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Pinnacle Award for Best Thriller, Fall 2016, Awarded by the National Association of Book Entrepreneurs Love is in the air but so is murder! Despite Cold War tensions hovering over the country, love is in the air for football star Nick Paxton and effervescent cheerleader Sarah Rogers. But evil lurks in their midst. Several local girls have gone missing and when they are found dead, Sarah becomes the next target. The kidnapper is cunning, devious, and determined. Can anyone find him in time to save Sarah and Nick?

What are you willing to risk to break free?Smothered by her husband's expectations and the rigid gender roles of the 1970s, Lydia Colton sees a chance to rediscover and unfetter herself-if only she can find out the truth about a wealthy man's suspicious death.According to history in the small town of Tanner, North Carolina, Howard Galloway died from accidentally drinking poison moonshine, leaving his twin brother, Henry, sole heir to the family's cotton mill and fortune. When Lydia hears that some people suspect Henry killed Howard, she impulsively starts asking questions and is soon tangled up in the Galloway secrets, which no one-least of all the Galloways-wants her to pursue.Lydia's husband, Jeff, warns her that enraging Henry, the richest and most prominent employer in town, could jeopardize Jeff's career in Tanner, and soon Lydia and Jeff's marriage is at risk. But attempts by Jeff and other townspeople to thwart Lydia only make her more determined to solve the riddles she's uncovered.Will revealing the truth save or destroy her?

One trivial decision can change a whole life The pain of being an unpopular Dilbert mushrooms like a nuclear cloud when Julie Morgan makes an innocent decision to attend a concert by new singer named Elvis Presley. Already burdened with low self-esteem because of her broken home, Julie becomes desperate when her only three friends dump her at the concert. To make matters worse, on that fateful night the foundation of her world is shaken when she comes face to face with an identical lookalike. Forced to suppress her shyness and reach out to the popular crowd to keep from being utterly alone, Julie teeters on the precipice of success when in-crowd leader Maylene announces the final test for Julie's acceptance. The tension builds as Julie struggles with taking the step to secure her position, a step which could either end in disaster or make her dreams come true. Should she take the risk? What would you do? If you like gripping tension and page-turners you can't put down, you will love this heart-wrenching YA series, The Days of Elvis, set in the deep south in those unforgettable days when Rock 'n' Roll was born. Josephine Rascoe Keenan masterfully weaves a story of anguish and betrayal, love and loss, recrimination and regret, to show how choices, once made, can change your life forever. Get your copy of In Those First Bright Days of Elvis today to start your "must have" roadmap of the human heart.

While two armies inflict mutual carnage in a series of virtual draws, the Union Navy slowly encircles the South, closing its harbors one by one. Wilmington, NC remains the last port through which flow the imported military supplies necessary to keep the Army of Northern Virginia in the field. And Wilmington is protected by Fort Fisher, the impregnable "Gibraltar of the South." The mission of the Union Navy is clear: Capture the fort and the war will be over in weeks. As an armada of sixty gunboats and transports loaded with 9,000 Union soldiers bears down on the hunkered rebels, Confederate Sergeant Caleb Cuthbait, Union sailor Patrick Sheedy, and local widow Elizabeth Tuckerman must each decide how much they are willing to risk in the battle that will determine the fate of two nations.Ahlgren's dramatic Civil War novel details the four-day pivotal battle for Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in that conflict's waning days. Told from the point of view of enlisted personnel on both sides, as well as a local civilian, Fort Fisher is the first American novel to focus on the role of the Union Navy and the life of a Union sailor. Praise for Fort Fisher War is typically viewed through a panoramic lens-maps of disputed territories, troop formations pitted against battle lines, the bloody engagements on which history turns. In Fort Fisher: The Battle for the Gibraltar of the South, novelist and attorney Greg Ahlgren relives this decisive naval battle of the U.S. Civil War through beleaguered civilians and soldiers on both sides of the conflict, people for whom the danger was daily and personal, their decisions casting shadows long into their future.In the tradition of Stephen Crane and Gore Vidal, Ahlgren brings the reader in lockstep with the residents and vagrants of Wilmington, NC as the Union Navy chokes the only remaining port left to supply the tattered Confederacy. Everyone knows how this disaster ends. In Fort Fisher, Ahlgren shows us how it might have been lived. Helen Hanson, Bestselling author of 3 LIES and The Masters CIA Thriller Series. Praise for Greg Ahlgren's Olustee: America's Unfinished Civil War Battle "An original novel with undertones of history and intrigue. . . . Tense as a tightrope, Olustee captivates the readers' attention and does not let go until the last page. Highly recommended. James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, Midwest Book Review

