Dramatic is one of many words used to describe Strawberry Mansion: A Philadelphia Story. The story is centered around three young women, friends, who must rely on their connection to each other to weather tragic storms. Tabitha, 19, lost her freedom in high school when she hooked up with a boy who would impregnate her and make her his punching bag. Lisa, 17, is deemed "the strong one" by her friends, but her own past of sexual abuse and pregnancy at the hands of her step father keeps her one second from falling apart as the drama builds. Shanice, 14, is a hellion, ready and willing to let any boy have her just to get the affection she believes her mother has withheld. As their world spirals out of control, they cling fast to one another in the hope that love, friendship, and strength will not only keep them together, but will also move them to a better place in their lives

Michael is jealous of of the frequent love between Liz and Wendy. Jason is instructed to watch them closely but when he is caught, he is asked to join in and can't refuse.

Word Count: 4277
Warning: Readers 18 and older only.
M/F M/F/F

Michael is jealous of of the frequent love between Liz and Wendy. Jason is instructed to watch them closely but when he is caught, he is asked to join in and can't refuse.

Word Count: 4277
Warning: Readers 18 and older only.
M/F M/F/F

Murder at the Bellamy Mansion (Paperback) by Ellen Elizabeth Hunter

Violet Brown is about to get a crash course in the penalties of the drug trade. Busted attempting to cross state lines with five kilos of Columbia’s finest, she finds herself facing a twenty-four year prison sentence, pregnant and alone. Find out what happens to Violet when the bars close on one of the most vicious correctional facilities in the state, and Begonia and her girls rip the city up to set things right.



Julia Press Simmons is a talented writer who captures the heart and soul of her character's emotions, making readers become attached to the characters within her novels. Each novel in the Strawberry Mansion series just gets better and better.
~Leona Romich~

Violet Brown is about to get a crash course in the penalties of the drug trade. Busted attempting to cross state lines with five kilos of Columbia’s finest, she finds herself facing a twenty-four year prison sentence, pregnant and alone. Find out what happens to Violet when the bars close on one of the most vicious correctional facilities in the state, and Begonia and her girls rip the city up to set things right.



Julia Press Simmons is a talented writer who captures the heart and soul of her character's emotions, making readers become attached to the characters within her novels. Each novel in the Strawberry Mansion series just gets better and better.
~Leona Romich~

Liz works at a hotel owned by the infamous Michael. When she delivers room service to his room he gives her an offer she can't refuse - and much more.

Word count: 4463
Warning: Readers 18 and older only
M/F F/F

Liz works at a hotel owned by the infamous Michael. When she delivers room service to his room he gives her an offer she can't refuse - and much more.

Word count: 4463
Warning: Readers 18 and older only
M/F F/F

To create something that will last is Claire Laurent's most fervent desire as an artist. It's also her greatest weakness. When her fraud of a father deals her an unexpected hand, Claire is forced to flee from New Orleans to Nashville, only a year after the War Between the States has ended. Claire's path collides with that of Sutton Monroe, and she considers him a godsend for not turning her in to the authorities. But when they meet again and he refuses to come to her aid, she realizes she's sorely misjudged the man. Trading an unwanted destiny for an unknown future, Claire finds herself in the middle of Nashville's elite society and believes her dream of creating a lasting impression in the world of art may finally be within reach.

All that Sutton Monroe holds dear lies in ruin. He's determined to reclaim his heritage and to make the men who murdered his father pay. But what he discovers on his quest for vengeance reveals a truth that may cost him more than he ever imagined.

Set at Nashville's historical Belmont Mansion, a stunning antebellum manor built by Mrs. Adelicia Acklen, the richest woman in America in the 1860s, A Lasting Impression showcases the deep, poignant, unforgettable characters that set Tamera's stories apart and provides an inspiring love story that will capture readers' hearts and leave them eager for more.

Gwendolyn owes some bad people some serious money, with interest. When she is brought in to plead her case before the big boss, she gets an offer she can't refuse - and he gets a new sex slave.

Warning: For readers 18 and older only
Word Count: 5324

Gwendolyn owes some bad people some serious money, with interest. When she is brought in to plead her case before the big boss, she gets an offer she can't refuse - and he gets a new sex slave.

Warning: For readers 18 and older only
Word Count: 5324

From the author of MALAKH comes a dark tale of black magic, obsession, and the price of covenants with the fallen.

The Wyckham House has stood for centuries, its origin unknown, its history black and bloody. Aaron Schaefer came away from his experience with “the devil’s mansion” with amnesia and an aversion to specific people…and to the full moon.

When Kimberly Owens’ father disappears in Aaron’s town, she gives no heed to the potential danger. Reckless and rash, armed only with a borrowed identity, a false sense of indestructibility, and a precognitive dream that leads her to Aaron, she breezes into town – only to find herself entangled in the sticky web of a black magic priest whose obsession with her grows with every passing day.

As Kim becomes inexplicably ill and all evidence indicates her father left town of his own accord, she delves into Aaron’s mysterious past, searching for clues to lead her to her father. All evidence points to the Wyckham House.

