San Francisco cop Brad Lyon has retired from the force and is loving his new life in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with his wife, Ashleigh. When not investigating murder, they collect and create adorable teddy bears, and even sometimes encounter real ones. While Brad pieces together his latest “Claw and Order” bear for a local teddy bear show, his deputy wife finds a local farmer done in by an arrow through his heart. Ash’s investigative skills may be razor-sharp, but this case has stumped them both. Was it a hunting accident—or was the farmer being hunted? Now Brad and Ash must assemble together the clues while organizing their first teddy bear jubilee in town. And with the suspect list growing, they’ll have to work fast to root out a killer before more innocents become endangered.
From the author of Harrowing Hats comes a special holiday Renaissance Faire Mystery. Hail ye, hail ye, and welcome to the Renaissance Faire Village. Here, associate professor Jessie Morton spends her summers honing her skills and finding the lady, lord, or serf whodunit. But when she comes for Christmas, will murder mean a very unhappy holiday? Jessie Morton is getting just what she wished for this holiday season at the Renaissance Faire Village—working as an apprentice to the new toy maker. But when Chris Christmas is discovered dead just hours after her arrival, Jessie’s holiday plans start to melt away. Jessie can’t imagine who would want to silence the toy maker, but apparently the red-cheeked Chris Christmas liked toying with the ladies. Although it may be her shortest apprenticeship ever, she wants to unwrap the truth before word gets out in the village that it’s not safe to be Santa—or one of his helpers…
[Siren Everlasting Classic ManLove: Erotic Romance, Alternative, Fantasy, Shape-shifters, Paranormal, MM, HEA] Teddy is finally reunited with his father, and is pregnant with a dragon egg from his mate and the love of his life. But his ex-mate, an abusive dragon with a grudge, is determined to cause trouble, even if it's from a distance, and Teddy cannot relax. Vince's only job as Teddy's mate and protector is to keep him calm and happy during his pregnancy. Dragon eggs are difficult to carry and can cause the end of the life for the bearer. He's a hunter, a woodsman, he knows little about the inner details of the laws that allow Teddy's former mate to constantly interfere. When Teddy goes into labor early, Vince is helpless to protect him, and can only rely on Teddy's own strength to get them through. Marcy Jacks is a Siren-exclusive author.
James Snow was a special man. He had that touch, a touch that made Teddy Bears come alive in his presence. Bears he brought to life he put to good use for other people to love and cherish, but all that was about to change. One particular bear he bought to life drew him into a world of darkness and treachery. He found himself at the centre of an age-old battle between good and evil, one side James and his band of trusted bears, on the other an evil tyrannical bear that would stop at nothing to gain total power. James is exposed to deep dark caverns, traps, high mountains, graveyards and storms that leave him questioning his role in the war of the bears. A leader rises then falls, bears are lost, and James Snow is placed in perilous danger as the battle rises to its climactic finale. Follow the adventures of James Snow, as the world of Teddy Bears opens before you.
Shirley McDowell, the owner of a Teddy Bear Hospital, meets Michael, a fireman who's planning a surprise marriage proposal to his girlfriend on Christmas Eve. Through a serendipitous mishap, Michael's engagement ring is misplaced inside a stuffed animal being repaired at the shop. Shirley and Michael work together tracking down the missing teddy bear in a quest to find the lost ring, becoming closer in the process.