Dead, but not gone. Penny had been stuck in the same cozy diner for decades-ever since she died in 1952. Over the years she served ice cream to those who stopped by on their way to the next level of existence, helping to ease their transition into The Light, a place she couldn't go. But it didn't matter to Penny. She was safe and content. Then ridiculously handsome bad boy biker Jake dropped in and became stuck as well, turning her world upside down. Should Penny fight to keep her afterlife the same, or should she risk losing it all for a chance at love? If you like the paranormal with a bit of romance, Penny's story is perfect for you.

WHO KNOWS WHAT LURKSIN THE HEART OF THE OZARKS?A gruesome murder on the banks of Skunk Creek leads to a mystery and a rollicking adventure story. Populated by the crusading editor of a small town newspaper, an oversized Sheriff, a lovable band of merry misfits, and an evil cult, an Ozarks village is steeped in beauty, tragedy, love, and lust.Hardlyville and her colorful, unforgettable Hardlyvillains bring laughter, tears, and celebration of life at every turn as they seek to prevail over natural and unnatural threats to their way of life.Warning: Do not read if you blush or tire easily.Skunk Creek grabs readers from page one and rushes on through each disaster and fiasco. In the end, love of place and people carry the day to an unlikely conclusion.Skunk Creek is rowdy, ribald, insightful, and grounded in Ozarks waters and history. It confronts and entertains amidst the vexing questions of our times.

Is it possible to come of age at 60 or 90? Is it ever too late to fulfill your dreams?When ninety-year-old Bubbles receives a letter from Mexico City asking her to pick up her mother's ashes, lost there seventy years earlier and only now surfacing, she hatches a plan. A woman with a mission, Bubbles convinces her hippie daughter Feather to accompany her on the quest. Both women have recently shed husbands and have a secondary agenda: they'd like a little action. And they get it.Alternating narratives weave together Feather and Bubbles' odyssey. The two women head south from Canada to Mexico where Bubbles' long-dead mother, grandmother, and grandfather turn up, enlivening the narrative with their hilarious antics.In Mexico, where reality and magic co-exist, Feather gets a new sense of her mother, and Bubbles' quest for her mother's ashes-and a new man-increases her zest for life. Unlike most women her age, fun-loving Bubbles takes risks, believing she's immortal. She doesn't hold back in any way, eating heartily and lusting after strangers, exulting in her youthful spirit.Has Bubbles discovered a fountain of youth that everyone can drink from?Praise for Fling!Fling! is both hilarious and touching. Every page is a surprise, and the characters! I especially loved Bubbles, one of the most endearing mothers in recent fiction. A scintillating read. Lewis Buzbee, award-winning author of The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop and faculty at University of San Francisco MFA program

On the South Side of Chicago, one SOUR note can lead to MURDER.When recently-widowed college choir director Bertie Bigelow reluctantly accepts a New Year's date with Judge Theophilous Green, she never imagines the esteemed civil rights pioneer and inveterate snob will be found shot to death the next morning. She's even more surprised when her talented but troubled student LaShawn Thomas is arrested for the crime. But Bertie suspects that someone in her tight-knit social circle is really the killer. Is it hot-tempered Patrice Soule, the voluptuous diva and recent winner of the Illinois Idol contest? Is it Charley Howard, the BBQ Hot Sauce King, a self-made millionaire with Mafia connections? Is it the mysterious Dr. Momolu Taylor? Newly arrived from Africa, he's invented a hot new sex drug that's got some powerful politicians feeling frisky. Or could it be Alderman "Steady Freddy" Clark, corrupt South Side ward boss and would-be patron of the arts? One thing is certain: Bertie Bigelow will need to keep her wits about her to avoid becoming the killer's next victim.

