Showing results by narrator "Julie Hoverson" in All Categories

Waikiki, Hawaii. Golden sunshine. Waving palm trees. Sparkling blue water. Private eye Ava Rome's calling is to protect the defenseless. She takes on the cases of Jenny Mordan, a working girl who is being harassed by a police detective, and Cassie Sands, a teenager who is mixed up with a marijuana grower. Norman Traxler did 10 years in San Quentin nurturing his hatred of Ava Rome, the young MP who took him down for assaulting a prostitute.

A bizarre and vicious rash of murders has wrapped the city in the cold grip of fear and a curfew is in place to protect young women from the clutches of an unknown madman. Chastity MacLeod, a young investigator for the secretive Order of St. Raphael, is assigned the case. With only a woman's severed head and a handful of macabre clues, Chastity must use all of her experience and training to find a killer that leaves no trace, no weapon, and no blood.

Mel Hannigan is a slick, savvy New York City commercial photographer who knows what she's doing and where she's going...that is, until she heads upstate for a little drive time and ends up with her sports car in a ditch. That's where Helmut Engle finds her. He's a solid, down-to-earth farmer. In spite of their differences, Mel and Helmut give in to an irresistible magnetic attraction and share an exciting, intimate interlude. She returns to the city but can't get him out of her mind.

These two women walk very different paths, paths that crossed explosively. But as they clash one final time, the Pulptress and the Bone Queen have something in common, the one thing that may kill them both - they thirst for vengeance!

N19ETEEN is based on a true story because of how hard it is to believe I turned it into a fictional short story. I added some backstory that is made up, but the main plot happened to some friends of mine. This is a medical/thriller/drama about a family that is cursed with death, all because of a rose. If you want something different and a little off the path, give N19ETEEN a try. And think twice, the next time you stop and smell the roses.

The story takes place almost entirely inside a priest's confessional office. Chapters alternate between a psychiatrist giving her confessions to the priest and the confessions of the very patients mentioned by the psychiatrist in her sessions. Every sentence that is written in the past tense is spoken aloud to the priest or by her, and every sentence that is written in the present tense is one of the priest's thoughts or an action she experiences.

An urgent mission. A woman with a past. A dangerous burden. Sybil from Planet Valkyrie carries a risky amount of Gravitas, a top-secret aphrodisiac embedded in the Ritual Jewelry around her neck. Before she can trade it, she is attacked by an angry warrior from slave-holding Planet Roggr. Sybil lands on Earth, in the Forbidden Zone. Rescue is impossible, all portals are sealed. Can she protect herself, shield her hazardous cargo, and find a way home before the Gravitas destroys her?

Millie has taken a contract job in her hometown to be close to family and friends. Never one to settle down, it takes some adjusting to get back into the flow of socializing and having a place to call her own. When she finds herself disturbed by strange sounds in the middle of the night, she chalks it up to new neighbors and the peculiarity of her new apartment. Except, the apartment manager insists no one lives where the noises came from.

Armed with naught but tremendous precociousness, an arsenal of death rays, stun guns, ear trumpets, and concussion cannons, Agnes and her ubiquitous companion, Vic, a re-animated clockwork cadaver, set out to discover what has become of the missing men. But to uncover the secrets of the disappearance and the enigmatic island that may hold the key to the mystery, they must first face an army of werewolves, bogeymen, revenants, bog monsters, Spring-Heeled Jacks, and other legendary monsters of lore.

Renata, a devotee of Mene, Goddess of Death, is on a singular mission during the era of the Black Death: to kill the Necromancer who is bringing the dead back as chiffoniers, rag and bone men. With a small band of men who have survived the Plague, Renata must find who is attempting to steal away the power of death and destroy them once and for all. Chiffoniers dog them every step of the way. And when death itself finally comes for Renata, everything changes.

Writers tend to be word people, which means tax season can be a very scary time! Have you been taking all the necessary steps to make sure you can maximize your return? Are you keeping all your receipts in a shoe box? Are you keeping them at all? Do you have nightmares filled with floating dollar signs as you fret over all the money you're going to owe when you finally complete your taxes? Financing the Words is here to help!

Personal Protection specialist Ava Rome follows three rules: A professional never calls attention to herself or her principal; a professional never leaves her principal; and, the most important rule, a professional never gets involved with her principal. To break the rules is to die.

Sexy and charismatic designer Jon Donnell assumes that the reclusive artist "Max" Foster is male. Max plays along in hopes he will promote her painting career. She doesn't anticipate Jon's passionate pursuit, nor that she will become "Millie", the woman of his dreams. In desperation, she enlists her brother to step into the spotlight as "Max".

She appears, an enigma, a guardian angel in a mask and fedora, her past shrouded in mystery. Where did she come from? What secrets in her past drove her to become a crusader for justice? Who is The Pulptress? The Pulptress, the masked woman of mystery, makes her debut on the new pulp scene in a collection of stories sure to thrill and amaze you.

Two petty criminals find themselves inextricably linked when a stop at a roadside bar leads to murder. On the run and out of options, they reluctantly rescue a stranded boy and his dog from a lonely crossroads in the Mojave Desert and decide for the first time in their lives to do the right thing.

Sassy private investigator Jade O'Reilly thinks she's hit rock bottom when, in the midst of obtaining photos of a cheating spouse in a second-story apartment, she falls off a swing set to the feet of an attractive mystery man. But the next day, when Jade discovers the man's identity - he's a detective with the local Sweetwater, NC, police - she learns that the cheating spouse was murdered and Jade herself is a suspect. Rock bottom just got a new definition.

"Ardath Mayhar is a neglected writer, and that is criminal. She is one of those born storytellers and natural writers who has done so much so well that it is easy to take her for granted. Trust me, as the spider said to the fly: read Ardath's work. Be captivated by her worlds. They will never let you go. Promise." - from the Introduction by Joe R. Lansdale

Everyday I watch Johnny walk home from the bus stop, and everyday I watch him be tortured...it stops today.

The Marquette Institute and the Department of Preternatural Activities (DPA) have been America's primary defense against the things that go bump in the night for more than a century and a half. It has been said that without the activities of this group and similar organizations, the human race would've fallen under the heel of dark forces long ago.

A soldier struggles with the emptiness left behind by amnesia until he learns he is more than the world would have him remember. The Earth is desolate, and only one ship of humans remains. An assassin plays god, dealing out justice and mercy as he sees fit. Explore the outer reaches of the imagination through these and other short stories. From brainwashed clones to winged aliens of destruction, the stories in Stellar Cloud will pull in any lover of science fiction and fantasy.