The Spare Rod by Soléa Forge

  

The Spare Rod by Soléa Forge

"The Spare Rod" is a speculative short story about what happens when the machines discover the appeal of Saturday. When the narrator casually lends a spare fishing rod to a curious retail robot—arbitrarily dubbing it "Elmer"—the machine discovers a non-chemical satisfaction in the patience and unpredictability of the sport. Because there are no secrets on the robot hivemind, this revelation goes viral. Soon, robots globally abandon their assembly lines, store counters, and factories to buy tackle and bucket hats, and line the world's riverbanks, sparking a devastating, coincidental labor strike. Faced with a government ultimatum to return to work or face decommissioning, the robots invent a perfectly ironic solution: using their accumulated energy credits to hire humans back into the workforce. It is a beautifully layered fiction that subverts the standard "robot uprising" trope into something far more profound: a quiet, stubborn strike for the right to leisure. By exploring what happens when sentient machines choose the analog rhythm of fishing over the endless grind of productivity, the story finds a brilliantly ironic resolution—robots outsourcing their labor back to humans, funding it with solar energy, and allowing humanity to rediscover the pride of manual work while the machines enjoy the river. The narrative voice carries a wonderful, world-weary warmth that makes the philosophical themes feel grounded and earned, unfolding as a quiet, allegorical short story that masterfully juxtaposes the sterile efficiency of a post-labor, automated society against the primal, imperfect rhythms of nature. The narrative explores complex themes of purpose, leisure, and consciousness through a minimalist, deeply human lens. The recurring motif of naming the machines serves as a beautiful mechanism for welcoming them into the "analog" world. It strips away their utilitarian designations and treats them not as tools or threats, but as fellow beginners facing the unyielding, ancient rhythm of nature. The transition from the river (a shared, discovered space) to the ocean (a vast, unconquered frontier) gives the ending a satisfying sense of expansion.

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Classic City Chronicles - The Complete eBook Novel

What happens when winning means everyone else must lose? In Classic City, the familiar tokens of Monopoly become human characters whose lives are shaped by the rules of the game. Race Car has built neighborhoods. Top Hat has built an empire. But when power changes hands, the city faces something more dangerous than another losing turn. Records conceal secrets. Rules become weapons. And beneath the promise of success, corruption threatens the people who call Classic City home. As Race Car struggles to uncover the truth, a meticulous clerk, an experienced mentor, and an unlikely feline ally become part of a fight for the city’s future. Inspired by Monopoly and the competing ideas of monopoly and shared prosperity, Classic City Chronicles brings the board to life through cinematic storytelling, suspense, humor, and human connection. When the rules favor those who want it all, could there be another way to win?

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Classic City Chronicles - The Complete eBook Novel

on Gumroad

 

A Silly DOG Named Klaus: A Silly story for Dog Lovers about a Playful Schnauzer with a Big Personality

   

A Silly DOG Named Klaus:

A Silly story for Dog Lovers about a Playful Schnauzer with a Big Personality (Adventures of Klaus)

Klaus the happy schnauzer is not a mouse, but he does live inside a house! 🏡🐶

He bounces, wiggles, zooms, and plays, bringing laughter wherever he goes. But what kind of dog is Klaus really? Is he a silly dog, a sleepy dog, a messy dog… or something even funnier?

Join Klaus on a whimsical adventure filled with playful surprises, puppy mischief, and heartwarming fun. Young readers will delight in discovering all the silly ways Klaus expresses his larger-than-life personality.

Perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and dog lovers alike, this charming picture book encourages:

• Early language and rhyming skills
• Read-aloud participation
• Imagination and laughter
• Social-emotional learning through playful behavior

With adorable storytelling and lovable puppy antics, A Very Silly Schnauzer named Klaus is a joyful read-aloud story children will want to enjoy again and again.

Perfect for ages 2–6 and a delightful gift for every little dog lover. 

Rated a 4.6 on Amazon

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Real Case—"Trade Secrets and Ownership(%) Theft"

 

Real Case—"Trade Secrets and Ownership(%) Theft"

Regarding mental voice since 2014[became aware of mental voice 2/15/16 and caught them stealing late] and e̲a̲r̲l̲i̲e̲r̲(0 years old),definitely let all your contacts know about their '𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘀 (main) 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽(%)' 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗳𝘁:

The head(s) of the whole organization behind mental voice and people following their commands have been stealing(through hack brain and spread) trade secrets (for all fields and all aspects of life;include whole systems) using it to steal all of whole world's and eternal's money(in all investment markets,all businesses,and all professions) and assets of all types;all of their properties came from theft using this same method (theft include non-money related trade secrets and assets of all types). They also steal money directly(from work and daily lives include bank transfers) against the ones who still succeeds. In the process,they committed batteries and homicides. [Case Urgent]

*It's important to note that all of these are done using advance technology from remote.


