Showing results by narrator "Joe Hempel" in All Categories

He didn't want to be in the game. Now, he has to save it. Killed on the first day on the job, 25-year-old police officer Nyle Maxwell finds his mind uploaded to Capes Online, the world's biggest and most popular VRMMORPG. Yet, the one-way, mind-to-game upload process means that Nyle can never return to his physical body. Now, he must become a real superhero and protect Capes Online from both hostile players and malevolent AIs and NPCs alike that seek to destroy the game itself.

Canada is the second largest country in the world—a land of seemingly endless coastlines, vast prairies, jagged mountains, and deep boreal forests. Despite the vastness of its territory, 90% of Canadians live within 150 miles of the US border leaving room for all manner of strange beings to exist undisturbed. Canadian Monsters and Mysteries will take the listener deep into the mysterious north where mammoths may still roam the frozen tundra while the Manwolf, loup-garou, and Waheela stalk the dense woodland and mysterious valleys.

Everyone’s heard stories about ghost ships. But they’re just stories, right? On the hunt for a missing friend, Marcus and Solomon find a massive black ship in the unexplored regions. Now, they have to find a way to save their trapped friend, and defeat a galaxy-threatening danger. It won’t be easy, but that won’t stop Marcus. He never leaves a friend behind, and this time won’t be any different.

It came from space.... Something virulent. Something evil. Something new. And it is infecting the town of Falls Breath. Carried to Earth in a freak meteor shower, an alien virus has infected the animals. Pets and wildlife have turned rabid, attacking without warning. Dogs and cats terrorize their owners, while deer and wolves from the neighboring woods hunt in packs, stalking and killing their human prey without mercy.

Do you struggle with making decisions as a new real estate investor? We’d all like to be perfect and make tons of money. However, many real estate beginners get sucked into the excitement of the business, and they ignore some fundamental principles of real estate investing. As a result, they make some of the most critical mistakes that could easily have been avoided when buying and selling homes. The real estate investing world, while simple, carries many risks, and just one deal could potentially sink you - ask me how I know.

A collection of short stories, flash fiction, and micro works. Slush includes previously published stories "Skull of Snakes", "Jackie Boy", and "Sweet 16" alongside a fresh batch of terrifying stories to help you sleep at night.

Death stalks the living. Seven writers have fled to Mirror House, a picturesque mansion by the sea. Each member of the group is running from a terrible premonition of their own death on July 24. What they don’t know is they were, in fact, prophesizing the end of the world, for on that very day, billions will die from a relentless heatwave triggered by global warming.

After barely surviving the horrors in ACM mine 1134, Justin Barclay and his ghostly tagalong board a colonist ship bound for a new world. As they explore the futuristic colonist city within the ship, they quickly realize all is not as it seems. The arrival of Dr. Hallie Hayes, a fugitive scientist, arrives on the colonist ship shortly after. Her charge: get her life’s work to the core Coalition planets before it falls into the wrong hands. But she’s too late.

Perfect for fans of Carmen Maria Machado and Kelly Link, Jo Paquette’s Stories I Told My Dead Lover contains eight searing tales of psychological horror that probe the darkest and most deeply buried parts of the human psyche. A child is forced to grow up too soon. A woman trusts her doctor too much. An abandoned woman isn’t as alone as she thinks. An idyllic holiday masks an unspeakable act of violence. Driven, desperate, fighting for the power to choose their own fate, Paquette’s characters dare to push back at the walls that hold them in.

Steel City. The slaver capital of Carttoom. Yaz learns from his rescued friend that the villagers were sold at the Steel City slave market. And if he wants to learn to whom, he'll need to infiltrate the headquarters of the notorious Slavers Guild and copy their records. If that wasn't hard enough, there are still bounty hunters on the group's trail. Staying free themselves might prove an even greater challenge than saving the villagers.

