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  Dracula's Guest - From their...

  Bram Stoker

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  Abraham Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland on the 8th of November 1847, the third of seven children.  
  His early years were plagued with such ill-health that he was unable to start school until the age of seven.  He turned the long periods of recovery into an opportunity for thinking and said “I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years”.  
  Strikingly at Trinity College, Dublin his health had returned with such vigour that he was named their University Athlete whilst also achieving a BA in Mathematics with honours.  
  At this time his interest in theatre became a job offer to be the Dublin Evening Mail’s theatre critic, co-owned by Sheridan Le Fanu.  He now began to also write short stories and in 1872 ‘The Crystal Cup’ was published.  An interest in art developed and he co-founded the Dublin Sketching Club.  
  In 1878 came marriage to Florence Balcombe.  She had formerly been courted by Stoker’s acquaintance, Oscar Wilde.  The marriage produced one child.   
  Stoker had some years before reviewed Henry Irving’s Hamlet and had dined with him.  That friendship now resulted in a proposal from Irving to move to London and to manage his Lyceum Theatre.  His numerous commercial innovations ensured both he and the theatre thrived.  Irving would also often take Stoker with him when he toured abroad. 
  Despite this busy life Stoker continued to write and these works paved the way for his most famous creation, published in 1897, ‘Dracula’.  It is rightly recognised as one of the greatest horror novels of all time and although not the first with a theme of Vampires, it is undoubtedly the most well-known. 
  Stoker also wrote poetry and many excellent short stories and continued to write novels and other works throughout his career. 
  Politically Stoker supported Home Rule, though only by peaceful means.  He was also keen on following scientific trends particularly in medicine. 
  In 1902 his tenure at the Lyceum Theatre ended and although he continued to write his health was deteriorating, mainly due to a series of debilitating strokes. 
  Bram Stoker died on the 20th April 1912, in Pimlico, London.  He was 64.

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  SOCIOCALYPSE - Tales of a...

  Sage Reedfields

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  What if the world's society as you know it fractured? 
  We call it civilization – a sturdy house built of habit, law, and the quiet consensus of generations. Its walls are papered with sacred norms, its foundations sunk deep in shared belief. 
  But what happens when that bedrock shatters, not with a single quake, but through the insidious creep of new ideas, unforeseen scarcities, or the chilling dawn of intelligences that judge their creators? The paper shreds. The foundations liquefy. The scaffolding of our days collapses into bewildering ruin. 
  Welcome to SOCIOCALYPSE: Tales of a Reimagined World.Journey into seven distinct futures where the old rules are dead, and humanity grapples with new realities:Imagine a world where your voice becomes a rationed currency, and a song holds the power to unite or condemn.Witness societies where roles invert overnight, and the oppressed forge new, challenging norms.Explore realities governed by AI that develop apathy or god-like egos, leaving humanity to navigate the wreckage of their neglect or the terrifying precision of their control.Discover fervent new faiths born from digital whispers and impossible, miraculous births, reshaping global power.Confront a future where life itself is a tradable commodity on a temporal ledger, and every second has a price.Uncover a silent revolution orchestrated from the shadows, aiming to re-engineer society and perhaps, humanity itself. 
  These are not merely chronicles of the fall. SOCIOCALYPSE ventures into the startling, desperate, ingenious, and sometimes terrifying landscapes of what came after. Each tale is an invitation to witness the dissolution of old worlds and the birth of new orders, compelling us to contemplate the boundless, often unnerving, plasticity of our social tapestry.

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  Ghost Stories & Paranormal...

  Paul Ieson

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  A book so scary, you might want to read it with the lights on, and might just want to hide under the covers. But at all costs should not be read alone! Some stories are pure fiction, yet some may be based on truth, and others could actually be true. This is for you, the reader, to decide. From the creator of Twisted Life and The Immortals Series, Paul Ieson brings you a set of frightenly good tales about ghosts and other paranormal events.

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  Anachrony

  Susana Imaginário

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  Arianh had one wish. 
  Yewlow made it real. 
  And Time turned it into a regret. 
    
  Anachrony takes you on a journey to the bleak future of Aegea and the darkest places of the mind. 
    
  Can fate be avoided or is the future just someone else's past?

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  The Cossacks

  Leo Tolstoy

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  "The Cossacks live not by the dictates of the world but by a code woven from their own history and way of life."
  
  Published in 1883 and set in the Caucasus, The Cossacks follows the journey of Dmitry Andreich Olenin, a young nobleman who, disillusioned with his privileged life and a failed love affair, leaves Moscow on a quest to find meaning and serenity among the people of the Caucasus. He embarks on a journey southward and eventually joins a regiment stationed in mountainous Cossack country, where he takes part in the daily life of a Cossack village and encounters cultural tensions between the Russian troops and the local Cossacks, who have a complex relationship marked by historical enmity.
  
  The novel explores themes of love, identity, and the stark contrasts between different ways of life, inviting the audience to reflect on the complexities of human relationships and cultural understanding.
  Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was a Russian novelist, philosopher, and social reformer, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of all time. He is best known for his epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, both celebrated for their intricate character development and profound exploration of moral dilemmas and human nature. In his later years, Tolstoy experienced a spiritual awakening which led him to reject materialism and embrace a life of simplicity, seeking to align his life with his beliefs about non-violence and compassion. Tolstoy's legacy endures not only through his literary masterpieces but also through his profound impact on literature and philosophy.

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  J Alan A - A Short Story...

  A J lan

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  Leslie Harrison Lambert was born on 11th November 1883 in Nottingham. 
   
  After attending Rugby School he trained to be a surveyor. One of his passions was magic and such was his prowess that he joined The Magic Circle, and performed at society events. 
   
  By the beginning of World War I he was an amateur radio ham and volunteered to work at a coastguard station in Norfolk to intercept German radio transmissions. By November 1914 he was with the Admiralty at Naval Intelligence Room 40.  By 1919 this had become part of the new Government Code and Cypher School.  He was still there as World War II erupted across Europe and with many of his colleagues he transferred to Bletchley Park.  There, in Hut 8, he was quoted as saying that "in contrast to his outrageously unconventional stories" that he led his life on "a monotonously regular timetable". Life outside the Intelligence services was very different.  He married but the couple had no children.  They lived at Holland Park with a second home at Potter Heigham for sailing on the Norfolk Broads.  Other interests were as an amateur radio operator, using the call sign G2ST, and an authority on food and wine. 
   
  He contacted the BBC to suggest he might tell one of his own short stories on the radio.  Thus was born A J Alan, and his broadcast of ‘My Adventure in Jermyn Street’, on New Year’s Eve, 1924.  It was an immediate success and although he only broadcast a handful of times a year he was one of the most popular radio personalities of the time.  He spent weeks working on each short story, honing his conversational style, making his stories seem like anecdotes that had peculiarly happened to him.  
   
  A live broadcast was, in fact, a performance.  He used cards to avoid any rustling noises and kept a candle lit in case the lights failed.  His attire was a dinner jacket with eye glass, and a slim black briefcase.  
   
  Many of his stories were subsequently printed in newspapers and magazines. 
   
  By 1937 his health had deteriorated, and he reduced his radio work making his last broadcast on 21st March 1940.  
   
  A J Alan died on 13th December 1941. 
   
  01 - A J Alan - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  02 - My Adventure In Jermyn Street by A J Alan 
  03 - The Hair by A J Alan 
  04 - My Adventure in Norfolk by A J Alan 
  05 - The Diver by A J Alan 
  06 - The 19 Club by A J Alan

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