"Askaroff continues to charm us with his stories." Not so long ago, doctors made house calls, and fresh milk was delivered daily to our doors. People such as these are gone forever from our modern world-or are they? Alex Askaroff, a Sussex lad, left a thriving family business in specialty textiles to become a travelling sewing machine repairman, carrying on a disappearing trade that he had known since childhood. But, along with his tool kit, this master craftsman brought with him the enthusiasm of a poet and a pure love of story-telling. As Alex brings classic sewing machines back to life, he also picks up local stories, history and gossip. And what stories they are! They range from the lady who was presented, by Alex, with a long lost family heirloom hidden in her sewing machine, to an encounter with the ghost of Arthur Conan Doyle. There's Vic the gardener who practices the old ways of determining when to plant his crops-with his bum; and cross-dressing "Peacehaven Pansies" and their flamboyant friends. From kings to conkers this book brings to life the often eccentric-but always genuine-people who make up Sussex. Alex has spent over 20 years slowly collecting priceless anecdotes of the lives, hilarity, wisdom and history of his Corner of the Kingdom. Here are his stories, photographs, and poems, reprinted for the first time from his three original Random Threads volumes.

Corner of the Kingdom: More Tales from the Coast

Literature & Fiction

ASKAROFF, ALEX

Literary

Cortero Publishing

A NEW Series from Fireship Press. The Best Books You Never Read Trying to decide which books to read next? This series is your answer. Hundreds of classic and quality books presented in summary form. Read a bit about each author, a summary of the book's plot or content, and then decide. Each summary reads like a short story. The series will include: Fiction, Lives and Letters, Ancient and Medieval History, Modern History, Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Economics, Science, Travel and Adventure, and more. VOLUME 5 - FICTION - Gray to Kingsley GRAY, MAXWELL - Silence of Dean Maitland GRIFFIN, GERALD - The Collegians HABBERTON, JOHN - Helen's Babies HALEVY, LUDOVIC - Abbe Constantin HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL - The Scarlet Letter - House of the Seven Gables HICHENS, ROBERT - The Garden of Allah HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL - Elsie Venner HUGHES, THOMAS - Tom Brown's Schooldays - Tom Brown at Oxford HUGO, VICTOR - Les Miserables - Notre Dame de Paris - The Toilers of the Sea - The Man Who Laughs INCHBALD, ELIZABETH - A Simple Story JAMES, G.P.R. - Henry Masterton JOHNSON, SAMUEL - Rasselas JOKAI, MAURICE - Timar's Two Worlds KERNAHAN, COULSON - A Dead Man's Diary KINGSLEY, CHARLES - Alton Locke - Hereward the Wake - Hypatia - Two Years Ago - Water-Babies - Westward Ho KINGSLEY, HENRY - Geoffry Hamlyn - Ravenshoe

The Best Books You Never Read: Vol V - Fiction - Gray to Kingsley

A NEW Series from Fireship Press. The Best Books You Never Read Trying to decide which books to read next? This series is your answer. Hundreds of classic and quality books presented in summary form. Read a bit about each author, a summary of the book's plot or content, and then decide. Each summary reads like a short story. The series will include: Fiction, Lives and Letters, Ancient and Medieval History, Modern History, Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Economics, Science, Travel and Adventure, and more. VOLUME 7 - FICTION - Peacock to Scott PEACOCK, THOMAS LOVE - Headlong Hall - Nightmare Abbey PORTER, JANE - Scottish Chiefs PUSHKIN - The Captain's Daughter RABELAIS - Gargantua and Pantagruel READE, CHARLES - Hard Cash - Never Too Late to Mend - The Cloister and the Hearth RICHARDSON, SAMUEL - Pamela - Clarissa Harlowe - Sir Charles Grandison RICHTER, JEAN PAUL - Hesperus - Titan ROSEGGER, PETER - Papers of the Forest Schoolmaster ROUSSEAU, JEAN JACQUES - New Heloise SAINT PIERRE, BERNARDIN DE - Paul and Virginia SAND, GEORGE - Consuelo - Mauprat SCOTT, MICHAEL - Tom Cringle's Log SCOTT, SIR WALTER - Antiquary - Guy Mannering - Heart of Midlothian - Ivanhoe - Kenilworth - Old Mortality - Peveril of the Peak

