Even in the year 1717, one month, one week, or one day, can make all the difference in the world. One month ago, Tess Willoughby was the daughter of a well-to-do physician in London, and she witnessed the murder of an old seer. Coming into possession of the dead woman's odd ring - an ancient Spinner ring, known by the locals as the Ring of Prophesy, she was wrongly accused by her father of having stolen the ring. Three weeks ago, by her father's arrangement for the family, she became an unwilling passenger on a merchant ship bound for the pirate-infested waters of the Caribbean. Two weeks ago, at her father's insistence, she became forcibly betrothed to a man who she recognized as being the seer's murderer - a man who covets her only for her ring. One week ago, she met a sailor and experienced the thrill of being in love for the first time. Two days ago, she realized that such a secret love would endanger them both, and, heart-broken, she was forced to choose her loyalty. Yesterday, her fiancé betrayed her during a pirate attack and those she loved were slaughtered. Today, she is plotting to save her own life and perhaps to take his in retribution. The ring is urging her to decide quickly... Tomorrow will be too late. A tale of pirates and treasure, love and betrayal, all bound together by a dash of ancient magic, QUINTSPINNER - A PIRATE'S QUEST is a cross-over novel that has entertained both YA and adult audiences alike. Meticulously researched, yet not your typical historical fiction, it presents the blood and the mud of life in the 1700's. Full of high seas action, dangerous magic, and a dash of romance, Quintspinner is a swashbuckling adventure that twists and turns with the fury of a hurricane.

Lizzie Henderson struggles to stay sane after her beloved Michael is murdered by a gang of patrollers led by her dear friend, Josiah Walsh. Unable to forgive Josiah for halting Michael's escape in such a brutal manner, and tormented by the thought of what he has done, Lizzie pulls away from him and focuses on educating the children Michael left behind. When her father dies, leaving her lonelier than ever, Lizzie accepts the courtship of her childhood friend, Derrick LaPoint, the son of a rich planter. Derrick charmed Lizzie at her first debutant ball with his easy conversation, graceful dance moves and fine clothing, but will marriage to Derrick brink Lizzie the companionship she seeks, or will it only compounds her problems? This book is the sequel to "Reckless Lives: A Tale of the Old South", and features many of the same characters, including Josiah, the hardworking sharecropper, Lizzie, the only child of a plantation owner, and Derrick LaPoint, the man who can charm just about any woman into bed. There is also Scarlett, the resourceful and ambitious field hand whom Michael married. And Patsy, the houseslave Mr. Henderson regards as a trusted adviser and friend, and who serves as Lizzie's mother. New characters include two courtesans, a traumatized houseslave, and a fieldhand who becomes one part of the first official interracial marriage in Horry County, SC.Follow the characters lives as they intersect and dovetail into each other, and as the unexpected consequences of their choices unfold.

Ajax Preston West III has everything he's ever wanted, all but Harper Morgan. The one woman he's waited for, the one woman he's always wanted. His best friends sister. Taking over his parent's cattle ranch, he's closer to her then ever before. After years of ignoring his feelings for the sake of his friendship he's ready to make his move. Yet, Harper's coldness towards him has him confused. As the accountant for West End Cattle Ranch Harper has always had a thing for the West's son, Ajax. That was until she overheard him telling her brother he had no interest in her and thinks of her as a sister. Feeling like an idiot for reading his looks and actions wrong, she's goes out of her way to avoid him. Years later she starts working for the West's. Not having to work with Ajax was a blessing. However, now that Ajax is taking over the ranch she has no where to hide. *This is a spin off on my story The Deal....it's going to be a simple sweet and perfect romance. Enjoy! :)* This will be updated when I have time! Don't start reading if you expect regular updates!!! Once Loving Blackmail is completed it will be updated regularly! :) All Rights reserved© to Kylee Kay Yount

