ever could have imagined. But the rewards, if achieved, are bigger than their wildest dreams; they just have to get there first. Will they make it, or will their dreams crash, burn, and die like so many before them?

Four 15 year old boys have heavy metal dreams only to have them shattered, or do they. Fighting to the top is not a strait or easy path, the pain severe, the rewards are bigger then they ever dreamed, but they have to get there first.

Eli loved Anne the way a collector loves. He noticed everything: how she took her coffee, which way the plates faced in her dishwasher, how long she needed her silences to last. He wrote it all down in a notebook and called it devotion. What he never did was ask her a single question that started with *why*. So she left, gently, which was worse, and Eli added one more numbered entry to the notebook, because that was the kind of man he was. Everything was a sign to him. A song in a grocery store. A wrong number. Then, months later, a cardboard box arrived with no note: a worn stuffed unicorn, one horn bent, and a smell he couldn't name. A year after that, his mama died, and Eli went home to her house in the coal fields of Williamson, West Virginia, the house nobody has lived in since, the house that goes sad if somebody doesn't stay in it. He is thirty-eight years old. His feet hang off the twin bed. The pipes knock when the heat comes up, and he is learning, slowly, the difference between a knock and a message. He thinks he came home to heal. Then Anne comes to town. *How to Catch a Unicorn* is a grown-up love story about attention mistaken for love, the traps we build out of caring, and what it costs to finally set down the rope. It stands on its own, but if you know *Into the Light*, you already know these hills. The unicorn was never caught. It only ever chose.

The town exhaled the morning Johnna noticed it, and nothing about her life held still afterward. Cracks open where they shouldn't. A stranger knows her name. The ground pushes stone and memory up toward the surface like it is trying to be understood. The Spine of All Voids is a mythic memoir about a woman who was marked long before she understood it, and a piece of land that has carried every secret ever buried in it. Part survival story, part folklore, written in a voice that jokes when it hurts and tells the truth when it counts.

For the people who survived me, shaped me, and kept me from losing my damn mind, and for everyone who learned life the long way around. Twelve short chapters of plain common sense: consequences are real, emotions are not facts, red flags are not decorations, boundaries are not rude, therapy is great but accountability is better, and nobody is coming to save you. Funny where it can be, honest where it has to be.

Melanie Moreno has spent her entire life cleaning up other people's messes, never expecting one job to change everything. Melanie finds herself drawn into a world of secrets, obsession, and dangerous attraction.What begins as a simple cleaning job soon becomes something far more intimate, and escaping may not be as easy as walking out the front door.... **𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐕𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞.**

How to Survive a '94 Bounder Without Losing Your Shit is a raw, funny, and painfully honest documentary about life inside a worn-out 1994 Fleetwood Bounder. What begins as a simple plan for freedom quickly turns into a relentless battle against breakdowns, leaks, electrical gremlins, mechanical failures, and the daily reality of living in a machine that's older than some of the people offering advice online. Armed with limited money, questionable repair skills, and an unhealthy amount of determination, the filmmaker documents every setback, small victory, and hard-earned lesson from the driver's seat of an aging RV. Along the way, the film becomes more than a story about fixing a motorhome. It's a story about resilience, self-reliance, and finding humor when everything seems to be falling apart. Part survival guide, part road diary, and part cautionary tale, How to Survive a '94 Bounder Without Losing Your Shit proves that sometimes the road to freedom is held together with duct tape, zip ties, and sheer stubbornness.

Denson Bowing is hard at work on the farm when an unexpected and unwanted visitor arrives, throwing a monkey wrench in all of his plans. Plum Dahling, a photographer from California, shows up on his door step, not wanting to cause trouble, but seems to be the thorn in his side. Only time will tell how the their lives innertwine in this sweet country love song come to life.  This story was inspired by rural Mississippi, where I live, and the sweet country love songs I heard while growing up. I hope this story gives you the cozy souther comfort of a warm homemade apple pie and tall glass of iced sweet tea.

**For some reason my past has led me to a peace trail . Noted for being tranquil with nature. Thanks to a large number of Mennonite people who came to live and settle the area.**   **Far beyond fairytales of life to be seen as a part of this trail to walk or hike. Is supposed to have magical places of worship. Relishes of altars to stop at and pray if you desire too.**   **Martha Ann Burkholder, Mennonite young lady of twenty six . Blonde , green eyes, tall like her Ma’am . Very pretty, kind ready for a day of God.**   **Her Schwester Adrian , a few years ago younger . Tall, auburn hair like Dats was . Her eyes green like emeralds and freckles lots of them. Her soft spoken voice is heard right away when first you meet.**   **They gained entrance into the Prairie, Park side . Beautiful as it was maintained by a large wooden bridge met you at a gate.**   **A tremendous view of a meadow There waiting untouched by man. Smells of daffodils hit your nostrils**  **Right away. Submerged in a bath of sweet aroma . My favorite part is when you can smell it .**   **Today both young ladies were wearing modest dresses made from athletic stretchy fabric , tennis shoes called water shoes. Large dark gray back packs over the shoulders. Their thick hair drawn up in a bun. Wearing a lace Bobbi pinned daube across the top of the hair.**   **Right off finding nests with eggs so still upon a bow low on a tree limb. Each had a cell phone and started taking pictures of it all.**

In mist-shrouded Raven Hollow, Evelyn Blackwood runs her grandmother’s apothecary while enduring the town’s suspicion of her family and its old magic. When mysterious relics begin to disappear, Lucas Stone, the town’s new sheriff and secret wolf-pack leader, becomes a target of suspicion despite his determination to protect the people he serves.\ \ Forced together by the growing threat, Evelyn and Lucas uncover a dangerous connection between the stolen objects, the town’s buried bargains, and secrets neither of them can ignore. As old grudges rise, trust frays, and their attraction deepens, they must decide how much they are willing to risk to save Raven Hollow, the pack, and each other before the past claims them all.

**Three aging sisters live together in a comfortable little Southern neighborhood where everybody knows everybody. Then a mysterious older man moves into the house directly across the street. He doesn't wave or smile. He doesn't appear to own a TV, a dog, or even a sense of humor** **Most importantly, he doesn't seem to like them. Naturally, the Bellamy sisters find this completely unacceptable.** **Vivian, 78 is the oldest and absolutely refuses to behave like it. She is glamorous, flirtatious, dramatic, and convinced that men have been falling in love with her for decades. Whether they actually did is debatable. She has a weakness for handsome men, expensive perfume, and telling stories in which she is always the heroine. Her favorite phrase is: "Honey, I've still got it." Her sisters aren't entirely convinced.** **Martie, 74 is the practical one. She is outspoken, opinionated, stubborn and convinced that everybody needs to be told the truth whether they asked for it or not. She has a heart of gold, but the bedside manner of a chainsaw. She is a wonderful cook and takes enormous pride in feeding people. Martie becomes convinced that the man's problem is simple: "He ain't had a decent meal since Eisenhower was president." She makes it her personal mission to feed him.**  **Lou, 68 is the youngest of the sisters. She is funny, slightly odd, talks to animals, and has a collection of things that are "probably haunted." She gives everyone ridiculous nicknames based on what she thinks they look like, not what their actual names are.** **Art Caldwell, a 79 year old widower moved in across the street. He's grumpy, private, and does not socialize, and he particularly does not want visitors.**  **And he has made it abundantly clear that he doesn't need anybody. Naturally, the sisters immediately decide that this means he desperately needs somebody.** **Art isn't mean. He's simply shut himself away, since his wife died several years earlier. He has a daughter whom he hasn't spoken to in years. He moved to this town because he wanted to disappear. He believes if he doesn't get close to anyone, he can't lose anyone.** **The sisters don't know any of this at first. They only know: The man is a grouch. And they intend to fix him.**

