Personal essays about life : identity, women, widowhood, families, relationships, love, money and much more

Naomi Jacobs never thought she'd get caught in the middle of the most ridiculous prank of the year: a rat infestation in her school. Left with no other choice but to complete thirty six hours of mandatory volunteer activities with Carlos Moralez, the least she expects is to enjoy his company. But the more time she spends with him, the more she realizes he's not the arrogant rockstar she thought he was. Carlos understands her and she can't help but feel drawn to him. Then something terrible happens, forcing Naomi to make a choice between her family and the boy she has come to love. Where We Stand [SPIN-OFF. IN PROGRESS] ~ ♢ ~ Lost in You ✓ [SHORT STORY. PREQUEL. COMPLETE] Megan Carter has been harboring a crush on her best friend Aiden Rowe ever since she turned seventeen. So when the lights go out on New Year's Eve just before the final countdown, Megan does the unthinkable. She kisses him in the dark. Assured that Aiden will never find out, Megan decides to keep it a secret. Admitting her feelings could just be the end of their friendship. But is Aiden as clueless as he seems?

Fanfiction from Sherlock Holmes to Fifty Shades of Grey and Beyond . . . What is fanfiction, and what is it not? Why does fanfiction matter? And what makes it so important to the future of literature? Fic is a groundbreaking exploration of the history and culture of fan writing and what it means for the way we think about reading, writing, and authorship. It's a story about literature, community, and technology-about what stories are being told, who's telling them, how, and why. With provocative discussions from both professional and fan writers, on subjects from Star Trek to The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Harry Potter, Twilight, and beyond, Fic sheds light on the widely misunderstood world(s) of fanfiction-not only how fanfiction is transforming the literary landscape, but how it already has. See more and where to buy: http://www.smartpopbooks.com/book/fic SPECIAL DISCOUNT: If you've been enjoying the free sample chapters here on Wattpad, my publisher's discounted the e-book on Amazon for a limited time to $3.99 Wattpad link here: http://bit.ly/ficonwattpad. Readers outside the US can find links for the discount here: http://www.smartpopbooks.com/399fic

A Wattpad Featured Story! A pharmaceutical company under cyberattack from China. The chemical formula for their Alzheimer's drug at stake. Can elite hacker Brody Taylor fortify their cyber-defences before it's too late? And can hackers ever be trusted? Hired by a global pharmaceutical company to test their digital defences, elite hacker, Brody Taylor, applies his computer mastery and repertoire of audacious confidence tricks to penetrate their most secure systems. Can Brody obtain the secret chemical formula for their latest drug? Are his motivations as pure as they first appear? Could his new girlfriend somehow be influencing Brody's actions? Accurately depicting real-world, modern-day computer hacking techniques, SOCIAL ENGINEER is a standalone novella that introduces Brody Taylor and the Deep Web Thriller series. The Deep Web Thriller Series: The Deep Web Thriller series features Brody Taylor, an elite computer hacker who specialises in hacking and social engineering the weakest link of all computer systems: the humans who use them. SOCIAL ENGINEER - A Deep Web Thriller #0 INVASION OF PRIVACY - A Deep Web Thriller #1 If you love intricately plotted thrillers with unexpected twists that are packed with technology and great characters, read SOCIAL ENGINEER now.

Do you know anyone with a crippling, morbid fear of flying? Well, you do now. I have a theory: An event one spring day in the town cemetery at the dawn of my existence had everything to do with planting a stark view of life and death which led, eventually, to a profound mistrust of infernal contraptions that carried you up into the sky. Because of that profound mistrust, vast portions of my prime were spent (and misspent) on long journeys aboard trains. A trip that would have been a blip in time by plane was an entirely different deal on the train—days and nights, not hours. Veritable miniature eternities. This led to encounters, adventures, dilemmas and situations that could only happen on a train—and not merely because of the train’s comparative slowness, but because train people are an entirely different breed of human from airplane people (or bus people, for that matter, and that’s another story). Trains are so....well....so existential. This stark view of life and death, which also had plenty to do with me lobbying my mother (in vain) to get busy on building a fallout shelter in our basement, had some stiff opposition. To be an American child in the 50s was to open one’s innocent eyes on the post-WW2 decade, an era jumping with progress,plenitude, dazzling crazed optimism and fun. Nightmare glimpses of atrocities from that big bad war we missed by the skin of our teeth bobbed to the surface occasionally, sobering us and reminding us of our aberrant good luck, and in my case, whispering that innocence was but a thin, thin membrane, that this world I’d been born into was a seething, infinitely complicated place, and I’d better pay attention. But let’s have some fun! Here we go, with Bad Boys. What’s rock ‘n’ roll but the shot heard ‘round the world?

Summertime for Blair Reynolds and her friends had always been carefree and fun...until the summer they happened upon something that was not human. As they band together in a fight for their lives, Blair's true love becomes something more than human. Something unnatural. And their survival depends entirely upon their ability to keep a secret. * * * Thank you for reading CICADA. I'll be posting a new chapter every Monday, so keep an eye out for new additions. You can find out more about my books and me, including links to my social networking sites, at my website: www.bellewhittington.com. If you're interested in purchasing your own copy of my books, you can find them here: http://www.amazon.com/Belle-Whittington/e/B005CVY8R8