Showing results by narrator "Xe Sands" in All Categories

A collection of sweet, tender, poetic, beautiful, heart-wrenching, sensual love stories.

In his second collection of short stories, James Leo Herlihy explores a landscape of people living on the fringes of normal society as the pleasures of daily life fade. Men and women search for the missing fragment of meaning from their existence with Herlihy’s signature humor and deft dialogue. In the titular story, Mary Ellen McClure is trapped in a dull, unfulfilled life in a trailer park, suspecting her husband of having an affair. Together with her neighbor Ivy, she dabbles with a Ouija board which spells out the name Ezra and implies that Mary Ellen will have an affair.

When Cara felt her teenaged children slipping away and saw an empty nest on the horizon, she decided the best way to fill that void was with dogs - lots of them - and so her foster journey began. In 2015, her Pennsylvania farm became a haven for Operation Paws for Homes. There were the nine puppies at once, which arrived with less than a day's notice; a heart-worm positive dog; a deeply traumatized stray pup from Iraq; and countless others who just needed a gentle touch and a warm place to sleep.

Claire wakes in a hospital room in the Florida Keys. She has no idea how she got there or why. The loss of so many memories is paralyzing. Some things she can piece together by looking at old photos saved by her husband, Charlie, and her best friend, Rachel, and by combing through boxes of letters and casual jottings. Told from alternating points of view that pull the listener into the minds of the three characters, the story unfolds as the smudge that covers Claire's memory is gradually, steadily wiped away, until finally she can understand the why and the how of her life.

Spanning the years of the first great settlement of the west, The Removes tells the intertwining stories of 15-year-old Anne Cummins, frontierswoman Libbie Custer, and Libbie’s husband, the Civil War hero George Armstrong Custer. When Anne survives a surprise attack on her family’s homestead, she is thrust into a difficult life she never anticipated - living among the Cheyenne as both a captive and, eventually, a member of the tribe. Libbie, too, is thrown into a brutal, unexpected life when she marries Custer.

Once Adele, Molly, and Lana were The Darling Songbirds, a world-famous country band. Now they're just three sisters who barely speak. But that's about to change. Middle sister Molly arrives in town, and is immediately drawn to the neglected little café where she worked as a teenager. Could she dare to bring it back to life? As lead singer, Molly had always been the voice of the band. But caught between controlling big sister Adele and demanding baby sister Lana, she never felt heard. If she's going to reopen the café, she'll do it on her own terms, no more being bossed.

Drawing on her work at a shelter, her experiences living with two rescue dogs of her own, and years of research, best-selling author and Boston Globe columnist Amy Sutherland takes us on an unforgettable journey into the special world of rescue and shelter dogs - and the growing number of dedicated people who are deeply invested in saving these precious lives.

Famed Broadway producer Milo Short steps out of his Upper West Side brownstone on one exceptionally hot morning, he's not expecting to see the impossible: a woman from his life 60 years ago, winking at him on a New York sidewalk. The sight causes him to suffer a stroke. And when he comes to, the renowned lyricist discovers he has lost the ability to communicate. Milo believes he must unravel his complicated history with Vivian Adair in order to win back his words

It's 1969, and 16-year-old Lucy is about to run away with a much older man to live off the grid in rural Pennsylvania, a rash act that will have vicious repercussions for both her and her older sister, Charlotte. As Lucy's default caretaker for most of their lives, Charlotte's youth has been marked by the burden of responsibility, but never more so than when Lucy's dream of a rural paradise turns into a nightmare.

We all have that one older funny family member. You know the one, he tells stories from his experiences and usually has people rolling their eyes. William Stokes is that person! He presents a delightful collection of memories that are truly life lessons even today! Stokes, through his memories and wit, provides opportunities to learn through laughter, sharing of memories and love.

Once a century, for only six days, the bay around a small Washington island glows like a water-bound aurora. Dr. Rachel Bell, a scientist studying the 100-year miracle and the tiny sea creatures that create it, knows a secret about the phenomenon that inspired the region's myths and folklore: the rare green water may contain a power that could save Rachel's own life (and change the world).

Intrigue and betrayal await in the latest installment of Bookburners, the urban fantasy episodic series that's taken the Internet by storm. Open Season is declared on the Black Archives with every demon in the world wanting the Codex Umbra for their own. Security tightens and the team prepares for inevitable assault never suspecting the sleeper cell already in their midst.

Nothing is what it seems in the shocking penultimate installment of Bookburners, the urban fantasy episodic series from Serial Box. With time running out and the Hand growing stronger inside Sal, the only hope is to banish the demon back to his hellish domain. But to do that, Team Three needs The Book of the Hand, which is back in the Vatican. Now, thanks to a timely offer from Aaron, Sal and the rest of the team stake their freedom on a desperate throw of the dice by venturing into the lion's den....

An epic smackdown ensues as Sal and Team Three match wits and magic with Mr. Norse in the latest thrilling adventure in everyone's favorite online urban fantasy episodic series. The stage is set for Mr. Norse's grand move in possessing "The Norton Anthology of Evil?", aka the Codex Umbra. The team's plans include infiltrating a yacht party, sneaking into a secret compound, and generally trying to stop an evil billionaire from gaining control of a compendium of demons.

Questions are answered and new mysteries introduced as season one of Bookburners, the urban fantasy episodic series from Serial Box, comes to its thrilling conclusion. With The Book of the Hand in their possession at last, Team Three can finally kick the Hand out of Sal's body. The only problem is, if she wants to save Perry, too, she'll have to bring him back from the Hand's dark dimension. That's a tall order, even with the help of Aaron - whatever he is.

After Sal, possessed by the Hand, turns on her friends and teammates, Team Three has to decide whether she is a victim or a target. As Father Menchu tries to buy time, Teams One and Two gear up for the kind of action usually filed under "extreme prejudice". And the Hand, with the dark power of the Codex Umbra at his command, begins to assemble an army.

Someone has betrayed Sal, turned her over to the not-so-tender ministrations of Team Two's Balloon and Stretch. Death seems certain...but the Hand has more tricks up its sleeve. As Father Menchu leads the rest of Team Three to her rescue, will they find a corpse...or something even worse? This episode is brought to you by team writer Brian Francis Slattery, who would like to assure listeners that no actual demons were harmed in the writing of this exorcism.

Weather alert: Tornado-eating titans on the loose in Oklahoma. There might not be much upon the open, wind-swept plains of Oklahoma - but magic, like life, finds a way to thrive nevertheless. In this week's episode, the team is literally blown away when they touch down in a tiny country town, utterly destroyed by horrifying monsters the locals call Tornado Eaters. The town is past saving, but the threat remains - it will take all the society can throw at them, and even that might not be enough.

From spin class to a Matrix marathon to saving Rome in the nick of time, it's all in a day off for Grace and Sal in urban fantasy's new hit episodic series. It's Grace's one-day-off-a-year, and nothing will stop her from enjoying every last second of it: not Sal's troubling sleepwalking, not the mysterious tour guide, Aaron, and not even the magical artifact spreading a time-slowing bubble across Rome. The team's troubles may never stop - but sometimes, you have to make time for a spin class.

After being sent on a wild goose chase in the latest game of cat and mouse with the mysterious Mr. Norse, the team decides they need to get ahead of their competition in the hunt for the Codex Umbra. With no other options, they turn to old friends and even older magic: specifically, the Oracle of Delphi. Sal grows suspicious of her own sleeping habits, and Asanti enjoys some field time; but everyone learns the deadly dangers of playing with prophecy.