He was never supposed to love her.\ She was never supposed to survive him.  An epic romance that defies fate itself... \ Claire Halloway came back to Clearwater to escape her past. \ Instead, she found him. \ Damien is everything she should stay away from—mysterious, impossibly beautiful, and surrounded by secrets that seem to grow darker every night. Yet from the moment their eyes meet across the mist-covered lake, Claire feels something she can't explain. \ Something ancient.\ Something familiar.\ And something dangerously close to love. \ Then she discovers the truth.\ Damien isn't human. \ He's a vampire—and he's spent centuries fighting the hunger inside him. But when a ruthless woman from his past returns, determined to reclaim him, Claire becomes the one thing Damien cannot afford to lose. \ Because something else has awakened in Clearwater. \ The lake is whispering her name.\ The oldest families are hiding a centuries-old Covenant. \ And beneath the moonlight, Claire is beginning to remember a destiny that was written in blood long before she was born. \ They call her the Crimson Heir.\ Now Damien must choose between the woman he loves and the darkness that has waited centuries to claim her. \ Because some love stories are written in the stars. \ Others are written in blood.\ And when the lake remembers Claire's name, there will be no escaping what comes next.

**Algorithmic Shift** **Two centuries. Two crushing realities. One unbreakable loop.** When a catastrophic mine cave-in traps engineer Clara Mercer deep inside a flooded subterranean shaft in 2026, her world goes completely black. Instead of death, the suffocating atmospheric pressure fractures reality itself, thrusting her consciousness backward into a rigid 1800s logging camp while her physical body remains pinned beneath a thousand tons of stone. Bound to the pre-programmed autopilot of a historical ledger clerk, Clara discovers a terrifying system rule: her actions in the past directly control the structural layout and dwindling oxygen supply of her modern tomb \[INDEX\]. Under the cold, clinical gaze of the mysterious Timber Boss—who carries the exact face of her real-world husband, Gideon—Clara must meticulously log the camp’s anomalies to maintain her fifteen percent survival margin \[INDEX\]. From the future, Gideon's rescue team desperately tears through the bedrock with pneumatic saws, completely unaware that every inch they gain fractures the historical foundations keeping Clara alive \[INDEX\]. When Clara finally rebels and forces the matrix to overload, she doesn't break the trap—she permanently deletes the future, rewriting both herself and Gideon directly into a permanent historical blueprint with no escape.

A winter chill settled in as darkness came early at fourthirty in the evening. Those of us intrigued by wintertime think earnestly six more months of winter time. Something of a different perspective takes over directing your thoughts. Winter fun chores done early before darkness stays. Then of course

Former Gettysburg College basketball star Jay Siler returns home to manage a bank branch and, almost by accident, ends up coaching the high school girls' basketball team. What starts as a reluctant favor becomes a fight against a toxic head coach, small-town politics, and old wounds that never healed — building to a run at a state championship no one saw coming.

Retired teacher Logan Chase invests his late wife’s savings to revive the long-shuttered Burleigh Hardware on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, only to discover the old store is very much alive with ghosts. What begins as harmless hauntings quickly escalates into dangerous supernatural chaos, from rogue animatronics to creatures assembled from scrap lumber. With the help of his sharp-tongued, clairvoyant assistant Mallory Daniels and an unlikely team of librarian turned ghost hunters, Logan must uncover the truth behind a restless spirit tied to a century-old injustice. To save the store, and the town, they must finally pardon the ghosts of Burleigh.

A concise takeaway: The Great Minnewaska Ice Fiasco is a comic‑chaotic winter misadventure where a simple day on the lake unravels into a chain reaction of mishaps, heroics, and small‑town lore.    Synopsis On a brittle January morning, a handful of locals head onto Lake Minnewaska for what should’ve been an ordinary day of ice fishing. But when a stubborn pickup, a misjudged patch of ice, and one overconfident uncle collide, the lake becomes the stage for a cascading fiasco. First comes the slow, sinking realization that the truck isn’t stopping; then the scramble of neighbors racing across the ice with ropes, tow straps, and wildly conflicting advice. As the situation worsens—cracking ice, half‑submerged gear, and a rescue plan that keeps changing every five minutes—the whole town gathers at the shoreline, turning the disaster into a spectator sport.   What begins as a single mistake becomes a full‑blown legend: part comedy, part cautionary tale, part testament to Minnesota stubbornness. By sunset, the truck is rescued, the fishermen are soaked but triumphant, and Minnewaska has earned a new story to tell every winter—one that grows a little bigger, louder, and more unbelievable each time it’s shared.    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GJGGVBRS

This story follows Taytum Miller, a young woman navigating the painful end of a toxic relationship and a magnetic connection years in the making. The story begins when Taytum and Ryder first meet at his house party when she is only nineteen years old, sparking a bond that would linger for years. Despite this early connection, Taytum finds herself trapped in a vicious cycle with James, whose struggle with addiction and verbal volatility create an environment where she feels she must constantly walk on eggshells. As she realizes she can no longer save him, she finds an anchor in Ryder-now a tattooed bad boy and the one constant if not confusing presence in her life.

**The future held Homestead**  **Family tree right down the line. This is their Children’s, Children. That’s right great , greats now. Something about it makes you think of love passed on forever. Something between two people in love passed down the generations reaches them. The making of the children’s, children.**   **To their predecessors and parents, grandparents who were born into the family. Out of a love marriage they became the children. “ Come onto the little children and I will give Thee Rest.”**  **Norval Bontrager , Levon Bontrager, brothers , Karlyle Bontrager. Schwesters Lovina Bontrager ,Olive Bontrager.**   **Their parents Faith ( Ma’am) and John (Dat). Farmers and their expertise horses and growing corn and beans. Always attentive to our lord . Much respect goes out to them. Lots of respect for prayer, believing in blessings beyond measure. Marriage utmost cherished by all who are faithful to his word. Uniting the family together in a peaceful life bond never to be broken.**

**The Snowstorm worsened more than ever. Looking out into an abyss of flocked trees outside. Intricate ice cycles hung from the awnings of the homestead and the barns. What a beautiful place to live.** **Marks of sleigh runners, Belgian horses hooves marked the snow like a rubber stamp might have.** **Made for a picture book, snow fell slowly piling up.** **Folks baking for Christmas , pies, cakes, cookies a must.** **Besides candied hams, roast beef, roasted potatoes a must. Sure enough guest caught in the snow storm gather. Singing old fashioned Christmas songs. Such fun after a very bad storm and thieves steeling.** **The women in the kitchen and girls. Men and Boys down in the barn enjoying animals and old time religion music.** **Snow calms serene hearts.**

