"I have never resented Ivan's good looks. But there are times, once I became of age to date girls and women, that I wish I could look more like him than myself. Women are not often quick to date a monster. I was okay with that. Until now. Until Winter. She changed everything..."Ivan Petrov is a ruthless Russian businessman who is only six degrees off mob boss. He doesn't give a rat's ass about anything other than getting what he wants. And he wants Winter Rose, the prodigy opera singer, and is willing to torment her sexually until she begs for it. He could care less that Yury, his disfigured and most trusted guard has fallen for her.Winter's Beast is one part sugar and sweet, two parts sex and sweat. It is not your typical Romance and although it has an HEA, it's a dark, twisty road to get there.***WARNING***This novel is filled with angsty consensual non-consent. Yeah, you read that right. I'll say it again...consensual non-consent. It might be triggering for some. As for everyone else... Shake off those strict Puritan morals and enjoy... Because Ivan Petrov, The Sexual Sadist certainly has.With Love, Twyla

"In North America there is one large animal that belongs almost entirely to the realm of towering rock and unmelting snow. Pressing hard against the upper limit of life's possibilities, it exists higher and steeper throughout the year than any other big beast on the continent. It is possibly the best and most complete mountaineer that ever existed on any continent. Oreamnos americanus is its scientific name. Its common name is mountain goat." Resourceful, belligerent, and unbelievably sure-footed, the mountain goat is a white-coated survivor from the Ice Age. Oreamnos americanus shares its dizzying alpine world with elk, eagles, bighorn sheep, and grizzlies. This first full-length book on the mountain goat offers a superbly written portrait of its life, habits, and environment. Douglas H. Chadwick tracked mountain goat herds for seven years, and his observations are richly textured and replete with fascinating and dramatic details. We learn of the mountain goats' lives from birth to adulthood, their feeding habits, unique social behavior and courtship rituals, and their long history. Chadwick also makes clear the troubling and escalating impact of the modern world on the mountain goat's wilderness home. This Bison Books edition features a new introduction by the author.

"Beauty and the Beast: California Wildflowers and Climate Change" is a 12 x 12'' beautifully illustrated and designed 264 page coffee table book created by conservation photographers Rob Badger and Nita Winter.Illustrations: 190 stunning images of California's diverse wildflowers and their habitats, from high mountain passes in the Sierra Nevada mountains to below sea level in Death Valley National Park.Essays: Sixteen talented and diverse authors and scientists, most of whom are women, wrote 18 storytelling style essays (1,200 to 1,800 words) about nature, conservation, climate change or taking action. The two younger authors write about hope and action, and what people can do to help create positive change. The book has three sections: The Gift of Beauty, The Human Connection and Ensuring the Future.Because people are constantly hearing about all the negative things going on in the world, Nita and Rob believed there was a need for a different, softer approach to grab people's attention and center it on the climate-change story, and conservation and population issues. They engage their audiences by first inviting them to experience the splendor of the natural world through a universal symbol of beauty, the wildflower, and then educate and inspire them to take some of the simple actions they provide to create positive change and a healthier planet. Their goal is to spread conservation and climate change ideas far beyond native plant and nature lovers, and to plant the seeds to foster action."Beauty and the Beast" is a 27 year photographic journey into the public lands of California. Lands we all own, lands under constant threat of development or resource extraction, impacts of global warming, sea level rise and wildfires. This book is as much a treasure as the flowers and creatures which are featured within its pages. Nita and Rob extend a hand to you to come in and take a long, slow look around and see what they have seen, experienced and have learned. Book includes two comprehensive indexes and a glossary.Co-published by WinterBadger Press and the California Native Plant Society

Beast has been robbed! And so has the whole village. Without tools the villagers can't put on their legendary Winter Festival, so Beast sets off to solve the mystery. Discovering that a stranded Snow Beast is behind the robbery, Beast has to decide whether to help this odd-looking stranger.