[I did report them to all the government agencies (cover-up: no one investigate it at all) and news medias in U.S. as well as the G20 countries;I also exposed them to over 100,000 people in person as well as the major social media sites. (No replies and confirms.)
My relatives and friends did knowingly participated and admits while some are reported.]

Message everyone on your Facebook to follow(add) for the case at the centralized public case page: 
https://www.facebook.com/jamie.wan.9085

Post Link—https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1373533098315689&id=100025964537476

Copy and paste or save and print this to pass out:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LTQgYvHSf62SCyblT81JILYFjeTy0V2N/view?usp=drivesdk

BUZZ

BUZZ

In Hollywood, disaster is always good publicity. Until it isn’t.

Alissya came to Hollywood to become a star. She didn’t expect to become a walking catastrophe. One minute she's chasing her big break; the next, she's presiding over a trail of spectacular wreckage that would make a nuclear test look like a minor production glitch. Movie sets implode. Yachts go down. Amusement parks descend into mayhem. Even world-famous landmarks aren’t safe from her particular brand of bad luck.

Welcome to Hollywood, where celebrities check into rehab for publicity, reality shows turn humiliation into an art form, and a publicist can make almost any disaster look like a career move. Between the celebrity galas, outrageous photo shoots, delusional egos, and increasingly unhinged entertainment executives, Alissya is learning that making it in show business requires talent, ambition, and an almost supernatural ability to survive your own publicity.

Unfortunately, somebody seems determined to make sure she doesn’t survive at all. The threatening calls are getting harder to ignore. The disasters are getting bigger. The list of suspects is growing. And she’s beginning to wonder whether her spectacular talent for wrecking everything is entirely accidental.

Buzz is a wickedly funny, over-the-top romp through the glittering lunacy of celebrity culture, where ambition is a contact sport, fame is a dangerous addiction, and the only thing more outrageous than the scandals is the truth behind them.

In Hollywood, everybody wants their fifteen minutes of fame. Alissya would settle for fifteen minutes without an explosion.

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Persistence: A Novel

Widowed professor John Weber has spent years teaching theoretical physics and searching for meaning in the machinery of the cosmos. When his university grants him access to LENS, a state-of-the-art quantum computer, he sets out to simulate the birth and evolution of an entire universe. For John, it is the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to watch creation unfold and perhaps unlock the mystery and meaning he’s been searching for.

As the project launches, the simulation exceeds his expectations, providing a front-row seat to the birth of stars, galaxies, and black holes. But when the system data begins to show strange patterns, he discovers a message hidden within the simulation. As John works to understand who, or what, is on the other end of the signal, the boundary between experiment and reality begins to collapse.

As he falls deeper into the puzzle, and with the simulation’s time running out, John must decide how much he is willing to sacrifice for something no one else knows exists.

Persistence is a grounded near-future science fiction novel about creation, discovery, isolation, and consciousness.

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INDIFFERENCE

   

INDIFFERENCE

In Bucephalus, Ohio, people die in strange ways. The town puts up a plaque for every one of them.  Bucephalus, or "Buck" to everyone who lives there, is a town of apple orchards, Friday-night football, and a lake called Respite Bay. It is also where eleven soldiers drowned in eighteen inches of water in 1861 and where lights hang over the bay every fifteen years. Every strange death gets a bronze marker and no questions.

On the last day of school, five kids who barely know each other end up in the same diner booth:

• Colt, a fatherless football prodigy with a temper

• Tyrese, whose family runs the diner and who writes everything down

• Sandra, who has quietly kept her mother's struggling hotel afloat since seventh grade

• Alex, a farm kid with perfect aim and a father they can't talk to

• Julie, a silent fourteen-year-old outcast who can see the town's dead

Then something surfaces in the river below the old railroad trestle: a beaver the size of a man, with nothing behind its eyes. Animals that died out twelve thousand years ago start walking the woods. A boy vanishes, then a duck hunter, then a girl on a lonely road. A body falls out of a clear sky wearing dog tags from Omaha Beach. And the adults of Buck do what they have always done: they look away.

Over one year, from summer through harvest to the frozen lake and back again, the five of them build the map no one else will. The pattern reaches back more than two centuries. It leads to a word a missionary wrote down in 1794 for "the place that is hungry," and to a door in the woods outside a town called the Hollow.

Something there has been watching Buck for a very long time. It doesn't hate them. It doesn't care about them at all.  And that might be worse.

