Gene Wolfe, of whom The Washington Post said, “Of all SF writers currently active none is held in higher esteem,” has selected the short fiction he considers his finest into one volume.  There are many award winners and many that have been selected for various Year’s Best anthologies among the thirty-one stories, which include: “Petting Zoo,” “The Tree Is My Hat,” “The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories,” “The Hero as Werewolf,” “Seven American Nights,” “The Fifth Head of Cerberus,” “The Detective of Dreams,” and “A Cabin on the Coast.” Gene Wolfe has produced possibly the finest and most significant body of short fiction in the SF and fantasy field in the last fifty years, and is certainly among the greatest living writers to emerge from the genres.  This is the first retrospective collection of his entire career.  It is for the ages.Contents11 • The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories • [Archipelago] • (1970) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe23 • Afterword (The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories) • essay by Gene Wolfe25 • The Toy Theater • (1971) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe30 • Afterword (The Toy Theater) • essay by Gene Wolfe31 • The Fifth Head of Cerberus • (1972) • novella by Gene Wolfe76 • Afterword (The Fifth Head of Cerberus) • essay by Gene Wolfe78 • Beech Hill • (1972) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe83 • Afterword (Beech Hill) • essay by Gene Wolfe84 • The Recording • (1972) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe86 • Afterword (The Recording) • essay by Gene Wolfe88 • Hour of Trust • (1973) • novelette by Gene Wolfe112 • Afterword (Hour of Trust) • essay by Gene Wolfe114 • The Death of Dr. Island • [Archipelago] • (1973) • novella by Gene Wolfe158 • Afterword (The Death of Dr. Island) • essay by Gene Wolfe159 • La Befana • (1973) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe162 • Afterword (La Befana) • essay by Gene Wolfe163 • Forlesen • (1974) • novelette by Gene Wolfe201 • Afterword (Forlesen) • essay by Gene Wolfe202 • Westwind • (1973) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe208 • Afterword (Westwind) • essay by Gene Wolfe209 • The Hero as Werwolf • (1975) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe221 • Afterword (The Hero as Werwolf) • essay by Gene Wolfe222 • The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton • (1977) • novelette by Gene Wolfe236 • Afterword (The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton) • essay by Gene Wolfe237 • Straw • (1975) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe243 • Afterword (Straw) • essay by Gene Wolfe244 • The Eyeflash Miracles • (1976) • novella by Gene Wolfe291 • Afterword (The Eyeflash Miracles) • essay by Gene Wolfe292 • Seven American Nights • (1978) • novella by Gene Wolfe331 • Afterword (Seven American Nights) • essay by Gene Wolfe333 • The Detective of Dreams • (1980) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe346 • Afterword (The Detective of Dreams) • essay by Gene Wolfe347 • Kevin Malone • (1980) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe355 • Afterword (Kevin Malone) • essay by Gene Wolfe356 • The God and His Man • (1980) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe360 • Afterword (The God and His Man) • essay by Gene Wolfe361 • On the Train • [Redwood Coast Roamer] • (1983) • shortfiction by Gene Wolfe362 • Afterword (On the Train) • essay by Gene Wolfe363 • From the Desk of Gilmer C. Merton • (1983) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe367 • Afterword (From the Desk of Gilmer C. Merton) • essay by Gene Wolfe368 • Death of the Island Doctor • [Archipelago] • (1983) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe372 • Afterword (Death of the Island Doctor) • essay by Gene Wolfe373 • Redbeard • (1984) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe377 • Afterword (Redbeard) • essay by Gene Wolfe379 • The Boy Who Hooked the Sun • (1985) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe381 • Afterword (The Boy Who Hooked the Sun) • essay by Gene Wolfe382 • Parkroads—A Review • (1987) • shortfiction by Gene Wolfe384 • Afterword (Parkroads—A Review) • essay by Gene Wolfe385 • Game in the Pope's Head • (1988) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe390 • Afterword (Game in the Pope's Head) • essay by Gene Wolfe391 • And When They Appear • (1993) • novelette by Gene Wolfe408 • Afterword (And When They Appear) • essay by Gene Wolfe409 • Bed and Breakfast • (1996) • shortfiction by Gene Wolfe (variant of Bed & Breakfast)426 • Afterword (Bed and Breakfast) • essay by Gene Wolfe427 • Petting Zoo • (1997) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe431 • Afterword (Petting Zoo) • essay by Gene Wolfe433 • The Tree Is My Hat • (1999) • novelette by Gene Wolfe452 • Afterword (The Tree Is My Hat) • essay by Gene Wolfe454 • Has Anybody Seen Junie Moon? • (1999) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe464 • Afterword (Has Anybody Seen Junie Moon?) • essay by Gene Wolfe466 • A Cabin on the Coast • (1984) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe475 • Afterword (A Cabin on the Coast) • essay by Gene Wolfe