You steal from your heroes and you plan all you want, and yet you are still standing in the same place. Why We Don’t Achieve Sh*t will outline exactly why you are more than capable and yet, fail to see your goals through to the end. Toxic friendships, negotiable goals, procrastination, and lack of deadlines - Why We Don’t Achieve Sh*t addresses why you aren’t getting what you deserve and how to opt out of this loop. That is, unless you’re seriously not sick and tired of this sh*t yet. Everyone else is.

The Eyler family was anything but average. The father a top literary agent and the mother a duchess, they thrived in their prestigious Oakmont mansion surrounded by luxury…and secrets. On a cold autumn night, their legacy ended with a grisly massacre in one of the most horrific scenes ever investigated. Soon details splashed across every newspaper of how the family of five lay slaughtered in their library, cursing the mansion as it became branded the Execution Estate. With no witnesses and no motives, the killer remained free. Speculations grew darker. Answers grew dimmer. Until now.

When three desperate teens meet Aaron, a failed practitioner of the dark arts, who offers them the best high they've ever smoked in exchange for kinky sex play, things only go from bad to worse. Aaron hopes to ensnare and re-birth the spirit of a late witch to capture her power from beyond the grave for his own.

As beautiful as the night can be, it often plays a role in something more foreboding, supplying the catalyst for things both terrifying and imaginative. Utilizing this hallowed time of the day, author Chad Lutzke has written and compiled 18 stories, with creature features, sleep deprivation, hiding the undead, revenge, cannibalism, morbid habits, and executions of karma being just a handful of the themes covered in this book.

With her former captor, the shadow sorcerer Daktari, now serving as her mentor, Princess Shara must learn to control the power of the Divine Key. Concerned about the princess’ growing power, the Void dispatches its mightiest champion, the fallen prince, Nord, to capture her. And lurking in the dark between worlds is the elder demon Balthis, just waiting for a chance to join with his master and destroy the world. Can Shara grasp her power and seal away the Void before Nord forces her to free Balthis? It’s a race to the finish with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

Dreams do come true, they suddenly find, as a staggering string of successes changes the fledgling academy to a small federation almost overnight. Chris and his friends are living their dreams, but to stay on this unlikely trajectory, they're forced to keep topping themselves. Can the Ramsay boys keep satisfying the blood-lust of the die-hard fans before the stakes reach life and death? What if they never had a choice in the first place?

As old age creeps at the edges of his life, Papa Marco drudges one day into the next until a single shout rekindles memories of who and what he is. Hidden by his shaggy gray mane, a forgotten strength remembered becomes the kindling that will set the Frontier ablaze on a path to war. With each battlefield win, the leader Marco once was becomes the signal fire to rally scattered colonial forces in a push to reclaim their freedom. Rising out of the ashes of the Exodus Wars, their enemy will stop at nothing to silence their victory cries in the cold dark void.

When Comet Press put out the call for submissions for Stiff Things, we said we were ready to ratchet up the eroticism and visceral intensity with hardcore stories that penetrate new depths of psychosexual horror. But we weren't as ready as we thought we were for the extreme stuff that came flooding in on waves of blood and other bodily fluids we won't mention here. Not that we're complaining. In other words, we got what we wished for...and more.

In the spring of 1981, Parker City is rocked by a series of brutal murders. Unthinkable crimes the likes of which are unheard of in the close-knit community. Under great pressure from the powers-that-be, it is made clear to newly minted Parker City Police Detectives Ben Winters and Tommy Mason that their first case could very well be their last if they can't catch the killer. Decades later, after distinguished careers in law enforcement, Ben and Tommy find themselves on the eve of retirement. But in their final days on the job, their very first case comes back to haunt them.

Mark's always been a bit insecure as a father; his own childhood sucked. He's been terrified he will ruin his perfect daughters. So he buys them presents and hopes he won't screw them up. They certainly won't forget this dollhouse. He doesn't know how to stop it, and all he wanted to do was be a good father. He was worried they'd grow up to hate him; now he's worried they won't grow up at all.