Online Fiction

For Riley and his friends, Sigil Online has never been more real. With the latest expansion, pain has been enabled and will now affect all players in-game. Aptly named "Hellions", the expansion introduces monsters, but not the kind that paragons have been fighting for the past several years. This time, players can be the monsters they once sought to destroy. But in a game where playing means having the money to survive in the real world, what will Riley do when death in the game doesn't just mean an end to his character, but an end to his life?

Living in a virtual game world sounds like the ultimate dream. Plenty of action, intrigue, and guess who gets to be the big hero? But what happens when that digital reality gets flipped on its head? Bad guys are after your sweet loot, your fancy title is loaded with unrealistic expectations, and achieving such a high level comes with a big fat target on your back. Something has to give, so when a new crusader faction rolls into town, Talon senses an opportunity.

Kevin was a young man enjoying his college life when a car jumped the curb and crippled his body. Unable to support himself and dependent on others to meet his needs, Kevin was slipping into depression when his best friend convinced him to play a new game called Genesis Online. The concept was simple: a revolutionary artificial intelligence controlled the game world and adapted it to the actions of the players. Even the developers didn't know what course the game could take as it evolved.

Jack was enjoying life as a broke snowboarding instructor in Lake Tahoe until an accident happened. Due to a hospital mix up, his life takes a novel turn, and he ends up inside New Lands Online...as its first ever digital human. He never signed up to be the main character in an ultra-realistic virtual-reality game where bodily functions are as real as can be and he has to learn new skills to survive.

Charlie Mason (a.k.a. Mace) is a former detective of major crimes who is forced to retire. His former captain offers him a job as an in-game constable for the hottest virtual reality game around, Immersion Online. This down-and-out detective knows nothing of character creation, leveling up, or magical artifacts. He is a noob. He spawns in the Wilderbrook - a group of human and humanoid villages hundreds of miles from the nearest city - to learn the ins and outs of the game before he assumes his role as a constable in Grandview, one of the largest cities in The Great Realm.

Jack defeated the hideous monster in the Three Rivers and then left for Carthun, a new land where he might be able to meet characters...like himself. In the small village, everyone he’d met was an NPC. Despite that, he'd made friends and learned a great deal. Arriving in Carthun, Jack quickly makes friends with a few characters, and together they form a party. In the game world, Jack knows knowledge is power, and the more he learns, the better equipped he’ll be the next time somebody comes after him.

Tad Lonnerman is having a crappy day stuck in crappy traffic late to a crappy meeting. On the bright side, his game development career is the only non-crappy thing he has going for him, so life isn't all bad. At least until he dies. Now Tad finds himself uploaded to a beta test of Haven, an unannounced hyper-immersive MMO where the dead have a second chance at life. It's not virtual reality, it's digital reality. A true afterlife online. Except Haven isn't exactly blissful paradise.

Freddie O'Neal is hired by Joan Halliday to investigate the drug-dealing caretakers of Joan's elderly father. However, when Joan's sister is killed in a hit-and-run and Joan is named the prime suspect, Freddie must figure out if the crime was committed by the caretakers, by Joan, or by Joan's father, who appears to be involved in a shady real-estate firm.

Dixie Cash novels score critical accolades while slaying readers with witty mysteries starring the Domestic Equalizers, aka Debbie Sue Overstreet and her best friend, Edwina. In this down-home whodunit, the gals from Salt Lick, Texas, wrangle with a mystery involving a bull-riding "champeen" and an Internet stalker.

Despite her name, Lucky Pierce has always felt a little cursed. Refusing to settle for less or settle down, she changes jobs as often as she changes boyfriends. When her celebrity chef mother challenges her to finish something, Lucky agrees to help her launch Boston's next hot restaurant, The Star. Even if it means working with the infuriating, egotistical, and undeniably sexy head chef.

Amber Lee is fascinated by spanking. The mere mention of spanking sends her deep into arousal and causes uncharacteristic behavior. As a young professional woman in Texas, she feels alone in this proclivity until she discovers like-minded souls online. Two thousand miles away in Calgary, Alberta, Jake Upton struggles to create his own version of the spanking lifestyle, but miscommunication and fear send him down so many dead-ended detours that he wonders if he’s destined to live life alone and lonely. When the two finally meet, it seems like they’re a perfect match.

In the heart of a mysterious forest, there's a tiny, cozy house. As winter slowly gives way to spring, its inhabitants wake up to celebrate a brand-new season. This is where our warm story begins—the adventures of a bear named Miku.

After being falsely accused of murdering his ex-wife, Trace O’Reilly is sentenced to death by lethal injection. Five years later, moments before he is to receive the final dose of drugs which will end his life, he receives a pardon. Given a new lease on life, Trace sets out to find the real murder. In the process, however, he not only is reacquainted with his daughter but must save her from the one person who knows the truth.

Set against the backdrop of three major American Civil War battles at Antietam, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg, the same five narrators return to tell the stories of what happened in their communities of conscience. Members of Mennonite, Amish, and German Baptist churches choose their loyalties when their traditional belief of not participating in warfare collides with the demands of Union and Confederate forces.

In this series finale of historical fiction from 1864 and 1865, the spotlight shines brightest on Esther and David in the ravaged Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, while all five narrators show versions of courage, adaptation, and survival. During these closing years of the American Civil War, no human experience can be ordinary: not marriage, not enterprising work, not youthful growth.

Arriving in a tide of blood and horror, a forgotten cult from the depths of the ocean has laid waste to the once glorious city of Sehkem and scattered its people throughout the empire.

Eric McCaffrey has come face-to-face with the developers of Battlegrounds Online. They have shown up at his doorstep. He's used to seeing those faces in the game, not inside his apartment. He knew the game had been physically affecting him. Turns out he was right, and Hastech wants to run some tests. Battlegrounds Online was designed as a training simulator for the military. They want to know why Eric is being affected.

Authentic voices shape this fresh look at a familiar story, the American Civil War, beginning with the rapid buildup of tension between North and South and continuing into early summer of 1862. But the narrative grip comes through the eyes of civilians, trapped in the conflicts of obedience to government and historic refusal to participate in warfare. Their options press with insistence (enlisting, fleeing, buying a substitute, or paying a fee) as the demands intensify.

Mace and his allies set off on numerous perilous adventures to discover the location of the legendary Five Sisters. Their journeys lead them into the heart of the Spitrotz, the home of the black dragons, and high to the craggy peaks where the ice goddess dwells. With his allies finally gathered and the army assembled, Mace is ready to face the demon lord Altirax once and for all. But not all is as it appears. Someone has been tampering with the coding of the game since Mace first joined and the final battle will finally reveal the culprit and their intention.

Warren loves his job. As a game master for Fate and Freedom Online, he gets to do everything from piloting world bosses to helping players stuck in geometry. When he overhears two coworkers plotting to hack the game and endanger players, things go downhill fast. Not wanting to leave a witness, Warren finds himself stuck in the game as a gnoll! He’s level one, aggroing to every player, and unable to call for help or even log out of the game. How could things possibly get any worse?