Spoof on a high strung man about to blow his top. Funny short storyThere's a certain intimacy about the word "embedded." I don't know who came up with it, but once it was in common usage, we talked about it endlessly in the pub. Embedded, being there, part of the action, eyewitness news on the front line. Embedded became a term shared by the media and the military to describe correspondents who were carried to war as an extra mural member of a fighting unit, journalist as warrior, and it was hoped, certainly from the military standpoint, that this symbiosis, a new quirk on the old Stockholm syndrome, would rub off on the reporters and ensure that coverage swayed towards the soldiers' point of view. Sure there was huffing and puffing over journalistic integrity and freedom of the press, but if you wanted to go to war there was no better way than embedded.You see the Vietnam War had taught the military a hard lesson. If you have newsmen running around the combat zone, left to their own devices, reporting the kill count as it happens, blood baths like Mi Li Four, then the public appetite for the conflict diminishes in direct proportion to the tv footage of body bags coming home. So if you couldn't muzzle the media, then the next best thing was to get them on board, get them embedded, in the hope that the old adage that it is better to have your critic in the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in, would pay dividends.Not that the military were less than sanguine about the prospect, Imagine how it would have been if there had been reporters embedded at The Somme filing eyeball accounts from the trenches of soldiers eating rats to stay alive, and the criminal lunacy of officers ordering troops over the top into machinegun fire.But those kind of considerations didn't cloud the judgement a couple of centuries ago when the spectre of invasion from across the Channel loomed large, and Napoleon Bonaparte summoned the combined naval strength of France and Spain into the largest battle fleet the world had ever seen; when the course of history hung by a thread. When the nation turned to one man, already hailed as a national hero, to save the day. So this is the story. With all the journalistic technique, the breakneck speed of instant communication technology and the clamour for on scene reporting; with every morsel of the action devoured to satisfy the voracious appetite of twenty four seven rolling news I can tell you what transpired when Nelson set sail for the great sea battle off Cape Trafalgar because I was there, embedded with the fleet.My name is John Pretty, naval correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, and with the benefit of hindsight I have collected all my pieces, the news columns, the features, the e-mails, the tapes and scribbled shorthand notes, into a chronological sequence, translated the arcane patois of the eighteenth century tar into the modern idiom to give you a feel of how Trafalgar played in the press. If you want the unalloyed facts, go to the history books, but if you're curious to know how it felt to report Trafalgar then as Mark Twain put it, turn the page, read the log.

There's a certain intimacy about the word "embedded." I don't know who coined it embedded, part of the action, eyewitness news on the front line. Embedded became a term used by the media and military to describe correspondents who were carried to war.If you want the facts, go to the history books, but if you want to know how it felt to report Trafalgar turn the page and read the log.There's a certain intimacy about the word "embedded." I don't know who came up with it, but once it was in common usage, we talked about it endlessly in the pub. Embedded, being there, part of the action, eyewitness news on the front line. Embedded became a term shared by the media and the military to describe correspondents who were carried to war as an extra mural member of a fighting unit, journalist as warrior, and it was hoped, certainly from the military standpoint, that this symbiosis, a new quirk on the old Stockholm syndrome, would rub off on the reporters and ensure that coverage swayed towards the soldiers' point of view. Sure there was huffing and puffing over journalistic integrity and freedom of the press, but if you wanted to go to war there was no better way than embedded.You see the Vietnam War had taught the military a hard lesson. If you have newsmen running around the combat zone, left to their own devices, reporting the kill count as it happens, blood baths like Mi Li Four, then the public appetite for the conflict diminishes in direct proportion to the tv footage of body bags coming home. So if you couldn't muzzle the media, then the next best thing was to get them on board, get them embedded, in the hope that the old adage that it is better to have your critic in the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in, would pay dividends.Not that the military were less than sanguine about the prospect, Imagine how it would have been if there had been reporters embedded at The Somme filing eyeball accounts from the trenches of soldiers eating rats to stay alive, and the criminal lunacy of officers ordering troops over the top into machinegun fire.But those kind of considerations didn't cloud the judgement a couple of centuries ago when the spectre of invasion from across the Channel loomed large, and Napoleon Bonaparte summoned the combined naval strength of France and Spain into the largest battle fleet the world had ever seen; when the course of history hung by a thread. When the nation turned to one man, already hailed as a national hero, to save the day. So this is the story. With all the journalistic technique, the breakneck speed of instant communication technology and the clamour for on scene reporting; with every morsel of the action devoured to satisfy the voracious appetite of twenty four seven rolling news I can tell you what transpired when Nelson set sail for the great sea battle off Cape Trafalgar because I was there, embedded with the fleet.My name is John Pretty, naval correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, and with the benefit of hindsight I have collected all my pieces, the news columns, the features, the e-mails, the tapes and scribbled shorthand notes, into a chronological sequence, translated the arcane patois of the eighteenth century tar into the modern idiom to give you a feel of how Trafalgar played in the press. If you want the unalloyed facts, go to the history books, but if you're curious to know how it felt to report Trafalgar then as Mark Twain put it, turn the page, read the log.

