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Annunciation by Lauren Groff


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Black Gate Tales


Paul Draper - 2020
    A disused London Underground lift goes way beyond the bottom floor.A psychic boy discovers what terrors are buried in the fallow field.A handshake seals a midnight fate in an old farming dispute.A corpse must be buried by dawn.BLACK GATE TALES: Fourteen short stories of dread, hope, death and wonder.

Master Imus's Transgression


Dan Abnett - 2011
    Inquisitor Eisenhorn investigates, and finds that the trail laid by this unassuming servant of the Imperium leads to unexpected places and a dangerous showdown.

The Old Equations


Jake Kerr - 2011
    They knew it would be difficult, but they weren't prepared for the cruelty of the unknown. Coming to terms with new equations and ways of looking at the future is difficult enough, but can any relationship prevail when the only tie to the present starts to break down? "An astonishing debut." -- John Joseph Adams, host, Geeks Guide to the Galaxy This debut novelette by Jake Kerr is a modern classic of science fiction. Nominated for the Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the StorySouth Million Writers Award, it immediately established Kerr as a modern force in science fiction's humanist tradition. "Heartwrenching." SF Revu

A Dust Bowl Tale of Bonnie and Clyde: A Short Story


James Lee Burke - 2014
    One night, a carload of strangers appears on the Hollands' property, carrying the air of incipient danger underneath a veneer of pleasantries. Weldon finds himself inexplicably drawn to the group of trespassing vagabonds—who, despite being camped out on a hidden riverbank in the middle of nowhere, drive the most expensive automobile that Weldon has ever seen. In the unbearable, rainless heat of a Dust Bowl summer, Weldon will find himself mixed up in an encounter with the infamous bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde—an encounter that changes the course of Weldon's life…and history itself. Rich with criminal and social history of the American West and a young boy’s struggle to become a man, “A Dust Bowl Tale of Bonnie and Clyde” is just the beginning of Weldon Holland’s story.

Post: A Short Story of No Consequence of All


Shea Serrano - 2020
    POST is a story about a group of friends, two of whom experience a collision two years apart.

Forbidden Fruit


Calvin Demmer - 2017
    Casey, author of Stygian Doorways

Magnificent Bastards


Rich Hall - 2008
    Meet the man who vacuums bewildered prairie dogs out of their burrows; a frustrated werewolf who roams the streets of Soho getting mistaken for Brian Blessed; a smug carbon-neutral eco-couple; a teenage girl who invites 45,000 MySpace friends to a house party; the author of a business book entitled Highly Successful Secrets to Standing on a Corner Holding Up a Golf Sale Sign and a man whose attempts to teach softball to a group of indolent British advertising executives sparks an international crisis.

Vampire Vultures


John Fahey - 2003
    Published posthumously, this volume rounds out the life of the legendary guitarist and composer, providing more backstory behind his creative ferocity. The stories provide a personal view into decades of his poignant insights into life and music.

Perfect Lives


Polly Samson - 2010
    A wife stalks her husband and his new lover; a broken egg through a letterbox tells a story that will not go away; the cat thinks he knows best. Threaded throughout are longings for love and poignant disappointments, surprising pleasures and temptations. Some will fall but some, like the small boy at the circus who sees his babysitter fly past on a trapeze wearing little more than a blue bra and spangles, will retain their feeling of awe.PERFECT LIVES, follows Polly Samson's rapturously received first collection, LYING IN BED. They are rueful, knowing, witty, poignant, bashful, bold. Her genius is in the nuance.

The Beginning: Surviving the Apocolypse


Mark Lansing - 2013
    All around him lights are flashing on and generators are powering up. Bang. The sound comes from the other side of the 15-inch thick steel door. One of Them. Above the bunker, a rabies outbreak has mutated into a deadly worldwide infection that attacks the very essence of being human, leaving only the most primitive desire: to feed. Against this onslaught, there is one defense - Bunker Z.

Where Healing Blooms


Vannetta Chapman - 2014
    Then, her mother-in-law, Mary Ann, reveals one of her garden's hidden secrets, something very unexpected. Will she continue alone or will she accept the gifts God has given her?

Dead College


Kent Reaper - 2013
    He's confused, he's disoriented. He asks himself what's going on. But he doesn't know. It's not like anyone's alive to tell him anyway. Just a short trip to the bathroom, a welcome break from the geology class that puts him to sleep and his world is turned upside down. He sees things that defy explanation: His classmate eating his professor, his professor getting up, shrugging off fatal injuries and coming for him.Zack knows he must get out of this nightmare. But when he's inadvertently trapped in the faculty building by a fellow survivor, he soon discovers that the living may be even more dangerous than the monstrous undead.

Chicago Stories: 40 Dramatic Fictions


Michael Czyzniejewski - 2012
    O'Leary to Barack Obama. "Flexing impressive literary chops, the beer vendor/creative-writing professor captures both the tough, defensive exterior and the vulnerable, often-broken heart of his city."— Timeout Chicago"Chicago, a page at a time. Michael Czyzniejewski gets right to the point in telling the city's stories." — Chicago Tribune"...Michael Czyzniejewski’s “Chicago Stories,” forty fictional monologues riffing on the common culture of the Windy City’s shared history, projected forward into a possible future. Not quite historical fiction—more like historical jazz." — Newcity Lit"In 'Chicago Stories,' Michael Czyzniejewski summons all of Chicago — its ghosts, living and dead, its heroes and fools, sinners and saints, its people and places and all of its occasions — and in these pages they have gathered, strange and unlikely bedfellows, to sing a new song for Chicago. It will twist your arm behind your back, this song. It will break your fingers."— Billy Lombardo, author of The Man With Two Arms and The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories

The Patagonia


Henry James - 1888
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Before the Unit: The Recruiting of Kevin Banks


Anne Fox - 2020
    Kevin Banks has his dream job: protecting the President of the United States. But the president believes there is something greater that he can do. Find out how Kevin joined the unit and became "Spud."