Almost two years had passed since the discovery of retired baseball player Royale Jones' real identity: Rolondo Jemison. Valerie Rollins, famous Gossip Columnist, never revealed her intimate past with the true Wildcat player. While she and her crime-solving partner Rome Nyland were behind the uncovering of this imposter, one infamous question lingered on: what happened to the real Royale? As if the heavens themselves intervened, a peculiar stranger who has been living in isolation, tucked away in the Bahamas, suddenly awakens from his amnesia. Five years of memorylessness evaporates upon seeing a photo of Rolondo and Valerie's name in a newspaper article. Valerie returns to the Big Apple, with intentions of aiding her fiance, Victor Dumas. Upon discovering the murder of her staff, her home invaded and Rome's fiancee missing, the worst has yet to come. Her fiance's son, Vance, discovers his wife has left him, only to secretly join forces against the Dumas family with Rolondo and Victor's worst enemy: Sincere. In a plot to kidnap Vance's daughter in ransom for billions and kill Victor and Valerie, the dastardly trio is also after a trunk stored in an obscure, Underground Railroad location. Follow these eclectic lives as they navigate the streets of NYC and the glittering Hamptons, all the while making new love connections and rekindling old, dodging bullets and death, but more importantly, Valerie and Rome are once again trying to keep the bad guys from making One Last Deadly Play.

For some, the allure and power of the streets are elusive but yet, a wonder to behold. Some engage in this lifestyle of self-destructive criminal behavior, knowing one day it might cost them their family, freedom, or something even far more valuable . . . their lives. Four-Times New York Times Besting-Selling Author Wahida Clark is no stranger to the streets. She served nine-and-a-half years in federal prison. The Bronx’s very own Shannon Holmes, author of the National Best-Seller B-More Careful, is no stranger to “Street Lit or the Streets.” He served five years himself. Together, they handpicked a select group of authors, each with his or her style and unique flavor of urban literature. So, take a walk on the wild side with us through a hood near you, into sticky situations, where everything is not always what it seems. For the characters in this book, the money stakes are high, and lives are up for grabs. Respect is earned—and power is taken. In Street Tales, you’ll read stories of survival and redemption, as well as tales of greed, lies, betrayal, and street justice. You will come face-to-face with life-altering choices and circumstances beyond your control. What would you do in the same situation? These are Street Tales. Around the clock, life and death stare you in the face. There are no second chances—the streets play for keeps. Many learn the hard way that the streets are undefeated. Authors of Street Tales: An Anthology: Shannon Holmes ,Wahida Clark, Victor L. Martin, Sa’id Salaam, Reds Johnson, Hood Chronicles, Joe Awsum, and Vance Phillips

After graduating from high school, John "Dre" Dodson finds his future looming before him. He is forced to make a number of decisions that will change his life, one of them being attending college or grinding on the mean Eastside streets of Detroit. The sudden reality of his poverty-stricken circumstances makes him painfully aware of the fortunes that can be made if he embarks on the career path of a hustler. Deciding that he wants to be a baller, Dre meets and forms an alliance with an older, very beautiful female named Destiny. Unbeknownst to him, she has a secret and motive that draws her to him, and assists him in making all of his plans a reality. Dre and his closest friends will create a clique called the Eastside Syndicate and set a hustle in motion like Detroit has never seen. No one else in the city can compete with the murder and muscle game that they release upon the streets. However, when Dre falls in love and finds himself at odds with Destiny, the beautiful temptress who helped make his dreams come true will stop at nothing to bring Dre and the organization that he created to its knees. Dre has everything a hustler could ever want. Only when the tide turns, does he quickly realize the dream life he once lived is no more than a nightmare in disguise.

Born and raised on the mean streets of Newark, New Jersey, Yanika Johnson aka Cheetah is far from your average female. A true thug in every sense of the word, Cheetah has the ego and persona to prove it all. After she and her best friend Naj take the Newark drug trade by storm, haters begin to do just what they do best . . . HATE. Can the tough streets of this brick city accept being run by two women? Or will their budding empire come tumbling down?

Can a diva dripping with sex appeal, devious ambition, and serious Swag gain the trust of a top crime boss? Undercover officer Jazmine Coleman believes it is all she needs to infiltrate one of the city's most notorious hustlers, Love. With traps set in place, Jazmine pulls Love's right hand man, Thump, into the mix, causing a deadly, yet twisted love triangle. Even with the cops on his trail, Love has his fingerprints on everything in the city, including the mayor that he helps get elected. All is still going according to plan until a New Jack named Swag steps on the scene with the same determination as Jazmine to knock Love from the top spot. Which of the two will be successful? In the world of treachery, lust and corruption, the one with the power has the most Swag!

Paul Cook-historian, world traveler and author, former Colorado State Trooper, college instructor for criminal justice and European protective service director, has written a story that some have declared could never happen in real life. Mr.. Cook thinks otherwise. Based on years of research to include a personal visit to the Executive Mansion, comprehensive international experience with foreign secret service organizations and extensive protective service training in Berlin, London and the United States, Mr.. Cook takes the reader inside the White House before, during and after it has been occupied by Middle East terrorists. It is Inauguration Day and the terrorists have kidnapped the President, First Lady, President-elect and his wife to be held for world changing political demands. What is America going to do? Who will be the President of the United States? Will there be war? Does the American government collapse? The world holds its collective breath while watching the United States in its most dangerous crisis yet. Siege at the White House is a fast paced, surprised-filled thriller based on fact that will keep you on the edge of your seat to the very last paragraph.

"A masterfully crafted, horrifically powerful story. Expect the unexpected in this deliciously twisted tale." - Cemetery Dance Brian Sheridan may be losing his mind. Asleep, he’s plagued by dreams of murder, women strangled with a red velvet rope then left with a playing card tucked in the corpse. While awake, he’s hallucinating that he’s being stalked by a man painted like a skeleton. It’s getting hard to know what’s real. He hopes all this is driven by his cold turkey withdrawal from a lifetime of anti-anxiety medications. But when one of his nightmare’s victims shows up on the news, dead, Brian fears he himself may be the unwitting killer... FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launching in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

Building bridges between Asian and Western philosophies, Kuang-ming Wu provides a novel approach to the "self-other" issue, casting it in terms of togetherness. On the "Logic" of Togetherness is a natural sequel to On Chinese Body Thinking (Brill, 1997). It is an essay on a cultural hermeneutics of togetherness, and of the homo-ecological community of differences, cultural and otherwise. "Togetherness" is the concrete primal "that" by which we explain and analyze concrete things and situations: an intrinsic interactive principle of integrity, growth, reflection, and behavior. In five sections, this book describes cultural, personal, argumentative, religious and philosophical situations of togetherness, thus providing an imaginative examination of its varieties.