How long can you keep a secret to protectsomeone you love? Forever? That's what AngelaGarrett promised the man in the dark.Estranged from his daughter, bronc rider Lanny Ray decides he'd bettertry to mend their relationship before it's too late. It is a dream come true forAngela when they roll out of Jewel, New Mexico, to travel the summer rodeocircuit. In spite of her reluctance to make new friends, Angela finally meetssomeone whose loyalty becomes a comfort to her. But she also encounterspeople whose cruelty frightens her.Her idyllic summer is shattered when Angela witnesses an evil, brutal act whilewaiting in the car for her father. The event catapults her out of childhood andchanges her forever. Can family love hold her world together through theworst of times?

"Why would a woman stay with an abusive man?"You could as easily ask, "Why does a soldier run in panic as the enemy charges?" The response is that human beings don't always live up to the ideal of the simple question or easy answer. Most of us see ourselves as the hero in any given story, which makes it more difficult to watch a friend or loved one making decisions based in fear and secrecy. The truth is that leaving an abusive partner is hard and dangerous, and tough words from well-meaning family, colleagues, or friends, such as "I'd never let a man put his hands on me," are little more than bluster if not supported by action and deed. Brave words merely spoken mean next to nothing; courage actually lived is the stuff of legend.In this book you will read of failures and why, of successes and why. The theme of this book is hope . . . and taking those first terrifying steps to live life safely. This is where you come in because taking decisive action to escape enforced bondage has always been bestaccomplished with help. Getting involved means placing less emphasis on "Why would she staywith someone who abuses her?" and more energy into the question "What are WE going to do to make sure this never happens again?" The answer involves courage, commitment . . . and you. If you've ever uttered phrases, such as "I'd do anything to help" or "that man better never lay a hand on you," I'm offering a challenge to turn your words into courageous action that will makea difference in a way mere words can never do alone.This book is written for the sisters, brothers, daughters, and parents of intimate partner violence victims; the co-workers and supervisors, hair stylists, physicians, fellow PTA members, and dental hygienists who might just spot telltale clues of secret injuries or spirits being crushed; and maybe at some point this book could be for the victims themselves when they finally get to a place in their lives where reading a self-help book isn't a cruel irony anymore.Consider this a call to arms that we take on this monster as an educated, determined group that won't rest until every man, woman, and child can live in their own home in safety and surrounded by love. The strategy is to form a shield wall to protect them, and then we fill those solid walls withpatience and persistence, information and empathy, love and forgiveness. We make sure they have access to any services they might need, including legal advice, transportation assistance, job-hunting skills, safe living accommodations, medical and mental healthcare, education, andchild support. And certainly, that shield wall includes my brethren, the good men and women serving in law enforcement across the country, who have a sworn duty to protect them from harm. It begins with us. It begins today.

From Alice V. Brock, winner of the Western Fictioneers Best Western YA/Children's Fiction, 2017 and Will Rogers Medallion Finalist for Younger Readers, 2017Renegade Comanche Yellow Hawk is on a bloody rampage. Can two young half-brothers survive his wrath?Two Feathers, a fourteen-year-old half-blood Comanche, and his adopted brother, Will Whitaker, struggle to keep their home on the Pecos River Ranch. The boys are relentlessly attacked by Two Feathers' uncle, Yellow Hawk, who hates them and is obsessed with stealing Buck, Will's faithful buckskin stallion. The army won't help. Their neighbors can't help. So, the boys must fight their battles on the harsh, barren Staked Plains alone. The brutal winter and Yellow Hawk's attacks to capture Buck threaten the ranch's survival. Is Two Feathers Comanche enough to put his dream of his own herd of horses at risk by capturing mustangs in the Comanche stronghold of Palo Duro Canyon, the home of Yellow Hawk? Two Feathers must fight his vicious uncle and the angry war raging inside him. Who does he want to be-a half-Comanche living in a Comanche world but forced onto a reservation, or a half-white living in a white man's world where he is feared and hated?Will he find a way to be both?

