Izzy Belvin, a famous genetic engineer, is about to blast off to the "final" frontier to join the second Martian Colony, where she'll continue creating nutrient-robust insects for farms that will feed the colony and increase its sustainability. For Izzy's remaining days on Earth, her psychopharmacologist best friend, Nakomi, begs her to complete a bucket list before leaving as a means of honoring their friendship. The first bucket list item: going to one of Portland's psychedelic centers together and taking Vivectica ™, a potent psychedelic drug (synthesized by none other than Nakomi) that has become a popular form psyche-therapy. Izzy reluctantly agrees, and when she encounters a hyper-intelligent reptilian entity on her trip, she can't convince herself that he wasn't real. The days are ticking down until her trip, but Izzy, becoming obsessed with the creature, can't get over her feelings that either 1) she's given herself drug-induced psychosis right before her journey to the red planet, or 2) there's something out there, something beyond space... This novel is a wacky trip with some sprinklings of HORTON HEARS A WHO and ANT-MAN, along with lots of palatable metaphysics. ***This is my entry for the 2022 Open Novella Contest.

Phil's wife, Megan, and his daughter, Jilly-bean, are the reasons he gets up bright and early every morning, puts on a suit and tie, and sits in rush hour traffic on his way to a job that has become unbearable. For years, the only way he's managed to get through his workday has been by secretly exchanging an absurd photo of a monkey walking a dog with his wife, hiding it in her purse, or finding it tucked into his briefcase. At work, Phil becomes the point person for the firm's biggest client, Trollamex, a multi-national chemical manufacturer. He's tasked with hiding its deceptive practices and helping the company to dodge its accountability for ruining the lives of thousands of customers. Nearing his breaking point, Phil brings his concerns to his boss, Carl who tells Phil in barely decipherable corporate-speak that he's being overly-dramatic. When the situation escalates, Phil suffers a meltdown, jumps into his car, and takes off on a two-day road-trip where he is thrown out of a club for dancing so badly they think he's drunk, is nearly beaten to a pulp by two guys at a restaurant who call Phil a communist for not taking his kid to Disneyworld, and faces jail time when a raccoon pilfering Cheez-It's in his car attacks a police officer. When he finds the monkey/dog photo in his pocket he experiences a moment of clarity. Phil realizes that he must go home to the family he loves, quit his job, and find a way to take on Trollamex. "Vital Signs" is a cautionary tale of one man's odyssey in search of his humanity and the dangers of running off-leash.

When a devious young woman cons two men into pulling off an easy heist, she's forced to run for her life when her plan goes sideways. To complicate matters, she grapples with a problem she's never before encountered. She's fallen in love with one of the guys. Rachel learns what all con artists eventually realize - there is no such thing as "The Easy Way Out."

MILKED follows a group of lower-middle-class millennial-aged college students--two sugar-babies and a porn star--as they navigate rising college expenses and campus life in Phoenix, Arizona, surrounded by sex, drugs, and trauma. A modern-day, sympathetic THE RULES OF ATTRACTION meets EUPHORIA/SKINS. *** College loans and interest rates have been raised again, and Skylar, Meg, and Loren are just trying to stay afloat. While Skylar and her roommate Meg have joined a website that pairs struggling students with sugar-daddies for the purpose of "companionship," Loren lives a double-life: gay porn star on the weekend, closeted bisexual during the week. Skylar, whose traumatic past has resulted in extreme levels of attachment avoidance, battles her developing feelings for her companion, and must come face to face with her own worst enemy: herself. Meg, a fourth-generation immigrant who desires to one day be as wealthy as her companion, finds herself compelled to say yes to all of his requests after he pays for her entire semester of college. Loren, whose fame is rapidly rising, experiences increasing difficulty keeping his identities separate, and when he is recognized as a porn star on campus, he is caught up in a blackmailing scheme that he can't escape. As these three students' entangled lives deteriorate around them, they cling to their beliefs that the American Dream will prevail and that acquiring their college degrees won't bankrupt them of everything, including their personal morals, their dreams of brighter futures, and their sense of hope. This book explores the place where hookup, porn, and rape cultures meet: a place where intimacy feels foreign, where sex is commodified, and where power structures leave little room for equality in bed. Content/trigger warnings: this books contains depictions of sexual assault and rape, as well as alcohol and drug use and abuse. Discretion advised.

Okie's fifteen. She lives in New York. She's got a few problems: she's failing geography, her dad's a wimp, and her mother, Sumatra, is a stone cold bitch. But things get a lot worse when Sumatra turns into a zombie and eats Okie's dad. Clio, Okie's grandmother, lives in Toronto; but since the zombie apocalypse, Toronto's a lot further away than it used to be. Clio suggests that Okie transport Sumatra across the border, because family is family. But coaching Okie by cellphone isn't easy, and Clio has some zombies of her own to contend with. Luckily she has some garden tools. Naomi Alderman and Margaret Atwood team up for this unusual two-hander. Encompassing love, death, sex, and the meaning of family, The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home will surprise, delight, and convince you of the vital importance of keeping ready supplies of rhubarb and mini-wieners in your freezer at all times. The 온라인카지노게임 unfolds beginning October 24.

Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of an economic and social collapse. Job loss has forced them to live in their car, leaving them vulnerable to roving gangs. They desperately need to turn their situation around—and fast. The Positron Project in the town of Consilience seems to be the answer to their prayers. No one is unemployed and everyone gets a comfortable, clean house to live in . . . for six months out of the year. On alternating months, residents of Consilience must leave their homes and function as inmates in the Positron prison system. Once their month of service in the prison is completed, they can return to their "civilian" homes. At first, this doesn't seem like too much of a sacrifice to make in order to have a roof over one's head and food to eat. But when Charmaine becomes romantically involved with the man who lives in their house during the months when she and Stan are in the prison, a series of troubling events unfolds, putting Stan's life in danger. With each passing day, Positron looks less like a prayer answered and more like a chilling prophecy fulfilled. Keep reading and be sure to enter The Heart Goes Last Fiction contest!

One woman's guide to falling in love, getting fit and surviving the end of the world. Karla is busy running her own business, half-heartedly trying to lose her belly fat, and avoiding thinking about her single-status - she does not have time for civilisation to fall apart rn. But when the world as she knows it crumbles like a triple-choc cookie, Karla will have to embark on the trip of a lifetime to find safety. Traversing the vastness of the Australian east coast, Karla and her companions - a misfit band of workmates and one reasonably attractive stranger - will find adventure, love and a new dress size. Rom-com meets disaster movie meets extreme-makeover, this 온라인카지노게임 is for anyone who needs the motivation of a planetary disaster to change their world.