During a visit to Planet 505-D, the crew of the Humboldt starts acting strange―shirking duties and responsibilities. The chief engineer objects, but Captain Marie Penski and the rest of the crew tire of his act. Until they get a most unexpected visit from Muryah Abernathy, reported lost on an earlier expedition. Ten years earlier!Soon, the crew falls under her spell...with deadly consequences.During the final visit to Planet 505-D before human colonization begins, the crew of the Humboldt starts acting strange―shirking their duties and responsibilities. The chief engineer, Devin Calloway, wants no part of it, but Captain Marie Penski and the rest of the crew become tired of his attitude. Until the day they get a most unexpected visit from Muryah Abernathy, a woman reported lost on the original mission to 505-D —ten years earlier. Soon, the crewmembers are under her spell, ignoring even their own safety… with deadly consequences.Bonus Content: This 140-page novella (approx. 74,000 words) includes a sixteen chapter excerpt from Hunters, a new horror and contemporary fantasy novel involving modern-day vampires and the human hunters determined to exterminate them once and for all.

When Yo-yo's ring is stolen on a weekend visit to his uncle and aunt in York, he enlists ghosts, statues, clowns, fish, indeed anything he can conjure, to help him get it back. Dodging the forty stone international criminal mastermind Mr Vanilla, the weasly circus owner Truss and the delectable twins Rue and Thyme, Yo-yo needs to recover the ring to avoid being sent back to the nut-house.When Yo-yo's ring is stolen on a weekend visit to his uncle and aunt in York, he enlists ghosts, statues, clowns, fish, indeed anything he can conjure, to help him get it back. Dodging the forty stone international criminal mastermind Mr Vanilla, the weasly circus owner Truss and the delectable twins Rue and Thyme, Yo-yo needs to recover the ring to avoid being sent back to the nut-house where he lives. An all-star cast includes Lily Gusset, the reverse drag artist, Mrs Lollipop, bed-ridden these forty years, Baby the talking blackbird, the custard-pie flinging Lettuce Brothers, Death, him off the telly, the statue of William Etty RA, an ichthyosaur, a weed and a pebble, the voice of Chris Tarrant, a fishy policeman called Constable Kipper, Wee Jocko McTavish, professional Scotsman, and the severed head of the Ninth Earl of Northumberland. Come with Yo-yo on this zany adventure through York past and present, and read a book the like of which you have never read before.