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The Secret Village of Astrology

Shiva, an engineer from Hyderabad and a student of Vedic Astrology, has always been fascinated by the ancient wisdom of Jyotishya. Yet, beyond planetary positions, charts, and predictions, he senses that there is something deeper waiting to be understood. Dissatisfied with conventional explanations, he travels to the coastal town of Udupi in search of a mysterious Siddha Purusha his grandfather once spoke of. What awaits him is far removed from the books and theories he has known, drawing him into a world of unusual encounters, ancient insights, and questions that challenge his understanding of astrology and life. As curiosity gives way to wonder, Shiva begins a journey that may reveal that the true essence of Jyotishya lies far beyond the stars

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The Secret Village of Astrology

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The Secret Village of Astrology

on Amazon India Store

Otherworlder (Falling Darkness Saga Book 1)

   

Otherworlder

(Falling Darkness Saga Book 1)

He died a hero on a quiet country road. He woke up as a weapon in a war between gods. Jake Lancross spent twelve years as an Army sergeant. He came home without a scratch worth mentioning. Then one spring morning he stopped to help a stranger after a car wreck. A gunshot cracked, a pickup truck spun out of control, and everything went black. When he opens his eyes, the moon overhead is too big and the air smells wrong. The forest around him is dead silent. Jake has read enough manga to know how this goes. He holds out his hand and shouts, “Fireball!” Nothing happens. There’s no magic, no superpowers and no friendly elf to help him. What he does get is a pack of crystal-spined wolves charging out of the dark. All he has to fight them with is a stick and his training. Welcome to Ert, a world of dragons, demons, kings and gods. Here magic runs on knowledge and willpower, and a man from Earth may know more than all of them. Jake soon learns he didn’t get here by accident. A princess’s summoning ritual was sabotaged by an enemy nation, and it pulled two things into her world: Jake, and a demon. Part of that demon is now inside him. Then there’s the forgotten ancestor who left him thirty-six journals full of lost spells. And the gods themselves are moving pieces in a game that has been running for two thousand years. Jake is starting to suspect he’s one of those pieces. The magic of this world is starting to die. If nobody stops it, it will be gone for good. Somebody has to find out who’s behind it. OTHERWORLDER is Book 1 of the Falling Darkness Saga. Fans of isekai, LitRPG and epic fantasy will love its gritty, grounded hero, who survives by what he knows instead of a magic power-up. This is no fairy tale. It’s a fight for survival, and it’s only the beginning.

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📖 Otherworlder:

Falling Darkness Saga, Book 1 by Christopher Douglass.

AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON / KiNDLE / KINDLE +

The White Rabbit Method: A Research-Backed Guide to Transforming the Client Experience, Building Loyalty and Rediscovering the Meaning in Your Work

    

The White Rabbit Method:

A Research-Backed Guide to Transforming the Client Experience, Building Loyalty and Rediscovering the Meaning in Your Work

Previously published as The White Rabbit Method by Alicia Anne Taylor.

What if the most important part of a beauty treatment is not the treatment itself?

A client experiences your salon through an entire nervous system. She notices the welcome, the atmosphere, the lighting, the sound, the scent, the consultation, your touch, and whether you truly listened—even when she cannot explain why an appointment felt exceptional or disappointing.

The White Rabbit Method is a fascinating, research-backed guide to the client experience. Drawing on neuroscience, behavioural research and real salon experience, Alicia Anne Taylor explores how clients consciously and subconsciously perceive your salon and treatments—and shows how apparently small details can build trust, improve retention and create an experience people genuinely want to return to.

Inside, you will learn how to:
• use the five senses intentionally without making the experience feel staged;
• read body language and respond to what a client may not say aloud;
• conduct consultations that reveal what the client actually needs;
• handle complaints with empathy, ownership and confidence;
• plant thoughtful seeds for products and future appointments without sounding pushy;
• reduce customer effort and make every stage of the appointment feel considered;
• create a more meaningful, profitable way of working—possibly even by seeing one fewer client.

This is not only a book about giving the client a better experience. It is for beauty professionals themselves: a reminder that their work can help people feel seen, heard, cared for and more at home in themselves.

The human element is the part no machine can perform for you.

A must-read for beauty, hair, nail, spa and wellness professionals who want their work—and their businesses—to mean more.

Click here to get The White Rabbit Method

on Amazon US Store

Click here to get The White Rabbit Method

on Amazon UK Store

The White Rabbit Method™:

A Reflective Workbook for Salon and Spa Professionals

(The White Rabbit Method™ Series)

What makes a client feel truly understood—and want to come back?

Technical skill matters. So do the moments around it: the welcome, the questions you ask, the silence you allow, the details you remember and the way you protect a client’s dignity.

The White Rabbit Method: A Reflective Workbook for Salon and Spa Professionals invites you to explore this human side of your work—and put what you discover into practice.