Who knows what lurks in the deepest, darkest corners of the Ozarks?The residents of Hardlyville! And what do a local environmental disaster of unprecedented proportions, a series of ghastly murders, corrupt state politics, a bedouin shivaree, crooked investment bankers, and Noodler's Anonymous have in common? Skunk Creek!For Sheriff Sephus Adonis, congressman Pierce Arrow, and his true love Lettie Jones, justice is nolonger an intellectual concept . . . it's a matter of life and death. From Hardlyville city hall to Washington, DC's halls of government, to the international stage, resilient Hardlyvillains wage a fierce battle to protect their precious waters and way of life. Hilarity abounds in their madcap and unorthodox rush to remain alive . . . and relevant.Swine Branch is rowdy, irreverent, insightful, and grounded in Ozarks waters and history. It confronts and entertains amidst some of the most vexing questions of our times. A worthy follow-up to Skunk Creek, Book I in the Ozarkian Trilogy.

Can prejudice and mistrust threaten an ex-con drug addict's new beginning?After spending three years in a Texas prison on drug charges, Katie Smith is released to rebuild her life. Full of optimism, she sets out to get a job, rent her own place, and make a home for her eight-year-old daughter, whom she had to give away. She could use a friend, but her past choices threaten to doom her to continued failure. Larry Pullman graduated from seminary with high marks, but the fact that he has no wife makes finding a preaching job almost impossible. It doesn't help that running from God as a teenager gave him a past that he can't undo. He sure doesn't need an ex-con drug addict messing up his life, but then why did God lead him to her? Or did He? Now Lacey Chandler has to cope with her ex-con sister too. Isn't it enough that she gave her niece a home? Does that mean she has to clean up Katie's messes forever? Why is forgiving such a burden? Could it be Katie's not Worth Forgiving?

Do you believe in magic?There's a hex on Charley Howard's Hot Links Emporium, and Charley, a.k.a. the Hot Sauce King, is furious. He suspects that the Jamaican psychic who's been "advising" his gullible wife Mabel is a phony, and he asks choir director Bertie Bigelow to do a little amateur sleuthing to help him prove it. But Bertie's already got all the drama she can handle. The high-profile concert she's doing with The Ace Of Spades, an ageing (but still sexy) rap star, has Metro College in an uproar. Her on-again, off-again flirtation with attorney David Mackenzie has hit a dead end, and her best friend Ellen Simpson has been seduced and abandoned for the third time this year. When a Chicago Zoning Commissioner is rushed to the emergency room after filling up on the Soul Food Special at Charley's restaurant, Bertie is forced to take action. She doesn't need a crystal ball to know that there's trouble on the horizon. On the South Side of Chicago, a murderer lies in wait for Bertie Bigelow. To solve this case, she's going to need all the mojo she can get.Will Bertie get her mojo working?