    From a freelance writer whose interview with a ruthless, ambitious, and very handsome millionaire turns into something so much more to an attorney's explosive encounter with a sexy club owner. From an event planner's very steamy night with an old flame to a businesswoman who wants to get back the man she let slip away while climbing the ladder of success. Experience just how much Brenda Jackson can turn up the heat!

    The first in a six-volume series, Volume 1: Threshold contains all of Zelazny's short works from his early years through the mid 1960s--a period of experimentation and growth that flowered into gems such as "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," "The Graveyard Heart," "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth," and "He Who Shapes." The stories in this series are enriched by editors' notes and Zelazny's own words, taken from his many essays, describing why he wrote the stories and what he thought about them in retrospect.

    Action, romance, power struggles — no, it's not reality TV! Greek mythology meets the modern age in this riviting (and educational) series complete with profiles, headshots, sidebars and more!- Annotated/illustrated Table of Contents- Introduction explains the origins of mythology, how we learned the stories, and why myths matter today- A-Z Hall of Fame features the key characters in each book- Full profiles of each character with their amazing myths- Backmatter includes constellation chart, glossary, further reading, and series index- PLUS loads of illustrations, photos, charts, and maps

    On the verge of giving up—anchored to dreams that never came true and to people who have long since disappeared from their lives—Van Booy's characters walk the streets of these stark and beautiful stories until chance meetings with strangers force them to face responsibility for lives they thought had continued on without them.Love begins in winter --Tiger, tiger --The Missing statues --The Coming and going of strangers --The City of windy trees

    A lonely woman reflects on her failed marriage and the single act of violence, years buried, that brought about its destruction. In these eight beautifully written, achingly poignant, and occasionally heartbreaking stories, the fine line between right and wrong, good and bad, love and violence is walked over and over again.In "Good Girl," a depressed widower is forced to decide between the love of a good woman and the love of his own deeply flawed son. In another part of town and another time, thirteen-year-old Ellen, the central figure of "Theory of Realty," is discovering the menaces of being "at that age": too old for the dolls of her girlhood, too young to understand the weaknesses of the adults who surround her. The linked stories "Parts" and "Proof of God" offer distinct but equally correct versions of a brutal crime--one from the perspective of the victim's mother, one from the killer's.

    This retrospective volume includes "All Summer in a Day,” Ray Bradbury’s lasting tale of what happened on one special day; "Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, describing what happened to Charlie Gordon when he was made into a genius; "Harrison Bergeron," Kurt Vonnegut’s absurdist cautionary tale of mandatory equality; and "The Electric Ant" by Philip K. Dick, concerning what Garson Poole learned after the accident that hospitalized him. This remarkable collection also features some of the most highly acclaimed, award-winning authors, including Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, Shirley Jackson, Peter S. Beagle, Karen Joy Fowler, Ursula K. Le Guin, Theodore Sturgeon, and Roger Zelazny. Hand-picked by the magazine’s current editor, this is an unmatched assemblage of appealing, first-rate fiction.ContentsIntroduction by Gordon Van Gelder"Of Time and Third Avenue" by Alfred Bester"All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury"One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts" by Shirley Jackson"A Touch of Strange" by Theodore Sturgeon"Eastward ho!" by William Tenn"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes"Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut"This Moment of the Storm" by Roger Zelazny"The Electric Ant" by Philip K. Dick"The Deathbird" by Harlan Ellison"The Women Men Don't See" by James Tiptree, Jr."I See You" by Damon Knight"The Gunslinger" by Stephen King"The Dark" by Karen Joy Fowler"Buffalo" by John Kessel"Solitude" by Ursula K. Le Guin"Mother Grasshopper" by Michael Swanwick"macs" by Terry Bisson"Creation" by Jeffrey Ford"Other People" by Neil Gaiman"Two Hearts" by Peter S. Beagle"Journey into the Kingdom" by M. Rickert"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang

