Burning Embers

Fire. Water. Burn. In the two months since the All Hallows' Eve party, Tally has courted Haru, buying expensive gifts, taking the two of them to upscale restaurants and trying to find a balance in earning Haru's fragile trust while being new parents to the Cohen joeys. Tally sees hope in the new domesticity the family has settled into, despite having some bumps along the way. Gifts and treats have satisfied Haru's otter, but the human half remembers the brutal lessons of giving their trust away. How can two lijun who barely know each other anticipate what will happen when times get tough? There are circumstances Tally doesn't understand yet, and Haru struggles to find their feet with an Urusar who doesn't know the rules. A revelation not only throws the tentative relationship between them askew, but also starts Tally and Haru down a path the two of them can't escape, one so heart-wrenching Haru's not sure their heart will survive. Traditionalist concerns that have always nipped at the Bastille clan's heels come roaring to the forefront with demands and ultimatums. Tally needs to fall in line or face further threats to his otter, his family and his clan. Haru needs to find the strength to believe in the good despite the bad. In an environment where it's vital to know ally from foe, Tally and Haru need to stand united or watch the community Tally's family has built fall under the thumb of heartless, greedy autocrats.

"A wonderful Young Adult debut that has Margaret Atwood undertones." - Efthalia, author of the Phi Athanatoi Series The Culling took the life of every single man on earth. The surviving women believed that man had been erased from the face of the earth for a reason, and they lived in continuous fear should the male species even return. Jasira lives in The Border, one of the two remaining cities in the world. At the age of twenty-one, every woman must undergo the Procedure, a modern method of pregnancy. However, only female children can be born through this method. When Jasira gives birth in an isolated cave outside the city, she realises her baby is different. Her baby is the first male child born in over two hundred years. Seven years after the boy’s birth, Jasira moves to the only other city left in the world, Monday, with a long-time friend and oracle, Prianaj. Like every mother, Jasira stops at nothing to protect her child. Along the way, she discovers dangerous secrets about the people closest to her and becomes ever more determined to uncover the truth.

Olin Tunnel's journalistic curiosity led him in many directions. He drove to a secluded rural Ku Klux Klan meeting on a night in the 1950's and risked taking notes by flashlight while robed Klansmen were speaking and burning crosses. Later he recalls posing as a homeless vagrant at various Salvation Army lodges. He also admits sneaking into a CBS network rehearsal wearing dark glasses and carrying a clipboard. He shares a unique style of expression through stories, reflections and poetry. Writing for as long as he remembers, he brings humor, inspiration and insight from over seven decades of living. In spite of chronic childhood asthma that continued into high school and almost prevented graduation, he became an Eagle Scout, ordained United Methodist Minister, speech and drama teacher, and a school social worker. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Texas Wesleyan University and a Master of Divinity Degree from Emory University. He is a Texas Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Chemical Dependency Counselor.

After calling off her wedding, Coral Sinclair, a beautiful but naive young photographer, learns that she has also lost her father. Leaving the life she's known in England, she sails to Kenya to take ownership of her inheritance - Mpingo, the plantation that was her childhood home. On the voyage, Coral meets a charismatic stranger and their mystifying attraction shakes her to the core. When she encounters him again days later near Mpingo, she is warned that the man is not to be trusted. Rafe de Monfort, owner of a nightclub and the neighbouring plantation, is not only a notorious womanizer but also entangled with Coral's stepmother, which may have contributed to her father's death - or so the rumours go."

"I'll wait for you." "You'll have to wait a lifetime--" "I'd wait two." Emberlith (Ember) Huang is given no time to grieve when one of her childhood friends is suddenly killed. Still shaken by tragedy, she finds herself swept up in a violently spreading fire, a turbulent natural disaster. But what if... it isn't so natural? Ember's construct of reality shatters in an instant, taking everything she believed with it. The simple world she enjoyed was merely a mask, concealing a traumatic past of war, loss, and entanglement. Her normal college life is flipped upside down as she runs for her life and fights for survival. Forced to learn things about her hidden past and the truths of the system she lives in, Ember finds herself intertwined in a journey that offers no path of return. She could have never imagined that everything she knew about herself and her family was shrouded in secrets. She could have never known how much her life would change, and how much responsibility would fall upon her. Will Ember succeed in bringing harmony back to her country of Belcoscordia? And at what cost?

"Life sometimes is hard. There are challenges. There are difficulties. There is pain. As a younger man I sought to avoid them and only ever caused myself more of the same. These days I choose to face life head on—and I have become a comet. I arc across the sky of my life and the harder times are the friction that lets the worn and tired bits drop away. It's a good way to travel; eventually I will wear away all resistance until all there is left of me is light. I can live towards that end." —Richard Wagamese, Embers In this carefully curated selection of everyday reflections, Richard Wagamese finds lessons in both the mundane and sublime as he muses on the universe, drawing inspiration from working in the bush—sawing and cutting and stacking wood for winter as well as the smudge ceremony to bring him closer to the Creator. Embers is perhaps Richard Wagamese's most personal volume to date. Honest, evocative and articulate, he explores the various manifestations of grief, joy, recovery, beauty, gratitude, physicality and spirituality—concepts many find hard to express. But for Wagamese, spirituality is multifaceted. Within these pages, readers will find hard-won and concrete wisdom on how to feel the joy in the everyday things. Wagamese does not seek to be a teacher or guru, but these observations made along his own journey to become, as he says, "a spiritual bad-ass," make inspiring reading.

The last thing she needs after running from one monster is to land in the lair of the Devil. Twenty-one year old Ember flees her past with soot on her face, ash in her hair, and a promise. She'll never let another man take away her freedom and treat her like she means nothing. But that is exactly what Maverick Gunn, leader of the notorious Harbingers of Chaos motorcycle club seeks to do from the moment his lethal gaze locks on her. He burns her with every look. Every touch. Every word. Ember's only hope is to convince him she's nothing like the woman who blackened his soul before he drags her down into the darkness with him. WARNING: For Mature Audience 18+ Contains Adult Sexual Situations & Language