Short Days

What happens when a Phoenix and a Griffin fall in love despite a centuries-long feud between their families? Sparks fly and passions burn hotter than ever. For nearly three centuries, the MacLellans and the Adairs have feuded. It's been so long, no one even remembers what started it. When fate brings Kyleigh Maclellan and Lauchlan Adair together, not once but repeatedly, can the love that develops between them be enough to heal the rift, or will their families' hatred of one another tear them apart?

This Land Is My Land is a collection of 16 action and adventure short stories from writers around the world. Drawing on dramatic locations from desert landscapes to RAF Changi and from Western to crime to humor, these stories will satisfy even the most demanding listener.

Zoe and her best friends make a pact to wear a Christmas mistletoe headband until a man kisses them. It worked for Kara, and Zoe's next in line. Now it's Saint Patrick's Day. Zoe's met handsome Irish businessman, Carrick Kelly, but can she lay her heart on the line for someone who may be gone in a few days. Her job depends on Carrick signing a contract with her advertising agency, but he doesn't think much of her boss's ideas.

Welcome to the busy, industrial port city of Steamkettle Bay, the second-largest city in all of Industralia. It's filled with manufacturing factories, airship docks, inventors, artists, and lots and lots of streetwise, clever kids. It's a warm Saturday in the summer of 1872, and somewhere in Steamkettle Bay, bad things are happening. Can Paisley Pockets and Christopher Cogan stop a crime in progress? They may be just a couple of kids, but where there's a will, and some smarts, there just might be a way.

If you ever dreamt of making money from everywhere running an easy and simple passive-income model, swing trading is for you, and it's where you start. Swing trading has proven to be a highly profitable source of income for me, and I hope that it will prove to become a profitable source of income for you, too.

Steve Hartman’s inspirational and motivational memoir is peppered with research-based observations, pointed questions, hilarious anecdotes, delicious - and terrifying - sexual escapades, and genuine concern for his fellow humans, indeed for all creatures great and small. His periodic Socratic approach often challenges acceptable norms and beliefs. Looking at life through the lens of his uniquely personal experiences and thoughts, Hartman shares valuable lessons on how to live a joyful pleasure filled life without lecturing to the listener.

When Jill McCorkle feels a short story coming on, she goes right ahead and "wastes" wonderful ideas instead of hoarding them for a novel. The result is another extraordinary collection of stories and characters. In "It's a Funeral! RSVP," the storyteller is a woman who takes up self-styled "careers" that suit her circumstances. Now she's stumbled onto one that's so successful that she just can't quit. It's planning funerals, what she calls Going Out Parties, in which the clients are the soon-to-be-deceased themselves.

Most Americans celebrate Halloween as entertainment. They go to haunted houses, put on by mortals to scare them, and trick or treat in their neighborhoods. They even have Halloween parties in their homes, but Count Drac Von Stoller's family celebrates Halloween like mortals do on Christmas day.

Third story in a collection of interlinked tales of crime and retribution laced with dark humour, set around the festive season. Being a top-flight chef can be stressful. Thankfully, a professional kitchen throws up some unique opportunities for body disposal….

Eleventh story in a collection of interlinked tales of crime and retribution laced with dark humour, set around the festive season. What could be more festive than a trip to see Santa at the local shopping centre? Depends on who’s gunning for Santa…

Fifth story in a collection of interlinked tales of crime and retribution laced with dark humour, set around the festive season. There is never a good time to look upon the face of a dead loved one. But Mr Unwin has dedicated his life to helping the bereaved. While helping himself at the same time….

The final story in a collection of interlinked tales of crime and retribution laced with dark humour, set around the festive season. It’s Christmas Eve, but the criminals never stop working, so neither do the police. The raid is on... but things don’t go entirely to plan.

Ninth story in a collection of interlinked tales of crime and retribution laced with dark humour, set around the festive season. Kayleigh’s a professional. But lap-dancing has rules. And when someone breaks the rules….

Second story in a collection of interlinked tales of crime and retribution laced with dark humour, set around the festive season. When a double suicide arrives at the city morgue, Sandra thinks it’s a Christmas like any other. But she’s about to get a very nasty shock – make that two very nasty shocks….

Fourth story in a collection of interlinked tales of crime and retribution laced with dark humour, set around the festive season. Working in a call centre normally offers few career opportunities. But it looks as if Tracy’s about to get her big break.

This somewhat unpleasant tale, published as a novelette in the Smart Set in July 1920, relates a series of events that took place in the spring of the previous year. Each of the three events made a great impression upon F. Scott Fitzgerald. In life they were unrelated, except by the general hysteria of that spring which inaugurated the Age of Jazz, but in this story, he has tried to weave them into a pattern - a pattern which would give the effect of those months in New York as they appeared to at least one member of what was then the younger generation.

Death awaits those left outside the domes, but within the darkness lies salvation. Raina McNay is dying. When a man offers the key to Raina's survival, she leaps into a world where danger and blood reign. Without the rules society demands, Raina discovers the monsters she fears may hide in the light. Before Nola walked in the open air, before Nightland ruled the city. Take the first steps of Raina's journey into the night.

Will was once a truck driver. When he was on Earth, his days were spent alone, traveling the highways for months until he went home to see his wife and family. Then Space Trucking became the new thing, and they didn't want pilots. They wanted men like him: the ones who were used to the isolation. Now after six years, Will has had his first break down, but this isn't a semi and there's no such thing as roadside assistance. When you break down in space, all that remains are the Cold Days.

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English travel writer, novelist and war correspondent during World War I. 'Dr. Faust's Last Day' tells the story of a 70-year-old scholar who lives a regular studious life. On his birthday he invites his friends over for lunch, but he is puzzled by a strange note written in red ink which arrives from an unknown gentleman. The writer says he cannot make the lunch party but will call just after midnight.

Australia Day is a collection of stories by debut author Melanie Cheng. The people she writes about are young, old, rich, poor, married, widowed, Chinese, Lebanese, Christian, Muslim. What they have in common - no matter where they come from - is the desire we all share to feel that we belong. The stories explore universal themes of love, loss, family and identity while at the same time asking crucial questions about the possibility of human connection in a globalised world.