    

    Martin and Gardner Dozois, with the full cooperation of Jack Vance, his family, and his agents, suggest a Jack Vance tribute anthology called Songs of the Dying Earth, to encourage the best of today's fantasy writers to return to the unique and evocative milieu of The Dying Earth, from which they and so many others have drawn so much inspiration, to create their own brand-new adventures in the world of Jack Vance s greatest novel.Half a century ago, Jack Vance created the world of the Dying Earth, and fantasy has never been the same. Now, for the first time ever, Jack has agreed to open this bizarre and darkly beautiful world to other fantasists, to play in as their very own. To say that other fantasy writers are excited by this prospect is a gross understatement; one has told us that he'd crawl through broken glass for the chance to write for the anthology, another that he'd gladly give up his right arm for the privilege that's the kind of regard in which Jack Vance and The Dying Earth are held by generations of his peers.

    Authors who have appeared within the pages of Sword and Sorceress represent the full spectrum of some of the brightest talent working today -- from C.J. Cherryh, Charles de Lint, and Emma Bull . . . to Deborah J. Ross, Diana L. Paxson, and Laurell K. Hamilton.We are proud to continue the classic and vibrant feminist tradition with this twenty-fourth volume of new magical adventures edited by Elisabeth Waters, secretary and co-editor to Mrs. Bradley.Here are seventeen original stories of remarkable women of power, swashbuckling and magic, spells and duels, arcane sorcery and fabled heroism, written by familiar word-weavers of excitement and adventure, and bright newcomers who are sure to become favorites.Enter a wondrous universe . . .Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and SorceressSword and Sorceress 24 includes stories by Deborah J. Ross, Helen E. Davis, Elisabeth Waters & Michael Spence, Brenta Blevins, K.D. Wentworth, Teresa Howard, Catherine Soto, Josepha Sherman, Cate McBride, Cynthia Ward, Jonathan Moeller, Dave Smeds, Therese Arkenberg, Michael H. Payne, Annclaire Livoti, Julia H. West, and Melissa Mead.

    It has the potential to be groundbreaking in its raw, honest portrayal of a just-barely-functioning family. Billy Lombardo is interested in the beauty of words. He is also a great observer of the world around him, and he is exquisite and precise in getting that world onto the page.Billy Lombardo is the author of The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories, a Chicago Tribune “Best Fiction of 2005” selection. His novel Man With Two Arms is due from The Overlook Press in 2010.

    What if you had a conscious, skillful way to respond in times of anger, fear, jealousy, shame, and other powerful emotions? Meditations for Emotional Healing gives us a collection of insights and practices for bringing compassion, clarity, and understanding to our emotional lives--instead of expressing or repressing them in unhealthy ways. Leading meditation teacher and clinical psychologist Tara Brach guides us through a transformative series of exercises to cultivate greater self-acceptance and emotional liberation. Meditations include: How to work with trauma, fear, and shame - Forgiveness meditation - Compassion meditation - Invoking loving presence in the face of difficulty - The power of yes As Tara puts it, - When we touch what is painful with awareness, the armoring around our heart melts and we become more tender and kind. Meditations for Emotional Healing is an invitation to return to our natural state at peace with what is, energetically whole, and spiritually free.

    A grieving missionary becomes obsessed with a creature rumoured to live in the forests of the Congo. And, in the title story, a young woman travelling with her scientist mother in Madagascar confronts her burgeoning sexuality and her dream of becoming a long-distance swimmer.

