One of the great fears of man is that a new Black Death will appear and, because antibiotics are becoming useless, no one will be able to stop it. Another such fear is that someone will create such a plague and use it as a weapon, with newer more virulent versions of that plague appearing until the conditions of the perpetrators are met. The Verneece Fever is such a weapon This is the story of a possible future such happening and why perpetrators might do such a thing. Every society spawn in its own time, an aristocracy that seeks to cement its place in the outworking's of that system. It is a common thing among that aristocracy that the members truly believe for some reason - birth, strength, race, or some special merit - that they are the natural holders of their station, and that any attempt to deny that assigned position is a negation of what is fore ordained. It is fiction. We hope it never comes about, yet we know that it could.

Life is rarely what we want it to be, that is something we can know for a certainty. Sometimes it takes twists and turns that drag us into places that we never thought we would see. So it was for Dewey, James and their mother, Belinda. This is the story of a few people put to tests that made them doubt that there was ever any hope in their future. However, the funny thing about a future is that it has so many curves, mountains and valleys in it that we cannot truly see what really is there; and Hope can be a faraway place. We see, instead, sometimes what seems to be close up and hopeless. Can a simple photo of two people playing change lives? Why, for instance, does one of Dewey's grandfathers want to kill his mother, while the other only wants to ruin her life? Why does a Federal Judge intervene in a set of lives three thousand miles away? Why does the mere existence of Belinda, Dewey and James threaten the structure of a county government that they have left far behind?

The peaceful and backwater world of Blauwelt finds that there is no safety in being peaceful and backwater. The Sartoff, a group of militarily aggressive peoples who escaped from Mankind's mother world, Earth, centuries before is now encamped on one of Blauwelt's continents and setting up a base for the conquering of the whole planet. Blauwelt, a planet with the smallest of Defense Forces which in reality is almost just a planetary police force, has no way to stop the invasion or the conquering of their world. For that reason, it falls to the von Hauptman family, Drs. Shelley and Philip von Hauptman and their kids, Trinka and Jase, to find the way to destroy the enemy and convince them that Blauwelt is not for conquest. This is their story.

Richmond Heights, a community in southwest Miami, Florida, was founded in 1949 by Capt. Frank Crawford Martin for African American World War II veterans. Captain Martin, also a veteran, thought this community would be a good business venture, but for this white man in the late 1940s it turned into a tool for social change leading all the way to the White House. Miami's Richmond Heights chronicles the beginnings of the original residents who were World War II veterans, including Tuskegee Airmen, as well as Fortune 500 presidents, doctors, university professors, and many other professionals. It explores the vision for the community, how it translated to residents, and to Pres. Harry Truman's involvement.

In 1905, Napa's mayor, J.A. Fuller, announced, "Napa for half a century has been slumbering in a Rip Van Winkle sleep but she has awakened at last." Back then, fifteen cents bought coffee and a donut at the Depot and Sawyer's Tannery made soft leather baseball gloves. In this collection, local author Lauren Coodley reimagines the unvarnished country life of historic Napa Valley through the stories of notables like postmaster Ernest Kincaid, "Napa Register" reporter Phyllis King, firefighter historian Rita Bordwell and Brewster's owners Rachel and Larry Friedman. Trace the region's lasting legacy, from the time when a horse and buggy purchased Browns Valley to the days when art galleries replaced blue-collar businesses and the California grape took center stage from Sunsweet prunes.