2017 Best Western YA/Children Fiction Awarded by the Western Fictioneers!2017 Will Rogers Medallion Award Finalist for Western Fiction-Younger Readers! Will Whitaker's eleventh summer is one thrill after another.A cattle drive with a famous Texas Ranger, a Comanche trying to steal his horse, a buffalo stampede, thirst-maddened cattle crossing eighty miles of alkali desert to a dangerous ford on the Pecos River-it's almost more than Will can endure. He gets to work as a drover, riding his best friend Buck, a big buckskin stallion, until he is captured by a vicious Comanche war chief. And only his worst enemy can rescue him. Two Feathers-half white, half Comanche-runs away from his tribe when he learns his uncle killed his white father. He sees Will's horse and knows he is destined to have him, this great warrior's horse. Camping alone and following the winding River of Cattle across the High Plains of West Texas, he tries again and again to take him. Will foils him every time, but Two Feathers comes too close and is captured by the drovers. The two boys, both fighting the grief of their mother's deaths, both without a true home, face death and danger separately, but eventually they must learn acceptance of each other's differences or their mutual mistrust could lead them to disaster on the brutal Texas-New Mexico frontier. Will they become brothers or mortal enemies?

What if an exterminator learns that the worst pests have two legs?When an activist ecology professor is found dead in his hotel room, the police chalk it up to natural causes, but his wealthy and fiery widow is convinced it's foul play. She needs someone who can operate behind the scenes--in the dark cracks and gritty crevices of San Francisco. Riley the exterminator fits the bill.Riley's career as a police detective was cut short when do-gooders saw him beat information out of a child kidnapper. Now running his father's pest control business, Riley pursues two-legged vermin on the side. Turned out an ex-con can be licensed as an exterminator but not a private eye.Winged ants and dead flies at the death scene suggest something's amiss to a man who knows insects. The dead professor's students, each harboring a secret, reveal that their environmentalist mentor had plans to take down the pesticide industry. But he needed cash for the operation--and that put him on a collision course with a most unusual drug lord.When Riley's investigation unexpectedly reveals that the drugs that poisoned his own brother might be connected to the professor's death, extermination is in order. But he'll need to join forces with an intoxicating South African beauty--a reluctant ally, armed with lethal poison. Can Riley rid San Francisco of its most deadly vermin?

Everyone is gifted, but some never open their package.Spirits are everywhere for those privileged to see. Angela Maria Brannon, the adopted baby from Sacred Choices, has a sacred gift. Her connection with the Aztec goddess Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe empowers her to see ghosts. At first, people think her having 'imaginary friends' is cute, but at school she's branded 'different' and learns to conceal her special skill. On her eighteenth birthday, Angela opens herself to communication with the afterlife. Using her sacred gift, Angela spurs those around her to recognize their potential by resolving deep-rooted pain. Traveling San Antonio's River Walk and Mission Trail she encounters eerie apparitions and wraiths. Kissed by the divine and grazed by the ungodly, Angela is proof there's "more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of."

Spur Award for Best Western Juvenile Fiction, 2014, Awarded by the Western Writers of AmericaGeorge and Sarah Patterson, spirited young twins, set out with their parents to escape from Confederate Tennessee to a new home in Missouri.But when plans go wrong, they find themselves facing mysteries and mishaps, and they must use all their intelligence and bravery to keep their family safe and sound.

A 365 day devotional by Janet K. Brown. Her passion for diet, fitness, and God's Word inspired her to help others in their search for a weight loss method that is in keeping with what the Lord wants for us. To the thousands of men and women who strive to be Christians, but suffer from compulsive overeating they can't control . . . THERE IS HOPE!

Voted the favorite stories of readers around the world!In tales from heart-warming to bone-chilling, authors from across the country take us back to the lives and times of the western frontier, where the new culture met the old and battles were fought, love born, and dreams achieved-or lost. This collection of the Tales voted Best by readers each month at www.FrontierTales.com, plus an Editor's Choice, make 13 wonderful stories of the Old West. Meet civil war soldiers, sheriffs, grifters and gunslingers, natives and ne'er-do-wells, and the women and men who pioneered this vast new land. Multiple Spur Award-winner Dusty Richards leads the pack of writers who love the West so much they must bring it alive for others. (Contains some graphic violence-hey, they're Westerns.) Sit a spell and take in some stories that illustrate how this country became the force that it is, and the guts and determination of all who left the known and risked everything they had for the adventure and opportunity to explore a new territory and way of life.

