Bøger udgivet af Paper Angel Press

Surrogate mother Shelby McDougall just fell for the biggest con of all - a scam that risks her life ... and the lives of her unborn twins.Twenty-three-year-old Shelby McDougall is facing a mountain of student debt and a memory she'd just as soon forget. An ad in Rolling Stone for a surrogate mother offers her a way to erase the loans and right her karmic place in the cosmos. Within a month, she's signed a contract, relocated to Santa Cruz, California, and started fertility treatments.But intended parents Jackson and Diane Entwistle have their own agenda - one that has nothing to do with diapers and lullabies. With her due date looming, and the clues piling up, Shelby must save herself and her twins.As she uses her wits to survive, Shelby learns the real meaning of the word "family".

Among the tales collected here to make you think, question, and wonder ... - A rescue mission in a combat zone on a hostile planet becomes something more - A young girl, searching for the parents who abandoned her, discovers that some answers only lead to more questions - A young boy learns that it takes more than superpowers to become a hero - A man who had led a less-than-perfect life finds out that it's never too late for redemption - A dying Afghanistan veteran's last moments of his life are not what he expected them to be - And, sometimes, on the night before Christmas, it is not always a silent nightExplore the past, future, and triumphs of the human soul.

Senza nome. Senza razza. Senza nazionalità. La superstite della catastrofe perfetta lotta per preservare se stessa e la sua speranza di essere trovata - da esseri umani."Sono femmina, di trentadue anni, sola nell'ultimo granello del mondo. Il mio nome, la mia razza e la mia nazionalità non sono importanti. Non so perché la pestilenza mi abbia risparmiato. Mi ha tolto ogni persona ed ogni cosa. Tutte le macchine e tutti gli orologi sono morti. Ciò che continua a farmi respirare è la speranza che io non sia l'unico custode del pianeta."

No name. No race. No nationality. The survivor of the perfect catastrophe struggles to preserve herself and her hope that she may be found - by humans."I am female, thirty-two, alone in the last speck of the world. My name, my race and my nationality are no longer important. I do not know why the plague has spared me. It has taken everything else. All the clocks and all the machines are dead. What keeps me breathing is the hope that I may not be the sole custodian of the planet."

Thirty-nine interpretations of one word: detachmentEvery two years, Fault Zone editors challenge writers to stretch their imaginations in response to a single-word spark. This year, "detachment" has drawn forth a fascinating array of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. You'll find intriguing science fiction, laugh-out-loud humor, and thought-provoking stories drawn from real life ... alongside strike-to-the-heart poetry, lyrical storytelling, exciting adventure, and slice-of-life family drama.Featuring: Tom Adams, Doug Baird, Sue Barizon, Eva Barrows, Scott Best, Lawrence Cohn, Jo Carpignano, Tim Flood, Heather E. Folsom, David Harris, Laurel Anne Hill, Audrey Kalman, Nirmy Kang, Amy Kelm, D.L. LaRoche, Evelyn LaTorre, Lucretia Leong, Ida J. Lewenstein, Vanessa MacLaren-Wray, Ellen McBarnette, Richard E. McCallum, Patricia McCombs, Lisa Meltzer Penn, Margaret Nalbach, Bruce Neuburger, Luanne Oleas, Korie Pelka, Miera Rao, Cheryl Ray, Carol Reade, Harlan Suits, Anne Marie Wenzel, Alisha Willis, Mickie Winkler, and Nanci Woody.Edited by Kate Adams and Laurel Anne Hill.

One man. An extraordinary choice.In 1511 a Spanish ship en route from the island of Hispaniola sank off the coast of Yucatan near the town of Tulum. The survivors were captured by the Maya; these were the first white men ever to set foot on the mainland of the American continent, and the first white men the Maya had ever seen.Among the castaways was Gonzalo Guerrero, a sailor from Palos. After he was captured, he lived among the Maya as a slave for three years. He then escaped from his master and sought the protection of Lord Nachancan, ruler of Chetumal in Belize, who made him a free man. Gifted with a fine military mind, Gonzalo quickly rose to become Nachancan's war captain; he married Nachancan's sister and had three children with her. This was the first European-American family; it was the founding of the Mestizo race, and it changed the face of the New World.In 1517 the conquistador Hernando Cortez came to bring Gonzalo back to the Spaniards, offering him a position of high power among his countrymen. The decision Gonzalo took then was the only one ever taken by a white man in the conquest of the Americas, and it made him a hero.

