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  Exercises In Control

  Annabel Banks

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  'Smart and smarting, Banks's incisive stories reveal the sharp tensions and chaotic impassivities of modern life. A triumph.'
  – Eley Williams, author of Attrib.
  'We do have a complaints procedure. You will find paper and a pen (chained) to the shelf by the bin. Write your concerns and then place them in the bin. PLEASE NOTE: We do not allow items to be placed in the bin. Please do not write on the paper.'
  A lonely woman invites danger between tedious dates; a station guard plays a bloody game of heads-or-tails; an office cleaner sneaks into a forbidden room hiding grim secrets.
  Compelling and provocative, Annabel Banks's debut short fiction collection draws deeply upon the human need to be in control — no matter how devastating the cost.

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  The Final Problem

  Arthur Conan Doyle

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  Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 22nd May 1859.  His childhood was blighted by his father’s heavy drinking which for some years broke up the family. Fortunately, wealthy uncles were willing to support them by paying for education and clothing.  
   
  He was accepted at the University of Edinburgh to study medicine and also began to write short stories the first, ‘The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe’, was published in Blackwood’s Magazine.  Despite several other stories and some articles in the British Medical Journal his medical studies took priority. 
   
  When these finished he was appointed as Doctor on the Greenland whaler ‘Hope of Peterhead’ in 1880 and then, after graduation, as ship’s surgeon on the SS Mayumba on its voyage to West Africa. 
   
  1882 saw a move to Plymouth and his own independent practice. With few patients he resumed writing and completed his first novel, ‘The Mystery of Cloomber’, although most of his output was short stories based on his experiences at sea.  
   
  He married Louisa Hawkins in 1885. However, two years later he met and fell in love with Jean Elizabeth Leckie, though they remained platonic out of respect for, and loyalty to, his wife. 
   
  His literary career suddenly burst into life in November 1886 with ‘A Study In Scarlet’, the first of the fabulously successful Sherlock Holmes stories.  
   
  With two children to support he now revisited his haphazard commercial arrangements and curtailed everything save for commissions from the Strand Magazine.  
   
  As a sportsman he was remarkably proficient. He was goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club and played ten first-class cricket matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club as well as captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club in East Sussex.  
   
  In 1891 tired of writing Holmes stories, he began a series of historical novels and even went so far as to apparently kill off Holmes in a lethal brawl with his arch-nemesis Moriarty. 
   
  Despite heavy and sustained criticism he continued to write in support of the Boer War, a fact he thought contributed to his knighthood in 1902.  The following year to great relief and acclaim he brought Sherlock Holmes back from the dead in his first outing for a decade. 
   
  Sadly, his wife Louisa died from TB in 1906 and, a year later, he at last married Jean.  
   
  During the War and for several years after family deaths had left him depressed. In a search for solace and answers he alighted upon spiritualism and, such was his interest, that he wrote several books on the subject. 
   
  On 7th July 1930 Conan Doyle was discovered in the hall of Windlesham Manor, his house in East Sussex, clutching his chest dying of a heart attack.  He was 71.

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  Susie's Letter from Santa

  Mark Twain

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  When Mark Twain's daughter Susie wrote a letter to Santa Claus, her father wrote back, signing Santa's name. Charming and heartwarming, this version of the short letter was recorded as part of Dreamscape's Classic Christmas Stories: A Collection of Timeless Holiday Tales.

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  A Thousand Fiendish Angels -...

  J.F. Penn

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  This recording has been digitally produced by DeepZen Limited, using a synthesized version of an audiobook narrator’s voice under license. DeepZen uses Emotive Speech Technology to create digital narrations that offer a similar listening experience to human narration. 
   
  Three dark short stories inspired by Dante's Inferno, linked by a book of human skin passed down through generations. 
   
  Sins of the Flesh: When the mutilated corpse of a wealthy author is discovered, the police officer sent to investigate finds a curious diary amongst the occult objects at the scene. Will he uncover the author's secret at the ruined chapel, and is he willing to pay the price that it demands? 
   
  Sins of Treachery: 30 years later. On the death of their grandfather, twin brothers Simon and Gestas are left a map covered in alchemical symbols that could lead them to great wealth and power. But they find more than they expected in the frozen wastes of the Arctic north... 
   
  Sins of Violence: 30 years later. In a brutal post-apocalyptic world, a young girl is about to be taken to The Minotaur for a Blessing that will end her innocence. Can her sister gain access to the fortified city of Dis in time to stop the ritual and avenge her own lost youth? 
   
  If you love dark short stories, download a sample or buy A THOUSAND FIENDISH ANGELS now.

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  This Christmas

  Jane Green

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  In this trio of warm, witty, insightful stories, three very different women face questions of the heart that could change all their Christmases to come. Vacation by Jane Green: When her husband's job takes him away from home indefinitely, a restless suburban wife and mother must confront Christmas alone - and decide whether she's better off that way. The Second Wife of Reilly by Jennifer Coburn: A newlywed is haunted by thoughts of her husband's first wife - and comes up with an unusual plan to cure herself in time for Christmas... Mistletoe and Holly by Liz Ireland: Longing to fit into her family's picture perfect holiday celebration, a young woman finally brings home the perfect boyfriend - only to find that nothing is as she expected. Infused with the hopes and dreams of the season, these entertaining and exquisitely written stories will inspire your Christmas spirit and will stay with you all year long.

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  The Donkey Skin

  Andrew Lang

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  "The Donkey Skin" is a strange fairy tale of a princess who escapes an unwanted marriage by running away from the palace dressed in a donkey skin, to a hard life of poverty as a hen-wife. When a young prince happens to catch a glimpse of her without her donkey skin, he falls in love with her. But how is he to find the beautiful maiden again?

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