The Best Books You Never Read: Vol VII - Fiction - Peacock to Scott

A NEW Series from Fireship Press. The Best Books You Never Read Trying to decide which books to read next? This series is your answer. Hundreds of classic and quality books presented in summary form. Read a bit about each author, a summary of the book's plot or content, and then decide. Each summary reads like a short story. The series will include: Fiction, Lives and Letters, Ancient and Medieval History, Modern History, Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Economics, Science, Travel and Adventure, and more. VOLUME 8 - FICTION - Scott to Zola SCOTT, SIR WALTER (Continued) - Quentin Durward - Rob Roy - Talisman SHELLEY, MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT - Frankenstein SIDNEY, SIR PHILIP - Arcadia SMOLLET, TOBIAS - Roderick Random - Peregrine Pickle STAEL, MME. DE - Corinne STENDHAL (HENRI BEYLE) - Chartreuse of Parma STERNE, LAURENCE - Tristram Shandy STOWE, HARRIET BEECHER - Uncle Tom's Cabin SUE, EUGENE - Mysteries of Paris SWIFT, JONATHAN - Gulliver's Travels THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE - Newcomes - Virginians - Vanity Fair TOLSTOY, COUNT LYOF N. - Anna Karenina TROLLOPE, ANTHONY - The Warden - Barchester Towers TURGENEV, IVAN - Fathers and Sons - A Nest of Nobles - Smoke VERNE, JULES - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea WALPOLE, HORACE - Castle of Otranto ZOLA, EMILE - Drink

The Best Books You Never Read: Vol VIII - Fiction - Scott to Zola

A highly structured pocket of radicals are Hell-bent on demoralizing our nation! In Without Sanctions, Jan Holmes Frost shares the fractured vision of homegrown insurgents who manage to stay one step ahead of our nation's highest-ranking agents. Frost's technical knowledge delves into hidden, multi-layered TS areas within the FBI and CIA, where our agents are forced to implement bleeding-edge neuron technologies that until now have been unknown and untested. Frost shows us what can happen when the protectors of our society must go beyond professional effort...and when it becomes personal. Anthony M. Chapa, Assistant Director (Retired) U.S. Secret Service Drexel Rose, an avid chess player, former Patriots linebacker and U.S. Enemy Surveillance Department expert must stop unknown enemies waging a Christmas Holiday attack on America's famous icons; but to do so, Drex and two other agents are forced to go rogue. Taking great risk, they borrow HCI (human computer interface) from the Oracles who have developed it. They must harness this unbeatable analytical capability if they are to get ahead of this new and deadly game before it reaches epic proportions.

Without Sanctions

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Frost, Jan Holmes

Thrillers & Suspense

Astreya isn't like the other boys in his remote fishing village. When Astreya leaves home, his widowed mother gives him his father's knife, a riddling notebook, and a bracelet with a mysterious and powerful green stone. He sails south with an adventurous fishing boat skipper, hoping that in the world beyond, he can find out who his father was, what the three enigmatic gifts mean, and whether there is any value to the looks, skills and talents that have set him apart from everyone he has ever known. They voyage to a village where all the inhabitants have met a grisly end, and fearing this may be the work of the legendary sailors cursed to sail forever, they dare the open ocean. A storm blows them to a land unlike their own, where Astreya is betrayed by his shipmate and abandoned by his skipper. Escaping slavery, he makes his way to The Castle, where he believes he can learn more about his father's gifts. Along the way, he meets Gar, an itinerant painter, and his striking assistant, Lindey, who can take care of herself with the forces of truth, logic, reason, and the occasional shrewd blow from her quarterstaff. They learn to trust each other, even though all three guard secrets. Accomplished painter, able seaman, and now a proven knife fighter, Astreya is just imagining a new destiny with Lindey when a man from the past he never knew alters the course of his life toward the adventures that continue in Book II, The Men of the Sea. Astreya is a tale of the sea, a mystery, and a love story from another time and a different coast where true-to-life adventures challenge believable characters. "...a trilogy that will fascinate all those who have the sea in their blood and yearn for those days of sail. This is a sailor's yarn brilliantly told... I could not put this book down." -- Commander David Newing, LVO, Royal Navy retired For more about Astreya's world, visit AstreyaTrilogy.com