A huge black cloud filled with metallic splinters burst under the bomber and caused it to rock violently, tearing holes in the aluminum fuselage. Two bursts hit close. The third hitthe in-board engine on the right wing and it burst into flame. All was searing smoke andscreaming metal and roaring flame.Boots bailed out of the disintegrating plane, falling head first. When he pulled the ripcordit jerked him up with such force it shattered two vertebrae in his neck. His hands wereparalyzed and he couldn't guide his parachute. Boots floated helplessly to earth under thebillowing thirty-foot silk canopy.All around him was a cacophony of anti-aircraft fire. Shrapnel and wreckage fromdestroyed airplanes hurtled past him. Fear and dread filled his mind. What if this wreckagehits me or my parachute and drags me down to certain death? In the deafening noise of allthis melee, he cried out, "God, help me!"What Boots endured in the German POW camps would test the limits of any man.But near death, he finds hope at his most hopeless and discovers the strength to survive.Through his life, the promises he kept gave meaning and purpose to his life and inspiredcountless others.

Meet the man Dave Barry called "My idol." No. Really! Have you ever wondered what it was like to watch one of your children run for President?Do you, or someone you love, suffer from an addiction to donuts?Has an inept plumber ever escalated matters from bad to worse at your home?Do you dream of writing the world's greatest "How to" book, but don't know where to start?Is it possible for a common layperson (who barely made passing grades in science) to discover a previously unknown medical syndrome? If you answered Yes, No, or Maybe to any of these questions, this is the book for you. This collection of hilarious short stories and essays will take you on a wild ride from medical mishaps, to failing fishermen, GPS goofballs, and painful politicians. Along the way you'll meet people who talk too much, think too much, and eat too many deep-fried, sugar-coated pastries. Pull up a comfortable chair and learn the secrets of mediocrity from the Master of Laziness and Procrastination. He'll teach you how not to skin a skunk, why Classic is better than old, and who to blame when items around your home come up missing. Meet Rachel Crofton, creator of the revolutionary new diet, The Food Triangle. Get in on the secrets of how to properly select and care for peeves as pets. Discover what you should expect your teenage daughter to learn in Driver's Ed, and how to cope with pressure of a mother in-law named Cruella. This book may not cure all the world's problems, but it is guaranteed to provide hours of stress-free entertainment and laugh out loud moments. Even the most irritable funny bones will be tickled with delight. Praise for The Perils of Heavy Thinking I got your book yesterday and have been laughing and reading, reading and laughing ever since. And frankly, Russell, I'm in awe. Aside from being one of the most satisfyingly funny books I've read in just about ever, I gotta say, you're writing is tighter than Kim Novak's face. I am so happy to have a signed copy of the Special Author's Edition (and thank you so much for that!) because I predict it will be worth something someday (especially if Kim Novak gets another face lift). When I'm done enjoying it, The Perils of Heavy Thinking by Russell Gayer will take it's rightful place on the hallowed shelf I dedicate to my collection of Robert Benchley books. Okay, I'm going to get back to reading now. Linda, California Russell Gayer's The Perils of Heavy Thinking is a laugh-out-loud, honk-like-a-goose, and snort-through-your-nose kind of book. To describe Gayer as a sick puppy or certifiable is to not do him justice. This is, after all, the man Dave Barry once casually -- and incautiously -- referred to as his "idol." And that's the truth -- I was there when poor Mr. Barry, no neophyte when it comes to lunacy himself, said so. All in all, it's safe to say that The Perils of Heavy Thinking is a comic blast of a book - but be forewarned: you read it at the risk of your own sanity! J. B. Hogan, Arkansas

