Showing results by author "A. L. Wood" in All Categories

Eight months after her harrowing experiences in Miami, Chloe McConnaughey leaves the comfort of Atlanta and a burgeoning romantic relationship to reunite with the father who abandoned her 25 years ago. But when she reaches his quaint southern town, she quickly learns that he's still keeping secrets. Unable to face the mounting tide of lies, she resolves to head back home.

Short stories with bittersweet themes that suggest horror, despair, and uncomfortable emotions. Featuring: Essel Pratt, Catt Dahman, Mark Woods, Brian Woods, Tabitha Baumander, D. A. Roberts, Amanda Lyons, TL Decay, Sharon Higa (editor’s choice award), Dona Fox, Michael Kanuckel, Nick Hatfield, Sam Reese, Shaun Meeks, Edward P. Cardillo, Richard Ramsey, Roy C. Booth, Axel Kohagen, Christina Engela, Justin Hunter, and Kerry Lipp.

The lights are bright in New York City, but after losing her husband three years ago, all Evie Diaz can see is her mission to keep life rock-steady for her young daughter. This includes holding on to their little Queens apartment, the beloved nanny, and her night manager position at a luxury Manhattan hotel. It isn't easy, and stroke after stroke of bad luck threatens to undo it all.

In Currency, Wood has pulled off a first novel that captures the listener with a pause-registering adventure, while it addresses head-on the most pressing and intense global economic, military and political issues of our very challenging current times. Wood's real world experience on both Wall Street and at the center of the US Military Special Operations world, combine with his love of history and command of current global issues, to create a story that is as intense and gripping as it is timely.

Meet Detective Charlotte Justice, a black woman in the very white, very male, and sometimes very racist LAPD. It is 48 hours into the LA riots, and she and her fellow officers are exhausted. She saves curfew-breaking black doctor Lance Mitchell from a potentially lethal beating from some white officers -- only to discover nearby the body of one-time radical Cinque Lewis, the thug who years before had murdered her husband and young daughter. Was it a random shooting or was Mitchell responsible?

Many creatures lurk in the dark, weaving on top of one another, roiling together like waves on the night sea. The darkness forms in layers to encompass the land, fill the corners, and obscure angles. Untold mysteries lie just beyond reach told in many tongues, many inflections, many rhythms. The stories are many. Innumerable. Legion.

Working from home has its perks, being able to attend meetings in your pajamas chief among them. But when the house you occupy all day is empty, when the only voice you hear after work comes through television speakers, it can get a little old.

In her rebellious youth, Quinn Bello told a lie that had tragic consequences, permanently branding her as a troublemaker in her coastal hometown of Seaglass Cove, Florida. Desperate to atone for her past, Quinn dedicated her Tampa law practice to representing victims of injustice until disaster left her disbarred, out of options, and back in Seaglass Cove where it all began. Now she’s hoping for a fresh start.

Black Girl Magic continues and deepens the work of the first BreakBeat Poets anthology by focusing on some of the most exciting Black women writing today. This anthology breaks up the myth of hip-hop as a boys’ club and asserts the truth that the cypher is a feminine form.

The Corner Scribblers is a small writer's support group in the Chattanooga area comprised of writers, authors, and storytellers from a wide range of skills and backgrounds. We come together once a month to discuss our current projects, recent accomplishments and to share what we have each learned about the craft. Within this cover, you will find a collection of holiday-themed flash fiction stories and poetry, displaying a small sample of those combined skills.

In the shadows of ancient Benin, a demonic presence stalks an innocent girl on the cusp of womanhood. Seduced by this sinister stranger's fatal charm, the girl's soul descends into eternal damnation as she becomes one of the undead - a vampire slave to the merciless Promise Keeper. For centuries across continents, the Promise Keeper haunts his victim's every move, invading her mind with violent commands in an unholy pact sealed in blood. Just as she dares hope his reach cannot extend to the glamour of New York City, an ill-fated romance once again shackles the reluctant asiman to her master.

"Crescendo is a riveting, yet horrifying tale of one man's descent into insanity, and author Wood straps the reader into his or her seat and refuses to let go until the very last gasp, shiver and groan is delivered in vividly rendered detail." (Denise M. Clark, author of Cross the Line and A Man’s War)

Towards the end of the Korean War, 28 American soldiers were inserted into the conflict on a hill, with a company of ROK troops, that is now inside the Demilitarized Zone on the Korean Peninsula. They were on a secret mission to test 'battlefield radar' for the first time, which eventually gave GIs the ability to spot the enemy and direct fire on the battlefield, providing a significant advantage during the war. Shortly after arriving, thousands of Chinese soldiers overran their position.

Aura cannot find out that I'm alive. If she does, it won't bode well for her. She wouldn't be safe like she is now, her mother wouldn't be safe. Many people would be out to get her, not just our government but lots of horrendous people, clients of her father. Previous clients. They would kill her without hesitation and I am the only living link to her.

Rafe Savaryn is happy. He's in Venice, writing a novel on the Renaissance, enjoying being alone after a devastating divorce. He's trying to answer the question: what makes societies fail? Then a stunningly beautiful woman walks into his life and leads him on a horrifying journey back to the Dark Ages, where the answer to his question is revealed. He is shocked as he must make a choice no one should have to make.

Eight different psychologists, four police officers, two doctors, and my mother are all convinced that I now belong in the category of a survivor. Although I strongly believe the definition is sorely lacking, it's more of a stereotype for people who were lucky enough to live through unfortunate events or circumstances. The word survivor doesn't seem sufficient. It's too simple, also insipid.

Today is the day I set my plan in motion. No one else around here plans on seeing reason, that what is happening is vicious and nauseating. On top of being immoral and just wrong. Everyone is on my father's payroll and simply goes along with whatever he says. I plan on changing that though. My father wants a daughter to take over his empire, all right. I'll do what he wants, but what he won't know is that I plan on changing what it is that he's is doing here. I'm going to free every woman he has locked in that warehouse and any others that come along.

A college student, Natalie Wright. She hasn't had it easy for years, emotionally. Her one safe haven is music. Soul-breaking, body-quaking lyrics sung in such a voice the emotions are conveyed onto you. Enter Ryan "Steele" Hurst, a chart topping lead singer in the rock band Steele's Army. The band's songs are about cheapening the meaning of love. They project the bad-boy image.

Connor is living in Israel, enjoying the good life, when his world changes in a matter of seconds for good. Will he see Natasha again? What is the world searching for before it's too late? What is the motherland? I'm more excited about this book than any I have written so far. It's a powerful story. Motherland is a hair-raising thrill ride of suspense. The ending is shocking of course; as usual, you won't see it coming.

During the L.A. campaign to replace longtime incumbent mayor Tom Bradley, the stakes are high for Detective Charlotte Justice, of the LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide Division. When she's called to Koreatown to investigate the shocking murder of Vicki Park, special markets strategist for an upstart campaign, all of her skills - and fears - come to the fore.