Showing results by author "Manu" in All Categories

Rocking on front porches, drinking sweet iced tea out of heirloom glasses while indulging in a little innocent gossip is a way of life in the small southern town of Park Place, South Carolina. Reverend Rock Clark is the middle-aged preacher of the Presbyterian Church in town and has made peace with the fact that he is "unlucky in love" and will always be a bachelor. He's become quite comfortably settled in his life, but suddenly a serious car accident involving a mysterious young woman and her daughter throws him into the role of detective.

The survivor of a brutal childhood, Clare Brighton craves the kind of wealth and notoriety that will mean the horrors of her past can never again touch her. With a battered guitar and a Songweaver's talent, she comes to the capital of the Faelhorn Provinces, determined to gain her place.

Sam and Valerie Owens, owners of the Banty Hen Antique Shop, find themselves entangled in a murder investigation after being the last ones to see the victim alive. Valerie’s new venture, the Sweet Tea Quilting Bee is comprised of an eclectic mix of women and their weekly meetings help keep Valerie’s mind off the murder, but it’s hard to keep concealed from the ladies that the victim was killed over, of all things, an antique quilt! The murder suspect has been described as tall and thin, a vague description, but Police Chief Jess Hamilton and his new detective, a self-described Columbo...

When Nyx's quest to discover the secrets behind the Harvester's rings leads her to the Meerkin homeworld of Kyvren, she's only too happy to have an excuse to visit them. Since going their separate ways from Arkadia's Station, she's been unable to find any information on the state of their planet—or their attempt to reclaim it—and she only knows of one entity capable of covering up a civil war. Of course, the one person who could probably answer every question she has is also the last person she wants to ask.

Reverend Rock Clark has scoffed at the term “pastor burnout” when he’s heard other pastors use it. Just an excuse for a sabbatical, he once told his wife, Liz. But now he’s eating his words. Eating crow is more like it, and he’s been doing a lot of that lately. Maisy Martin thinks she’s lucky despite having a disappearing daddy and a momma everyone thinks is crazy. Her luck began the day she got caught stealing tomatoes. If not for that fateful day ten years ago, she wouldn’t have Tom and Zell Baker in her life and would likely be drifting from one foster home to another. Her ...

Agatha O’Malley has become a recluse in the home that should be holding warm and wonderful memories. Up until her husband’s death, she led a happy and social life as the wife of a wealthy physician in the small town of Park Place, South Carolina. But now that he’s dead, she’s not only grieving for him, she’s furious with him over the mysterious disappearance of the stocks, bonds and money he told her he’d put aside for their retirement. What is she to do when there’s barely enough money in their joint checking account to survive, and how will she pay property taxes and keep up...

It's the Christmas season and storefront displays, twinkling Christmas trees, and busy shoppers liven up Main Street as Park Place, South Carolina, prepares for its most exciting season of the year. But not everyone in town is celebrating. Maria drifts into Park Place trying to escape an abusive husband. Broken in body and spirit, at first her goal is just to survive and protect the baby she's carrying, but as she's slowly introduced to the good people of this small Southern town, she comes to believe that kindness and compassion can lead her out of the darkness of her former life.

Nyx has finally managed to dismantle the magic keeping her from her missing memories, but things are a bit . . . fractured. Her mind keeps slipping into different points in her past, and she's not always aware of when the present is. The issue couldn't have come at a worse time, because she finally has a lead on the Kumir—the race of identical assassins who have hunted the Hidden to the brink of extinction—but following that lead involves another interstellar trip.

In Gods, Guns and Missionaries, Manu S. Pillai takes us through these remarkable dynamics. With an arresting cast of characters―maharajahs, poets, gun-wielding revolutionaries, politicians, polemicists, philosophers and clergymen―this book is ambitious in its scope and provocative in its position.

Life at Nyx's Station has been a little tense of late. There are the fugitives she's hiding, the Harvester of Worlds she still doesn't know what to do with, and then there's the ex-boyfriend she's been avoiding. So when someone from her elusive past shows up in Earth Between, Nyx jumps at the distraction—and the chance to finally get some answers. The only problem is, her childhood friend Seth has no intention of answering any of those questions.