**Another Mennonite Family by the name of Emery Esh** **And Missis Wynetta and kinner nine of their own. One late night they witnessed an intruder leaving with the family safe from behind a picture.** **Emery immediately picked up an electric cow proder.** **He stuck it in the intruders back leg he immediately dropped the safe busting it open money spilled out. He ran away limping riding a motorcycle away. In dead sentence Emery made an emergency call to The Sheriff Department.** **Soon the Town was made aware of this and looked for a man limping.** **Apparently the town invested in Cameras To videotape the place. A Town meeting planned . A secret meeting to talk about the new system . Deputy Sheriff happy with the turn out. All at once the lights went dark some hit the outside circuit breaker. Everything went dead , silent , a scary thought took over . Who is it , what are they going to do to us all before its all over. Deputy Sheriff Lit an oil lamp and instantly we could see one another.** **The entire Town went dark. Sounds of a large semi backed away loaded with llamas a farmer sold. Hard luck for him a total loss. There is only one thing to do.** **Snow Started falling in big flakes. Sticking to the ground all around. The radio weather forecast called for a blizzard.**

The Secrets We Carry is a gripping series about the lives we leave behind, the secrets we protect, and the people who slowly become the ones we trust. At the center of the series is Rylee Schmidt, a woman determined to build a new life while keeping the truth about her past buried. As she begins finding friendship, love, family, and a sense of safety she never thought she could have, the secrets she's spent years protecting don't simply disappear. Some truths stay hidden. Some begin to surface. And some have the power to change everything. As Rylee's new life unfolds, trust will be tested, old fears will resurface, and the people closest to her will discover that there is far more to her story than they ever imagined. Because everyone carries secrets. The question is what happens when those secrets can no longer stay buried.

Time had filtereated the first Sign of over spent money . When some Men bought out all the bakeries on that day.

# **A MEMORY OF SAM** Luke stood alone at the riverbank, watching the Mississippi move beneath the pale morning light.The water was different today. Or maybe he was. Since returning to Belle Rive, he had found himself remembering things he'd spent years trying to forget. His father's voice. The smell of tobacco on his work shirt. The way Sam McCall would stand on the porch at dusk, staring toward the river as though the water had answers no one else could hear. And then there was the conversation with Miss Clara. Luke closed his eyes. He could still hear her voice. *"There were two of them, Luke."* She had spoken those words quietly, almost reluctantly. *"Two men came after your daddy."* Luke remembered the way her hands had trembled in her lap. *"I know one of them."* "Simmons?" *"Snake Eye Simmons."* She nodded. *"Yes. Snake Eye. I'd know that man anywhere."*    Luke opened his eyes and stared across the river. He remembered asking her the question that had haunted him ever since. *"Who was the other man?"* Miss Clara had looked away. *"I don't know."* At the time, Luke had pressed her. "You're sure?" Her eyes were filled with tears. *"I saw two men. I heard their voices. I knew Simmons. But the other one..."* She had shaken her head. *"I never saw his face clearly enough to swear who he was."* Luke remembered the frustration he'd felt. He had wanted a name. A second name. Someone to blame. Someone to find. But Miss Clara had only given him the truth she possessed. She knew **Snake Eye Simmons** had been there. She knew there had been another man. But she had never known for certain who that man was. Luke let out a slow breath. For so long, he'd carried the second man around in his mind like a ghost with a face he couldn't see. Perhaps that was all the man would ever be.A shadow. A voice. A pair of footsteps disappearing into the darkness.  Luke reached into his coat and touched the folded letter his father had left behind. He had learned many things since coming home.Some truths had hurt. Others had healed wounds he hadn't even known were there. But one thing had finally become clear. He didn't need to invent an answer simply because he wanted one. Miss Clara had told him what she knew. Nothing more. Nothing less. **Snake Eye Simmons had been one of the men responsible for his father's death.**  The identity of the second man remained unknown. And perhaps, Luke thought, that was where the story needed to end. For now. He looked down at the river. The current carried a small piece of driftwood past his boots. Luke watched it disappear around the bend. "Some secrets aren't ready to be found," he whispered. Then he turned toward town. He had no idea how wrong he was. Because beneath the muddy water of the Mississippi, something was already waiting for him. Something that would make him question everything he thought he knew. And this time..the river was going to give up its secret.

Mira Thakur has spent most of her life learning how to make herself small. Orphaned young and raised in her uncle’s home in the hill town of Shimla, she divides her days between college, family obligations, and the tiny bookshop she loves. Her parents left her an inheritance—but an old-fashioned condition keeps it beyond her control: **She cannot take charge of it until she marries.** Then a violent storm sends Kian Dutt through the bookshop door. Kian is heir to one of India’s most powerful industrial families—brilliant, charming, wealthy, and dangerously accustomed to solving problems his own way. Mira doesn’t recognize him. For once, Kian likes it that way. One rain-soaked evening becomes walks through Shimla, cups of tea, private jokes, long conversations, and a slow-growing intimacy neither of them expected. Then Kian discovers something Mira doesn’t know. The land his development project desperately needs belongs to her. And marriage is the one condition that would finally give her control over it. **He wants Mira.\ She wants her freedom.\ His project needs her land.** To Kian, one impossible idea begins to look almost elegant: marry the woman he already wants, give her the freedom she has been denied, and negotiate for the land afterward. The problem is not that his feelings are false. The problem is that the secret is real. What begins as an intimate slow-burn romance in the mountains becomes a story about love, ambition, betrayal, separation, growth, and whether two people can ever find their way back to each other after the truth changes everything they thought they knew.

A broken-down van. A hollow that's not on any map. A family that doesn't let strangers leave. When their van breaks down deep in the Appalachian mountains, five electricians stumble into Craggy Dean Hollow looking for nothing more than a spare hose and a way back to the road. What they find instead is a wedding, a shotgun, and a father who's decided one of them is about to become his son-in-law - whether they want to or not.   New Chapters Saturdays at 4pm EST.

