First come the swift-growing flowers, smelling like heaven and dying as quickly as they bloom. Next comes the infestation as the flowers breed and multiply inside their hosts. After that, chaos, mayhem and death. And after that…resurrection. **Part One of a monthly short-story serial **Don't forget to check out The Resurrected: Compendium! All ten parts in one volume.

    The mission comes with a warning: a graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind—hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out eons ago. After all this time, there’s no telling how they’ve devolved. Steel yourself, soldier. Get in. Get out. And try not to stare.N. K. Jemisin’s Emergency Skin is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

    Her future looked set, until one night when she's saved from probable danger by a mysterious stranger. Cole has moved around a lot during his life, never finding a true home, until he buys an old house, and fate steps in to change his future. A light romance with a paranormal twist.

    

    And the most important rule of all; don’t let the zombies catch you.When Brody rides off into the sunset, with grandiose dreams, he leaves behind not just his small town but also his first love. But the hopes he had of making it big are shattered when a deadly virus hits, and those who survive return as zombies to hunt the immune. Lonely in this new reality, he finds himself drawn back to his hometown and rediscovers the woman he left behind.Hannah never thought the expression, “Not if you were the last man on earth” would ever come back to haunt her, but when the world’s population is decimated by a deadly virus, she regrets her words, especially when Brody comes riding back into her life. A very alive Brody who reminds her she’s not just a survivor but also a woman.Eking out an existence in this new world is hard. Forgiving the blunders of the past sometimes harder.Against all odds, Brody and Hannah survived the plague and have prevailed against the undead, but will their stubborn nature still tear them apart?______Authors Note: Apocalypse Cowboy was originally published by Cobblestone Press from August 20th, 2010, until May 8th of 2014. Published anew in October of 2014 by Eve Langlais, this book has been expanded from its original version of 26K to 39k. I gave it a new cover and title–plus I threw in some zombies for fun. Enjoy ~Eve

    Valente, the bestselling and award-winning creator of Space Opera and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland returns with The Past is Red, the enchanting, dark, funny, angry story of a girl who made two terrible mistakes: she told the truth and she dared to love the world.The future is blue. Endless blue...except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown.Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she's the only one who knows it. She's the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it's full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time.But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected.

    Nuclear war has destroyed the technology they knew.2. Plagues have reduced the female population to a precious few and a woman is worth her weight in gold.3. Werewolves are more than mere myth, and they want mates.Plane crash survivor Sherry Rowe was out of her mind with pain when help arrived at the crash site. When the big gray wolf transformed before her eyes into a gorgeous, scary, naked man who claimed her as his mate, she thought he was a hallucination induced by the horror of the plane crash and the pain of her broken legs. But days later, he was still there, trying to take care of her. How could Jumping Stag expect her to love him, a man who turned to a perverted animal, when she was still dealing with the loss of the husband who hadn’t survived the crash?

    These stories are today.Following up on her first collection, Story Prize finalist Maureen F. McHugh explores the catastrophes, small and large, of twenty-first century life—and what follows after. What happens after the bird flu pandemic? Are our computers smarter than we are? What does the global economy mean for two young girls in China? Are we really who we say we are? And how will we survive the coming zombie apocalypse?

    Charity is alone, without family or friends and she has eluded capture by the warriors in the sky.Commander Melmanon is furious that the Earth woman has been able to elude capture. Melmanon is known for his terrible bloodlust and ability to torture his captives. His pride has taken a beating and he visualizes his revenge on his enemy.When Charity is finally captured by Melmanon, she is terrified when she sees he looks like a demon. Fearing pain and a slow death, Charity submits to Melmanon and he is surprised that her submission brings him great pleasure. He makes Charity his torture slave so he can keep her with him longer. Nobody is more surprised than Charity when she finds herself liking Melmanon’s attention. But Charity’s loyalties and feelings are put to the test and she will soon have to make difficult decisions. But not as difficult as those Melmanon will have to make…

    For more, the author released Glow, which is the same story but through the eyes of Reyes Farrow.

    Or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand, can still sleep, and they’ve all shared the same mysterious dream. A handful of silent children can still sleep as well, but what they’re dreaming remains a mystery. Global panic ensues. A medical fact: after six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis sets in. After four weeks, the body dies. In the interim, a bizarre new world arises and swallows the old one whole. A world called Nod.

    Playing with dynamite—in the form of her way-too-hot ex—is the last thing she should be doing. ​But forced to work with Deacan McDougall against unexpected enemies with the seconds ticking by, she knows the explosion is coming...

    Cast down from the wealth and status of the Sky for taking a human lover, Liam lurks in the poor and pollution-choked Gutter, killing to survive. Between his natural strengths and his Cybernetix mods, no mark has ever escaped him. Liam’s ex-lover Daniel is the heir to Cybernetix—and its greatest threat. Horrified by people less man than machine and the exploitation of Gutter factory workers, he’d rather destroy Cybernetix than inherit it . . . if his father doesn’t destroy him first. Years of anger and a heap of mods have kept Daniel and Liam apart. When Liam is hired to slaughter a man in his glass Sky tower, he walks right into a Daniel-shaped trap. Daniel’s father has betrayed them both, and only by working together can Daniel and Liam survive the coming day. They have no reason to trust each other, but as the dawn looms, a bargain that began with the simple urge to live soon reminds them of the love they once shared. Can they find each other again, or will the Cybernetix assassins find them first? This 25,000 word novella was previously published.

    P. Kelner, editors of Home Improvement: Undead Edition? Your worst school nightmares—taking that math test you never studied for, finding yourself naked in school assembly, not knowing which door to enter—will pale in comparison to these thirteen original stories that take academic anxiety to whole new realms. In #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s story, "Playing Possum," Sookie Stackhouse brings enough birthday cupcakes for her nephew's entire class but finds she's one short when the angry ex-boyfriend of the school secretary shows up. When her guardian, Kate Daniels, sends her undercover to a school for exceptional children, teenaged Julie learns an all-new definition of "exceptional," in New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews's "Magic Tests." For those who like fangs with their forensics, New York Times bestselling author Nancy Holder offers "VSI," in which FBI agent Claire is tested as never before in a school for Vampire Scene Investigation. And in New York Times bestselling author Thomas Sniegoski's "The Bad Hour," Remy Chandler and his dog Marlowe find evil unleashed in an obedience school. You'll need more than an apple to stave off the creatures in these and nine other stories. Remember your first lesson: resistance is fruitless! Includes stories by: ILONA ANDREWS, AMBER BENSON, RHYS BOWEN, MIKE CAREY, CHARLAINE HARRIS, DONALD HARSTAD, STEVE HOCKENSMITH, NANCY HOLDER, FAITH HUNTER, TONI L.P. KELNER, MARJORIE LIU, JONATHAN MABERRY, THOMAS SNIEGOSKI

    But when he arrives he finds things aren't always what they seem. Kings, dukes and baby dragons all vie for attention as Jory tries to figure out who is really his mate and who is trying to kill him. Warning: There is hot man/man action.