Often when I am asked about my new novel, ‘The Headmaster’s Wager’, I am asked about my memories of my late grandfather. This does not surprise me. After all, I have written a book in which the protagonist, Percival Chen, shares many characteristics with my grandfather. Percival is the headmaster of an English school in wartime Vietnam, as was my grandfather. Percival lives most of his adult life in Vietnam but is ethnically Chinese, and this is crucial to his sense of identity. In addition to being a successful educator and entrepreneur, he is a gambler, drinker, and womanizer. All of these qualities in Percival are inspired by my grandfather. I choose that word carefully – inspired. The book is a work of fiction, and is not ‘based upon’ my grandfather’s life. It does not memorialize him or recount his actions or memories. Instead, it picks up on a thread of his life, and an era he experienced.

When a missing childhood friend is found dead, a woman begins to understand that she herself is lost.

Margaret Atwood’s story “The Freeze-Dried Groom,” from her new collection Stone Mattress, leaves the reader with many tantalizing questions. How does it end? Will Sam be a killer or a victim? What are the other characters’ versions of events? Answer some of these questions, or ask some of your own, by writing a fanfiction inspired by the characters or events of “The Freeze-Dried Groom.” Share your version of this haunting tale with Margaret Atwood and Wattpadders everywhere, and you could win!

Alexis Blake has spent years of her life smiling through the pain and struggling to make money with only her brother and little sister left. When she gets a big assignment for a One Direction photo shoot at her photography job she didn't know her life would change big time. Instantly bonding with a certain blonde irish boy has it's benefits, but will she be able to love anyone again after her rocky past?

Danny Orchard wrote a bestselling memoir about his near-death experience in a fire that claimed the life of his twin sister, Ashleigh, but despite the resulting fame and fortune he’s never been able to enjoy his second chance at life. Ash won’t let him. In life, Danny’s charming and magnetic twin had been a budding psychopath who privately terrorized her family—and death hasn’t changed her wicked ways. Ash has haunted Danny for twenty years and now, just when he’s met the love of his life and has a chance at real happiness, she wants more than ever to punish him for being alive—so she sets her sights on Danny’s new wife and stepson. Danny knows what Ash really wants is him, and he’s prepared to sacrifice himself in order to save the ones he loves. The question is: will he make it back this time? Check out this exclusive sneak peek of Chapter 2. THE DAMNED is out February 2015.