Only one man has gone there and returned alive. But even if Aaron could remember what happened to him, he doesn’t want to.

Because there are worse things than death.

From the author of MALAKH comes a dark tale of black magic, obsession, and the price of covenants with the fallen.

The Wyckham House has stood for centuries, its origin unknown, its history black and bloody. Aaron Schaefer came away from his experience with “the devil’s mansion” with amnesia and an aversion to specific people…and to the full moon.

When Kimberly Owens’ father disappears in Aaron’s town, she gives no heed to the potential danger. Reckless and rash, armed only with a borrowed identity, a false sense of indestructibility, and a precognitive dream that leads her to Aaron, she breezes into town – only to find herself entangled in the sticky web of a black magic priest whose obsession with her grows with every passing day.

As Kim becomes inexplicably ill and all evidence indicates her father left town of his own accord, she delves into Aaron’s mysterious past, searching for clues to lead her to her father. All evidence points to the Wyckham House.

Only one man has gone there and returned alive. But even if Aaron could remember what happened to him, he doesn’t want to.

Because there are worse things than death.

A delightful new setting—London—a wonderful new cast of characters and one incredibly clever dog.
 
Corduroy Mansions is the affectionate nickname given to a genteel, crumbling mansion block in London’s vibrant Pimlico neighborhood and the home turf of a captivating collection of quirky and altogether McCall-Smithian characters. There’s the middle-aged wine merchant William, who’s trying to convince his reluctant twenty-four-year-old son, Eddie, to leave the nest; and Marcia, the boutique caterer who has her sights set on William. There’s also the (justifiably) much-loathed Member of Parliament Oedipus Snark; his mother, Berthea, who’s writing his biography and hating every minute of it; and his long-suffering girlfriend, Barbara, a literary agent who would like to be his wife (but, then, she’d like to be almost anyone’s wife). There’s the vitamin evangelist, the psychoanalyst, the art student with a puzzling boyfriend and Freddie de la Hay, the Pimlico terrier who insists on wearing a seat belt and is almost certainly the only avowed vegetarian canine in London.
 
Filled with the ins and outs of neighborliness in all its unexpected variations, Corduroy Mansions showcases the life, laughter and humanity that have become the hallmarks of Alexander McCall Smith’s work. 

Alexander McCall Smith on Corduroy Mansions

When I started writing serial novels in newspapers six years ago, I had no idea that the whole business would rapidly become addictive. My initial foray into this genre of fiction began after a conversation with Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City, which was a saga of life in San Francisco that ran to several volumes. The idea was implanted of starting a daily novel set in Edinburgh, and a few months later I embarked on 44 Scotland Street. After five years of producing a chapter a day for six months of the year, I decided to give Edinburgh a rest for a while and start a tale set in London. Corduroy Mansions, published each day in the online edition of The Daily Telegraph, was the result.

Like any saga, there is a story--but it is not a complicated one. These stories are character-based: what interests me is what makes the characters tick rather than intricate and potentially confusing plots.

There are quite a lot of characters in the story, many of them occupying a rather run-down block of flats in Pimlico that gives its name to the series. We are introduced to William French, a wine merchant who has just turned fifty, but who is in denial about that. He is a widower with a dreadful son, Eddie, who sees no reason to leave a comfortable home and set up independently, in spite of every encouragement by his father. William is admired by Marcia, a caterer who would like to marry him--or anybody really.

William lives at the top of the building. On the floor below is a shared flat lived in by four young women. One of these, Dee, runs a vitamin and health food shop not far away and is a keen exponent of alternative medicine in its various guises, and in particular of colonic irrigation. Then there is Caroline, who is studying for a master’s degree in fine art at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

Caroline is fond of James, who is doing the same course as she is. James is very artistic, with a particular interest in the work of the French artist, Nicolas Poussin. James likes Caroline a great deal, but is unsure as to what his real proclivities are. Caroline is optimistic that she can confirm him in the direction she would like him to take, that is as one who is interested in women, but will she succeed?

William, at least, is quite unambiguous in that department: he wants to find a woman. His long-time friend Marcia, however, thinks she just may be his match. In the meantime, William has for company a remarkable dog, Freddie de la Hay, a Pimlico Terrier.

Then there is Oedipus Snark, a Liberal Democrat MP. He is so unpleasant that his mother, Berthea Snark, is writing his unauthorized biography in which she has the intention of dishing every bit of dirt on her son that she can muster. Berthea is the sister of the mystically-inclined Terence Moongrove, an exponent of Bulgarian sacred dance and the unexpected driver of a Porsche.

That is probably all that one needs to know. But even if one cannot be bothered to absorb even those few facts, the story will, I hope, be abundantly clear. This is light social comedy, I suppose, but while I admit that the whole point of the exercise is for the reader to have fun, I hope in this story, nonetheless, to say something about how we live and about how finding love and meaning in the very small things of life may transform us, may make our ordinary lives more bearable.