    O’Connor’s wonderfully polyphonic tales of family, friendship, and rivalry are set beside those that bring to life forgotten souls on the fringes of society. O’Connor’s writings about Ireland vividly evoke the land he called home, while other stories probe the hardships and rewards of Irish emigration. Finally, we see O’Connor grappling, in both fiction and memoir, with the largest questions of religion and belief.The Best of Frank O’Connor is a literary monument to a truly great writer.

    Here, under the author’s careful control and easygoing charisma, everything seems up for grabs, and almost anything seems possible.”—Time Out New York Impossible Princess is the third collection of gay short fiction by PEN Award–winning San Francisco–based author Kevin Killian. A member of the “new narrative” circle including Dennis Cooper and Kathy Acker, Killian is a master short story writer, crafting campy and edgy tales that explore the humor and darkness of desire. A former director of Small Press Traffic and a co-editor of Mirage/Periodical, Killian co-wrote Jack Spicer’s biography, Poet Be Like God, and co-edited three Spicer books, including My Vocabulary Did This To Me: Collected Poems. His latest book, Action Kylie, is a collection of poems devoted to Kylie Minogue.

    The Muslims had to grapple with a nation that had suddenly become unrecognizable and where they found themselves to be second-class citizens. Not used to the Urdu, the mosques and the new avatars of domination, they were bewildered by the new Islamic state of Pakistan. Sindh as a nation had simultaneously become elusive for both communities. In Unbordered Memories we witness Sindhis from India and Pakistan making imaginative entries into each other’s worlds. Many stories in this volume testify to the Sindhi Muslims’ empathy for the world inhabited by the Hindus, and the Indian Sindhis’ solidarity with the turbulence experienced by Pakistani Sindhis. These writings from both sides of the border fiercely critique the abuse of human dignity in the name of religion and national borders. They mock the absurdity of containing subcontinental identities within the confines of nations and of equating nations with religions. And they continually generate a shared, unbordered space for all Sindhis— Hindus and Muslims.

    In these dozen stories of adventure and magic from the Orient, a maiden encounters an "oni" demon in the forest, a bride discovers her mother-in-law is a fox woman, a samurai must appease his sister's angry ghost, strange luck is found in a jade locket, and dark and light are two sides of harmony.A striking debut collection from Eugie Foster.

    

    Set in the Gulf Coast over the course of a year torn halfway by the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, these stories, filled with humor, restraint, and verve, follow the lives of an assembly of unforgettable characters. An exonerated ex-con who may not be entirely innocent, a rabbit farmer in mourning, and an earnest young mariner trying to start a new life with his wife—all are characters that populate the spirited cities and drowsy parishes in Horack’s marvelous portrait of the South. "A knockout winner" for guest judge Antonya Nelson, The Southern Cross marks the arrival of a standout new voice.

    This ebook includes an active table of contents for easy navigation.DeathworldDeathworld 2Planet of the DamnedArm of the LawThe K-FactorThe Misplaced BattleshipNavy DayThe RepairmanToy ShopThe Velvet Glove

     Mariana Enriquez has been critically lauded for her unconventional and sociopolitical stories of the macabre: populated by unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts, and hungry women, they walk the uneasy line between urban realism and horror. The stories in her next collection are as terrifying as they are socially conscious, and press into being the unspoken -- fetish, illness, the female body, the darkness of human history -- with unsettling urgency. A woman is sexually obsessed with the human heart; a lost, rotting baby crawls out of a backyard and into a bedroom; a pair of teenage girls can't let go of their idol; an entire neighborhood is cursed to death by a question of morality they fail to answer correctly.Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, and with resounding tenderness towards those in pain, in fear, and in limbo, this new collection from one of Argentina's most exciting writers finds Enriquez at her most sophisticated, and most chilling.