Astreya, Book I: The Voyage South

Hamilton, Seymour

Genre Fiction

In Book I: The Voyage South, Astreya leaves home, hungry for information about his father's mysterious origins. The crew of the Mollie abandons him in a strange land where only his new friends, Gar and Lindey, help him survive. Pursued by academics and thugs, Astreya flees with Lindey to Charton, only to find himself in the clutches of Adramin, his cousin, who is one of the Men of the Sea Astreya had wanted to know more about. In Book II: The Men of the Sea, Astreya learns from his grandfather Oron how to control his power over the shipstones aboard the great ship Cygnus. He still yearns for Lindey, left on shore against her will. Trying to purge a nagging guilt, Roaring Jack sails the Mollie south again, and this time Astreya's friend Cam is a stowaway. Adramin does everything he can to make Astreya fail. At The City of the Sea, the lawful meeting place of the great ships, family politics turn violent, with tragic consequences. Astreya must hurry to protect Lindey from his marauding uncle Mufrid, who wants the stone Gar gave her. A day-and-night sailing duel, a battle at sea, a shipwreck, a fight in a pub, escapes by sea and secret passage, help from unexpected allies and treachery from family all take their toll on Astreya and his friends. Astreya and Lindey face even more dangers and deceptions before the final conflict in Book III of The Astreya Trilogy: The Wanderer's Curse. "Hamilton has an intuitive grasp of story... Astreya is a work of great power, insight, and ferocious imagination... I recommend it unreservedly." - Spider Robinson, Nebula and Three-time Hugo Award Winner, Recipient of the Heinlein Lifetime Achievement Award "The books feature a pirate, knife fights and much more as factions within the ruling family of the Men of the Sea struggle for supremacy... Hamilton has produced a set of well-rounded characters whom you can empathize with and they are pacey novels which are hard to put down." - David Hayes, HistoricNavalFiction.com

Astreya, Book II: The Men of the Sea

In the darkness of a moonless night, the ghost cat creeps across the U.S.-Mexico border and through a farmer's field just as a small child wanders into its path. Not far away, Sonya Morales, a border agent, struggles to escape from her drug cartel kidnappers. Confronted by crisis in their own world-climate scientists, politicians, and desert museum curators face the biggest challenge man can encounter-no water, anywhere. In the barrios, families and community leaders, band together as they face unbearable heat and the crushing weight of the gangs that intimidate them. Amidst the turmoil, three teens navigate adolescence to become leaders in a new world. With shifting sand underfoot, characters follow their intuition and learn new skills as they chart a way into a viable future. Threshold will make you think while it celebrates the enduring nature of communities as they search for what is lasting and true.

Threshold

Susan Feathers

Set in Tucson, Arizona, A Small Saving Grace, is a tale of suspense with wry sensibilities, offbeat characters and just enough menace to make the reader wince and say, "No, don't go there." Life is in turmoil, yet against the odds, Andy, and those who love her, make slow, but steady progress. All the while, Andy's attacker is stalking the entire household, searching for the right opportunity to kill his only living witness before she regains her ability to communicate. A Small Saving Grace is full of suspense, but at its heart, this is a story of love, resilience, perseverance and healing.

A Small Saving Grace

G. Davies Jandrey

After tragedy strikes, brokenhearted Gretchen takes a holiday in a hilltop Italian village to seek peace and solitude. Through chance, she meets Bettina, an elderly woman estranged from her legacy as a chocolatier. Gretchen soon finds herself wrapped in the aromas of chocolate and caramel and butter and wine, as villagers past and present, question all aspects of love that send her on a journey of self-discovery and healing. But will Gretchen truly be able to leave the past behind and open her heart again to life and love, or will she be conent to drown her sorrows in chocolate?

Straight Uphill: A Tale of Love and Chocolate

Jess Wells

Romance

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