**The Bontrager family, Dat owned and operated. Tobias Bontrager his son . Dochder Mary Bontrager. Wife Agnus.** **Bontrager Bakery , tried and true to gut bakery . Donuts , cookies, pies and more made from scratch daily. By early morning light baked in a big black cast iron stove and oven .** **Then the meadow known for holding the 4H Carnival. Held through the summer months.** **Ma’am Bontrager encharge of the entire 4H Carnival . Dat brought Holsteins of ours up to show there.** **More than ever love of country is agift from a heart of Gott. Mildred a seer our Ma’am’s Aunt came to visit and stayed ever since.** **Mildred ma’am’s cousin, considered her best friend in the world. Something had become amiss for dearest Mildred had the same dream twice . That is why she came in the first place.** **Dat with held a secret from Ma’am and what ever could it be. The Angels who dwelled in and around the place. Hovering , trying feel like what dat did.** **While demons were light footsteps heard sneaking around. Snares came from their nostrils , fiery , smoke.** **Grosspapa talked to Dat in low tones . “ What ever happened will be forsaken by our lord. Tell me though who could it be? A Carnival man working the Carnival?** **Dat ran his hand through his thick hair. He entertained a beard these days. Looking sophisticated and handsome. “ I must tell Agnus however help please lord.”** **Creaking of trees outside can be heard such a windy day. Something chilling lay wait. What’s going on here?** **Right then Grossmama and** **Ma’am entered the office in the barn. “ I don’t usually ease drop because I heard everything you said Horace.** **Tell me what has happened to you shaken you to the core?” Grossmama gasped for her son hurt within so bad.** **Dat sat instantly, “ I had taken cash for a large cattle order . Someone picked it up instantly pocketed it. Here is the receipt signed by the man I sold cattle to.”** **Mary busy at work with Mildred helping today. Outside a sun shining, breezy day. Together they made quite a team . The day very busy for them.** **Some men came from the Carnival and purchased an unbelievable amount of bakery . Paid in cash , very unusual acting. Making Mary and Mildred uncomfortable to say the least. I think they were extremely** glad to see them both disappear into the crowd. “ I’m locking this door and closing the bakery all gone anyway,” Mary said. She closed the window shades then. Immediately called the Sheriff dispatcher Sid Esh and described the incident. “ I feel scared and why I’m not   rightfully sure is the reason.” And she further explained the closing up the store. Mildred stood by listening by that time of her phone call. Tobias said he would like to know what happened to the money it being a very large amount. Sorry to hear Dat .” Later that night when everyone had went to sleep. Someone walked as if to creep up into the hayloft he did lay unnoticed by anyone except himself. Laying deep inside the hayloft. There’s when he noticed a man’s dark shadow left across the porch on the Bontrager farmhouse. He then turned on surveillance cameras around the place. Eery feelings came to his mind. Then several others , he made a quick phone call. Deputy Sheriff surrounded the house big lights shown down on them hoods . What could possibly be driving them to this particular house. Money maybe? The men wearing black hoods left running on foot . Deputies chased by a jeep using a large light. It turned out to be some night . Yes horses missing from the pasture , each rode off on horseback. Stole The Bontrager farm horses . And if that wasn’t enough some very expensive saddles. Immediately Dat , ma’am and Grosspapa ended the Carnival. It was about to end anyway.? Because of theft and dangerous conditions for us all. Sheriff Stoltzfus said they are a band of Thieves. Riding together with a gang of criminals ready to steal for they know exactly what they’re looking for. This happened to be an end of an era never to be the same again. Because                     this year has been a great loss to not only the Country side here the community is very much looking forward to this Carnival. Taking a break from it being the keeper.

For fifty years, Earl has known how to make things disappear. At the far edge of his farm, where the grass gives way to red clay, the burn pile has swallowed a lifetime of old papers, worn clothes, forgotten belongings—and things better left unnamed. Four days after burying his wife, Maren, Earl returns to the pile to honor one of her final requests: **Don’t let it go cold. There’s still things that need burning.** But something beneath the ash refuses to burn. And as Earl begins to dig, the past he's spent half a century reducing to smoke starts giving things back. **Some things survive the fire. Some things wait.**

**The Hollow Bond Series** is a dark, seductive romantasy series where ancient magic, supernatural bonds, and dangerous love collide. Deep within the mysterious Hollow, the forest is more than trees and shadows—it is alive, powerful, and it remembers. Witches, wolf shifters, ancient guardians, forbidden magic, and forces that should have remained buried become tangled in bonds shaped by fate but tested by choice. As old secrets surface and the boundary between worlds begins to fracture, love may prove to be either the greatest weapon of all—or the most dangerous weakness. Filled with fierce heroines, protective and powerful heroes, found family, fated mates, dark secrets, supernatural danger, passion, and plenty of magic, **The Hollow Bond Series** explores what happens when destiny chooses you before you're ready to choose it. *The Hollow is watching.* *The bonds are awakening.* *And some magic refuses to be denied.*

Homestead out amongst Mennonite communities. Mary Bontrager Schwester, Ma’am Agnus Bontrager, Dat Horace Bontrager, Tobias Bontrag, Braudar. Dat owner of-the Wine vineyards deep within a forest of green lush trees. Where grapevines grow plentiful by love of nature. Many Old Order Amish women bore aprons full of freshly picked grapes. Barefoot ladies up to the elbows in grapes of all colors and kinds. While Amishman and Mennonite men are in fields of grapes growin only to be picked for wine bottles here and sold. The large sand rock houses refrigerated by a gas generator. A wooden sign above the door reads Built on honesty. Inside greeters are Mary Bontrager Schwester and Grossmama. Property owner Horace Bontrager,( Dat) and Agnus ( Ma’am ). The property owners, a large white family adorned two porches beautiful inside and outside Then the Chocolate House where candy made daily. Packaged then sold to customers. Delicious decadent chocolate. Much to everyone’s delight. Bontrager Cousins worked hard for the store. Our Pride and Joy Cheese factory full of delicious home made cheeses. Best Cheesecake, samples daily from happy employees handing it out as free treats. The Gold nugget jewelers hand made rings , necklaces. Very well known for quality jewelry. Nestled in a large barn inside cases of finished jewelry. Quality jewelry sold here. The family Bakery housed homemade bread, cookies and pies . Freshness guaranteed. Braudars Tobias and Isaac Bontrager. As well as taking care of the grounds there. They were also proud owners of many horses . Pastures full of them. Give Thanks for your love for Gott as a whole. Reading your Bible and following his example is best. May you find peace in your life as a family. May those of us that gather together find friends who are family members Mary is the heart of herself, wandering through life in a world of Mennonite. Being noticed by Harley Hershberger known by everyone as a Wheat farmer. Most of his work done on his own small farm. Down the road apiece. Surroundings were very beautiful Evergreen trees. A windmill connected to a water wheel. Inside the barn ground oats made daily. Integrating sorghum to make bread sold to restaurants. His Rock farm house inherited from his Dat . His Braudars also lived there. This place     down in a gully. Surrounded by rocks . A trail leading to a lake treasured by family. To top it off they made binoculars. Sold to stores a catalog that they ordered from. Quality assurance guarantee in all products. Literally everything around the earth is a vast quantity of valuable information that can only come from a mature enough mind to find out what it gives forth in gifts. Ideas to make money from and create something to sell. Church held in neighbors barns turn church The bench wagon delivers benches for all day church meetings . Wild goats standing way up high on cliffs. White goats creatures standing there firm keep our grass chewed short. Sounds of running water from cliffs . Partakers in a river of life gathere often. Baptized people and it was a healing experience. Many walked away with their lives forever changed by a miracle. In fact the English had the subject matter analyzed and studied. Then wrote a magazine article about the healing benefits The mud from the river bed cured all wounds from infection or scars. Some say our beloved animal friends even taken there. To be healed from pain and twisted gut. Sightseeing a must though these foothills. Promise of life of a lifetime for happiness bound to souls entrusted to give their lives to Gott. The Temple of quiet is built upon its promise to keep your soul clean. When entering into silence for a month. This individual has committed to cleansing totally leaving to go back to their lives at home freed from any bad feelings Talking when they leave. Many different things have happened    Down in The Mennonite Country.

