Book One: The Spear of Longinus A young girl finds herself in the clutches of a monster. Her only hope is to fall back on her love of stories which she discovers is her adversary’s one weakness. And thus begins her tale of the life and mission of Mary Magdalan and the founding of the early Christian Church in western Europe as together the girl and the monster go on a quest for Spear, Sword, Grael, Robe and Shroud. Finally her own destiny is revealed. Religious Fantasy Fiction

From the highly praised author of The Last Days of Old Beijing, a brilliant portrait of China today and a memoir of coming of age in a country in transition. In 1995, at the age of twenty-three, Michael Meyer joined the Peace Corps and, after rejecting offers to go to seven other countries, was sent to a tiny town in Sichuan. Knowing nothing about China, or even how to use chopsticks, Meyer wrote Chinese words up and down his arms so he could hold conversations, and, per a Communist dean's orders, jumped into teaching his students about the Enlightenment, the stock market, and Beatles lyrics. Soon he realized his Chinese counterparts were just as bewildered by China's changes as he was. Thus began an impassioned immersion into Chinese life. With humor and insight, Meyer puts readers in his novice shoes, winding across the length and breadth of his adopted country --from a terrifying bus attack on arrival, to remote Xinjiang and Tibet, into Beijing's backstreets and his future wife's Manchurian family, and headlong into efforts to protect China's vanishing heritage at places like "Sleeping Dragon," the world's largest panda preserve. In the last book of his China trilogy, Meyer tells a story both deeply personal and universal, as he gains greater – if never complete – assurance, capturing what it feels like to learn a language, culture and history from the ground up. Both funny and relatable, The Road to Sleeping Dragon is essential reading for anyone interested in China's history, and how daily life plays out there today.

She just wants answers to a mystery. He thinks she’s the key to ending his exile in her world. Love was never supposed to enter the equation… It’s in her friend’s rare books shop that Briana Wright first sees Taron Hildebrand, a too-gorgeous-to-be-real twenty-something Englishman dressed for a night at the opera rather than an obscure shop in midtown. Already unnerved by his uncanny, orange-tinted eyes, her alarm skyrockets with Taron’s powerful reaction to seeing the old hand-bound book she is carrying that nearly has her racing to the exit. A find in her recently deceased grandmother’s collection, it was written in a strange alphabet that Briana is dying to decipher. No way is she going to sell it, even when Taron offers her an obscene amount of money. However, when Taron confesses that he thinks the book may be an old family heirloom he’s been trying to locate for years and professes to be able to read it, Briana never imagines losing her life could be the cost of learning its secrets. An enemy is hunting Taron for the precious item he carries, and to secure her help, Taron will have to come clean about his dragon shifter identity, his true reason for wanting her book, and his suspicions of Briana’s own heritage if he has any hope of finding his way home again in a time when his people need the item he is protecting the most. Their hearts were never supposed to be part of their deal… Contains mature content, language, and hot dragon shifters. This is a complete story with a HEA. Search Terms: Multicultural romance, New Adult, dragon shifter romance, paranormal women, Weredragon, fantasy romance, Paranormal Romance, Paranormal Romance, Werewolves & Shifters, witch, witches, free, free romance, free paranormal romance, free book, free ebook, paranormal suspense, adventure romance, urban fantasy, urban fantasy romance, romantic suspense, romance, freebie, free shifter romance, shapeshifter romance, magical romance

In 1572 Beijing, when a nine-year-old boy is named Emperor of China, Hu Wan offers the gift of a cricket cage carved from a gourd he and his grandfather grew.

Our story opens in a small fictitious town called Silver Meadows situated somewhere near our nation's capital. Two pastors will soon be discovering the evil that the lovers of Satan are spreading throughout their community. Many of the problems that concern Christians, -drugs, abortion and immorality for example, -will be faced by the people who live there. Lives will be changed as the story unfolds and various activities are exposed that all might see. Some of those involved will come to understand that they have to choose either God's love or Satan's hate, just as we all must do.

Becoming a dragon is a dangerously subtle process. You make a long chain of bad choices. The chain gradually wraps around you. Layer by layer, it begins to take on the aspect of scales. One day you glance at yourself in the mirror and a monster is staring back at you. You aren't who you used to be. You aren't who you want to be. You're not who you were created and designed to be. Instead, you're a dragon. When Jim Burgen was nineteen years old, he realized how easy it had been to become a dragon. He knew he didn't want to be one anymore . . . but how? No More Dragons is the story of our common, hopeful journey from dragonhood back to personhood. As Pastor Burgen narrates the remarkable process of reclaiming himself from himself, he implores modern church goers to shake off the trivialities of churchiness in favor of the substantive questions that make a spiritual transformation: “Is Jesus the only one who can undragon people?” “Why don't I like most churches?” “Where is God in difficult times?” “How do you shed decades of gnarly scales?” Some choices will lead you to a better life. Some will kill you. Some choices will add a new layer of scales to your dragon, and some will slough them off. No More Dragons is about asking Christ to deliver you and learning how to obey him.

Ethan Sayer had felt the call of God on his life, but he had ignored it. Today, God would get his attention. Plucking Ethan from his car, God would bring Ethan before his throne and ask him to go one more time. Where would he send him? Ethan Sayer and his three daughters will travel around the world with his emissaries. Who are these emissaries? They are dragons. That is not all. God assigns an angel to take Ethan back in time. He is to be a witness to five saints in history. These saints singlehandedly changes the course of history of the nations in which they live. God would break Ethan’s heart for the peoples of the world. He walked and lived among them. He would see kingdoms rise and fall. What is the purpose of his trip through time? When Ethan is returned to the current time, he is shocked to find that he had only been gone for a few hours not the months and years that he has witnessed. Now he must convince his wife, daughters and a US senator that he is not crazy. This is a test for the nations. The first treasure will be revealed by the angel, but they must be told of it beforehand to prove it is from God. Politics and family dynamics crash into their lives. Together, they will uncover the four remaining treasures hidden in the nations that Ethan visited in time. With little else to guide them. How will the Sayers find them? This first book will tell the story of these saints, the birth of the dragons and the training that allows them to fly their dragons around the world!

Aran Mylo, a simple alchemist and monk, is compelled to go on a disjointed journey through a troubled fantasy world in order to search for her long lost teacher, Procyon Camelopardes. Away from the solitude of her own cottage, Aran Mylo finds herself in the company of a court fool, a mysterious bard, two opposing queens, religious rivals, and spies. It seems that no one she meets on her journey is who or what they seem to be. But then again, neither is she.

The real and potential power of China, the world's most populous nation, has long been seen as a threat by its smaller neighbors and global powers alike. The Fear of Chinese Power provides a history of this perceived threat from the 1880s to the present day, and offers rich historical context to an enduring and current concern. Focusing on the United States, but also exploring perceptions from Britain, Germany, the Soviet Union and Japan, this book asks why these fears exist and shows how they have played out on both a strategic, diplomatic level, and in the public sphere. Taking a chronological approach, the chapters explore themes such as western opposition to Chinese immigration, international views of China's new republic, hopes of friendship during the rule of Chiang Kai-Shek, the Korean and Cold Wars, Communist China's economic growth, the Chinese in popular culture and China as a modern global power. Taking economic, military and cultural vantage points into account, The Fear of Chinese Power explains why a powerful China has been a mainstay of the western imagination since the 19th century, and reveals a history which has shaped international perceptions of China to the present day.

In the morning, dragons wake up, tumble out of bed, and get ready to fly into the sky.