The Faithful, North African and Middle Eastern Islamic nations, are plotting to seize the oil resources of the Middle East. By controlling the earth's oil and its major trade routes, they plan to bring the world to its knees. Then, when the entire world is kneeling, the Faithful of Allah will read to them from the Koran, preaching the message of Islam, the True Faith. The Faithful will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. But how far will they go? And how many lives will it cost?

Alex Steinert’s strange new life continues to develop as the ‘Empress of Time and Space’ spreads her wings and enlarges the crew of Sand Dollar. She learns firsthand what her newfound ‘gift’ can do even as one crewmember’s developing gift may have tragic results.

Heart ofthe Beholden.

One. I’m Chinese. Yes I’m one of those adopted out of China babies. Two. I’m a girl. Well I’m a girl on the inside. Where nobody knows... The Parchment Chapter 18 By Bailey Summers Copyright© 2014 Bailey Summers All Rights Reserved.

123rf.com. The model in this image in no way supports nor conveys the issues and situations brought up within the story. The models use within this work is solely for the representation of looks of the main character of this particular story. ~Sephrena

It’s awhile…a long nervous while with too much water drank because on me and my stupid dry mouthed nerves and I look at Nat. “I gotta go pee, keep a look out for Alex please.”

“I will hog tie that boy if I have too.”

I do the have to pee run to the washrooms and do my business and I go to wash my hands and I actually get a hard shove from my blindside that send me stumbling.

“I told you that was her, I told you that was the little bitch that made me look bad at the Convention and on Facebook.”

I look and it’s Donna and three friends and they all look mad and bitchy and before I can say anything she slaps me in the mouth really hard and knocks me to the floor!

*And Now…

Having completed their first mission as a ‘Search and Rescue’ unit, the crew of the Sand Dollar is given shore leave while their new base is completed. Things become even stranger when Alex and some members of her crew start to ‘develop’. What does the ‘future’ hold for Capt. Steinert?

Copyright 2014
by Barbie Lee

Edited by Catherine Linda Michel

It’s called synchronicity. It weaves lives and events together even when they don’t know one another. It is stronger when people have met, even if years earlier. We move or travel a hundred, thousands of miles from home and meet or cross paths with people we met before. Synchronicity is what the law uses to catch the bad people. It is interwoven with habit among many other things. People have a human nature to return to a place they have been before. People want to return to the same vacation spot. Fishermen want to go back to the same fishing pond. They want to shop at the same store. And crooks…? They go back to the same neighborhood, the same stores, the same friends.

Even those of us who understand that human nature makes us creatures of habit, do the stupid trick of returning to familiar places. Or else we let the odds of synchronicity find us with our guard down and old enemies show up.

An Erinyes Adventure

By E. E. Nalley

He said: "Thou petty people, let me pass.
     What canst thou do but bow to me and kneel?"
But sudden a dry land caught fire like grass,
     And answer hurtled but from shell and steel.

Newly repurposed, the Sand Dollar sets out on her next mission, but does the strange Mahanilui plan more…’miraculous’ changes for Alex Steinert and her crew? Do the women of Kili Island know more about what is happening than they let on?

Dollar Runaways Chapters 23 and 24 of 26 by Tiffany Shar Edited by Carla Ann

Megan Franchino knows her chance for escape is now or never. With school finally out for her son Antonio, and her abusive husband going out of town she just might get far enough away before he starts looking for them. If they fail to get away, Megan knows she will not live to regret trying. There is no choice though, their recent injuries prove that if they stay one or both of them will eventually die from the beatings.

There is only one place she might feel safe to go, but will she be welcome there? Can she even get there? How long can she stay? What then? And if her husband's family does catch up to them, is there any way to keep Tony safe?

Dollar Runaways Chapters 21 and 22 of 26 by Tiffany Shar Edited by Carla Ann

Megan Franchino knows her chance for escape is now or never. With school finally out for her son Antonio, and her abusive husband going out of town she just might get far enough away before he starts looking for them. If they fail to get away, Megan knows she will not live to regret trying. There is no choice though, their recent injuries prove that if they stay one or both of them will eventually die from the beatings.

There is only one place she might feel safe to go, but will she be welcome there? Can she even get there? How long can she stay? What then? And if her husband's family does catch up to them, is there any way to keep Tony safe?

The life of a physicist can be troubling, at times, as the universe doesn't always play well with others.

But even the universe can't break a true promise.

In 638 AD the Muslims captured Jerusalem after a long siege. Captured warriors and their sons and male relatives were castrated and sold into slavery.

In 2009 a terrorist cell is inspired by their ancestors and re-introduces the use of castration and forced feminization rather than killings in order to spread terror. The modern attack is on a military museum on Veterans’ day. Caught in the trap are middle school children.