It's easy to feel forgettable. Nyx literally is, and the condition seems to be getting worse. Homeless and alone, she's at the end of her rope when she stumbles onto Earth Between, a nexus between worlds. The residents may be magical and alien, but they don't have any problem remembering she exists.

Her next-door neighbor has predicted that Annabelle is destined to live her life as an old maid. Not true, Annabelle declares after hearing this from her neighbor’s son. She’s only forty-two and is just beginning a new life after caring for her invalid mother for years. Yearning for a social life and determined to prove her neighbor wrong, she signs up for a ballroom dancing class where she meets not one, but two eligible bachelors, both vying for her attention. Luke is the new interim CEO at the local hospital, and Jake is a country music star hiding out in Park Place from the ...

When a brutal murder brings a century-old rumor of buried treasure to light on the quiet Southern plantation of Carrington Farms, Claire Carrington and Sheriff Beau Henderson must team up to piece together the clues and solve the murder. But as they dig deeper, they uncover secrets that could put their own lives in danger. Beau Henderson has never forgotten the one kiss he and Claire Carrington shared in high school. Now fifty years later, Claire has inherited the family farm and has come back home. As they share time together investigating the murder, he realizes his feelings for Claire ...

After her latest trip off-planet, Nyx Fortuna has every intention of keeping both feet firmly on Earth. Between trying to figure out why the Kumir have been hunting her friend Seth, searching for a way to destroy the Harvester of Worlds, and getting frustrated by the glacially slow return of her memories, she doesn't have any time for planet-hopping. Unfortunately, the universe has other plans. When she's abducted from Earth Between, Nyx finds herself in the remote reaches of the universe, on planets unconnected to the Station's ley lines.

In High Tide at Pelican Pointe, we once again begin our story in the quaint little town of Park Place, nestled in the heart of the Olde English District of South Carolina. We find the good Reverend Rock Clark and his very pregnant wife, Liz, making preparations to take a much-needed beach vacation, leaving the busyness of his growing congregation behind. They've been gifted 10 days in Miss Edie's Pelican Pointe beach house with three days alone before the rowdy Clark clan joins them for their annual pilgrimage to the sea.

Productive Failure shows you how to design the experience of failing. Research shows that repeated experiences of intriguing, constructive failure can help students develop creativity and learn more deeply. When carefully curated, failure can become a signal for learning, not the noise detracting from it. Learners gain a lifelong readiness to push themselves outside of their comfort zones, using setbacks as launchpads.

What would the world look like if everybody had everything they wanted or needed? Trekonomics, the premier book in financial journalist Felix Salmon's imprint PiperText, approaches scarcity economics by coming at it backward - through thinking about a universe where scarcity does not exist. Delving deep into the details and intricacies of 24th-century society, Trekonomics explores post-scarcity and whether we, as humans, are equipped for it.

"A cottage by the sea is the perfect summer vacation spot for bonding and healing old and new wounds for divorced romance writer, Cassandra Phillips and her sister Eleanor. Gentle breezes and fresh salt air lull them into thinking it’s going to be a quiet relaxing summer, but when a mesmerizing, blue-eyed Carl McGee moves into the cottage next door, Cassie’s resolve to never fall for a man again begins to dissolve. When rumors of a drug-smuggling ring along the Carolina coastline surface, there are warning bells that something’s not quite right in paradise and Cassie begins to ...

Kiev A-Morridahn must pay. This is the vow Nyx Fortuna has sworn. Keeping it is all but impossible, but it is the one thing that motivates her. Whatever she must do, she will do. Whatever she must sacrifice, she will give. But if she succeeds, she'll have to reckon with everything she's pushed aside in her quest for vengeance. As it turns out, feelings—and friends—don't like being ignored.

Mary Jo Hilton is out of jail and coming home to Park Place. Birdie Sue Baker is causing trouble in the church food pantry. And Reverend Rock Clark, the pastor of Park Place Presbyterian Church, is beginning to believe that he should just get the heck out of Dodge and move to Paradise Cove where he’s being wooed with a bigger salary and a house on the beach. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll be reminded once again how nice it is to live in the small town of Park Place, South Carolina where everyone knows your name.