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Midlisters by Kealan Patrick Burke
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The House at Cobb End
Karen Chance - 2011
This story is set prior to the beginning of the Cassie Palmer series. It nonetheless contains spoilers for all five books. This is a little story about a house. It was written in answer to a question that came in for the Facebook Q&A asking: "How old is Pritkin's house in Stratford? In the book he stated that he had owned it for over 100 years, but I wondered when the house was actually built and if someone had owned it before him." I started to answer it in the Q&A, but thought it deserved better. So here it is, and hope you enjoy.
The Monkey's Paw
W.W. Jacobs - 1902
But every wish has a consequence, and the White family finds they are completely unprepared for what comes next. The Monkey’s Paw is a classic horror tale that gives new meaning to the phrase “be careful what you wish for.”The Monkey’s Paw has become a classic horror story and has been adapted numerous times, including into episodes of such popular television series as The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and Tales from the Crypt.HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
The Dawn Chorus
Samantha Shannon - 2020
Exhausted by her efforts against Scion, Paige has no choice but to remain in hiding, away from the revolution she started, so she can heal and come to terms with her mental and physical scars.In the confines of a safe house, Arcturus and Paige begin to reconnect after following separate paths for weeks. As they wait for contact from the mysterious Domino Programme – an espionage network operating in Scion – their present begins to mirror their past.
The Grownup
Gillian Flynn - 2014
On a rainy April morning, she is reading auras at Spiritual Palms when Susan Burke walks in. A keen observer of human behavior, our unnamed narrator immediately diagnoses beautiful, rich Susan as an unhappy woman eager to give her lovely life a drama injection. However, when the "psychic" visits the eerie Victorian home that has been the source of Susan's terror and grief, she realizes she may not have to pretend to believe in ghosts anymore. Miles, Susan's teenage stepson, doesn't help matters with his disturbing manner and grisly imagination. The three are soon locked in a chilling battle to discover where the evil truly lurks and what, if anything, can be done to escape it.“The Grownup,” originally appeared as “What Do You Do?” in George R. R. Martin’s Rogues anthology.
Carniepunk: The Demon Barker of Wheat Street
Kevin Hearne - 2014
He runs across a barker with a strange power over the crowd: attractive women leave their men and disappear into an unmarked tent, never to be seen again, and the men wander away, forgetting that they ever had girlfriends or wives. When Granuaile falls under the barker’s influence and enters the tent, Atticus isn’t about to forget it and move on. He and his Irish wolfhound, Oberon, pursue her and discover the horrifying secret to the carnival’s success.
Merlin Dreams In The Mondream Wood
Charles de Lint - 1992
collected in Spiritwalk
The Wages of Humanity
Liu Cixin - 2012
What could have led these billionaires to come up with such a perversely cruel plan? Why would they possibly feel threatened by such ragged, penniless vagabonds? Could it have something to do with the aliens and their occupation?
Strong Enough to Love
Victoria Dahl - 2013
Get a taste with this novella, Strong Enough to Love....Photographer Eve Hill was completely comfortable being single. Or at the very least, she was completely resigned to it. There was only one man who made every nerve in her body and brain light up when he walked into a room. But Brian Stewart had always been off limits. Hell, she'd never even kissed him!For Brian, returning to Jackson Hole feels like coming home. But that has nothing to do with the town. It's Eve drawing him back. Eve and the chance to finally see if they have something or if it's all been in his imagination.Eve doesn't think she can open her heart to Brian again after getting hurt so badly before, though her body still wants him. She offers Brian one night to fulfill their long-denied fantasies, and that's it. No love or promises, just a chance to get their attraction out of their systems. But can one night really be enough?Return to Jackson Hole for more steamy romance by Victoria Dahl in Close Enough to Touch, Too Hot to Handle and So Tough to Tame.
Stone Animals
Kelly Link - 2012
Le Guin, Laura Miller, Audrey Niffenegger, Tao Nyeu, Arthur Phillips, and Lane Smith.
Agents of Dreamland
Caitlín R. Kiernan - 2017
Later that day he meets a woman in a diner to exchange information about an event that happened a week earlier for which neither has an explanation, but which haunts the Signalman.In a ranch house near the shore of the Salton Sea a cult leader gathers up the weak and susceptible—the Children of the Next Level—and offers them something to believe in and a chance for transcendence. The future is coming and they will help to usher it in.A day after the events at the ranch house which disturbed the Signalman so deeply that he and his government sought out help from ‘other’ sources, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory abruptly loses contact with NASA’s interplanetary probe New Horizons. Something out beyond the orbit of Pluto has made contact.And a woman floating outside of time looks to the future and the past for answers to what can save humanity.
Whispering Wind
Frederick Forsyth - 2000
The favour is returned when the scout is saved by the Cheyenne and given mercy, but when he falls in love with the girl he saved he knows that the tribe will never allow them to be together. They escape, but are forced to abandon their flight when they encounter an omen telling them that she is pledged to another. This frontier tale soon becomes a violent present day manhunt through the Wild West.
Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection The Veteran.
Sailing to Byzantium/Seven American Nights
Robert Silverberg - 1989
Sailing to Byzantium (Feb 1985) Awards:1986 Hugo Award - Best Novella (Nomination)1986 Locus Poll Award - Best Novella (Place: 2)1986 Nebula Award - Novella (Win)1986 SF Chronicle Award - Novella (Nomination)Seven American Nights (1978)Awards:1979 Hugo Award - Best Novella (Nomination)1979 Locus Poll Award - Best Novella (Place: 3)1979 Nebula Award - Novella (Nomination)
The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex
Tamsyn Muir - 2020
For the bookish academics of the Sixth, every secret is a mystery, and every mystery is a puzzle to be solved or a paper to be published. Deep in the bowels of their house, one such secret is about to reveal itself. The study of the famed academic Donald Sex, sealed since the moment of his death, is about to open, and archivists are ready to dissect what he left behind. They are not ready for the macabre surprise that awaits them.Enter Palamedes Sextus and Camilla Hect, age thirteen.
Halfway to Free
Emma Donoghue - 2020
To offset the devastation of climate change, state-of-the-art birth control has made daycares and playgrounds things of the past. As tempting as the government inducements are to remain child-free, Miriam’s curiosity about the people who “drop out” of society to become parents grows. When she finds a like-minded partner, she must choose between the rewarding comforts she knows and the unknowable mysteries of being a mother.Emma Donoghue’s Halfway to Free is part of Out of Line, an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.
Bound
Mark Lawrence - 2018
It should be read between Grey Sister and Holy Sister. Again, I stress SHORT STORY.