Ruyi's World of Books & Stories

So, I was thinking about enhanced ebooks and decided to try something that, AFAIK, hasn't ever been done before. I recently got hooked on playing Escape the Room games. Not just cell phone apps, where you solve point-and-click puzzles to advance the story, but board games that challenge you to follow the clues and get away before the time is up, real-life games where you go into a room with a group of people and a guide and actually tried to escape by following a carefully constructed scenario, and mail-order subscription games where every month you are snail-mailed a mysterious package that you have to figure out. And I thought: Could something like this be adapted to ebooks? I came up with a concept. A serial killer is emailing me, author J.A. Konrath, and taunting me to prevent his next crime. My first, grandiose way of doing this was to have the killer leave clues about the murder in his emails to me. Then readers could solve the mystery like the sleuth in a mystery novel. But...

Very often, this question has been asked by well-meaning Christians who are plagued by the torrents of appeal from churches for funds. Thrown into these appeals is the standard request to pay your tithes and offerings. Let me say from the very beginning that there is a distinct difference between giving to God and giving to "the church". Giving to God is a scriptural concept (Matt 22:21); Giving to "the church" could just be an emotional response to a well-orchestrated man-made appeal which is out of God's Will and God's Word. So it is important for us to study God's Word so that we are able to discern whether funds being solicited in a particular church are based on sound New Testament Scriptural principles. Prayer is the other means of helping to discern God's Will in a particular area of financial need (of such a church). LAW OF FIRST MENTION  It is important when attempting to derive spiritual principles from the Bible on a particular...

In the dark of night, Dag, Pork, and Fred feasted on a roasted fish that had fallen from the table of a seller on Maxwell Street . As they relished each bite, they were distracted by a strange sound from a corner. Dag, the eldest, raised his head, but when he did not see anything, he lowered his head again and continued with the meal. Moments later, there was a big bang. Pork stopped eating and said, “What’s that?” “I don’t know,” Dag replied. He chewed noisily, staring at the darkness. Blaize limped out looking as if he had fallen from a tree. “It’s only Blaize. I thought it might be Flinz. I would have snuffed the life out of the foul toad!” Pork boasted. “Hey, guys! What do you have for me?” Blaize groaned. Dag chuckled. “Why would a cat that has a rich owner be looking for a meal in this filthy place?” Blaize wore a long face. “My new owner is not what we thought.” “What do you mean?” asked Fred. “Can’t you see that I’m limping? Dr. Pepper almost killed me a few da...

As men slept, a glittering array of stars sat on the bare chest of the sky. Stanford Sullivan, a retired policeman was yet to put the day behind him. The lively man who had little money but was content was reading a novel. On the stroke of midnight, evil men struck and quietness disappeared into the thin air. Gunshots filled the air as Sullivan’s face looked pale in the lamplight. He pushed the book aside and rose from the table. He turned off the lamp and his pair of legs carried him to the window. He pulled up the window blind and saw some men. They were robbers and the poor soul that they had just shot in the leg was in the pool of his blood.  After the few minutes of assault, all his belongings were placed in their pockets. Sullivan was red with rage as he pulled down the window blind. Thames Street had received several blows and had become a shadow of its self. He sank into his favourite chair with hand to the chin. He wanted to call the police but the thieves would have ...

The honourable AGF knew when he was writing his letters and issuing his directives that Maina was a scofflaw and fugitive from justice. But he was not restrained by that knowledge. Abubakar Malami (SAN), by his action and conduct, has done incalculable harm to the integrity of the Buhari’s administration. He has done terrible damage to the anti-corruption fight and has dishonoured the Office of the AGF. Following the public outcry and condemnation that have trailed the revelation that the honourable attorney general of the federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN (the AGF) was the authority in the Federal Government of Nigeria who initiated and instigated the administrative processes that led to the reinstatement and promotion of Mr. Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina, the pension scam fugitive, the AGF, in breaking his deafening silence, was reported to have said in his own defence, that he acted in the public interest. Since then a number of Nigerians have come to the defense of the AGF. In ...