All Lexi wants to do is get through the day at her boring temp job with Green Hand Insurance. That’s until she discovers the vice president, Martin Dean, in a pool of blood and herself at the center of an investigation into insurance fraud.Millions of dollars are missing, the chief suspect is dead and her mysterious, sexy, new boss is not what he seems.All Lexi wants to do is get through the day at her boring temp job with Green Hand Insurance. That’s until she discovers the vice president, Martin Dean, in a pool of blood and herself at the center of an investigation into insurance fraud.Millions of dollars are missing, the chief suspect is dead and her mysterious, sexy, new boss is not what he seems.Recruited by the joint task force working on the case, all Lexi has to do is work out who killed Dean and where the missing millions are. That’s easier said than done when her sister insists upon the baby shower to end all baby showers, her wise-ass cop family just wants to keep her safe, someone keeps leaving her creepy gifts, and all the clues point to a seedy sex club on the wrong side of town.As the bodies start to pile up, Lexi is on a race against time to find the killer and the money, before she’s the next one in the murderer’s sights.Also in the series:Armed and FabulousWho Glares WinsCommand IndecisionShock and AwesomeWeapons of Mass DistractionLaugh or DeathKissing in ActionTrigger SnappyA Few Good Women - - coming soon!

We are not alone in the galaxy, but soon we will be.The greatest civilizations in the Galaxy are disappearing without a trace. The future history of our Galaxy has been irrevocably changed.We are not alone in the galaxy, but soon we will be.The greatest civilizations in the Galaxy are disappearing without a trace. The future history of our Galaxy has been irrevocably changed. This is the world Xin wakes up to. Xin, an alien probe of immense power has been buried in the Earth’s crust for millions of years. Helping to release the science probe from its ancient tomb, it leads to one man's journey to the stars. This is their story.

Jenna Bradley's quiet day in the mountains turned into a search for a lost boy, and a lustful yen, for the gorgeous Zabron Hadrini.The fact that he was an alien from Teeron, wasn't much of a deal breaker as far as she was concerned.After all,she was a little weird herself.Jenna Bradley's quiet day in the mountains turned into a search for a lost boy, and a lustful yen, for the gorgeous Zabron Hadrini.The fact that he was an alien from Teeron, wasn't much of a deal breaker as far as she was concerned.After all,she was a little weird herself.Zabron took one look at Jenna and decided she was the one for him. No matter how far apart they lived.

Orphans of the Celestial Sea is a Steampunk serial chronicling the adventures of Tom Cain and his misfit crew as they try to unravel the mysteries surrounding their airship Hecate and the plague of psychosis-inducing Mist which is slowly destroying human civilization.In rescuing three young women from psychotic Draggers, Tom Cain lost two crewmates, his berth on the airship Myrmidon and he very nearly lost his life, but that’s just the beginning of his problems. The four teens recover the abandoned airship Hecate, and flee in her, only to find a stranger named Ishara is stowed away.Orphans of the Celestial Sea is a Steampunk serial chronicling the adventures of Tom Cain and his misfit crew as they try to unravel the mysteries surrounding their airship Hecate and the plague of psychosis-inducing Mist which is slowly destroying human civilization.This is a free download, all I ask in return is that you come back here and give a review when you've read it.

SHE'S a twenty five year old college graduate with no prospects in life. Everything in life has gone opposite the way she's envisioned. She's trapped at a dead end job with no money, no future- and no man.HE'S a professional wrestler who's hit rock bottom. Two years ago, he was one of the biggest stars in the industry. That was until the incident...SHE'S a twenty five year old college graduate with no prospects in life. Everything in life has gone opposite the way she's envisioned. She's trapped at a dead end job with no money, no future- and no man.HE'S a professional wrestler who's hit rock bottom. Two years ago, he was one of the biggest stars in the industry. That was until the incident. Everything fell apart. He's gripping onto his last chance before it's all over.They need each other more than they know.When Nashvillian Brianna Hall decides to chase her dreams and enter the pro wrestling business, she crosses paths with the Russian. They share the same goal, but they aren't prepared for what the future really holds.The Russian is a tough one-- he's guarded, he's unwilling. She's young-- naive, ready, and desperate to put this crazy thing called life together.Life & love is tough-- but is it tougher than her and the Russian?

