Joe’s Woman
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Joe surveyed his claim with some pride in the early evening light, the red earth of Western Australia made even more red by the final rays of the sun. The portable building they had lived in was still flattened on the slight rise facing Treasure Hill, but the screening plant and loader were now back to full operation after the dust storm of the previous month.

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.

Lyn becomes comfortable in her role as a girl, and experiences new sensations.

Chapter One – An Offer She Couldn’t Refuse

A naive young Russian crossdresser who works as an interpreter for the KGB is exposed and given a chance to save herself and her family by working undercover as a femme fatale. Valerie has no choice but to go along with the KGB's plan to use her as an enchantress to lure unsuspecting men to their fate.

Author's note: I am still working on my edits of The Return of Lilith. It has been taking me a lot longer than I planned it too. I hope that these edits will make the story better overall. I decided today that I was going to take a break from editing and knock out the prelude to the next adventure of Lilith and her family. This one will contain some violence against women and some graphic descriptions of rape and abuse. I wanted to warn you up front since this will be a common theme throughout the book. I hope you enjoy the new adventures.

“You do need something to wear to church tomorrow,” she insisted.

The time has come for Jamie to debut as Juliette and meet Scotty at a party. Will "she" solve his confidence problem right away, or get thrown further into the deep end?

-4-
An Interesting Proposal

I accidentally wrote this continuation of “It Started With an Opera,” through no fault of my own. Read that first, for context.

As a traveling bard, Narook had explored many lands and has seen countless wonderous things.
Little does he know that arriving at the Dragon's Hoard tavern would change all that.
While forced to settle down, his greatest journey is just about to begin.

“Yes!” I said, and babbled on before I could lose the momentary burst of confidence, “I’m interested in —”

Chapter 35

Despite my misgivings, my time spent at the photography studio that afternoon was enjoyable. In the two hours or so that I spent there before Mum and Aunt Heather returned, I got a really good insight into what goes into creating good photographs.

Diane asked that I assist her in the staging of the photos, especially when she was busy taking shots of Barney. I was nominated to distract him, so he looked in the direction of the lens, which was achieved by me holding up and squeaking a dog toy behind Diane’s shoulder.

Playing Marbles for the Big Blue

08 Alban Invasion, Almost

By Jo Dora Webster

How will Rasctan make a name for himself on Alban Kai?

A sexy music video helps a boy reveal his true feelings about breasts.

___________________

I was sitting in my room doing the last of my homework when Mother disturbed my concentration. I suspected she wanted me to spend the rest of the evening with her. I had been looking forward to finishing the romance novel that I had borrowed from the young adult section of the local library. Reluctantly I wandered out to the head of the stairs where I could understand what she was saying, and sure enough I was right.