Showing results by author "M. Butler" in All Categories

Broken Unbroken is a collection of 33 raw, intimate poems that explore the tender space between collapse and rising. M. L. Butler writes with a voice forged in fire and quiet grace, unflinching in its honesty and lyrical in its rage. Each poem is titled with a single, powerful metaphor—Bacchanight, Stonepetal, Godlessfound, and more—echoes of love, loss, motherhood, memory, and becoming. These poems do not offer neat endings or polished truths. Instead, they invite the reader to feel: deeply, vulnerably, and without apology. For those who have endured, broken, healed, and still carry ...

“13 Black Cats” — They took my cats. Now I’ll take their lives. They say black cats bring bad luck. In this forgotten village buried under frost and fear, it’s a belief that kills. Spot was the thirteenth. Slaughtered, discarded, and devoured by the things that roam the night. Like the twelve before him, his only crime was being mine. My name is Morana. These cats were my family, my only solace in a cruel, superstitious world. The villagers called them omens. I called them love. Now I call for revenge. Told through the eyes of a grieving and vengeful woman, 13 Black Cats is a dark...

Prepare for a pulse-pounding adventure that transcends time itself in the riveting Time Trials. Meet Marty Cohen, a brilliant linguist turned woodworking shop owner who thought he had left behind the politics and rivalries of academia for good. But when his woodworking business takes a hit, an offer he can't refuse pulls him back into the world of Egyptology. Marty is summoned to an off-the-grid archaeological dig, where ancient texts may hold the key to Earth's past and future. With the promise of riches, Marty embarks on a journey that defies belief.

Marty Cohen and his team embarked on a cross-continental journey across North Africa with the goal of returning to their starting point. However, after passing through a mysterious portal, they find themselves in a place and time that is completely unexpected. They end up on an isolated island nation where strangers are viewed as ominous figures sent by a higher power. The people of this nation hold a prophecy that involves a team of strangers as harbingers of either death or salvation.

I was eight years old when I found out I had a father. It was the same day I held my dead mother in my arms while praying her life wasn't really over. I was dropped into the middle of a new family not long after that...From the very beginning I was ostracized because of who my mother had been. The daughters of club members were generally known as MC Princesses. My little sister was one. My title was a bit different, and proved that my mom's sins would always be held against me. I was The Other Princess.

*** Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice *** 890 A.D. Shieldmaiden Halla hungers for death in battle and a place in Valhalla until a Frankish sword shatters her expectations of a glorious end. In the space between life and death, she instead confronts the emptiness of a wasted life. Hiding from the Norsemen among shattered abbeys and abandoned towns in northern Frankia, Christian landowner Taurin fears the day a dragon-headed longship rediscovers them and drags his people away as slaves. Their worlds collide when Jarl Rollo of Rouen annexes Taurin’s town and appoints Halla as ruler. ...

*** 2020 Chaucer Book Awards Long List *** England, AD 1471. The Wars of the Roses ravage England. After six months of turmoil, Yorkist King Edward IV has shattered his enemies and reclaimed his throne. As one of the last surviving Lancastrians, young Henry Tudor flees with his uncle Jasper to keep his head from adorning London Bridge beside his grandfather’s. He won’t return for fourteen long years. Blown by storms to Brittany, Henry is trapped between the king who hunts him and a duke who views him as leverage. Though his mother labors in England to restore his lands and titles, Henry...

I fell in love with Charles “Double-D” Brothers when I was just 16 years old. He was 19 and had just patched into the Aces High MC in Charleston, SC. The falling in love part didn’t matter though, because our life - our love - wasn’t destined to be an easy one. In the beginning - I was too young, he was too wild, and my family was able to send me away to keep us apart. Later, when I was 20 and he was 23 our paths crossed again. This time he was the one ready for me, but I wasn’t quite there yet.

Toledo, Spain, AD 1094. When the Almoravids swept away the music, freedom, and religious harmony of Muslim-controlled al-Andalus during their conquest of southern Spain, Yasin Ibn Faraj lost the culture of his beloved home. Disowned after disobeying his family’s command to convert to Islam, he follows other Christian Mozarabs north to Toledo. There, Yasin clings to wine, women, music, and luxury that the Almoravids forbade. Though his tastes are expensive, his skill at leatherworking and thievery lets him indulge them. But, one misjudged theft sees him arrested and dismissed by his ...