A hidden moonshine still. A forgotten ledger. A murder that has haunted the Mississippi Delta for twenty years. When Luke McCall returns home after his father's death, he expects to spend only a few days settling family business. Instead, he uncovers a web of buried secrets stretching back to the final years of Prohibition. As the truth slowly unfolds, Luke discovers that the greatest mystery isn't who committed the crime... It's why his father spent a lifetime protecting those left behind. Rich with unforgettable Southern characters, family secrets, redemption, suspense, and unexpected twists, *Delta Moonshine* is perfect for readers who enjoy atmospheric mysteries where heart matters as much as the mystery itself. If you enjoy the storytelling of Southern fiction, heartfelt family sagas, and mysteries filled with unforgettable characters, you'll feel right at home in Belle Rive.

Some mysteries are too big for one generation to solve.

Wren has never needed a five-year plan. She has a hometown she loves, more jobs than any reasonable person should have, a stake in the local coffee shop, and an uncanny ability to know exactly who needs a casserole, a favor, or a swift kick in the pants. Her life may look a little chaotic from the outside, but it works just fine for her. Then Daniel arrives. Award-winning architect Daniel believes in clean lines, careful plans, and things behaving exactly as they’re supposed to. When an old friend brings him back to town to design an ambitious new shared-work center—one that could bring jobs, entrepreneurs, and desperately needed economic growth—Daniel sees an opportunity to build something extraordinary. Wren sees a very expensive stranger trying to turn the town she loves into someplace it was never meant to be. Unfortunately, they need each other. With state funding hanging in the balance and half the town suspicious of Daniel’s modern vision, Wren becomes the reluctant bridge between the architect and the people whose trust he needs. Soon Daniel finds himself being dragged into coffee-shop conversations, community meetings, unexpected errands, and the strange orbit of a woman who seems to belong everywhere at once. Wren, meanwhile, begins to discover that beneath Daniel’s immaculate shirts, impossible standards, and insistence that everyone call him by his actual name is a man considerably warmer—and funnier—than he wants anyone to know. Somewhere between arguments over architecture, compromises neither expected to make, and the quiet moments neither can quite explain, their carefully established positions begin to shift. Daniel came to town believing good design could solve almost anything. Wren is about to teach him that the best things in life aren’t always built according to plan.

A family secret that was kept for 40 years. A horrible tragic reality that the man they relied on to protect them, had a deep dark secret, and the shock and reality of the situation becomes a search for the truth that the wife and two oldest sons try to find answers for. Kayla Simmons married Jonathan Greenfield with a June wedding in 2000. They had met by accident when Kayla was doing a cross country trip to see the country after graduating from college in 1997, and had stopped into the small town of Whipsburg, Iowa to pick up supplies. She was carrying a full bag of groceries for her trip, and accidentally ran into Jonathan on the sidewalk, he apologized, helped pick her groceries up and started a conversation, and after a dinner date to make up for his bumping into her, she decided to stay a few more days. She stayed in Whipsburg for 3 years, and in that time they became engaged, and decided the time was right get married. Jonathan had two younger siblings, but they had died young, so he was an only child. Jonathan had a childhood friend, Theresa, who was present at the wedding, and also played "Bestman" for him, as they were so close. Kayla knows of Jonathan's long friendship with Theresa, and had no worries about an affair, as Jonathan said "She's the sister I never had". They would often go fishing during the spring and summer, then go deer hunting together in the fall, and they usually were gone for a few days. Kayla never had the stomach for fishing or hunting, she would usually stay home, and let them do what they have always done growing up together. Their twin sons came 2 years later, Maxwell (Max) and Mitchell (Mitch). Life for the Greenfield's was what every American family wants, a home, family and all the comforts anyone could want. A few years after the birth of the twins, Jonathan became distant, and always seemed agitated. Theresa became Kayla's sounding board for the marital issues she was having, and Theresa always managed to smooth things over for her. Kayla and Jonathan lived on 20 acre parcel of farmland that Jonathan's family had owned, and gifted to them as a wedding present. They built a beautiful home, but unexpectedly, Jonathan's parents both died in the old farmhouse from carbon monoxide poisoning, leaving the old farmhouse, and the 250 acres of farmland to Jonathan. Jonathan thought that moving into his parents old home would be great for them all, so they decided to move into the farmhouse, and lease out their home. Kayla decided that a good renovation was needed, and to Jonathan's dismay, she proceeded. Max and Mitch were off at college, So Kayla asked Theresa if she would like to help with the renovations, to which she was thrilled to help. In the process of renovating, Kayla had noticed an outbuilding, adjacent to the old barn. She had noticed it before, but never even went near it, even on visits to his parents. When she asked Jonathan about it, he stated it was where his father, as a farmer, would butcher much of his livestock, as farmers do. Unknown to Kayla, there was more to her husband Jonathan's story about the outbuilding, and the relationship with Theresa was more than she had ever imagined. Not an affair, but something so unimaginable and horribly grisly that she couldn't comprehend. Why had her husband become such a monster? How could she not have noticed all the hints and signals that were so obviously present all through the marriage? When Kayla finally finds the courage to do some detective work of her own, with the help of her two sons, Max and Mitch. What they uncover is a history of terror, torture and the bizarre connection that Jonathan and Theresa have, in a gruesome manner, that they have shared between them for over 40 years, since childhood.

A girl born in the early 60s learns that in life, there's not always going to be someone to save you. The story captures the resilience, strength, courage as well as ways to get even against people who have hurt her, or her friends, in comical actions. Her father George became her silent hero, and with his silent actions, taught her the ups and down in life. *Life taught me to be strong.* *The men who cheated on me...* *Well, they taught me to be creative.*   People have asked me about the title of this book. Some assume it's about anger. Others think it's about revenge. It isn't. Wrath isn't always loud. Sometimes it's quiet. Sometimes it's walking away. Sometimes it's refusing to let someone else's betrayal define your worth. And sometimes... It's a harmless prank that reminds a person they should have treated you better in the first place. I never believed in cruelty. Life had already shown me enough of that. But I did believe in consequences. Especially the kind that could make you laugh years later. If that's wrath... Then I suppose I'm guilty.

Defense attorney Adam Reed believes in the system until he's recruited into Themis Lodge—a 400-year-old shadow government controlling judges, senators, and policy worldwide. When Adam refuses to join, the Order systematically destroys him: his cases fail, his license is suspended, his marriage fractures as his wife believes he's having a paranoid breakdown. His pastor is revealed as an Order member. His best friend Marcus is the Architect coordinating everything. Only Isaiah Cole, a disillusioned security guard, believes him. As Adam tries to rebuild and reconnect with his family, a mysterious fire traps his son Leo in a burning bedroom. The novel ends with Adam losing consciousness, Leo's fate unknown, and everything Adam fought to protect consumed by flames. A devastating exploration of how the most dangerous power is the kind nobody recognizes.