    But does handsome town doctor Sam Frost want a wife, or a housekeeper for his daughters? With the help of two little matchmakers, Molly might end up with the family of her dreams.Home Again by Victoria Bylin - When her troublemaking son vandalizes the town church, Cassie O'Rourke comes face-to-face with town sheriff — and former love — Gabe Wyatt. The honorable lawman offers to help tame her wild child, if he can come courting. For the love of her son, dare she entrust her heart to this man once more?

    The 2009 nonpress release is xTx's "Nobody Trusts a Black Magician." Recorded and pressed in various formats, the book has yet to make it to print, despite glowing popularity on the rowdy internets.

    llustrated by Nicole Stewart, stunning artwork accompanies each story to give shape to the reader's imagination.Whether you know it or not, the stories in this book are familiar. Like old friends whose charm and warmth never fade, Oscar Wilde's short stories have enchanted generations of readers, and this beautiful book makes them accessible to an entirely new readership.Selected and presented by one of Wilde's biggest fans, the book includes a foreword from Stephen Fry, who will also supply short introductions to the stories themselves, explaining why they mean so much to him and why they should mean a lot to you too.Meet the selfish giant, whose garden was cloaked in perpetual winter until he allowed the children to enter and play, the happy prince whose statue stood overlooking his city, who gave the rubies and sapphires embedded in his eyes and clothing to feed the poor, and the tiny swallow who helped him. And let's not forget the remarkable rocket who was so convinced that he would be the brightest, most remarkable rocket of all, yet who ended up in a ditch. There's also the Canterville ghost, so inept at being scary that every attempt to spook his American visitors results in failure.Stephen Fry has always been passionate about Oscar Wilde's writing but he has a particular fondness for his short stories. In this beautifully illustrated book he shares with us what each story means to him and what he feels the reader can take away with them, whether they're five or fifty years old. As well as a general introduction, Stephen offers introductions to the stories themselves, taking the reader through his selection. Illustrated by Nicole Stewart, stunning artwork accompanies each story to give shape to the reader's imagination.Whether you are buying this for yourself, for your wife, your son or daughter, for your nephew, your niece, your mother, your brother or your sister, the book will be a gift that you or they will cherish forever and return to time and time again. These are stories for adults and children of all ages, for all time.

    Short story about the attempted kidnapping of a teen-age girl.

    EYES LIKE SKY AND COAL AND MOONLIGHT brings together twenty stories from the extraordinary talent of fantasy author Cat Rambo. Here are tales from seaport city of Tabat, both before and after the sorcerous wars that destroyed the Old Continent. Here are alchemical explanations for failed blind dates. Here you'll find a dryad, the last great elephant, and an uneasy blur of humanity. Cat Rambo doesn't simply amaze and delight, she restores wonder to her readers with every page. You won't simply believe that pigs can fly, you'll question why you ever doubted the premise at all.Contents:Eight Letters of Wonder • essay by Michael LivingstonHer Eyes Like Sky, and Coal, and MoonlightThe AccordionI'll Gnaw Your Bones, the Manticore SaidHeart in a BoxIn the Lesser Southern IslesUp the ChimneyThe Silent FamiliarEvents at Fort PlentitudeThe Dew Drop Coffee LoungeNarrative of a Beast's LifeEagle-Haunted Lake SammammishSugarA Key Decides Its DestinyThe Towering Monarch of His Mighty RaceIn Order to ConserveRare Pears and GreengagesA Twine of FlameThe Dead Girl's Wedding MarchWorm WithinMagnificent Pigs

    Though primarily a novelist throughout his long and distinguished career, this Hugo, Nebula, Edgar and World Fantasy Award-winning Grand Master also produced many short and mid-length works.Wild Thyme, Green Magic collects an alien s handful of these wondrous tales, among them the author s first-ever sale, The World-Thinker, the unforgettable Chateau D If, the stylish Green Magic, the macabre, gothic Seven Exits from Bocz, and The Seventeen Virgins, a rousing adventure with Cugel the Clever set in the author s acclaimed far-future Dying Earth.Table of ContentsIntroduction by Terry Dowling and Jonathan StrahanAssault on a CityRumfuddleThe Augmented AgentGreen MagicUllward's RetreatCoup de GraceChateau d'IfThe Potters of FirskThe World-ThinkerSeven Exits from BoczWild Thyme and Violets

