In March 1987, a young author from Oklahoma published her first novel, Arrows of the Queen. This modest book about a magical land called Vademar was the beginning of a fantasy masterpiece that would span decades and include more than two dozen titles. Now sixteen of today's hottest fantasy authors-including Tanya Huff, Mickey Zucker Reichert, Fiona Patton, and Judith Tarr-visit the world of Valdemar, adding their own special touches.

If you could wish for one gift this Christmas, what would it be?

Everyday Lou Suffern battled with the clock. He always had two places to be at the same time. He always had two things to do at once. When asleep he dreamed. In between dreams, he ran through the events of the day while making plans for the next. When at home with his wife and family, his mind was always someplace else.

On his way into work one early winter morning, Lou meets Gabe, a homeless man sitting outside the office building. Intrigued by him and on discovering that he could also be very useful to have around, Lou gets Gabe a job in the post room.

But soon Lou begins to regret helping Gabe. His very presence unsettles Lou and how does Gabe appear to be in two places at the same time?

As Christmas draws closer, Lou starts to understand the value of time. He sees what is truly important in life yet at the same time he learns the harshest lesson of all.

This is a story about people who not unlike parcels, hide secrets. They cover themselves in layers until the right person unwraps them and discovers what's inside.S ometimes you have to be unravelled in order to find out who you really are. For Lou Suffern, that took time.

Sophie Rose is a crime reporter at a major Chicago newspaper and the daughter of Bobby Rose, a charming gentleman and big-time thief. When asked to write an exposé about her notorious father, Sophie quits and goes to work at a small newspaper, covering local personalities such as William Harrington, the 5K runner whose trademark is red socks. Those socks -- with Sophie's business card tucked inside -- are practically all that's found after Harrington is killed near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, seemingly in a brutal polar bear attack.

Sophie heads north to investigate, but danger follows in her wake. After one attempt on her life, she's assigned brash buy sexy Jack MacAlister as a bodyguard. But Sophie and Jack will soon be fighting more than their growing passion for each other Powerful forces will stop at nothing to prevent the exposure of the sinister conspiracy Sophie and Jack are about to uncover.

Having defeated Spartacus in The Death of Kings, Caesar is serving a five year term as Governor Of Spain (Hispania Ulterior) with his Tenth legion. Depressed with guilt still over the death of his wife in The Death of Kings, he has exhausted himself in conquering and expanding Spain. However when his friend Marcus Brutus' mother (Servilia Caepionis) arrives, she engages in a romance with him and re-awakens his desire for power.

Before his term ends he deserts his Governorship (a serious crime amongst Roman patricians) to challenge for the role of Consul. With the help of current Consul Crassus he manages, yet only just and by getting himself into unbelievable levels of debt (and by defeating a rebel army on the verge of attacking Rome), to obtain the rank. To allow himself unprecedented military control of a province after his first six months as Consul, Caesar forms the First Triumvirate with Crassus and Pompey, the old Consuls.

After six months fulfilling promises he made during the election campaign, Caesar takes his Tenth Legion, the Third Gallica (formed from the mercenary survivors) and two legions from northern Italy to a small outpost in Gaul.

While he is fighting in Gaul, Rome is sliding towards strife as two new senators, Clodius and Milo, attempt to wrest control of the city from each other with their gangs, by terrorizing and fighting in the city. On a final night, the Curia is destroyed and both are killed by each other and Pompeys legion. After this night, Pompey declares himself Dictator and begins his dominion of the city. Meanwhile Crassus is killed fighting with his legions in Parthia, leaving Pompey sole master.

After ten years of fighting, two expeditions to Britain, one million Gauls killed and another million sold into slavery, Caesar must make possibly the most important decision of his life. Does he return to Rome alone, as ordered by the Dictator Pompey, where his only military rival will most likely kill him, or plunge the Roman world into a civil war and see whether he survives. With a night of soul-searching on the Rubicon riverbanks, Caesar utters the words "The die is cast" (alea iacta est in Latin) and heads south to Rome with his legions.

Jo Strong is the youngest widow in the East End. Running her late husband's jewellery shop, mercilessly bullied by her evil mother-in-law, she is trying to get her life back together again. But then the 14-year-old daughter of one of the East end's most notorious gangsters is kidnapped, and Jo finds herself in a deadly race against time to rescue the girl ?before it is too late. And to get her back, she'll have to join forces with damaged but handsome bad boy Gabe Miller, a man who has a dark past of his own...

The Dragon Reborn consists of a prologue and 56 chapters. The Dragon Reborn - From the Mountains of Mist to Tear. Rand al'Thor, having declared himself the Dragon Reborn at the end of the previous book, The Great Hunt, secretly leaves the Shienaran camp in the Mountains of Mist to go to Tear to prove himself the Dragon Reborn. He is hunted by Darkhounds. Moiraine Damodred, Lan Mandragoran, and Perrin Aybara chase after Rand. Along the way, they encounter with a Hunter for the Horn, Faile Bashere; battle Darkhounds

The Shadow Rising consists of 58 chapters. It is the first book in the main sequence of The Wheel of Time not to contain a prologue.

At the beginning of this book, all major protagonists are together at the Stone of Tear, where Rand al'Thor had recently, at the end of The Dragon Reborn, shown to the world that he was the Dragon Reborn by wielding Callandor.

Selene reveals herself to be Lanfear, one of the Forsaken, and tells Rand to join her. The Stone of Tear is then stormed by Trollocs and Fades (though Lanfear did not have anything to do with this; in fact, it is believed she sent her own Shadowspawn to battle with the attackers). Rand uses Callandor to send a lightning storm to kill all of the Trollocs and Fades leaving some believing Rand has gone mad.

Rand declares his intention to go follow the People of the Dragon, the Aiel, into their home, the Aiel Waste. Egwene al'Vere and Moiraine Damodred resolve to accompany him. Mat Cauthon, unsure of what to do, finds answers within the Stone of Tear's Aelfinn ter'angreal, and is prompted to follow Rand to the Aiel Waste. Perrin Aybara, after hearing rumors of trouble in Two Rivers, chooses to return home to the Two Rivers, and Faile Bashere goes with him. Elayne Trakand, Nynaeve al'Meara, and Thom Merrilin decide to go to Tarabon to hunt the Black Ajah. Also Min Farshaw arrives in Tar Valon to report to the Amyrlin Siuan Sanche, inadvertently setting off a chain of events that will lead to a Tower split. Thus, The Shadow Rising follows four groups of characters in four main plotlines.