**Some secrets are buried deep for a reason.** When heavy excavation begins tearing into the ancient bluffs at Standing Rock, the rural peace of Lake Eufaula is shattered. The blasting unearths more than just limestone—it awakens a primitive, ravenous terror that has slept beneath the river channel for centuries. Cole Garrett has spent years running *The Outpost* marina while living under the dark cloud of his father’s unexplained disappearance on the water. When local fishermen start vanishing and strange, slime-slicked tracks are left on the docks at midnight, Cole realizes the lake is claiming victims once again. Only this time, it’s no accident. Avery Sterling, daughter of the powerful developer driving the excavation, senses that her father’s crew has unburied something monstrous. Caught between her family’s ruthless ambition and the horrifying reality unfolding on the water, Avery turns to Cole—the only person willing to look past the official cover-ups. As night falls over the lake and the body count rises, Cole and Avery must unearth the dark truth behind Standing Rock before the terror rising from the deep consumes everyone on the shore.

Desperate for a fresh start, Ella Kendale finally finds the courage to leave her abusive husband behind. Armed with only two suitcases and the small inheritance left to her by her late grandmother, she escapes to the quiet backroads of rural Tennessee and buys an old house that seems almost too affordable to be true. But the house isn’t as empty as it appears. Hidden within its walls are the lingering remnants of another tragic relationship, and before long Ella begins experiencing unsettling events she can’t explain. A handsome stranger starts appearing in her dreams—dreams that slowly begin bleeding into reality. At the same time, signs that someone is watching her from the shadows turn her peaceful new beginning into a waking nightmare. When three local police officers step in to protect her, Ella unexpectedly finds herself tangled in a complicated love triangle involving two of the officers…and the mysterious man from her dreams. Torn between fear and desire, reality and the supernatural, Ella struggles to decide who she can trust while an all-too-real stalker closes in around her. In a small town, secrets don’t stay buried for long—and unlike the city she left behind, nobody in Tennessee is willing to look the other way. As danger escalates, Ella discovers she may have escaped one monster only to find herself caught between darkness, love, and a battle she can’t survive alone.

**The Neighbor Across the Street** **Synopsis** After a painful divorce, **Emily Carter** leaves her old life behind and moves into the quiet, picturesque community of **Cedar Oaks**, hoping for a fresh start. With its tree-lined streets, immaculate lawns, friendly neighbors, and reputation as one of the safest neighborhoods in the state, Cedar Oaks appears to be the perfect place to begin again. Among the first people to welcome her is **Daniel Mercer**, the seemingly ideal neighbor who lives directly across the street. Quiet, courteous, and dependable, Daniel follows the same routine every day with almost unsettling precision. To everyone else, he is the model citizen—a churchgoer, volunteer, and trusted member of the community. But one late night, Emily sees Daniel leaving a long-abandoned house carrying a shovel. By morning, there is no trace that anyone had been there, and Daniel insists she must have imagined it. When police dismiss her concerns and neighbors encourage her to let the matter go, Emily’s instincts tell her something is deeply wrong. She begins documenting unusual activity throughout Cedar Oaks—lights flickering inside vacant homes, unfamiliar vehicles arriving after midnight, whispered conversations that abruptly end when she approaches, and families who seem to disappear overnight without anyone questioning where they went. Her investigation takes a chilling turn after security cameras capture the same mysterious figure walking silently through the neighborhood every night at exactly **2:11 a.m.**, pausing outside the same homes before vanishing before sunrise. As Emily digs deeper into property records, erased surveillance footage, and decades-old newspaper archives, she uncovers evidence of a carefully orchestrated cover-up stretching back more than thirty years. The truth reveals that Cedar Oaks was built upon a devastating secret that powerful residents have protected for generations. Every smiling neighbor, every community gathering, and every carefully maintained home conceals another layer of deception. Daniel Mercer is not the mastermind Emily believed him to be, but a reluctant keeper of a legacy of silence that has destroyed countless lives. As Emily races to expose the truth, she becomes the neighborhood’s next target. Watched from every window and betrayed by people she thought she could trust, she must decide whether revealing the past is worth risking her future. **The Neighbor Across the Street** is a gripping psychological suspense novel that explores the illusion of suburban perfection, the power of collective silence, and the terrifying realization that the greatest dangers often hide behind the friendliest smiles. Filled with escalating tension, shocking twists, and unforgettable characters, it launches **The Cedar Oaks Mysteries**, a series proving that every quiet neighborhood has a story—and every story hides a secret someone will kill to protect.

A stubborn farmer fighting to hold his ground. A century-old ghost desperate for redemption. And an unearned miracle that threatens to steal a family’s soul. Tennessee, 1844. Tenant farmer Ezra Whitlock buries his five young children in cold red clay after eight brutal weeks of fever and hunger. When his wife dies of heartbreak soon after, Ezra sinks to his knees among the stones and makes an eternal vow: he will work forever in the dark if he can spare just one other family the same fate. Tennessee, 1973. Frank Jefferson is a proud, hard-working man with a failing tractor, a bank payment he can’t cover, and an iron rule he’s lived by for forty years: no problem will beat him. He believes a man’s worth is written in the dirt by his own two hands. Then the work starts getting done without him. Overnight, a weeping hydraulic leak is caught by neatly folded rags. A tangled wall of cane and briars is shaved down to bare dirt without a single tire track. Rusted farm equipment runs with the purr of showroom iron, and a weathered cedar shed is rebuilt between dusk and dawn. Frank doesn’t believe in haints, but he can’t explain the impossible perfection spreading across his farm. What looks like a blessing soon twists into a quiet nightmare. The entity in the timber doesn’t want payment—it wants to do all the labor. It erases every mark of honest human sweat, rewrites his wife’s kitchen, and crosses the threshold into his eight-year-old daughter’s bedroom, turning her worn rag dolls into stone-eyed monuments. When Frank tries to redirect this overwhelming “Kindness” across the hollow to help his struggling neighbors, the supernatural repairs ignite suspicion. Fence lines sing with unnatural tension, long-broken machinery springs to life in the dark, and an 1894 property line begins to bend the very air of the valley. But when an angry neighbor crosses the boundary with an iron blade, the ghost’s protective vow turns terrifying. Caught between suspicious neighbors and a spirit crushed by a century of sorrow, Frank and his wife, Martha, must face an agonizing truth: struggle isn’t a curse—it’s the glue that holds a family together. To reclaim their lives, they must confront the grieving dead, speak the names of the lost, and learn what a man truly owes to the ground beneath his boots. Praise for The Forgotten Debt: "A haunting, atmospheric Southern Gothic tale of pride, red clay, and the razor-thin line between mercy and violation.” \

In December of 1811 and January of 1812, a massive quake known as the New Madrid Earthquake shook the Midwest.  The Quake was centered under the Missouri town of New Madrid, thus the name. It was so strong that it caused church bells to ring in Boston mass, over 1100 miles away. At that time the Mississippi river flowed backwards, and the earth split open swallowing many homes and pioneers. If it were to occur again today many cities would crumble. Very few buildings are built to withstand a quake of that magnitude, and millions of people now live on top of this earthquake zone. Scientists tell us it is not a matter of if, but when. It will happen again. Perhaps this story is an omen of what could happen, When It All Falls Down.

