Suspicions
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I am a possessive person. I admit it. I thought that Lauren loved me, and I thought that I loved her. I just felt that we were meant to be together. I thought that our arguments and lack of sex were issues that we could address, but that our relationship would be lasting.

I have to admit that sex was an issue for me, and I never really understood why at the time. Now I realize what the problem was. It seems so stupid that I did not recognize my own nature. I must be the biggest self-deceiver on the planet.

I returned her intense look and felt a wave of relief washing over me. I noticed a tiny smile on her face that was getting bigger by the second.

I tried to pull her up slowly. A few seconds later, Mary was up and let herself fall into my arms. We hugged intently for a while. Two sisters against the world. Nobody and nothing could shake us.

During this intense hug we were both crying. We held each other close a little bit longer and then finally let go.

“I am so sorry, Riley. I think that I was way too harsh.”

“I know almost everything they say about lawyers,” he responded. “We make up most of the jokes ourselves. But what do they say about linguists?”

[Late October 2017]
“Good morning Ray. Shall I prepare your usual?” I said to the latest customer who had ventured into my coffee shop that morning. It was blowing a bit of a hoolie out there. A strong south-westerly wind that was predicted to become a full-on gale before midday was dragging rain squalls along with it. Not a nice day to be out and about.

A group of friends streams their gaming on Wednesday nights. But not all the action is on the dining room table.

Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

The Light Between (Part 2 of 8)

by Erisian

Book 5

Chapter 5 - Exams

“Shit!”

First things first. Feed the starving and pathetically meowing kitty: open can, scoop into bowl, give reassuring pets.

Skip shower, curse the hair for being short again and not fitting in a scrunchie all while struggling with a hairbrush to tame strands of wild fire.

Give up. Clothes next.

Strip off pajamas (were they lavender when I went to bed?), grab the folded martial arts uniform from the top of the clean laundry pile. Hop into the leggings, pull on a hopefully-clean sports bra, wrap the top of the gi around the torso before fiddling with the strings that hold it in place, slap the equally white belt around the waist and take three attempts to get the proper knot.

Good enough. Prep complete.

With one last (okay, a few last) scritches to the kitty I ran out the door before bounding down the stairs because the elevator always took forever. Sprinting across the wet and frost-covered campus lawn I realized I hadn’t put on any shoes.

Oops. Oh well.

Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

He's coaching girls for the first time... So what's the best way to relate to them?

Caleb is a recent college grad and part-time volleyball coach who feels directionless in life. But when he's assigned to be an assistant coach for the club's top girls team, Caleb slowly discovers that fitting in with the team may be easier by embracing his feminine side.

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Here's Chapter 2 my new 23 chapter novel In Rotation! Just a preview! I hope you all enjoy, and to those who have already read, thank you!!

-Jennifer

Watching the spreading fire through the eyes of a ghost flying high above the camp, Keir smiled at his work. He'd never tried to animate a forest before, the challenge had been interesting. Of course he'd never been near a forest where virtually all of the plants were dead. He wasn't sure if he should find the creation of poison gas on such a scale interesting or terrifying.

Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

Heather left me to sort out our travel arrangements while she beat the hell out of some pork for her Scottish influenced version of schnitzel.

“I mean, I like taur forms as much as the next girl, but they can make it hard to get around in crowds, and four arms are useful, but they feel kind of played out after last year...”

The city started to fill up with wizards, some non-wizards come with them as family members. We have to start organizing the city so that we can offer support to all those that we have here.

A group of earth wizards, who have specialized in agriculture, are creating an area where we can plant crops to help feed the city. Luckily using hydroponics made these farms much smaller and fit in only a few warehouses. Meat is something we will have to bring in from outside. We don't have room to keep livestock within the city limits.

Living and Loving in Dystopia
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

Nobody thought that it could get any worse for gay Russians with the fall of Vladimir Putin, but his successor seemed all the more keen to crack down on deviant behavior. The fact is that he had an ally in President Pence. It seems like both our countries are now controlled by the ignorant provincial conservatives who regard anything out of their normal as a religious crime. The “Heartland” of Russia is pretty much the same as the Heartland of America – hostile to gay people.

Most jocks being meatheads...

It Takes a Village
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

My grandfather fought in the Great Patriotic War – what is referred to in the West as World War 2. He was a hero, although he said that they all were. The Soviet Union lost 8,668,400 soldiers in that war, which was 10 times more than all the Western allies combined. But when you add civilian casualties the total people from our nation who died was over 27 million – 12% of the population.