Bringing together "Oryx and Crake" and "The Year of the Flood," this thrilling conclusion to Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction trilogy points toward the ultimate endurance of community, and love. Months after the Waterless Flood pandemic has wiped out most of humanity, Toby and Ren have rescued their friend Amanda from the vicious Painballers. They return to the MaddAddamite cob house, newly fortified against man and giant pigoon alike. Accompanying them are the Crakers, the gentle, quasi-human species engineered by the brilliant but deceased Crake. Their reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is recovering from a debilitating fever, so it's left to Toby to preach the Craker theology, with Crake as Creator. She must also deal with cultural misunderstandings, terrible coffee, and her jealousy over her lover, Zeb. Zeb has been searching for Adam One, founder of the God's Gardeners, the pacifist green religion from which Zeb broke years ago to lead the MaddAddamites in active resistance against the destructive CorpSeCorps. But now, under threat of a Painballer attack, the MaddAddamites must fight back with the aid of their newfound allies, some of whom have four trotters. At the center of MaddAddam is the story of Zeb's dark and twisted past, which contains a lost brother, a hidden murder, a bear, and a bizarre act of revenge. Combining adventure, humor, romance, superb storytelling, and an imagination at once dazzlingly inventive and grounded in a recognizable world, MaddAddam is vintage Margaret Atwood—a moving and dramatic conclusion to her internationally celebrated dystopian trilogy.

The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood. The Year of the Flood is a dystopic masterpiece and a testament to her visionary power. The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners—a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, as well as the preservation of all plant and animal life—has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have survived: Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, a God's Gardener barricaded inside a luxurious spa where many of the treatments are edible. Have others survived? Ren's bioartist friend Amanda? Zeb, her eco-fighter stepfather? Her onetime lover, Jimmy? Or the murderous Painballers, survivors of the mutual-elimination Painball prison? Not to mention the shadowy, corrupt policing force of the ruling powers . . . Meanwhile, gene-spliced life forms are proliferating: the lion/lamb blends, the Mo'hair sheep with human hair, the pigs with human brain tissue. As Adam One and his intrepid hemp-clad band make their way through this strange new world, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move. They can't stay locked away . . . By turns dark, tender, violent, thoughtful, and uneasily hilarious, The Year of the Flood is Atwood at her most brilliant and inventive.

This is Margaret Atwood at the absolute peak of her powers. For readers of "Oryx and Crake," nothing will ever look the same again. The narrator of Atwood's riveting novel calls himself Snowman. When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary people once lived, and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary. As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories? Alone except for the green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster, he explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake's high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief. With breathtaking command of her shocking material, and with her customary sharp wit and dark humour, Atwood projects us into an outlandish yet wholly believable realm populated by characters who will continue to inhabit our dreams long after the last chapter.

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!

The Freeze-Dried Groom is one of the nine stories in Margaret Atwood's fantastic new collection Stone Mattress. A collection of highly imaginative short pieces that speak to our times with deadly accuracy. Vintage Atwood creativity, intelligence, and humor: think Alias Grace. Margaret Atwood turns to short fiction for the first time since her 2006 collection, Moral Disorder, with nine tales of acute psychological insight and turbulent relationships bringing to mind her award-winning 1996 novel, Alias Grace. A recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband in "Alphinland," the first of three loosely linked stories about the romantic geometries of a group of writers and artists. In "The Freeze-Dried Groom," a man who bids on an auctioned storage space has a surprise. In "Lusus Naturae," a woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire. In "Torching the Dusties," an elderly lady with Charles Bonnet syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. And in "Stone Mattress," a long-ago crime is avenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion-year-old stromatolite. In these nine tales, Margaret Atwood is at the top of her darkly humorous and seriously playful game.

Sam, a businessman with questionable integrity, is the last person seen with a female serial killer. With the help of Detective Mariano, Sam's wife, Gwyneth, attempts to find Sam...and answers. We first meet Sam in Margaret Atwood's, "The Freeze-Dried Groom," and now it's Gwyneth's chance to voice her marital displeasure. And she has some secrets of her own... *To celebrate the success of this fan-fiction crime thriller, the story now concludes with an EPILOGUE **Freeze-Dried Fiction Contest RUNNER UP, #FreezeDriedFiction Cast: Gwyneth - Anne Hathaway Detective Mariano - Eric Bana Sam - Gerard Butler Rebecca Donovan - Elisha Cuthbert Sebastian - Javier Bardem