Lee Francis Byrne

Serena White loved her life. It was safe. Nice. Manageable. But when it ends suddenly she wakes in a grim tunnel with three doors at the end. One red. One blue. One white. A rude, rangy figure tells her to choose quickly and be gone, blue for the haughty, red for the naughty. Don't ask about the white one. It is not important.

With only a rulebook and twelve weeks to prove her worth, Serena is swiftly dispatched to the afterlife, to a safe house in the sleepy seaside town of Hythe, Kent. The same world she has just left behind, populated by the same creed of twisted hustlers and feckless dupes. Only this time around people glow, not all of them, just some of them, the ones that are worth saving or capturing. Serena soon discovers an aura so bright it is almost blinding.

Jayden Lowe, devilishly desirable, a poet of extraordinary talent and exquisite charm, is being hunted by demons and already they are closing in on the poet's soul to extinguish the bright, pure light within him forever. Jayden's one hope for survival rests upon the callow shoulders of a ditzy blonde, a rookie just as spellbound by him as she is by the beautiful demon hunting his soul.

Earth Date, 1778. Sent by his war-torn world to scout for a new home Boskzar 384 crash lands in the Arctic Cordillera, surrounded by a savage landscape of snow and unforgiving mountains. Using his blaster, he forges a refuge deep beneath the ice and rock and waits for a rescue that never comes. As the days turn into years, the warrior reluctantly accepts his fate and begins to explore his strange new planet, the population primitive compared to his species, and after building a snow-pod from the remains of his shuttle he sets about mapping his hostile habitat.

During one such expedition, he discovers a woman face down in the snow, brutally raped and close to death. Boskzar takes her back to his cave and nurses her back to health, and during a long winter under the bitter polar escarpment, they form a close friendship. Viktorya is quite the most beautiful woman Boskzar has seen on this world or his own, and for the briefest of time, his lonely existence is filled with warmth and joy. The following summer during a supply trip to Inuvik Viktorya disappears. Boskzar is devastated and returns to his lair more isolated than ever.

Insanity is having faith in the normal. When former hustler Logan Willis sees his long-dead fiancée running into the night, pursued by two hefty thugs, he thinks he must be seeing a ghost. Willis gives chase, growing ever more confident that the fleeing girl is his murdered love. Just as insane, green and pleasant England is now a barren landscape of scorched earth and blitzed skyscrapers.

None of it makes sense, and neither do the crazed biters and killer androids. The girl is none too happy to see him, either. Who said the path to true love was an easy one?

The last day of ordinary. When ace coder and uber-loner Duke Miller chances upon lush neighbour Gina Rossi his life changes in an instant, she’s better than a dream, she’s real and appears just as broken as he feels. Whatever it takes, Duke determines to win her heart - even if that means retiring as a professional a-hole.

But Duke’s not the only one with a viscid heart. Motormouth delivery girl Sabrina Belle develops her own super-size crush on Duke the minute she sets eyes on him. Duke’s not interested. His heart is won and there’s no prize for second place. But, as things become trickier with Gina, mad pizza girl soon becomes a valuable ally in trying to win her over.

Sophocles is a drunk who loves whoring. When he wakes one morning in an alleyway with amnesia, he fears his past is full of misdeed and Canterbury 2016 is Future World. He experiences unwanted visions and Whispers tell him what to do and who to kill. To make matters worse, he thinks the body he has woken in belongs to his last victim. Piece by piece, violent memories come to him, and soon he is convinced that he is from Ancient Greece with a mission to claim Lost Souls.

Sophos doesn’t wish to claim anyone, he does want to grow old disgracefully, drink copious amounts of whisky and delight in the company of vivacious women. But his Whispers have other ideas. They have a final mission for him, and they will not be silenced.

Photographer Jenson Cole has a nearly life. His job shooting weddings makes him a decent living, and he answers to no-one, but it's not his dream job. He lives in Folkestone near the highly desirable harbour area, but the apartment is too small and has no garden. And then there's his fiancée Ellie, who is smart, beautiful and soon to be his wife. An almost perfect life. But for some people, almost perfect isn't good enough.

Dana Simmons lives a privileged life, the father she loathes provides her with an obscene income and she divides her time between volunteer work and doting on her wild boyfriend David Gibbons. Life should be sweet, but David has a secret, and its unspoken shadow chills their every encounter.

Belinda Carmichael is David’s ex. She lost a baby eleven years ago when David flew into a rage and accidently fist-pumped her tummy whilst she was pregnant. Ever since, Belinda’s has been a vestige of her former self. Exhausted, emaciated and barely surviving on the breadline, a chance encounter brings David back into her life. She still wants him, love forgives everything, and she is prepared to wait any length of time to get him back.

Frank Winter sees and feels things that most people do not. Amazing things, tiny miracles, little signs, and all unexplainable by conventional wisdom, but are they from the other side, or is grief messing with his head?

Having recently lost his mother, Frank is not looking for miracles. Everything that could be going wrong, is - his famous father is in heartbroken free-fall, his fiancé is cheating on him, and his childhood crush is back in his life, hiding a miserable secret.

The signs, surely they are trying to help him, but what do they all mean? And misreading a sign can lead to tragic consequences. If only Frank would believe that amazing happens every day.

What does it take to be happy? Well, certainly not the truth. Jamie Stone is as honest as you will find and lives a modest and simple life. His true love is Caroline, and Caroline’s true love is his best friend, Ryan, and Ryan’s true love is for himself. Love is supposed to be everywhere, but rarely is it in the right place at the right time.

When Jamie and Caroline die in a car accident, Jamie passes on to Paradise alone. He is greeted by debonair Scotsman Archie, who tells him to forget all about Earth and enjoy his new supernal existence, cakes without calories, sunshine without sunburn, every day a duvet day and clocks that never say you’re late.

Even though Archie won’t tell him why Caroline free-fell straight to Hell, Jamie soon learns of her countless evening strolls, early morning jogs and bathroom breaks with Ryan, and inflamed by betrayal, he heads straight back to Earth masquerading as a helper, real destination old-pal Ryan, intent on delivering some less than angelic revenge.

Earth-hating Archie is quickly dispatched to retrieve Jamie but only ends up stirring the passion of not-so-dormant volcano Miss Dinkie, landlady to a usually dull and unremarkable guesthouse-by-the-sea who believes that even the best love is a superyacht with a hole hidden in its hull. Ryan has finally found true love with the alcoholic wife of a narcissistic money man who is now intent on killing him, and Jamie soon gets side-tracked dodging Archie trying to save the soul of a suicidal father who recently lost his son. Nothing goes unnoticed, and Jamie learns that even the best of us can be undone by others.

When five rough sleepers receive a mysterious, personalised invite to a luxury Scottish hotel, The Black Griffin, they each have no idea who has sent it or how they were found. Despite the offer of free food, luxurious accommodation, and full use of the leisure facilities, they all suspect sinister motives. Not all of them have rosy pasts.

The Black Griifin Hotel is luxury personified, and the rough sleepers who make it to Aberdeenshire are soon glad they went. Sumptuous surroundings, fabulous food and luxury accommodation. And alcohol. Plenty of it.

What could possibly go wrong?