The wise men of Caer Dhu were not so wise. They found the secret of Shanga, and they escaped their wars and their troubles by fleeing backward along the path of evolution.Excerpt Burk Winters remained in the passenger section while the Starflight made her landing at Kahora Port. He did not think that he could bear to see another man, not even one he liked as much as he did Johnny Niles, handle the controls of the ship that had been his for so long.He did not wish even to say goodbye to Johnny, but there was no avoiding it. The young officer was waiting for him as he came down the ramp, and the deep concern he felt was not hidden in the least by his casually hearty grin.Johnny held out his hand. "So long, Burk. You've earned this leave. Have fun with it."Burk Winters looked out over the vast tarmac that spread for miles across the ochre desert. An orderly, roaring confusion of trucks and flatcars and men and ships-ore ships, freighters, tramps, sleek liners like the Starflight, bearing the colors of three planets and a dozen colonies, but still arrogantly and predominantly Terran.Johnny followed his gaze and said softly, "It always gives you a thrill, doesn't it?"Winters did not answer. Miles away, safe from the thundering rocket blasts, the glassite dome of Kahora, Trade City for Mars, rose jewel-like out of the red sand. The little sun stared wearily down and the ancient hills considered it, and the old, old wandering wind passed over it, and it seemed as though the planet bore Kahora and its spaceport with patience, as though it were a small local infection that would soon be gone.He had forgotten Johnny Niles. He had forgotten everything but his own dark thoughts. The young officer studied him with covert pity, and he did not know it.Burk Winters was a big man, and a tough man, tempered by years of deep-space flying. The same glare of naked light that had burned his skin so dark had bleached his hair until it was almost white, and just in the last few months his gray eyes seemed to have caught and held a spark of that pitiless radiance. The easy good nature was gone out of them, and the lines that laughter had shaped around his mouth had deepened now into bitter scars.

The global bestseller Vampire: The Masquerade comes to comics in Vampire: The Masquerade Vol. 1: Winter's Teeth. When Camarilla enforcer Cecily Bain takes a fledgling vampire under her wing, she's dragged into a vast conspiracy that will topple princes and threaten the very Masquerade. BORN FROM THE WORLD OF THE INTERNATIONALLY BEST-SELLING ROLE PLAYING GAME, VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE'S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED COMICS DEBUT SPINS A GRIPPING AND TRAGIC TALE ABOUT THE BEAST WITHIN US ALL. When Cecily Bain, an enforcer for the Twin Cities' vampiric elite, takes a mysterious new vampire under her wing, she's dragged into an insidious conspiracy. Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the cities, a rebellious found-family of vampire cast-outs investigates a vicious killing. As the unlives of the Kindred twine together and betrayals are unearthed, will Cecily be able to escape and save what's left of her family, or will she be yet another pawn sacrificed to maintain the age-old secret: that vampires exist among the living? Vampire: The Masquerade Vol. 1: Winter's Teeth collects issues #1 - #5 of the ongoing series. Read more in Vampire: The Masquerade Vol. 2: The Mortician's Army, collecting issues #6 - #10 of the series For fans of VAMPIRE: The Masquerade RPG, WEREWOLF: The Apocalypse RPG, The World of Darkness, American Vampire, Killadelphia, Something is Killing the Children, Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat/The Vampire Chronicles, Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood, Certain Dark Things, Underworld, and vampire/werewolf/monster graphic novels, tabletop/RPGs, books, movies, video games, and series! “This is a fresh take on vampires, mixing it with crime, thrillers, and a pinch of romance all with a vein of horror running through it.” -- Horror DNA “… strongly recommend this book to both fans of the franchise and newcomers.” – Grimdark Magazine "I’m absolutely in love with what a badass Cecily is..." - The Wandering Nerd Girl “Vampire: the Masquerade … is an enjoyable read even if you’re not familiar with the RPG… like the real world, but with hotter outfits, blood, and fangs. – Graphic Policy “This is the horror thriller we all need.” – Horror DNA

The dead are waking deep within the frozen wastes of the North, and the signs of the end have begun to appear. In 'WINTER'S THRONE' dive into a chaotic world filled with strife and conflict: a place where alliances shift with the wind and countries erupt into civil war as the forces of evil muster once more against humanity. Follow the woodsman Brendan Alkirk as he is forced to find his own identity in a world ripped apart by darkness. Both the destinies of the mighty and the weak will cross as every step embroils the world even more in the war that is destined to be its last...