Bewaji is a 24-year old woman who is hired to investigate a strange case involving an American woman romantically involved with a man living in Nigeria. The presumption is that the woman is a victim of one of the popular "romance scams." Will her suspicions be proven right?After a horrific breakup with Dylan Sloan, the bad boy of the Dixon High Swim team, Charley Rice loses the confident swimmer she once was. Her best friend, Cash Montgomery is the only one who truly knows what happened that night and is a constant source of strength. After a summer of questioning who she wants to be, Charley decides to put the past behind and leave the small town of Grassy Pond to stand on her own two feet again. While Charley is living her life to the fullest at college she meets Joe Olsen and falls head over heels. But one letter is about to change everything and this time Cash isn’t there to help her. Will she be able to escape her past and on her own? Will she run home to Cash? Or will she find comfort in the arms of Joe?

Jessica is the happiest women on earth. She's going to marry her childhood sweetheart. But a tragic accident on her wedding day changes her life forever.Will she ever find happiness again or true love?After a horrific breakup with Dylan Sloan, the bad boy of the Dixon High Swim team, Charley Rice loses the confident swimmer she once was. Her best friend, Cash Montgomery is the only one who truly knows what happened that night and is a constant source of strength. After a summer of questioning who she wants to be, Charley decides to put the past behind and leave the small town of Grassy Pond to stand on her own two feet again. While Charley is living her life to the fullest at college she meets Joe Olsen and falls head over heels. But one letter is about to change everything and this time Cash isn’t there to help her. Will she be able to escape her past and on her own? Will she run home to Cash? Or will she find comfort in the arms of Joe?

After a horrific breakup with Dylan Sloan, the bad boy of the Dixon High Swim team, Charley Rice loses the confident swimmer she once was. Her best friend, Cash Montgomery is the only one who truly knows what happened that night and is a constant source of strength. After a summer of questioning who she wants to be, Charley decides to put the past behind and leave her small town behind.After a horrific breakup with Dylan Sloan, the bad boy of the Dixon High Swim team, Charley Rice loses the confident swimmer she once was. Her best friend, Cash Montgomery is the only one who truly knows what happened that night and is a constant source of strength. After a summer of questioning who she wants to be, Charley decides to put the past behind and leave the small town of Grassy Pond to stand on her own two feet again. While Charley is living her life to the fullest at college she meets Joe Olsen and falls head over heels. But one letter is about to change everything and this time Cash isn’t there to help her. Will she be able to escape her past and on her own? Will she run home to Cash? Or will she find comfort in the arms of Joe?

Whoever coined the phrase 'fellow wanderer' had probably never wandered in an apocalyptic wasteland where people want to kill you and take your gun.All men must die. But Nomad doesn't want to die just yet. The date is somewhere in the thousands. The world is dead, rivers dry, and the only people left alive scrape the world's ruins for anything of value. Forget the promise of technology, for how things truly work has been forgotten and the only real value remains in things that can kill. The Ancients left behind wonders and it is those wonders which lead Nomad chasing after wealth. But the world is full of people who wish him dead, and the longer he lives and roams the wastes, the more he begins to realize that value lies in things altogether different.

Akira Malone believes in the scientific method, Einstein’s theory of relativity and that the ghosts she sees are dangerous leftover electromagnetic energy. Zane Latimer believes in telepathy, auras and that playing Halo with your employees is an excellent management technique. And that Akira might be able to help his family's lost loved ones. But can Akira face her fears and accept her gift?Akira Malone believes in the scientific method, evolution, and Einstein’s theory of relativity. And ghosts.All the logic and reason in the world can’t protect her from the truth—she can see and communicate with spirits. As far as she’s concerned, though, her ability is a genetic quirk and the ghosts she encounters are simply leftover electromagnetic energy. Dangerous electromagnetic energy.Zane Latimer believes in telepathy, precognition, auras, and that playing Halo with your employees is an excellent management technique. He also thinks that maybe, just maybe, Akira can help his family get in touch with their lost loved ones.But will Akira ever be able to face her fears and accept her gift? Or will Zane’s relatives be trapped between life and death forever?

Yael Navas unravels the mystery of the suicide who didn't really kill himself.Yael Navas in a tale of rope, suicide, and betrayal.