Showing results by narrator "Shea Taylor" in All Categories

The unifying factor of this collection is that, without exception, every author included here was in some way or another involved with or interested in the occult. In some cases, they were members of an occult organization, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, or similar such groups. Others simply had a strong personal interest in the subject matter or practiced some form of the esoteric sciences in private.

Always a lover of fairy stories yet unable to believe in their truth, young Davy finds himself whisked away on a "Believing Voyage" one magical Christmas Eve by a little red goblin. In a strange country full of wonders, Davy finds himself coming face to face with a whale in a waistcoat; Robin Hood; the last member of the band of Forty Thieves; Robinson Crusoe; talking dogs, horses, and cows; and Mother Hubbard herself, living side by side with Jack's beanstalk!

All that we achieve and all that we fail to achieve is the direct result of our own thoughts. “Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.” (James Allen, As a Man Thinketh) As Allen himself describes, “It shows how, in his own thought-world, each man holds the key to every condition, good or bad, that enters into his life, and that, by working patiently and intelligently upon his thoughts, he may remake his life, and transform his circumstances…and it can be carried in the pocket.”

Anthony Trollope’s The Small House at Allington is the fifth book in a series called The Chronicles of Barsetshire but is the most well-known of the series due to its writing quality and timeline placement within the series. The novel follows the Dales, a family who occupies a large estate. Christopher is the owner of the estate, and allows his widowed sister and her children to live on a small house on the property. The novel largely follows the children, Lilian and Isabella, as they are courted and try to find their place among society.

In 1665, London was struck by the bubonic plague, an epidemic that was the last major instance of the bubonic plague in England. This instance of the plague killed 100,000 people over a year and a half, and was transmitted through rats that ran through the city. A Journal of the Plague Year was presented as an eyewitness account of the epidemic through the eyes of Londoners.

Noah Derwin knows what it's like to be different. Being a 17-year-old kid in high school with blue hair, piercings, a mostly all black wardrobe, and an obsession with zombies and video games, he doesn't exactly blend in. But he never wanted to. His two dads raised him to always stay true to himself. Being gay in high school isn't exactly rainbows and butterflies, and Noah has definitely faced his fair share of bullies. Moving to Port Haven, Oregon opens up new possibilities for him, and he starts falling for the quiet, brown-eyed boy from his English class.

Mr. Barnstaple is an average man living in English in the early 1900s. He is a journalist and after facing a stressful time at his newspaper decides to take a vacation. But his vacation goes from ordinary to extraordinary in an instant when his vehicle is transported to an alternate world, one called Utopia.

The Painted Veil is the story of Kitty Garstin, a young socialite who amuses herself with the pursuit of various men until settling into a marriage with a physician, who takes her to Hong Kong to begin his work. Shortly after they move, Kitty meets the charming, yet distasteful, Charlie Townsend, and begins a passionate affair that lasts several years without notice from her husband.

In 1923, Achad published an edition of only 220 copies of a series of hymns or poetic devotions, in a manner slightly reminiscent of Crowley’s own emphatic style, aimed at adoring the Egyptian goddess Nuit (the number 220, being intended to align with the number of verses in Aleister Crowley’s own Book of the Law). Achad titled his own book, Thirty-One Hymns to the Star Goddess.

In 1976, under the guidance of legendary label Stiff Records, he transformed himself into the snarling, spectacled artist who defied the musical status quo to blaze the trail for a new kind of rock star with his debut album, My Aim Is True. In Elvis Is King, Richard Crouse examines how the man, the myth, and the music of this arrestingly original album smashed the trends of the era to bridge the gap between punk and rock ’n’ roll.

When Taj sets a trap to catch his parents pretending to be the Tooth Fairy, he finds the real Tooth Fairy fried by the wire he’d connected to a couple nine-volt batteries. Instead of spending his summer vacation building robots and taking it easy, he’s pretending to fit in with kids who practically worship the holiday seasons. His only hope to return to normal life is to find a way to fit in, or discover who kidnapped the Tooth Fairy and bring them to justice....

Orphaned at a young age, Song has grown up listening to his grandfather recite legends of the distant past. But it is his own history he seeks to uncover, particularly the events surrounding his parents' deaths. That is a secret closely guarded by his grandfather. Then Song discovers an heirloom that links him to an ancient prophecy. His destiny lies within the old tales he has scorned. Song must follow the path that killed his father.

L. Frank Baum is the famed author of the Wizard of Oz series. In this tale, we meet a fairy named Popopo who is the guardian of all the birds. When he learns that stuffed birds are being used as fashion accessories on the hats of ladies, he decides to put a stop to it.

In 1967, Fay Stonewell, a water tank escape artist in Florida, leaves for Vietnam to join the Amazing Humans—a jerry-rigged carnival there to entertain the troops—abandoning her disabled teenage son, Dickie, to the care of an abusive boyfriend. Months after Fay’s departure, Dickie’s troubled home life ends in a surprising act of violence that forces him to run away. He soon lands in Manhattan, where he’s taken in by eccentric artist Laurence Jones. Fay, meanwhile, is also facing dangerous threats.

Little did Evan know his suicide attempt would not be a disappearing into a void but the beginning of a journey to repentance and faith. Long suffering from alcoholism and depression, college sophomore Evan Esco hoped to escape his pain by committing suicide. Evan hoped he would simply cease to be, but he did not count on the existence of God to foil his plans. Instead of wrath, God is now giving Evan the chance to repent—that is, the chance to return to the world above, turn from his sins, and place his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Frank L. Baum is the famed author of the Wizard of Oz stories. Here he tells the tale of a mischief Jack Frost who learns that he is able to freeze the shadows of humans and in doing so he wreaks havoc throughout a kingdom!

Visited by an angel Theodoros is instructed to make the Gears of Uriel, which is passed from one generation to the next for more than five hundred years. This family are the guardians who protect it from the evil enveloping our world, casting Theodoros' life into mayhem. Following each of his descendants and the danger often accompanying the device, this is a spiritual quest, exposing how religion has often cloaked the truth from mankind, with risk of death to the keepers of truth...

Thirteen-year-old Aaron was chosen to save their world, but it might come at the cost of losing his own... Breaking into an old lady's basement was supposed to reward Aaron with new friends. Instead he finds an enchanted amulet that transports him to another world - one at war with magic. Before he knows it, he is accused of witchcraft and invited to a bonfire - where he's the main attraction. If that's not bad enough, a goblin army shows up and toasts the town... literally.

Since the loss of his lively, charming wife to cancer six years ago, minister Paul Tobit has been operating on autopilot, performing his religious duties by rote. Everything changes the day he enters the church lobby and encounters a radiant, luminous being lit from behind, breathtakingly beautiful and glowing with life. An angel. For a moment Paul is so moved by his vision that he is tempted to fall on his knees and pray.

When successful author Jeremy Liden takes his friends up to his vacation cabin in the wilds of Wisconsin, he was hoping for a relaxing weekend. What he gets instead is a never-ending ordeal of snarling terror as he and his guests become trapped inside by an unrelenting menace that does not understand mercy. By the time the night is through, not everyone is going to make it home in one piece.