These stories contain common tropes used within the broader horror genre, as well as some characteristics more specific to the body horror subgenre, including pornography, invasion, contagion, mutation, transformation, disease, mutilation, or other unnatural or violent distortions of the human body.

Roman Catholic sisters first traveled to the American West as providers of social services, education, and medical assistance. In Across God’s Frontiers, Anne M. Butler traces the ways in which sisters challenged and reconfigured contemporary ideas about women, work, religion, and the West; moreover, she demonstrates how religious life became a vehicle for increasing women’s agency and power.

*** 2023 Chaucer Book Awards Finalist*** 1365, Venice, Italy. For generations, the merchants of House Aretoli have profited through faithful service to the Republic of Venice. Despite being only a minor senatorial family, they’ve established a reputation for reliability, fidelity, and ingenuity. But the Aretoli are about to face the ultimate test. Caught up in a rebellion on Venice’s territory of Crete, young Niccolo Aretoli returns as a hero after saving the governor’s life and evacuating the loyal citizenry. Yet despite his new fame, not all is well in Venice. Niccolo’s beloved ...

Featuring contributions from fabulous horror indie authors, this filthy collection of extreme body horror tales is not for those easily offended. These stories contain common tropes used within the broader horror genre, as well as some characteristics more specific to the body horror subgenre to include; pornography, invasion, contagion, mutation, transformation, disease, mutilation, or other unnatural or violent distortions of the human body.

I am nothing and no one. Such a Debbie Downer attitude, I know. My entire existence is one of mere survival within a pack that sees me as worthless. The alpha is ruthless, but he hasn't killed me yet. Small mercies, right? I've never known kindness, so what do I do when four guys show up with smiles and soft touches? Hide, for all of five minutes. They're kind of insistent on getting to know me, and everything in me rebels at the thought of running from them. You see, there's this pull. A connection that snapped into place when we made eye contact. They're apparently my freaking mates.

Cheerful in the face of dark opposition. Innovative to improve a backward world. Industrial as a cure for oppressive conditions. Unyielding beneath all who seek to bind and control them. Faithful until they conquer the fear of death and rise to great acts of heroism and service. Mormons and steampunks are two faces of the same coin. Twelve authors spin tales of true believers facing impossible odds, risking this life in the hope of gaining something better after.

A group of friends create the opportunity to change history. They grab it with both hands, oblivious to what consequences altering time may bring. George Brinton McClellan is ecstatic over his latest promotion. Charged with bringing the rebels in Virginia to heel, he prepares to meet the rabble with a well-trained, disciplined army. What he doesn't know is that events of the distant future are about to alter his life in ways he never expected.

Marty Cohen ist ein kompetenter Linguist und Experte für antike Militärstrategie. Allerdings hat er sich von akademischer Ägyptologie abgewandt und eine Tischlerwerkstatt eröffnet. Abseits frustrierender Politik und kleinlicher Rivalitäten kümmert er sich um seine Mitarbeiter, vergnügt sich gelegentlich mit einem Kriegsspiel und führt ein beschauliches Leben. Allerdings rauben ihm mysteriöse Visionen den Schlaf. Dann wird er zurück nach Ägypten gerufen.

Throughout our lives, we encounter rejection from those around us - those we love, those we respect, and those in authority over us. Regardless of age, gender, race, religious background, or social status, everyone experiences rejection of some sort. What varies from one person to another is the impact of that rejection upon and within their lives, emotions, and relationships.

I still can't get over the fact that he kidnapped me...and I'm still freaking here! I have four mates, and NONE of them have saved me yet?! I'm sure they're trying their best, but our small mental conversations aren't enough. I'm slowly losing my mind in this basement, and I can't tell whether it's from not being with my mates for so long or the torture that I'm forced to endure from this overgrown manchild. The pain from being separated from them is excruciating, but I can't let that take me out. I have to get back to them. Wouldn't you be desperate for a rescue?

We are so freaking lost right now. Without our mate, our wolves are on the verge of going feral. We're not even acting like ourselves, and it's only been a few hours! Mavrin is spazzing out, and snapping on everyone. Cash is stable, but it's throwing everyone off because that's Mavrin's role. Krix is still trying to lead us, but you can tell he's overwhelmed. And I'm...numb. Jahla has been taken by a psychotic spoiled brat, and we have to venture into enemy territory to get her back.