Being on the front line doesn't always mean facing the obvious, being on the front line can be as simple as facing life head-on with no clue where you're going. Life is as much of a front line in the wider perspective than the narrower of that of a battle, where the enemy is known and destination is everywhere but backwards. Therefore in life everyone has a story, this is no different. This story tells the story of Julianna Monroe (Name changed to hide/protect myself), and how even the simple things in life can alter the future in the most minute of ways. Not everything in life has to be all song and dance for it to be interesting and diverse, the story of Julianna's life will show and connect to those with lives just the same as hers who are not able to speak about their experiences. Her story begins when she is around 3-4 years old, just about to start the very first away-from-home experience children in the United Kingdom are encouraged to do. Nursery. Here kids just like Julianna are given the freedom and chance to explore outside of the home environment, without the feeling of an academic learning facility. Julianna is a child rather used to home comforts, so even at the beginning on the long road to get to where she is today, there are struggles and many points in at which she feels lost. However, despite all the minor stumbles on the bottom rung of this ladder, this is the start of an adventure, a journey to test everything Julianna is made of. Her story starts now...

A contemporary southern gothic mystery series about a teenager who discovers a cache of centuries-old letters containing clues to crimes happening in the present day. READERS CHOOSE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! Parish Mail is written like a TV series–there are over-arching mystery and romantic story arcs that extend between the episodes, while each episode has a smaller case that is presented and solved. Along the way, I will asks you, the reader, to make several small decisions as you read. These choices do not impact the overarching storyline, but certain combinations “unlock” clues to the series’ mystery, which are embedded in the text.

*** Ansel Adams, or Ance as those he knows tend to call him, is a bad man though he didn't consider that to be his fault. His father had been a bad man, his grandfather had been a bad man--hell as far as Ance knew he came from a long line of men were just a bitten rotten down at their core. Everyone that knew Ance knew he was a man who would never change, never give up his lifestyle, never settle down....Until Penelope Reynolds came sobbing into his life. Ance hadn't given much thought to offering this rich man protection as he took a load of stolen goods to market until he realized that the banging sound coming from the crate was a tiny little blond with pigtails, freckles and a bad leg. Suddenly he's struck with a choice. Save the girl and return her to her family or simply let life do what life does and chalk it up to bad luck for little Penelope--in the past the latter choice would have been easy, but not now. *** Audrey Reynolds had never been so afraid in her life. Her daughter has been stolen. Her daughter is all she has left in the world since the murder of her husband five years earlier. Desperate to find Penelope, Audrey enlists the help of U.S. Marshall Rodger York who also happens to be the man who's been trying to marry her since the day after her husband had been placed under the ground. They embark on a journey to find Penelope and Rodger has vowed to kill whoever took the girl away. But things go wrong and Audrey learns that the very man she went to for help might be the man responsible for every bad thing that's happened in the last five years...... Will Audrey find a way to survive but more importantly will she ever see her daughter alive again?

Cherry blossom lipstick: check Smokey eyes: check Skinny jeans: check Dead kid in the mirror: check For sixteen year old Mattie Hathaway, this is her normal everyday routine. She's been able to see ghosts since her mother tried to murder her when she was five years old. No way does she want anyone to know she can talk to spooks. Being a foster kid is hard enough without being labeled a freak too. Normally, she just ignores the ghosts and they go away. There's a little glitch this time. The ghost she sees is her foster sister, Sally. Everyone thinks she's just another runaway. Mattie knows the truth, though-she's dead, murdered. Foster kids look out for each other and Mattie feels like she has to help Sally, but she can't do it alone. Against her better judgment, she teams up with a young police officer and together they set out to discover the truth of Sally's disappearance. Now the killer has set his sights on her. It becomes a race to see if she can find the truth before the serial killer finds her.

Table of Contents Free Verse: Gypsy Acrostic-Etheree-Reverse Etheree: Tenderness Pantoum: Mystic Waters Conceit: He's Like a Shawl Haibun: Diamond Moon Refrain: Lushness so Lusted Haiku Trilogy: Hunters Anaphor: Out of the Rain Aliliteration: Savage Seasons Dectine Refrain: The Moon as Muse