    Illustrated with 10 unique illustrations.Beautiful Stories from ShakespeareThe Book of DragonsThe Enchanted CastleFive Children and ItHarding's luckThe Incomplete AmoristIn HomespunThe Magic CityThe Magic WorldNew Treasure SeekersOswald Bastable and OthersThe Phoenix and the CarpetThe Railway ChildrenThe Story of the AmuletThe Story of the Treasure SeekersThe Wouldbegoods

    Read about: the monk who never took his vows and eventually married the girl he secretly loved the hysterically funny “husband instruction manual” the woman who thought her date was mentally challenged because he was tongue-tied in front of her the girl who dreamt she would marry the cute high school teacher and married him years later after a chance meeting the couple with a young daughter who have “breakfast and a movie dates” while she is at school the dying man who wakes up to sign one last Valentine’s Day card for his wife and then passes away the husband who writes 22 poems for his wife for their 22nd anniversary and 94 more great stories!

    When her uncle leaves her his entire fortune after his death, Dallas' step-aunt and step-cousin are furious. On a cruise, they decide to dump her overboard and kill her.Thane, an ancient mythical selkie, finds a beautiful woman clinging to some driftwood far out into the sea. Deciding to save her, he is stunned to find a sudden and enthusiastic attraction to this human. Realizing he has found his mate, Thane takes her back to his home.When Dallas wakes from her near drowning, she finds herself in a rundown shack. A crazy, sexy man named Thane states he is a selkie and she is his mate. Determined to find her way back to civilization, she makes plans to leave his home. Before this can happen, an overwhelming desire crashes throughout her body, leaving Dallas aching with a need to claim Thane as her own. A Love RebornOver a year ago, Kikomo Aguilera was sailing with her lover when a storm suddenly struck. Fighting to get the boat back inland, her lover shouted for her to go below deck. In trying to save Kikomo, Takuma was swept overboard and presumed dead.Because he sacrificed his life for Kikomo, the sirens have granted Takuma special abilities. He has been turned into a selkie and comes to his lover by night. Once the sun starts to rise, he must wrap himself in his seal pelt and go back to the sea.Kikomo's father does not realize Takuma is alive in the body of a selkie. He forces Kikomo to wed a vile and hateful man who is very wealthy and uses his position around town to his advantage. Hating her father and hating Odell even more, Kikomo tries to find a way to be with Takuma forever. When her intended finds her with a selkie, he devises a plan to rid the world of her lover while getting Kikomo to agree to become his bride.Faith's TearsFaith Henderson is in Scotland on holiday with her boyfriend Sean. There is something mythical and magical about this place. It calls to her heart in a way that Sean cannot understand. Faith is always exploring by herself due to Sean's lack of enthusiasm for this beautiful land. When she walks into the hotel room to find her boyfriend in another woman's arms, Faith runs to the sea and cries for her lost relationship.Rowan Kilgour has been waiting seventeen years for Faith to come to him. His senior year of high school he gave her a pendant, telling her it was to keep her safe. In reality, it marked Faith as his woman. As Faith's tears mesh with the rolling sea, it calls upon Rowan to come forth and finally call her his own.Faith had always admired Rowan from afar in school. When she sees this beautiful man again, Faith does not even question why he is there. With her relationship over with Sean, she explores her deepening feeling for Rowan. When her ex-boyfriend tries to take her back and she pushes him away, it leads to a deadly confrontation with unforeseen consequences.Sealed With A FistYonder Austin is used to taking care of herself. Watched only by her tutor, she learns new and exciting things while her parents are away on one adventure after another. After disaster strikes, killing her parents, Yonder finds that greedy relatives have invaded her house. They abuse their power, her money, and her body, pushing her battered soul to the brink of madness.Aonghus Fulgencio Din Eidyn is the most spoiled son out of the thirteen royal children. As the youngest and only child to be a sole birth, he demands everything and gets what he wants. Brought up by two loving parents and twelve loving brothers, Aonghus feels the world is his palace and everything in it should be his.When Yonder is eleven years old, her greedy guardians take a cruise that leads to disaster. Pirates attack the ship, stranding her on a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Mishap follows mishap and Yonder makes her way to an island filled with the royal selkie, including Aonghus. After growing to maturity, Yonder realizes that what she feels for Aonghus is not brotherly love, but something else entirely.

