Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Ever have that shiver run down your spine just before something was going to happen. That feeling just woke me from the usual daze of scanning the instruments and the ever graying sky outside in the cold winter sky. I don't know about you, but I have learned by hard experience that when this happens, watch out. It's often said that the sea is unforgiving of mistakes, so too it is of the sky. In the unforgiving sky a calm day may suddenly become a maelstrom striving to swat the people in the small tube who's arrogance took them into the air. The Lonely Hours is a tale of the decisions which must be made when the tigress awakens to play with the small mouse which dared invade it's territory. Memory is a funny thing. Sometimes the past is so distant, but when things conspire just right, yesterday can be as clear and vibrant as if all of the years have fallen away and the engines drone once again as those Lonely Hours require once again the hard decisions be made once again.

Parisian Pauline Guyot (1805-1886), who wrote under the nom de plume Camille Lebrun, published many novels, translations, collections of tales, and articles in French magazines of her day. Yet she has largely been forgotten by contemporary literary critics and readers. Among her works is a hitherto-untranslated 1845 French novel, Amitie et devouement, ou Trois mois a la Louisiane, or Friendship and Devotion, or Three Months in Louisiana, a moralizing, educational travelogue meant for a young adult readership of the time. Lebrun's novel is one of the few perspectives we have by a mid-nineteenth-century French woman writer on the matters of slavery, abolition, race relations, and white supremacy in France's former Louisiana colony. E. Joe Johnson and Robin Anita White have recovered this work, providing a translation, an accessible introduction, extensive endnote annotations, and period illustrations. After a short preface meant to educate young readers about the geography, culture, and history of the southern reaches of the Louisiana Purchase, the novel tells the tale of two teenaged, orphaned Americans, Hortense Melvil and Valentine Arnold. The two young women, who characterize one another as "sisters," have spent the majority of their lives in a Parisian boarding school and return to Louisiana to begin their adult lives. Almost immediately upon arrival in New Orleans, their close friendship faces existential threats: grave illness in the form of yellow fever, the prospect of marriage separating the two, and powerful discrimination in the form of racial prejudice and segregation.

Parisian Pauline Guyot (1805-1886), who wrote under the nom de plume Camille Lebrun, published many novels, translations, collections of tales, and articles in French magazines of her day. Yet she has largely been forgotten by contemporary literary critics and readers. Among her works is a hitherto-untranslated 1845 French novel, Amitie et devouement, ou Trois mois a la Louisiane, or Friendship and Devotion, or Three Months in Louisiana, a moralizing, educational travelogue meant for a young adult readership of the time. Lebrun's novel is one of the few perspectives we have by a mid-nineteenth-century French woman writer on the matters of slavery, abolition, race relations, and white supremacy in France's former Louisiana colony. E. Joe Johnson and Robin Anita White have recovered this work, providing a translation, an accessible introduction, extensive endnote annotations, and period illustrations. After a short preface meant to educate young readers about the geography, culture, and history of the southern reaches of the Louisiana Purchase, the novel tells the tale of two teenaged, orphaned Americans, Hortense Melvil and Valentine Arnold. The two young women, who characterize one another as "sisters," have spent the majority of their lives in a Parisian boarding school and return to Louisiana to begin their adult lives. Almost immediately upon arrival in New Orleans, their close friendship faces existential threats: grave illness in the form of yellow fever, the prospect of marriage separating the two, and powerful discrimination in the form of racial prejudice and segregation.

Joshua Jericho Battle is no stranger to adversity. An attorney who happily gave up his flourishing criminal law practice two years ago, JJ is trying a routine case when he uncovers the largest land swindle in Detroit history. It appears to have been orchestrated by the man who is about to change his life forever: Bobby Boogaloo Bennett.

Determined to bring down the corrupt conspiracy, JJ puts his life, career, and the people he loves in jeopardy. By the time he realizes that recent events are not just coincidental, he is in too deep to get out. Now the only way to survive is to play by their rules. But when JJ unexpectedly becomes a suspect in a recent string of murders, his toughest battle will be to save himself. As the authorities close in, JJ is in a race against time to unravel the mysteries of One Detroit, Inc. As ambition, greed, and revenge collide, it appears no one will survive unscathed.

In this heart-pounding thriller, a young attorney must do everything in his power to survive the greatest battle of his life as he attempts to destroy an evil enterprise and conquer the demons of his past.

Standing in the cold morning blackness in the thin air atop a mountain, in Colorado, Hillary first saw the thing which would change her world forever. Like all the others of her kind, she studied the mysteries which were the points of light against the dark blackness of space. Astronomy was like that, just one mystery followed by another. But this discovery left her blood to run coldly through her veins. Through the crystal clear light pulled in by the powerful telescope her nice, safe world ended. What she saw that night could not be. Someone, or perhaps more ominously something, seemed to be calling for help. How could something, neither she or her colleagues knew who, know to use an old, obsolete Morse Code signal of distress, and how could something as frozen in position as a star wink it's light to them in call of 'SOS'. How would they answer the old call of, Save Our Ship, which winked at them across the vastness of space. Earth had never before built a ship which could reach this winking enigma. It would take the most powerful ship ever built to reach this thing which, the few who knew of it called; Stranger One. Would the trip tell of mysterious visitors from another system, would they be able to answer the call of distress? Or just perhaps was the SOS a warning? The only way to know was to build Deep Flight then answer the siren call of distress.

Everything Tom wanted seemed to fall into his life. A trip across the galaxy to go to school. Learning to fly in the atrium of a star ship. The love of a beautiful woman and a chance to become an officer on the ship. But just as Tom was sure everything was perfect, he learned that everything has a price. Sometimes that price is more than the mind of one man can bare. Sometimes you must lose everything, just to be a man.

John and Amelia Foster have let life get in the way of their five-year marriage. Careers, temptations and betrayal threaten to tear them apart, but instead of giving in, they decide to pick up the pieces together and go on a journey of discovery to find their way back to each other. Desire and passion battle jealousy and insecurity. Will they find their ALWAYS?

Who can say when a journey begins. For John and Jenna it may have begun yesterday or thousands of years ago. Before they can solve this riddle, they must first learn the question. Once they and five other companions began a quest to discover Ring. In the youth they did not understand that all secrets, especially great ones, never reveal themselves before their time. Only seven could begin the quest, this they knew. Unfortunately, not all of the seven were sure to finish the quest and only the right seven could win. Of the seven, four fell. Jenna in desperation begged the gods, sacrificing herself for the life of just one of them, John Stewart. Now Ring stirs again. The failed quest must continue. Only seven may begin. Who will join this quest. Not even the gods know the answer this time. This time the quest must not fail. If they fall this time, this very world will fall with them.

Eight and a half billion miles from home, an enigma awaits. For the crew of Earth's first deep space ship, Deep Flight, the siren call of distress awaits. But at home, fanatics, driven by some unknown force, fan the flames of the final war. Can they find the answer in time? Is there an answer? Finding Stranger One, is only the beginning. But the real question is, just what is, Stranger One.