Sometimes a broken bridge has to be crossed. Talk about Byzantine influences. Fern Fatelli is approached by a desperate father to find his daughter before something bad happens to her, only to find that the job is really a diversion made to have her owe a service to a fae lord. Cobb, the fae lord, then contracts Fern, not as a finder, but as a wizard, and forces her to re-open the Anolyn way. As this is going on, Cobb is deliberately obstructing her research, and, more sinisterly, sending creatures to attack her, all the while expecting results. What does a girl do to get a break?

Never trust magic ... or the people that hire you.Fern Fatelli dives back into her job as a 'trapper', and is hired to kidnap a girl away from an abusive household - only to find that she's delivered the child into a far greater danger than she could have ever imagined.

"Would you say you were loved by the right people at the right time in the right way and for the right reasons?"Michael Holmes and Nora Savins stepped into the ornate atrium of the Department of Vital Privileges and looked up at the life-size marble statue of the Founding Father, a smiling young man who held in his hand an ancient movie script rolled into a scroll."Keanu Reeves," Michael said reverentially, "with his quote from Parenthood: You need a license to drive, you need a license to fish, you need a license to own a dog, but they will let any moron be a parent." And under the inscription he read the First Law of the Republic: "Never Again Any Moron."

"Sometimes people disappear into the North and are never heard from again."When her papá doesn't return, twelve-year-old Ixchel, a Maya from the Yucatan, resolves to leave home and make her way across the treacherous border into the United States to find him. Chel relies on an inexperienced smuggler and faces unknown dangers in a border tunnel.Frightened, but resourceful, she is driven by hope, love for her father, and her dream of going to school.

Private Investigator Shelby McDougall is out for revenge.Repeated miscarriages have caused Shelby's marriage to disintegrate. Financial ruin lies ahead. A cheek swab sent to an online ancestry service turns up a surprise child: Shelby's genetic offspring - found in the misty ether of the internet.The only way Shelby can hang on to her shredding sanity is to take things into her own hands and, once and for all, locate and apprehend Helen Brannon - the woman responsible for hijacking her fertility ... and her future.As Shelby closes in on her target, the stakes get higher and higher. But when Shelby finds Helen Brannon ... how far will she go?

Shelby McDougall's past is behind her. Almost. It's been five and a half years since Shelby put her infant twins up for adoption, and she's finally on track. Back in Santa Cruz, California, she's sharing an apartment with her brother, Dexter, and in her second year of criminal justice studies. She's landed her dream job as an intern to local P.I. Kathleen Bennett. And her stone-cold love life is heating up. Then a late-night phone call puts Shelby's perfectly ordered life into a tailspin. One of the twins has been kidnapped, snatched from home in the middle of the night. There are no witnesses - no clues, no trails to follow. After meeting the family, Shelby knows something is off. The adoptive parents tell her the children don't sleep, they eat constantly, and their IQs are off the charts. Against her better judgment, Shelby agrees to help. By the time she realizes she's up against something powerful, something evil, it's almost too late. As Shelby fights for her life, and that of the kidnapped child, she discovers shocking truths about herself and the children.

Surrogate mother Shelby McDougall just fell for the biggest con of all - a scam that risks her life ... and the lives of her unborn twins.Twenty-three-year-old Shelby McDougall is facing a mountain of student debt and a memory she'd just as soon forget. An ad in Rolling Stone for a surrogate mother offers her a way to erase the loans and right her karmic place in the cosmos. Within a month, she's signed a contract, relocated to Santa Cruz, California, and started fertility treatments.But intended parents Jackson and Diane Entwistle have their own agenda - one that has nothing to do with diapers and lullabies. With her due date looming, and the clues piling up, Shelby must save herself and her twins.As she uses her wits to survive, Shelby learns the real meaning of the word "family".

Man vs. Poetry: The struggle continues.Wherein the author continues his struggle with the written word in this new volume of what some might call "poetry" ... if they had low standards. You will find contained within further musings on such random topics as chickens, lumberjacks, parrots, planks, rental lodging, and how to die convincingly on stage.Compiled (or maybe "accreted" is a better word) over the course of several years, Artisanal Gibberish II: Yet More Gibberish is the culmination of six years of University and a lifetime of experiences.CAUTION: We advise against drinking anything hot while reading these poems, to avoid nasal scalding.

It was supposed to be an easy jaunt to observe the stick-like aliens of Deep Valley Universe.But Ansegwe - perpetual student, aspiring poet, and scion of the (allegedly criminal) Varayla Syndicate - well, he just has to ruin everything. As everyone knows, Ansegwe may have sensibility, but he's not long on sense.When a weird, twitchy little creature attaches itself to him, Ansegwe violates every protocol in the handbook to save its life. Finding himself in all kinds of trouble, Ansegwe needs to make some serious life changes, starting with that complicated family of his.Ansegwe may just have to grow up ... now that he's adopted an alien.