    But burning down a chunk of the Strip's most exclusive resort? No one could have foreseen that.While the LVFD conducts their investigation of the fire, the women of the Posse are treated by tempting views of the gorgeous firefighters putting out the blaze. Inspired, Shara Azod calls a challenge. Each member of the Posse must entertain the group with a fantasy inspired by the beefcakesurrounding them.Join the MFP Posse in Las Vegas and get a taste of the authors' fantasies.

    Turn the page and enter a world of shadow, as Michael West brings together his most disturbing short stories–twisted tales of forbidden desires and ghoulish deeds, where nightmares manifest in the most mundane and unlikely of places…The basement of a Japanese restaurant, where a seductive creature promises comfort to a lonely hitman, if only he will set her free…A ruined city, where survivors of a natural disaster have become prey to something unnatural…An Indiana farmhouse, where a frightened child attempts to fool the Angel of Death…And the darkest regions of space, where a man fights to protect the woman he loves from invaders only he can see…Ten reasons to lock your doors.Ten reasons to keep the lights on.Ten reasons why you may never sleep again.

    Because lives and kingdoms often rested on the edge of a sword blade, it was a time when a bold heart and a steady hand would see you far—so long as you watched your back. Here, for the first time, are all seventeen of Harold Lamb’s uncollected crusader stories in one volume. Read now of the fall of kingdoms and the fate of doomed men, of desperate battles and brave comrades, of shrewd maids and scheming nobles. Join Nial O’Gordon, a young crusader riding deep into Asia to forget his past. Venture forth with Sir Robert of Antioch to cross blades with the Mongol hordes. Join King Richard the Lionhearted for his last battle. Stand firm beside Sir John and his Arab friend Khalil against a band of traitors. And sail out with Michael Bearn on a mission of vengeance, as he risks his life to bring down a sultan and his kingdom.

    For all their flaws—as husbands, as fathers, as friends—Morris’s characters are portrayed with depth, tenderness, and humanity. Call It What You Want balances realism with the surreal, humor with sadness, and explores all the hidden places in between.

    Her settings are bucolic, such as an abandoned farm house, a hilltop mansion and the ruins of a cider mill, each depicted in romantic language ('in a lavender twilight'). In the first story, 'Light Carried on Air Moves Less,' a waiflike beauty stumbles upon an erotic book and apes the illustrations, all the while being watched by a curious 'specter.' In 'Captive Girl for Cobbled Horsemen,' the author plays on the 19th-century captive narrative, while 'Seascape' tinkers with the maritime ghost story by featuring a widow who gradually comes to love the captain depicted in a painting. Many of the stories simply showcase lush, serene description, such as 'The Scent of Apples,' in which a recluse tends to his apple orchard, spied on adoringly by his orphan ward. The last story, 'The Tartan Detective,' features all the necessary accoutrements of detective fiction (even 'the listening mechanism concealed in a potted fern!'). Howard's sensuous prose is to be savored for its own sake.”—Publishers Weekly“Joanna Howard’s short stories flit about like phantoms—just as her characters are ethereal and haunting, her stories are framed by an aura of mystery and romance, with fleeting peaks of action. The 14 stories in On the Winding Stair range from a vignette of an encounter to a 'novel in shorts' that encompasses several generations. Howard imbues all her tales with dream-like action and sidelong description, which creates a haze around the narrative that, rather than disorient, lulls the reader into her sometimes euphoric, sometimes tragic world. Her careful and practiced dismissal of the concrete allows the reader release from conventional concerns of plot and conflict, and ultimately celebrates the unknowable.”—VerseIn her debut short story collection, Joanna Howard bends the expectations and cliches of mainstream mystery and paranormal writing to bring new surprises and intelligence to the genre. Rebecca Brown says, “These words are dreams or visions, fantasies, letters of things that are not quite love, buffooneries and comedies, scenarios from horror films you are afraid you'll one day see.” Howard joins Kelly Link and Shelley Jackson in redefining genre writing for a new audience.Joanna Howard holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Denver and an MFA from Bowling Green State University. She teaches fiction writing at Brown University.