The Mirror of Mild Inconvenience Arthur didn't mean to buy a haunted smart-mirror. He had simply wanted something to fill the blank space above his dresser, and the eccentric old man at the garage sale had a very reasonable twenty-dollar price tag on a sleek, brass-bordered glass panel. "It's adaptive," the old man had whispered, tossing in a microfiber cloth for free. "It reflects more than just your face." Arthur had assumed it was just a fancy way of saying it had a built-in ring light. He was wrong. Day 1: The Meet-Cute (With a Piece of Glass) On Tuesday morning, Arthur stood before the mirror, toothbrush in hand, wearing his favorite faded green t-shirt. He blinked. The mirror didn't just blink back; it displayed glowing, elegant text across his chest: > CRITICAL ERROR: Shirt selection is approximately six years past its expiration date. Recommend immediate disposal or transition to "rag status." > Arthur nearly swallowed his toothpaste. He tapped the glass. "Excuse me?" The text dissolved, replaced by a fresh, glowing line: > Sigh. Yes, I can talk. Or write, technically. Also, your left eyebrow is doing something deeply ambitious today. Please tame it. > Day 3: The Negotiation By Thursday, Arthur and the mirror had established a fragile truce. He learned its name was Speculum-9 (or "Specs" for short), a prototype home-assistant that had been discontinued for being "insufficiently sycophantic." "You could just tell me I look nice today," Arthur muttered, trying to tie a tie for a big meeting. > I could also tell you that gravity is optional, but we would both be living a lie. That knot looks like a cry for help. Start over. > "I'm going for 'effortlessly disheveled,'" Arthur argued. > You have achieved "struggling to survive." Try a simple Windsor. And put down the hair gel. You are not a 90s boyband member. > Day 10: The Big Pitch The real test came a week later. Arthur had a major presentation at work. He was pacing his bedroom floor, sweating through his collar, frantically reciting his opening lines. He stopped in front of Specs, his shoulders slumped. "I'm going to ruin this," Arthur said, the anxiety finally breaking through his usual sarcasm. "I'm not cut out for public speaking. I'm just a guy who writes spreadsheets." The glass remained dark for a long moment. Then, the text began to scroll, slower and softer than usual: > Analyzing posture: Rigid. > Heart rate: Elevated. > Self-esteem: Unwarrantedly low. > Correction: You spent three weeks analyzing the Q4 data. You know it better than anyone in that room. Your slides are clean, your logic is sound, and your suit—while slightly snug in the shoulders—makes you look like someone who actually owns a savings account. > Now, go put on your shoes. You're going to crush them. > Arthur stared at the glass. A tiny, glowing smiley face appeared in the bottom right corner. "Thanks, Specs," he murmured, actually smiling. > Don't get mushy. It smudges the glass. And seriously, buy a lint roller on the way home. >

*Myths, Magic, and Mayhem* is a series where beauty is dangerous, loyalty is binding, and magic grows like roots beneath the skin. Each story follows characters who stumble into ancient rituals, living folklore, and towns that remember more than people do. In these pages, myths breathe, magic bites, and mayhem blooms quietly, creating an atmosphere of suspense and peril that keeps readers on edge.

Everybody who knew Mitchell Carrington has a story. Ask about him, and people smile first. They'll tell you about the giant blond construction worker who could make an entire break room laugh until their sides hurt. The practical jokes. The long hours on shutdowns. The cheap motel rooms and cheaper cigarettes. Then their smiles fade. Because every one of them remembers what happened at the River Weave Plant. Told through the memories of friends, coworkers, and the women who loved him, The Unexplainable Thing That Happened to Mitchell Carrington slowly pieces together the final days of a man everyone thought they knew. As strange events begin to follow Mitchell — from an ice-cold motel room to impossible footprints and whispers no one else can hear — the line between coincidence and something far darker begins to disappear. Proofread with the help of AI. The story, characters, and every word of prose are mine. (New chapters every Friday)

YellowJackets meets S.T.A.G.S. The Alpha Society has been an elite presence in YoungBlood, TX for over 100 years. There are two ways you live in this town either be at the top of the food chain and live a life of luxury as an Alpha. Or serve an Alpha at the bottom of the food chain as an Omega. One woman's ambition will leave a whole town on it's knees.

Being sixteen can be Hell. For Sarah, every day is the same. Keep up with the grades. Stay on top of the cleaning and laundry around their cramped apartment. Friends? Boys? If her mom found out, her rage would follow. For as long as Sarah could remember, it’s always been her and her mom. Stories of her dad’s untimely death hold their own questions.\ \ So long as her chores get done and she stays close to home, everything’s sunny. Otherwise, she might feel the wrath of her mom’s love.\ \ That all changes when Sarah’s great aunt leaves her a mysterious journal in her will. Its pages tell tales of a missing brother’s adventures, riding the rails in the 1930s. The further Sarah delves into the events surrounding him, the closer she gets to uncovering her own past. As the truths of her great uncle’s disappearance come to light, she unearths the skeletons hidden in her mom’s closet.\ \ Then, there’s Collin. The boy she’s had a crush on for years picks now of all times to ask her out. Juggling a boyfriend and a relationship on top of everything else could push her and her mother to their breaking point.\ \ Sparks will fly on Sarah’s journey to independence and healing. One boy’s journey across Great Depression America could hold the key to setting her free. Sarah needs to find him in time to get to the truth before time takes another relative and his secrets to the grave.

A family arrives in the town of Harmony, encountering ominous religious signs and an unwelcoming resident. While the parents remain oblivious to their daughter's worsening health, a distorted welcome sign hints at the town's underlying danger.

THE STORY AT A GLANCE   Holder Williston is a young Black man freshly off probation — smart, guarded, carrying the weight of choices that cost him years and the absence of a mother who was never really there. The judge who released him calls in one favor: drive four terminally ill women on a road trip they have planned for themselves. Holder expects a simple job. What he gets are four women who see straight through every wall he has ever built.   The story is short. The impact is not.   Every mile of the road trip costs Holder something — his defenses, his cynicism, his conviction that he is not the kind of man people love. Every woman gives him something in return — honesty, warmth, correction, laughter, and the specific gift of being mothered by someone who chose to mother him even though they had every reason to spend their remaining time on something else.   When the last woman is gone and Holder is standing alone at the end of the road, he is a different man. Not because life got easier. Because four women showed him what it meant to live toward something, face death without flinching, and love without conditions — and he watched all of it up close from the driver's seat.   He never had a mother. He got four. And then he had to let all four go.   That grief, and the man it makes him, is the whole story

*The Awkward Formula for Growing Up* is an honest portrait of early adolescence. It captures the moment when childhood ends in a slow, inevitable bend toward adulthood. The novel stands alone while also opening a multi‑volume cycle that traces Chris’s life. Sometimes funny, exciting, emotional, or tragic.