Theodore Roosevelt was a man of wide interests, strong opinions, and intense ambition for both himself and his country. When he met Leonard Wood in 1897, he recognized a kindred spirit. Moreover, the two men shared a zeal for making the United States an imperial power that would challenge Great Britain as world leader. For the remainder of their lives, their careers would intertwine in ways that shaped the American nation. When the Spanish American War came, both men seized the opportunity to promote the goals of American empire. Roosevelt resigned as assistant secretary of the navy in William McKinley’s administration to serve as a lieutenant colonel of the Rough Riders, a newly organized volunteer cavalry. Wood, then a captain in the medical corps and physician to McKinley, was promoted to colonel and given charge of the unit. Roosevelt later took over command of the Rough Riders. In the Battle of San Juan Hill, he led it in a charge up Kettle Hill that would end in victory for the American troops and make their daring commander a household name, a war hero, and, eventually, president of the United States. At the Treaty of Paris in 1898, Spain ceded Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States. The next year, Wood became military governor of Cuba. He remained in the post until 1902. By that time Roosevelt was president. One of the major accomplishments of his administration was reorganization of the War Department, which the war with Spain had proved disastrously outdated. In 1909, when William Howard Taft needed a strong army chief of staff to enforce the new rules, he appointed Leonard Wood. Both Wood and Roosevelt were strong proponents of preparedness, and when war broke out in Europe in August 1914, Wood, retired as chief of staff and backed by Roosevelt, established the “Plattsburg camps,” a system of basic training camps. When America entered the Great War, the two men’s foresight was justified, but their earlier push for mobilization had angered Woodrow Wilson, and both were denied the command positions they sought in Europe. Roosevelt died in 1919 while preparing for another presidential campaign. Wood made a run in his place but was never taken seriously as a candidate. He retired from the army and spent the last seven years of his life as civilian governor of the Philippines. It was a quiet end for two men who had been giants of their time. While their modernization of the army is widely admired, they were not without their critics. Roosevelt and Wood saw themselves as bold leaders but were regarded by some as ruthless strivers. And while their shared ambitions for the United States were tempered by a strong sense of duty, they could, in their certainty and determination, trample those who stood in their path. Teddy Roosevelt and Leonard Wood: Partners in Command is a revealing and long overdue look at the dynamic partnership of this fascinating pair and will be welcomed by scholars and military history enthusiasts alike.
“A Handmaid’s Tale for the 21st century” (Prism Magazine), Wood’s dystopian tale about a group of young women held prisoner in the Australian desert is a prescient feminist fable for our times. As the Guardian writes, “contemporary feminism may have found its masterpiece of horror.” Drugged, dressed in old-fashioned rags, and fiending for a cigarette, Yolanda wakes up in a barren room. Verla, a young woman who seems vaguely familiar, sits nearby. Down a hallway echoing loudly with the voices of mysterious men, in a stark compound deep in the Australian outback, other captive women are just coming to. Starved, sedated, the girls can't be sure of anything—except the painful episodes in their pasts that link them. Drawing strength from the animal instincts they're forced to rely on, the women go from hunted to hunters, along the way becoming unforgettable and boldly original literary heroines that readers will both relate to and root for. The Natural Way of Things is a lucid and illusory fable and a brilliantly plotted novel of ideas that reminds us of mankind's own vast contradictions—the capacity for savagery, selfishness, resilience, and redemption all contained by a single, vulnerable body. Winner 2016 Stella Prize 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Award in Fiction An Australian Indie Best Fiction Book & Overall Book of the Year Winner Finalist 2017 International Dublin Literary Award 2016 Voss Literary Prize 2016 Victorian Premier's Award 2016 The Miles Franklin Award
THE AEGIS CONSPIRACY is a fictional account of a covert organization hidden within the Central Intelligence Agency. The cabal is composed of men who are convinced the policy precluding assassinations exposes the nation to grave peril. Ignoring established directives, these men quietly plan and cause the deaths of those they deem to represent a clear and present danger to the Republic. Clandestine Service Agent Den Clark joins with the conspirators but he becomes a threat to them. He is pursued by faceless enemies, intent upon his murder. THE AEGIS CONSPIRACY is a demonstration of Lord Acton's epigram - Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. About the Author Galen Winter lived in Latin America, traveling extensively while negotiating and managing contracts with Latin governments and companies. He returned to the United States as a corporation attorney in Milwaukee and in Chicago. Later, he opened a law office in northern Wisconsin where, he writes, "man can associate with dogs and shotguns without arousing too much suspicion." Winter has contributed hundreds of columns to several national and regional outdoor magazines. He has compiled a fish and wild game cookbook, written five volumes of short stories and published two novels. Winter also found time to engage is his passion for hunting and fishing - preoccupations that have taken him from north of the Arctic Circle in Canada's Northwest Territories to Brazil's Amazon basin, Argentina's Patagonia, the waters off Ecuador, Costa Rica and Cuba and many other places where fish and game occur. Winter holds a Political Science, a Masters in International Business Administration and a Doctor Juris degree.
