Unknown Number: Well you gotta give me something! Hell, anything! You can't just dangle this in front of me for the rest of my life! Me: I wasn't planning on it... Unknown Number: Blackmail is a crime, you know! Me: I'M NOT BLACKMAILING YOU! Unknown Number: WHERE'S YOUR SENSE OF ADVENTURE! YOU GET AN OPPORTUNITY LIKE THIS AND YOU SEIZE IT!! JEEZE!!! AND HERE I WAS HOPING YOU'D DO SOMETHING!!! Me: ...you want me to...blackmail you??

Two stories intertwine for a few minutes every day. A short story, written from the perspective of a barista at a local coffee house.

"Give me ten days, and I can give you ten reasons not to die." Evan paused. "And if I can't change your mind by then, you can go jump off that cliff."

Jules is a young man barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies...and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World. Disney World! The greatest artistic achievement of the long-ago twentieth century. Now in the keeping of a network of "ad-hocs" who keep the classic attractions running as they always have, enhanced with only the smallest high-tech touches. Now, though, the "ad hocs" are under attack. A new group has taken over the Hall of the Presidents, and is replacing its venerable audioanimatronics with new, immersive direct-to-brain interfaces that give guests the illusion of being Washington, Lincoln, and all the others. For Jules, this is an attack on the artistic purity of Disney World itself. Worse: it appears this new group has had Jules killed. This upsets him. (It's only his fourth death and revival, after all.) Now it's war...

A lovestruck demigoddess, unaware of her royal status, makes a shocking discovery about her family, and impulsively follows Hades to the underworld to escape Zeus's wrath. ******* Lexi Maxwell has grown up surrounded by wealth and privilege, but also by rules. The rare moments of freedom that she enjoys come when she's out horseback riding, but even then there are strictures on where she can go-and with whom. When she arrives home for a weekend-long celebration, Lexi is surprised by the number of eligible bachelors who vie for her attention. She doesn't have a lot of experience with the opposite sex, but these loudmouth, arrogant boys fail to impress her. Enter the mysterious Luke Carrington. Lexi is instantly drawn to him, but despite his charm and intelligence, her parents and godfather warn her to stay away from him. Lexi, however, cannot be deterred. When she learns that her life has been one long lie, and the people claiming to be her family aren't who they say they are, Lexi turns to Luke for solace. It doesn't take long for him to earn her trust, and her heart, and suddenly Lexi is willing to follow him anywhere to keep him close. Even into the underworld. A Goddess Unraveled is now a published book! Not only is the retail version longer, it includes a surprise about Lexi's parentage! AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK AND EBOOK THROUGH penguinrandomhouse.com AND VARIOUS RETAIL OUTLETS THAT SELL BOOKS. COPYRIGHT NOTICE: This work is owned by the author. Please do not attempt to plagiarize or bad karma will befall you. IN OTHER WORDS: If you find this story on any online platform other than WATTPAD, I did not allow this. You may also be exposing yourself to malware. If you wish to read this story in its original, safe form, do it here on WATTPAD, or purchase the book at any retail outlet.

Trapped in the woodlands, Ivy's only hope of going home is to escape the faerie who enchants her into loving him, blinding her to what he is--monstrous. *** A dark fortress of trees twisted and crippled by time, the Clearwater, Connecticut, woods is no place for two teenage girls. The legends claim it's haunted. Fed up with being kept inside after dark, fearing the monster will take them, sixteen-year-old Ivy Farewell and her best friend Margaret set out to prove everyone wrong--that the ghost of Clearwater isn't a ghost. And the voice that has been calling to Ivy after dark is simply a trick of the wind. But the woods are deeper than Ivy imagined, each turn bringing them farther from home. When they end up lost their only hope is in each other. All seems undone when Ivy falls ill with a fever, until a stranger persuades them back to his cabin. Under his spell, Ivy falls into a deep and complicated love, a love so treacherous it blinds her to what he truly is--a monster. Copyright © 2023 T.A. Joseph All rights reserved cover by @xenomorphius