Chapter 1 “Rita Mars, this is a voice from your past.” “Who the hell is this?” Rita demanded. It was eleven o’clock, and the dreary end of a long day. A miserable October rain tapped on the office windows. Through the water washed glass, Baltimore’s Mitchell Court House next door was a smear of grey […]

I am just going to say this: rejection is tough to accept, tough to swallow, tougher still on unaccomplished rising stars, tough even on the toughest professionals, the risen stars, the accredited accomplished performers of stand-up comedy who to this day may still experience the occasional heckling, or booing, and feel rejection’s venomous sting. No […]

MIDNIGHT RAMBLE Brooklyn drove east on Sunset Boulevard in a new, gleaming white Tesla Model S, a replacement for the red Range Rover Sport she totaled going a little too fast while a little too drunk. This earned Brooklyn a DUI, but since her blood alcohol level was below 1.5%, her license suspension only lasted a month. […]

When A Witch Crosses the Line I wasn’t born a witch. The coveted practice of earth magic was learned and taught; a continuous cycle, like all of life, to women born of the Knighton name. My great-great-grandmother, Victoria Knighton, began teaching earth magic to the women in my family with or without magic in their […]

Chapter 1 Brock hurried down the dusty tunnels of Leicester Square, stepping onto the Tube’s busy concrete platform. People were spilling out everywhere, and agonising pains thumped through his head like a revolver firing continuously at point-blank range. An announcement blasted through the Tube’s crackling intercom as a train rushed through the tunnel. Turbulence forced […]

Chapter 1 Journey “The past has flown away. The coming month and year do not exist; Ours only is the present’s tiny point.” –Shabistari FOR A MOMENT KYY WAS between two worlds, the seen and the unseen and lay for a time in natural great peace. Then his thoughts returned, rushing in like leaves being […]

A small troop came running down the tunnel now. Not all could fit into the room. Some stood outside the open door, some inside. The few inside hurried about, setting up the video camera on one side of the room while a man with a large, broad sword went about sharpening his blade. Another rolled […]

Chapter 1 I woke up on a Saturday morning with a yawn and rubbed my eyes. I gazed at all my cool posters in my room – Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, and Legend of Korra, all my favorite shows. My teddy bear sat upright against in the corner with my pillows. As I got up […]

CHAPTER 1: GREENHOUSES Consider using LEDs to light a one-acre farm on Mars. Good solar panels have an efficiency of 22 percent, and great LEDs have an efficiency of 35 percent. With Mars’ solar irradiance of 59 percent, you would need a minimum of 22 acres of solar panels for the plants to receive the […]

Chapter 1 Sonny As I sat hidden in the brush underneath a tree cooling in the shade, I looked at my wristwatch, it was 1:30pm. I wound it again. The watch was still in good shape, despite everything that had happened – military design I suppose. This watch was clearly built to last, water and […]

Chapter 1 La Villa Boccardi June 27, 1954 The Locals consider L’alta Pendenza as the highest Fontane Bianchi hill, where the Boccardi family enjoys a magnificent view of the Ionian Sea. Bruno built his family country house on the east side of a seven-acre lot, facing the ocean, at a 146-foot-high cliff. There was a […]

CHAPTER ONE THE CALL CAME THROUGH as I was finishing my first cup of coffee on a   hot morning at the beginning of January over twenty years ago. I could already feel the heat coming through the big windows of my hotel room and see the glare shining around the buildings to the east as […]

Introduction They call me Fairy ’Fro with the flow You know, I’m not slow but fast as a ball swished in a basket No caskets, no askin’ for a man to tell what happened How I got the hairstyle putting criminals in piles It’s my style with a pow from my fist hard as bricks […]