Showing results by narrator "Neil Hellegers" in All Categories

Years before his marriage to Olga Knipper and his self-imposed medical exile to Yalta, years before he even began writing the seminal works of dramatic literature for which he is renowned, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, to support his financially and physically struggling family, wrote stories...many, many stories. Starting in his early 20s, living in Moscow, he made a name for himself by capturing the peculiarities of Russian life through satire, humor, pathos, and passion. Myriad influences inspired his eventual words for the stage.

The sleeping mind is a mysterious backdrop that science is just beginning to shed light on. It was only some 60 years ago that researchers discovered REM, the rapid-eye-movement cycle that's associated with dreams. In Nightmareland, Lex "Lonehood" Nover travels into the eerie borderlands where the unconscious, dreams, and strange entities intermingle under the cover of night, revealing wider and hidden aspects of ourselves, from the savage and frightening to the astounding and sublime.

Outcast and exiled, the demon Tarrik Nal-Valim has long been forgotten by the world of humans. At least, so he thinks. But when he is summoned as a last resort by a desperate sorcerer, it seems as though his past has caught up with him. The sorcerer is Serenity “Ren” Branwen, the daughter of Tarrik’s former master - and friend. Though she seems cold, driven, and ruthless, Tarrik can tell Ren has her back against a wall, and he is compelled by ferocious powers to obey her.

With the graveyard that was Washington, DC, now in their wake, Jack and the group head west toward the Mojave Desert. There, in the scorching hot wasteland, an organization known as Central works to cleanse the world of the zombie virus. But Central can't operate without Doc Klein. They need his superior intellect and tenacity. So Jack's mission is simple: Deliver Klein to their base unharmed. But the survivors don't know the entire story behind the cure, and someone in Jack's circle does. This secret could very well tear the family apart.

With Eden now behind Jack, he and the group set out to find the mysterious Doc Klein, who may know how to put a stop to the zombie plague and bring peace back to our world. But the task won't be an easy one. While traveling through the wasted East Coast, Jack and the gang get caught in a war between two groups - human cannibals and the Wranglers, the latter led by an ancient, clairvoyant woman named Mother. It is Mother who warns Jack of the Doc's insanity.

Lizards, Goblins and the Created are on three of four sides. He's going to have to throw back their armies with his own, utilizing Heroes of yore and long standing allies. Doing so will stretch his resources and his cities to the maximum, even as the need to keep growing continues. Good thing he’s got new Heroes, new units and new tricks up his sleeves. And along the way, maybe; just maybe, he'll get the answer to what this great game is all about.

Jarl Beckström, Clan Lord of Norvaask, has done the impossible. With the help of his friends, he forged an alliance with Jotungard—their bitterest rival—and installed a new ruler upon the throne. Now he turns his focus inward to strengthen his people for the impending war. But as they prepare, the world crumbles down around them.

A mystical and transcendent journey of two wanderers, an 11-year-old boy and an old man to whom the boy has been entrusted by his father, a Jew, fleeing the ravages of the war by the late award winning author, Aharon Appelfeld. The old man is a former Ukrainian commander, revered by the soldiers under his command, who has gone blind and chosen the life of a wanderer as his last spiritual adventure.

In her second collection from Trepidatio Publishing, award-winning author Gemma Files takes her listeners on journeys out beyond safe borders—from the trackless depths of the sea, to the empty desert frontiers of the Weird West, even to the edges of cracks between worlds. Here, in these narrow spaces between the known and the unknown, behind the paper-thin curtains of reality, lurk monsters both human and ancient: selkies and avenging revenants, voodoo priestesses and pirate sorcerers, ghosts and vampires, and the most famous murderer of all time.

The game was something Viktor was starting to dread more and more. Things didn't go according to plan, people were swayed by a sweet promise of power and quickly changed allegiances, leaving his back open to attack. Still, not everything was so bleak. Taking the reins over one's future is the only way to survive in such a mad world, and no matter how much he thinks he can trust others, Viktor is proven wrong over and over again.

Horsetooth Reservoir is an artificial body of water in land-locked Colorado. So how did a mermaid end up there? Cormac, former bounty hunter turned supernatural problem solver, doesn't much care how she got there. But he's determined to get her home, no matter who tries to stop him. And a surprising number of people are trying to stop him.

Notable literary figures pay tribute to poet/writer Justin Chin with personal commentaries on works selected from his seven books. Justin Chin's fearless and fierce voice was resolute in relating his worldview, whether directly or through metaphorical language. As a queer Asian American, born and raised in Southeast Asia within a devoutly Christian, ethnically Chinese family of medical professionals, Chin's early life experience informed his writing and framed his point of view.

It's all-out war between the players and characters in a role-playing game that has taken on a life of its own. The fighter Delrael, the sorcerer Bryl, as well as famed scientists Verne and Frankenstein, use every trick in the Book of Rules to keep the world of Hexworld intact while the outside group of players does everything possible to destroy it. The end is here. Or will it be a new beginning?

Benjamin Travers has been electrocuted. What's worse, he and his friends have woken up in the 1980s. As the friends search for a way home, they realize they're not alone. There are other time travelers, and some of them are turning up dead.

Over the past two years, a group of four players had given so much to their role-playing world that it had developed a magic of its own. The creatures, warriors, sorcerers, thieves—all came alive. Now, there is an odd connection between the gamers and their characters, splitting into factions to determine the fate of the Game itself, and both the inside and the outside worlds. One thing is for certain. Hexworld will never be the same.

Los Angeles, 1962. Jimmy Dean, bit part actor befriends famed actress Marilyn Monroe. When Marilyn is found dead in her LA home, the ruling is suicide, but Jimmy thinks otherwise. As he starts digging, he comes up against those who wish to stop him from uncovering the truth. Realizing that he's in over his head, Jimmy calls former business partner, Mississippi truck driver Elvis Presley. As Jimmy and Elvis search deeper, they uncover a potential link between Marilyn's death and the highest office in the land.

Evidence at a fiery car crash leads K-9 officer Nelson Rivers and his accelerant-detection dog, Diesel, to Mia Turner—a woman previously accused of arson. But when a gunman targets Mia during their first meeting, Nelson suspects she might actually be innocent. Only Mia’s hiding something, and Nelson’s been burned before

Eric McCaffrey has been playing Zag in the VR-MMOFPS Battlegrounds Online for a while now. The more he plays, the more entrenched into the game he gets. It hardly even feels like a game anymore. Zag, now one of the commandos for the Knights of the Tactical Operations Group, is tasked with freeing Punta del Muerta from the terrorist group Wyvern. Along with the rest of the Knights, Zag will dive deep into the jungles, war-torn cities, and concrete bunkers, but will he be able to complete all the missions in time?

In September 1939, Nazi Holocaust mastermind Heinrich Himmler conscripts brilliant physicist Peter Winter to devise a secret weapon of supreme power and to create a revolutionary aircraft to deliver it. Peter and his Jewish wife, Rachel, know they may only be able to slow Himmler down and not stop him from developing the ultimate weapon.

During the pandemic, our homes and apartments have transported us to new places, different experiences, and changed our understanding of ourselves and others. This collection of 12 tales explores those journeys through the lens of fantasy and science fiction, accentuating the strange and unexpected to reveal the relatable, human dimensions of our continuing migration from what’s normal to a new normal...or even paranormal.