*** 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?

****Taken down for publication with Parliament House Press in 2019*** ****Bonus Story Available: The House of Seven Smiles***** ***Wattys 2015 Winner!!!*** Magic runs bone deep... In a world overrun by monsters, humans struggle for survival underground. Magic is feared and reviled, but rooted deep in the bloodlines of families, cropping up once a generation. These individuals are cast out, banished to the Above where humans are far, far down the food chain. When her younger brother is tainted by magic and forced to the surface, Azzy follows, determined to save the only family she has left, no matter what he becomes. ***Lovely Cover by @mulanjiang*** ***#2!! in Adventure 2/28/16*** ***#6!! in Fantasy 8/15/16***

In the desert, an instant turns life into death and hate into love. In the desert, everything is different. Boundaries break down, and you find yourself doing things that you would never, ever have imagined. Lilly Linton finds this out the hard way: in the shadow of the pyramids, she and her boss, cold, calculating Mr Ambrose, must face death and danger together. Is the desert's heat enough to melt the cold heart of Britain's richest financier? WINNER of the PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD in the Wattys 2016 Sequel to Robert Thier's #1 Hit 'Storm and Silence'

A comic apocalyptic sci-fi romp. The zombie apocalypse has come and gone, the world has ended, humanity has crumbled... Nobody told the aliens. Alien brains have some interesting side effects on the ravenous undead. Just ask zombie Li, who wakes up after a quick bite. The world is a wasteland, she's a walking corpse, and her 'snack' melted into a noxious puddle of goo. It's not her day. Determined to figure out what the hell happened to her world, Li hits the road, seeking others like herself. The end of the world brings strange company, and stranger enemies. Struggling to wrap her head around being a zombie and already Li's existence is in danger thanks to impending alien invasion. It's going to take more than a handful of quirky zombies to stop them. She's going to need some serious fire power, like the remnants of the human race. If she can find them. #7 in Science Fiction on 12/3/15 ***Second Place for Science Fiction in Best Fiction Competition*** ***Contains a sprinkling of strong language and zombie violence. No aliens or zombies were harmed in the making of this novel. Recommended for ages 15 and up.***

Boy next door is charming. Boy next door is dangerous. Boy next door is on house arrest. * * * * * They've been neighbors for as long as Juliet can remember. You'd think being neighbors, they would have been friends by now. Not the case. They've been sworn enemies since Jack dumped sand down her shirt in the 1st Grade. Juliet Sanders lives next door to Jack McKinnon, the boy on house arrest for being the prime suspect in a murder investigation. That's only because his father paid off the judge, of course, or he'd be behind bars until the trial. The McKinnon family stays in the spotlight. Jack's mom is a famous author, his dad a movie producer. Juliet watches Jack. Whether if he's going for a swim or walking laps around the house at 3 in the morning. Something always piqued her curiosity. It takes Juliet getting locked out of her house to finally face the mysterious boy next door. And he's definitely not rainbows and butterflies. Juliet's curiosity may just get her in trouble. *Slowly editing FULLY* Note: KKKANGAROO has been really kind and has helped me edit some chapters. :)

"Oomph!" The sound rushed out of my mouth as the door opened before I could reach the handle and my body hit a wall. I took a step back and realized that it wasn't in fact a wall, but instead a very attractive male. I looked up at his head to see a very messy, but sexy, mop of black hair on top of his head. When I looked closer, I noticed that his hair was a very deep brown that was probably often mistaken for black. My gaze traveled downward to his eyes, where I found two deep, ocean blue eyes looking back at me. My gaze travelled farther down to his crooked nose, to which I assumed came from too many fights. My eyes finally found his pink, very plump lips, which were turned into a sneer. "You have got to be kidding me!" His pink lips said in a very offensive voice. My eyes turned questioning as I looked back up into his eyes. "Whatever, lets finish this. I, Ashton Carter, reject you, as my mate." He, or Ashton, said with venom lacing his voice. He quickly turned and walked down the now vacant hallway with no glance back. Rejection? On my first day? The first person I make eye contact with at this school, rejects me. I guess that's how this school works, if the hottest boy in school rejects you, you're a nobody. So much for making friends, or mates, or whatever they call people at this school. I shake those ocean blue eyes out of my head and continue into the office to start my new life.

Faith Mitchell was never confident. She was happy to blend into the background, much to the protest of her friends. At 16, her life was a normal teenage cliche. She was in love with Jace, the obnoxious player who she couldn't have, and her biggest worry was whether or not he would finally come to his senses and see that she really was the one for him. That is until she is kidnapped and recruited by a secret agency of assassins. She is torn away from her normal teenage life and thrown into a world of guns, knifes and criminals. The agency mold her into the perfect killing machine, and at 19 she is no longer the shy girl that was snatched away from her uncomplicated life, but a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to complete whatever mission she is on. Then, the agency has a new mission which involves Faith returning to her hometown, and facing her friends, family and the very boy who broke her heart just before it turned into stone. What will happen once Faith comes face to face with Jace? Will the obnoxious player be able to reach out and get the old Faith back without pressing any of her wrong buttons, considering that the shy girl he once knew now has a gun. (WATTY AWARDS 2011) (THE FICTION AWARDS 2017) ©makeandoffer

'no man is so evil as to be beyond redemption' - Anonymous --- To not subject to evil is strenuous, to not give in to those murderous thoughts requires ones up most strength. Maliciousness is infecting but so is righteousness.

Every King needs a Queen. Sebastian isn't going to let his slip away, no matter how hard she tries. +++++ Sequel to Million Dollar Man

McGrath, Alaska is a stereotypical small town. Tucked away in the middle of Alaska with a population of roughly 350, the townspeople are fairly familiar with each other. Things don't change in McGrath. And that's the way everyone likes it. Anne Carlson is finishing up her junior year in high school when a series of disappearances--always in three's--begins to occur. Her father, the part of the local police team, is putting in extra time to figure out what is behind the disappearances. Crime is rare in this town to begin with, and something of this escalation is unheard of. And what's even more strange are the two new boys that moved into the town. Dark, mysterious, and unfriendly, they keep the townspeople on edge and suspicious of their every move. Children stop and watch as they walk by, mothers warn their daughters not to mess with those people. But Anne Carlson just can't help it. There's something strange going on. And she's got a burning curiosity. But curiosity killed the cat, right?