Unencumbered by religious agendas and pat answers, Encountering the Edge satisfies our curiosity concerning what people believe in, shrug their shoulders at, laugh at, and most care about as they face Act 3, Scene 3, of their lives. Join Chaplain Kaplan as she visits her hospice patients, and share her sense of adventure and openness to the experience. The author also reveals the inner workings of a hospice agency from a chaplain's viewpoint both on the road and in the office.Readers will encounter odd, poignant, revealing, and even amusing characters, such as a countercultural type who always greeted Kaplan with "Hey, doll!" and a World War Two veteran who beat the odds and left hospice to live well for over a year. Kaplan also illuminates what patients think will happen in the hereafter, as well as her own path and deeper motivations for entering this career. In the last chapter, Kaplan explores what it would be like to be a hospice patient herself, talking with a seasoned chaplain who gently lets her express her beliefs, regrets, sources of meaning, and hopes.Encountering the Edge is a unique view of a topic that affects us all, and provides comfort combined with humor and insight that allows readers to feel safe in this unknown territory. Come explore The Edge with Karen.Dr. Carol Orsborn, Ph.D., editor-in-chief of www.FierceWithAge.com, and a baby boomer expert who regularly appears on Oprah, says of the book, "Kaplan brings a refreshing balance of rare insight and wry humor to what people near the end shared with her during her seven years at hospices." "Karen Kaplan writes with the voice of a woman who knows her subject and its importance from real-world experience tending to the spiritual and human needs of the sick and dying. Her blog, Off-Beat Compassion, is a must-read on my list of regular sources as I cover death, dying, grief and the end-of-life." Jaweed Kaleem, National Religion Reporter, The Huffington Post About the Author Karen B. Kaplan served as a hospice chaplain for seven years, working at United Hospice of Rockland in New York, and Princeton Hospice in New Jersey.

Fourteen-year-old Patrick Morrison makes a bizarre, unexplainable discovery while exploring a drainage culvert with his friends. Obsessed with identifying what it is and how it got there, his search turns up some surprising clues. Certain he has found an answer to the mystery, Patrick ventures into the culvert one more time for proof. Another obstacle arises when he is almost swept away when water rushes out of nowhere. Deciding further investigation is too risky, Patrick persuades the boys to take a break from the hunt and finish the video they had been working on.While filming the final scenes of the video, a series of unusual twists uncovers all the pieces of the puzzle Patrick searched for, bringing a surprising resolution to the riddle.

Voted the favorite stories of readers around the world!This baker's dozen of short stories with a Western flavor is the anthology of the third year's Readers Favorites from Frontier Tales, the online magazine of frontier and Western yarns. Join with others who've said these are some of the best short stories about the West that they've seen.

At long last, a comprehensive story of the famed "Yocum" silver dollars.Snow has managed to make each chapter ring true to both history and humanity.Gripping from start to finish, Blood Silver relates the life of James Yoachum with simple truths and sobering questions about the first white settlers on Indian land in the Missouri Ozarks. With elements of Love, Fear, Treachery and Family, the suspense grows in a way that should be enjoyable for anyone interested in the 19th century frontier.

Jonas Hawke, a recovering alcoholic with bouts of crankiness and unmitigated orneriness, may be past his prime but he's still a damned good lawyer. That's why everyone in Beacon Junction turns to him for advice as soon as something goes wrong. And plenty does-murder, adultery, corporate conspiracy-everything you'd expect from a sleepy Vermont town. A mysterious stranger arrives in town to question Jonas's handling of a decades-old murder trial, forcing him to confront an ethical lapsein his past. When evidence surfaces that a heart stent made by a local company may be deadly, he is drawn into an ethical quagmire that will determine how he'll be remembered. Hawke's Point is the story of a broken man who gets a second chance to do the right thing, a novel with a potent mix of complex characters, life-and-death problems to keep them busy, and a page-turning plot."As Mark Willen explores life in a small Vermont community he addresses large themes: guilt, forgiveness, familial loss, love, ethical dilemmas of many kinds. Vivid, complex characters like Jonas Hawke, retired lawyer and repository of many of the community's secrets, engage the reader and move the narrative along at an energetic pace. This is anovel so rich in humanity and situation that the world of Hawke's Point will continue to beguile long after the reader has turned the last page."-Margaret Meyers, author of Dislocation and Swimming in the Congo "Every town has its secrets and almost all hold such confidences close to the heart. It takes a determined, resourceful storyteller to bring such tales to the surface and that's what Mark Willen has done with his new novel set in the star-crossed town of Beacon Junction."-Tim Wendel, author of Red Rain, Habana Libre, and Summer of '68