    Murphry has a way with words—or is it that words have their way with him? Work the clues alongside this unlikely sleuth to reveal an underground cabal of letters, a conspiracy of meaning, right below the surface of the everyday world. Murphry is both hero and villain, an unforgettable personality who will have you cringing while you laugh and rooting for his every misguided plan. This is a clever tale told with a dexterity that allows for a gritty, noir feel, insight into the frailty of the human mind and the ability to see the absurdity in it all.

    In the title story, a woman tells her husband of her curious discovery: that she is inhabited by small alien creatures. In another, a young girl making her way to college through the streets of Delhi comes across a mysterious tetrahedron. Is it a spaceship? Or a secret weapon?The first Indian female speculative fiction writer, Singh has said that her genre is a “chance to find ourselves part of a larger whole; to step out of the claustrophobia of the exclusively human and discover joy, terror, wonder, and meaning in the greater universe.” A revolutionary voice in fantasy writing, Singh brings her passion for discovery to these stories, and the result is like nothing of this world.Contents:Hunger (2007)Delhi (2004)The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet (2003)Infinities (2008)Thirst (2004)Conservation Laws (2008)Three Tales from Sky River: Myths for a Starfaring Age (2004)The Tetrahedron (2005)The Wife (2003)The Room on the Roof (2002)A Speculative Manifesto (2008) essay

    The first book of fiction since 1997 from the consummately underground Stuart Ross blends a characteristic penchant for experiment with the measured skill of a seasoned, highly disciplined craftsman.

    From Christmases past, to present, to future; from sweet and inspirational, to zany and delightful--there's a story for everyone in this eclectic collection!

    The treatment of these heroines is admiring and respectful. Stories included are: "Biker Angel," "Cops and Robbers," "The Falcon of Bitmesh," "The Capta and the Cop," "The Capta and the Cop, Part II," "Lights Out," "Sisters, Dark and Light," "An Afternoon at the Beach," "'Tis the Season," and "New Day at the Office."

    Young women, twisted by pain, call for love and revenge by the light of the moon. A dead dog by the side of the road is more than it seems. In Harlan County, Kentucky, the supernatural and the mundane mingle in the depths of the earth, filling the mines with powerful forces that draw people down and corrupt from within.Harlan County Horrors is a regional based horror anthology by Apex Magazine submissions editor Mari Adkins. It features stories by Alethea Kontis, Debbie Kuhn, Earl Dean, Geoffrey Girard, Jason Sizemore, Jeremy Shipp, Maurice Broaddus, Robby Sparks, Ronald Kelly, Stephanie Lenz, Steven Shrewsbury, and TL Trevaskis - along with an afterward by Preston Halcomb.

    For as long as there's been such a thing as sex, alternate sexual identities have been a fact of life. So why have we been so nearly invisible in recorded history and historical fiction? Now editor Connie Wilkins, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, has assembled fourteen stories that span the centuries from ancient times to the Renaissance to the modern era and explore alternate versions of our past. Their queer protagonists, who bend history in ways dramatic enough to change the world and subtle enough to touch hearts and minds, rescue our past from invisibility, and affirm our place and importance throughout all of history, past, present, and future

    at the Gates of Hell", R. B. Payne limns a serial killer trying to survive a road trip; "The Bear Who Swallowed the Sky" by Jason M. Light mixes Native American folklore and contemporary dread as a man fights to save his family; and Joey O'Bryan's "The Svancara Supper Society" is a novelette set in a future where synthetic food becomes all too addicting. The book also includes an introduction by Stoker Award-winning author Lisa Morton.