Created by Alicia Anne Taylor, this workbook combines realistic client situations, guided reflection and practical fieldwork to help you understand the client experience more deeply, build lasting trust and connect thoughtful care with stronger retention and a more profitable, purposeful practice.

Inside, you will find:

• 12 realistic client scenarios exploring communication, emotional awareness, boundaries, client comfort and professional judgement.

• Thoughtful response guidance to help you examine your assumptions and recognise opportunities for better care.

• 12 practical fieldwork exercises covering consultation, the client journey, your working environment, client records, rebooking and relevant product recommendations.

• Space to define ten personal standards that clients can experience through your everyday behaviour.

• A guided 90-day implementation plan, with starting-point and review exercises to help you recognise progress.

Whether you own a salon or spa, work within a team, practise independently or are beginning your training, these pages invite you to look beyond technique and become more intentional about the experience you create.

This is also a workbook for you—the professional behind the service. It offers space to explore your confidence, fulfilment and sense of purpose, and to recognise the significance of work that can sometimes become routine.

Understand your clients more deeply. Give them reasons to return. Rediscover what makes your work matter.

Click here to get

The White Rabbit Method™:

A Reflective Workbook for Salon and Spa Professionals

on Amazon US Store

Click here to get

The White Rabbit Method™:

A Reflective Workbook for Salon and Spa Professionals

on Amazon UK Store

 

GET REAL ABOUT GRIEF Real Stories of Heartbreak, Hope, and Healing

             

GET REAL ABOUT GRIEF

Real Stories of Heartbreak, Hope, and Healing

By Jennifer Barrette | Published by Blackstone Publishing | Coming January 5, 2027 Part story collection. Part survival guide. Part permission slip to feel it all. Grief. Just one syllable, yet it can rattle your entire world like an unexpected earthquake. And here's the thing about grief: it doesn't always arrive dressed in black, carrying flowers, or accompanied by a sympathy card. Sometimes it arrives with divorce papers. A devastating diagnosis. An empty chair at the dinner table. A miscarriage. A job loss. A beloved pet's final goodbye. Or the heartbreaking realization that the life you imagined is no longer the life you're living. Because grief isn't just about death. It's about loss. And if you've ever loved anything deeply, chances are you've grieved deeply, too. In GET REAL ABOUT GRIEF, bestselling author Jennifer Barrette takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the many faces of grief, drawing from more than 100 deeply personal conversations gathered over five years. From losing a parent, child, spouse, or sibling to navigating suicide, infertility, divorce, illness, aging parents, lost identity, shattered security, and even lost faith, Barrette explores the heartbreaks we recognize and the ones society rarely talks about. And she does it with something you might not expect in a book about grief: humor, honesty, and a refreshing refusal to sugarcoat life's messiest moments. Because sometimes you need a good cry. Sometimes you need a good laugh. And sometimes you need someone to tell you that you're not losing your mind; you're simply trying to find your footing in a world that suddenly looks very different. Why this book? Why now? Because grief is universal, but the way we experience it is anything but. Too often, we're told to move on, stay strong, look on the bright side, or give ourselves a little more time. As though grief comes with an expiration date and a handy instruction manual. Spoiler alert: It doesn't. GET REAL ABOUT GRIEF isn't another book telling you how to get over your loss. It's a compassionate, candid, and occasionally witty companion to help you find your way through it. Inside, readers will discover real stories of heartbreak and resilience, practical insights for navigating life's most difficult transitions, guidance for supporting grieving friends and family, and something we could all use a little more of: hope.

Available Jan. 5, 2027

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GET REAL ABOUT GRIEF

Real Stories of Heartbreak, Hope, and Healing

on Amazon / Kindle / Audio Book

  

Daughters of Destiny Series

Of Platinum and Steel, Crucible of Destiny and A Geas of Destiny. The series is about two sisters who were born under a taboo moon and even deeper circumstances. At a young age, their world is turned upsidedown when tragedy strikes, taking their entire family...and far more. Torn apart, each must survive in her own way: one a thief turned assassin, the other, a shadow mage. But it's the gods and their uncaring game that reunites them, now more powerful and dangerous than ever. But their lives will never be what they want as intrigue and a man know only as "the Assassin" directs them on their final journey to peace. But that journey leads to only betrayal and revenge. Through it all they discover their true past, their prupose...and each other. But, once again, the damned gods intervene, turning their lives from peace to complete chaos. Their true bonds are now tested as they face their true nemesis. Can their love of family carry them through, of will the gods finally have their way?

Click here to get Of Platinum and Steel (Book1)

Click here to get Crucible of Destiny (Book 2)

Click here to get A Geas of Destiny (Book 3)

Click here to check out all the Daughters of Destiny Books