When Ingrid Steel was first put into an orphanage she did not even know her real name. Nor would anyone tell her who her parents were. After years of bullying, deprivation and punishment, Ingrid made a secret pilgrimage to discover her real identity. Little Girl Lost is the first part of Ingrid Steel's shocking, heart-rending life story.

Boy, is Mick Campbell infuriating! The police detective is only doinghis job, looking into the death of the private investigator my sisterhad hired to find our presumed-dead mother (it's been a very eventfulmonth!), but does he really believe a member of my family is akiller? I've been planning to spend time with Mick to keep tabs onthe investigation, but lately I've been wondering, am I drawn to himbecause he's a single dad or because his faith is strong under fire?

Would she lose her little girl if she regained her memory? When they survived a fiery bus accident, Jane Dolan and her infant daughter were given a new beginning—and new memories. But five years later those memories were challenged when Jane saw pictures of her murdered mother and sister in the newspaper. Suddenly she remembered her family, but nothing else, and now she had to find the truth—about their killer, about who she really was…. Reporter Chad Ryker claimed he knew the truth. But Jane could trust no one or nothing—especially her heart, which was quickly, irresistibly falling in love with the man. How could she believe his story that her family was in hiding…and that her precious daughter wasn't her child? A woman alone…with no one to trust. Where can she run? Straight into the arms of HER PROTECTOR

**5,000 Word Short Story** Tavera is a child passed from hand to hand as a source of cheap labor in the underworld of the Valley. When she finds herself at the mercy of the vicious sausage maker, the elderly Madame Greswin, she discovers secrets from the woman's past and the consequences leave Tavera fighting for her life. "Little Girl Lost" is a short story and prequel to "Thieves at Heart", the first novel in the series "The Valley of Ten Crescents". **5,000 Word Short Story** Keywords: free, freebie, fantasy, elf, elves, short, series

Miranda Sugarman was supposed to be in the Midwest, working as an eye doctor. So how did she end up dead on the roof of one of New York City's seediest strip clubs? Ten years earlier, Miranda had been P.I. John Blake's lover. Now he has to uncover her secret life as a strip tease queen. But the deeper he digs, the deadlier the danger... until a shattering face-off in an East Village tenement changes his life forever. Little Girl Lost - is the stunning debut novel from Richard Aleas, a writer whose stories have been selected for the Best Mystery Stories of the Year and The Year's Best Horror Stories. It was nominated for both the Edgar and Shamus Awards for Best First Novel.

It is a cold night and Sylvie Dugdale is weeping as she walks by the Mersey. A figure approaches and, dodging aside to avoid him, she falls into the river. Constable Brendan O'Hara, just coming off duty, sees the girl's plight and dives in to rescue her. He is dazzled by her beauty but Sylvie's husband is in prison and the closeness that Brendan soon longs for is impossible. Sylvie has to escape from Liverpool, so Brendan arranges for her to stay with his cousin Caitlin in Dublin until it is safe to return. There she meets Maeve, a crippled girl from the slums, who will change all their lives when a little girl is lost ...

DescriptionLittle Girl Lost is the wonderful and moving account of a young woman's successful battle with self-harm and borderline personality disorder. Lovisa first self-harmed at the age of six and survived boot camp before becoming part of the psychiatric system. Little Girl Lost combines an intelligent creative mix of diary writing with powerful poems taking the reader through a roller coaster of emotions. It is an honest, interesting and touching book. Lovisa gives us some insight into her desire for acceptance for being herself. Anybody who has ever suffered from mental illness will be able to relate to this book. About the AuthorThe author spent a period of time in hospital. She used to harm herself and hear voices. Her aim is to reach out to others and be accepted.

“Barbie doesn’t want hugs any more, hugs could be bad and sometimes hugs can hurt” Growing up too soon isn’t always a good thing. Meet one little girl and travel with her through the loss of her childhood because of rape. The burden of keeping it a secret which leads her through a descent into darkness. The only escape she can find is to drink alcohol. But the alcohol doesn’t save her, and the story tells of her reaching rock bottom. Rock bottom is different for every person. For her it is when she decides life is something she can no longer take. The choice to die or start living again are her only options. With no one to rescue her she must rescue herself. To do this she must face up to and accept what has happened. To face the demons inside her head, accept what has been lost and look to her future. For some secrets only have power over you when they are kept secrets. This author has bared all and allowed the reader to see her world through her eyes in this captivating but heartbreaking tale of life, loss and redemption.

Little Girl Lost is about a teenager who discovers that she is pregnant. When she tells her boyfriend that she is carrying his child he wants her to get rid of it because he is secretly seeing her best friend who is also pregnant with his child. When her father finds out that she is pregnant he punches her in her stomach, which causes her to miscarry the baby. She can never forgive her father for what he has done. She has to deal with rape, molestation, verbal abuse and physical abuse before she gets up the nerve to run away with her girlfriend. She never realized how much worse that decision could be on her. She is now faced with drugs, alcohol, prostitution, physical abuse, and hunger and homelessness. She later learns that she has acquired HIV. She feels that she has to make it right with her family before her death and take care of her father before he can hurt another person.

Two sisters. A broken childhood. A heartbreaking journey. The extraordinary true story of surviving the unimaginable ... In 1945, seven-year-old Barbie and her sister Eva were trapped, terrified, in wartorn Germany. With their father missing, and hundreds of miles from their mother, news of the approaching army left them confronted with an impossible choice: to face invasion, or to flee on foot. Eva, aged nineteen, was determined to find her mother. For Barbie, twelve years younger, the journey was to be more perilous but, spurred on by her sister's courage and her desperate desire to be reunited with her mother, she joined Eva on a journey no child should ever have to endure. Over three hundred miles across a country ravaged by a terrible war, they encountered unimaginable hardship, extraordinary courage and overwhelming generosity. Against all the odds, they survived. But neither sister came out of the journey unscathed ...