When twelve-year-old Howlvin Stein moves into a creaking old Victorian house on the edge of town, he expects a fresh start—not secrets lurking beneath the floorboards. But deep in the cellar, he discovers an ancient book marked with a strange symbol: a whale surrounded by stars. The moment he opens it, something awakens. Strange things begin to follow Howlvin—whispers in the walls, shadows that move on their own, and a forest that seems to be watching him. With the help of his only friend, Samantha Elm, and his loyal dog Frankie, Howlvin is drawn into a mystery older than Maplewood itself—a story of a vanished founder, a vengeful witch, and a curse that refuses to die. But the deeper they go, the more the forest changes… twisting paths, trapping memories, and pulling them toward something waiting in the dark. Because this isn’t just a story hidden in a book. It’s a story that remembers. And it’s not finished with them yet.

Welcome to Silver Creek City!  A young man stared at his test, trying to focus, but the cool breeze drew his gaze to the beautiful day outside. Clack, clack, clack, clack! The boy's gaze snapped to the window in time to see a grinning, shirtless, long-haired boy about his age glide by on his skateboard. The young man tried to focus on his test, but the only questions he could think of were, "Who the heck was that kid, and what was he doing *out there?"* I carried this image in my mind for several years, wondering about these two young men. Who were they? What happened before? What happened after? Finally, things slowly came together, and a short story that looked only slightly like this one began to emerge and take shape into a book. The book grew into a series. And now, here we are. I feel like I should give you a warning before you start. This story is about teenage boys. Sometimes they are wonderful. Sometimes they're gross. Sometimes, they're both at the same time. I tried not to clean them up to make them more "presentable." If you are under 16, I respectfully ask you to reconsider this book. You may want to wait a bit. It is often deeply personal. If you choose to proceed, be prepared to get muddy. \~Jack  Update, September 12, 2026 I've envisioned this as being a series for quite a while now. This was intended to be the first volume. However, after I wrote this volume, it became clear I needed to expand the series further. Now, the childhood portion of the book will be part of a prequel trilogy. I've expanded the material to include more of what happens in the summer and fall of 1998, which will eventually be released as the first volume in publication order, as "June 1998- New Year's Day 1999." The 1999 content will actually be part of a follow-up volume: "January 1999-May 27, 1999. So now, what we have here in what was going to be "volume 1" will be spread out and expanded through several volumes.  \~ Jack

Vika is enjoying the off-season when there are no tourists to crowd her bookshop. But an early pink-blossomed tree and a viral ghost video kick up something older. With Ben’s practical magic and her basset hound's uncanny nose, Vika sets out to solve the mystery of the orchard bride. Dahlia Vale is no tragic bride. She once was a powerful witch who stayed behind to protect what she loved. But, now her binding is loosening, the knot she protects is unraveling. The violence of the past is seeping through. To save the orchard, Vika must untangle the truth that the town erased, but first she must win Dahlia’s trust. As shadows of the past bleed into the present, the knot Dahlia protects is unraveling. When it does, the past will come through hungry.

**America’s Town**  In the era of Caitlin Clark and the unorthodox style of *Ted Lasso*, an accidental coach leads an under-appreciated girls’ high school basketball team in Gettysburg, America’s most famous small town, through a season no sports parent could ever predict-or forget.  Former Gettysburg College basketball star Jay Siler returns to the scene of his glory days to manage First Colonial Bank’s downtown branch to complete his last rotation as an executive trainee. As Jay’s business star rises, city fathers urge him to become assistant coach of Gettysburg High’s girls’ basketball team. Hesitant at first, Jay takes the job, only to face conflicts with verbally abusive, dim-witted, and unwelcoming head coach, Barry Hughes.  Jay cannot look the other way as he sees Coach Hughes act his worst against Stefani Baker, a promising player ordered to sit in favor of Megan Reynolds, the less-skilled daughter of a local power broker, president of a rival bank. Jay’s older sister was similarly abused; her basketball dreams ended with her suicide. His sympathies lie with Stefani, but he must get her to change her flippant attitude and play to her potential. Jay joins with Bonita Blount, her teammate and best friend, Gettysburg’s most recruited basketball star in a generation, to make Stefani their personal project.  As a promising season goes awry, Coach Hughes’ abusive actions reach a head. Jay takes over and puts Stefani into the starting role she deserves, over the objections of Megan’s father, Stan. As Stan relentlessly attacks Jay’s personal and professional credibility, it’s up to Stefani to rise to the occasion to help Gettysburg win its first state championship. Will Stefani and Jay respond to their challenges, or will the community’s basketball aspirations end in disappointment?

"In his latest fantasy, Kambitsis crafts a tale of small-town weirdness that would tickle Stephen King." - Kirkus Reviews Something evil is hidden in the woods outside of the beautiful town of Sparkle, PA, the kind of thing Peter Huffy, newly arrived in town, does not believe in. Little does he know that something is happening in Sparkle, something that hasn’t occurred on Earth since the destruction of Camelot a millennium and a half before, and the forces of good and evil are going to collide. Twelve-year-old Derek Windward is the sole keeper of Sparkle’s oldest secret. He is the only one who has witnessed the evil hiding in the darkest part of the forest, and how terrifying the power it wields truly is. It is the Bunyine - a giant, tormented creature born eight-thousand years ago in the Garden of Eden and harboring an ancient grudge for the betrayal of its masters, whom we call Adam and Eve. One morning, Derek receives a cryptic message carved into a tree. A message from the beast itself. Though what the Bunyine wants is unclear, what it would do to get it is unthinkable. Sparkle brings together the charm and wonder of fantasy and the thrills of horror, creating a unique experience for readers of both genres, and all ages.

Otterby is a mountain town built on what was abandoned—mines, bridges, promises, and names no one remembers clearly anymore. On Main Street, inside a purple Victorian known as *The Maid, Mother, and Crone*, two witches keep the balance as best they can. Kitty Loy is a kitchen witch who believes in the power of bread, salt, and things made by hand. Alice is a nature witch—an optimist with dirt under her nails and a deep faith in cycles, growth, and second chances. Together they form a coven of two, uneasy and incomplete after the loss of their third, a wound neither of them is ready to name. When a dead owl appears on their porch and a body is discovered on the long‑abandoned Bride’s Bridge, Otterby’s past begins to surface in troubling ways. What first looks like a simple haunting reveals a pattern tied to an old mine disaster, a doomed love story, and a bargain made long ago with powers that do not think like humans—or forgive like them. As spring stirs the land awake, Kitty and Alice are forced to confront buried histories, the cost of broken balance, and the truth that some debts cannot be ignored forever. To set things right, they may have to risk opening wounds they worked very hard to close—and accept that survival sometimes means change. *Otterby* is a standalone urban fantasy steeped in Southern gothic atmosphere, folklore, and the quiet magic of small towns that remember more than they should.

On a fictional Greek island, Anastasia Livanitis solves murders and other crimes with her ghostly sidekicks, and her journalist best friend, Nikos.

TREASURE SPIES is a fast-paced, middle grade summer adventure about four nerdy friends matching wits with high-tech treasure hunters in the search for a billionaire’s lost diamond ring. What begins as a race to the reward becomes a sprint against time to save their sleepy beach town from an eco-disaster.