Pinnacle Award for Best Thriller, Spring 2015, Awarded by the National Association of Book EntrepreneursOn a routine trip to Europe, widowed businessman Ethan Paxton learns of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon while landing in Amsterdam on September 11, 2001. Stuck in the Netherlands while fear grips at America's throat and the world is in chaos, he finds out his teenage daughter Molly has been abducted by terrorists in Mexico while she was on a school mission trip. With America's airports closed for who knows how long, he is left with few options.In desperation, Ethan remembers an old Air Force buddy, Jake Delgado - an ex-cop who's now a broken down, alcoholic private investigator. Tracking Jake to a sleazy bar on the outskirts of the Gas Lamp District of San Diego, Ethan hires him to look for Molly, with Ethan's son alongside. In a white-knuckle race against time, the frantic father finds his way to Mexico City, while his distraught but determined son and Jake turn over the dark underside of Baja, California, searching for the girl and her friends. Their journeys converge at the Tijuana border crossing on September 13, with the diabolical kidnapper and his prostitute companion in the crosshairs. But just knowing the solution isn't the same as executing it. Will the three have what it takes to outwit and outfight the terrorist to save the girls?Ron Parham's first novel, Molly's Moon, is exciting and entertaining. With the terror of 9/11 as its backdrop, the story of widowed American businessman Ethan Paxton's working trip to Europe takes harrowing turn after turn when he learns his teenage daughter has been kidnapped by Mexican sex-traffickers just outside Tijuana. Telling his story from multiple viewpoints, Parham literally shoots for the moon, and he doesn't miss his mark. - JB Hogan, author of The Apostate and Angels in the OzarksMove over Grisham, Parham's on his way. Patterson's got his Alex Cross, Lee Child has his Jack Reacher, and Ron Parham has Jake Delgado ... really an interesting character. - Trent Fewkes, retired IRS Agent

Follow your star or follow the herd?Sheer Christmas magic, Belize Navidad is a fusion of Dickens's A Christmas Carol and O. Henry's Gift of the Magi. Set in tropical Belize during the Christmas season, BelizeNavidad warms the heart as it chills the spine.Enter into the soul-searching journey of a young career woman as she leaves behind all that's familiar in Manhattan, follows her star to her destiny, and finds romance. A heartwarming story that encapsulates the Christmas spirit, Belize Navidad is as saturated with the supernatural as it is blessed with the divine. Feliz Navidad!On a mission, Carole Kennedy flies from the icicle constructs of her Manhattan PR world to the sun-kissed beaches of Ambergris Caye, Belize. For two years, she and Nick had maintained a long-distance relationship. Now, as Christmas approaches, Carole decides to settle the issue once and for all. Marry, or move on.Carole soon learns moonlit beaches with starry nights on the Mexican Riviera don't compensate for the days' challenges. Video shoots at Mayan ruins mixed with corporate intrigue, a stalker, and a paranormal revelation keep Carole's Christmas suspenseful.

Fred Olds Western Poetry Award, 2015, Awarded by the Westerners InternationalRod's poetry is infused with a genuineness that elevates his work above the medium's predictable yarns and gives the reader a front-row seat at a captivating reality-based dramedy. You observe from a respectful distance the poignant moment shared by a young girl and her horse. You take a seat at the kitchen table in a ranch house in which the "romance of cowboy life" is balanced against the realities of mortgages, droughts and volatile markets. And you're let in on the West's unique brand of humor, shaped by hard luck, eccentricity, and the unpredictability of lives shaped by the land, weather and livestock. Rod is a truthteller.And truth can, on occasion, be dangerous.