When the British privateer Port au Prince put into the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga in December 1806, her crew was seeking help. But the Tongan king Finau attacked the ship, killing half the crew and enslaving the rest. The voyage ended in disaster and death. But for one young Englishman, fifteen-year-old William Mariner, a whole new adventure had just begun. Finau adopted Mariner, giving him the name of his beloved dead son, Toki. Alone and terrified, Mariner quickly learned to adapt to his new life. He learned the language fluently and soon rose from slave to a member of the noble class....

Fourteen very unusual and diverse stories by Marin County author Brian K. Crawford. From the desert to the South Pacific, from the creation of life to a space-traveling future, from an intimate conversation with a dead wife to the "loopy" nature of time, these stories will inspire thought and wonder and remain in your head long after you put the book down. This collection includes these tales: Desert Moon A solo backpacker gets his final lesson in ecology Marama A maritime mystery in the 19th century South Pacific The Bloody Pumps What is it like to be on a ship that loses its fight? Flotsam...

Ten short stories on very different subjects, including E Pluribus Unum - A multi-generational starship finally approaches its destination at Tau Ceti. The people have adapted well to their shipboard environment on the long voyage - perhaps too well. The Case of the Red Herring - The Sherlock Holmes case Conan Doyle forgot to write - the mysterious case of the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant. The House - A man brings his family back to see the house he grew up in, and finds much changed - but not all. The Luck of the Irish - Three Irishmen, escaped convicts from Port...

Brian Crawford was a twenty-year-old hippie, hitch-hiking around the country from the East Village to Haight-Ashbury and various hippie communes and centers in between, sampling every psychedelic experience he could find. One day in Boulder, Colorado, he met a mysterious stranger with something new - peyote, the magic cactus. With his girlfriend Elissa, the bizarre and paranoid Mike just returned from Vietnam, Sara the seductress, and fellow travelers Sean and Chris, he set off in a red 1947 Cadillac ambulance in an odyssey through the southwest in search of the places where peyote was...

An erotic fantasy in serial format, with each page ending in an excruciatingly suspenseful "clit-hanger." Meant to be read one page a day, preferably in bed, and aloud - or in a hoarse, throaty whisper.

Eight erotic short stories to titillate the heart - and other parts - of the intelligent sensual woman, by an award-winning writer of women's erotica.

Nine very diverse, tightly-constructed short stories to stimulate and intrigue the intelligent reader, including The Swing - A girl, a swing, and a lot of time provide an overview of a life Colby - An explorer pushes the limits of what can be learned of life and death - and the space between The Visitor - A look at travel in the coming age of energy shortages A Connecticut Yankee in King Neptune's Court - How did a Union dog tag come to be found in a Confederate submarine? Sibyl - What of us will survive after we are gone? Only our houses - and their thoughts? The McKinley Cut - What might...

Seven more erotic tales for the intelligent connoisseur by award-winning writer Brian K. Crawford

In 1973, Brian Crawford was a 25-year-old hippie out to see the world and have adventures. After nearly two years on a schooner in North Atlantic gales, he was looking for warmer water. He went to the Kingdom of Tonga, where his brother was training Peace Corps volunteers. Although he loved the people and country of Tonga, his tourist visa expired and he had to leave. With no money, his options were few. Then he found a yacht that would take him on as navigator - Warana, the Australian nuclear protest vessel, bound for Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia, to try to prevent the French from...

"Caribbean Sailing Adventure. Treasure-diving cooperative seeks volunteers to crew a sailing ship to the Caribbean to search for sunken treasure. No experience necessary." Brian Crawford, a 23-year-old hippie in San Diego, couldn't resist answering this mysterious ad, and found himself in another world. He became a member of the Summerland Pirates, a strange crew of unforgettable characters and misfits, living outside the law and conventions, with a dream of sailing an antique sailing ship to the Caribbean to search for Spanish treasure. With diving and cinema equipment, military vehicles,...