With all the heartbreaking earnestness of a Wilco song, these eighteen stories by Chad Simpson roam the small-town playgrounds, blue-collar neighborhoods, and rural highways of Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky to find people who’ve lost someone or something they love and have not yet found ways to move forward. Simpson’s remarkable voice masterfully moves between male and female and adolescent and adult characters. He embraces their helplessness and shares their sad, strange, and sometimes creepy slices of life with grace, humor, and mounds of empathy. In “Peloma,” a steelworker grapples with his preteen daughter’s feeble suicide attempts while the aftermath of his wife’s death and the politics of factory life vie to hem him in.  The narrator of “Fostering” struggles to determine the ramifications of his foster child’s past now that he and his wife are expecting their first biological child. In just two pages, “Let x” negotiates the yearnings and regrets of childhood through mathematical variables and the summertime interactions of two fifth-graders. Poignant, fresh, and convincing, these are stories of women who smell of hairspray and beer and of landscapers who worry about their livers, of flooded basements and loud trucks, of bad exes and horrible jobs, of people who remain loyal to sports teams that always lose. Displaced by circumstances both in and out of their control, the characters who populate Tell Everyone I Said Hi are lost in their own surroundings, thwarted by misguided aspirations and long-buried disappointments, but fully open to the possibility that they will again find their way.

    Another town here, another school there, her ability to adapt is as easy as breathing. But everything changes when her parents go overseas and Rose moves in with her grandmother. She enjoys meeting new friends and catching up with old ones from her childhood holidays -- except now she must hide a precious secret from everyone, a gift from birth that defies modern day science.Her dreams become riddled with a warrior woman called Halíka Dacomé, but are they visions or messages from the future? She starts her own investigation but encounters more questions than answers. Living right on the edge of Warminster in Wiltshire doesn't help with its folklore and myths about strange lights in the sky and ghost stories of the Salisbury Plain.Not only that, her troubles really take hold one night when the mysterious Aiden Deverill with his alluring smile, his gorgeous dark looks and hypnotising blue eyes, saves her from a freak fire. Or did he?For Rose, her new life is beginning but she soon realises that despite assurances people are not always what they seem. What she always believed to be a happy family and a friendly town soon turns on its head when she discovers that her family secret, Aiden Deverill and the truth behind Halíka Dacomé is at the heart of the whole conspiracy.

    Magical instruments, and secret machineries in their own right, stories are within us all. And, the way we appreciate them, from the cradle is, Shah believes, part of the default setting of Mankind. Introduced in early childhood to the wonders of A Thousand and One Nights, Shah learned to receive and appreciate complex structures and storytelling devices. These have been used throughout history to pass on ideas, cultural values and information, as well as, of course, to entertain. Having been inspired by The Nights, especially in the way that one story leads into another, and yet another, Shah used this technique (known as the “frame story”) in SCORPION SOUP. An interwoven and intoxicating collection of tales, the book descends down through many layers, as one story progresses into the next, and eventually brings us back to the first. There is the tale of the Capilongo, a sophisticated bird-like creature that lives in the jungle with sloth-servants, who invites his would-be assassin to dine before allowing himself to be killed. And there is the tale of the Clockmaker who harnesses the soul of a Jinn, in the guise of a hoopoe, and uses it to travel back in time to the realm of Harun Al-Rachid. There is the cautionary tale, too, of the Man Whose Arms Grew Branches, and the story of the Fish’s Dream. Unlike anything that has been published in the Occidental world before, SCORPION SOUP is a rich and diverse feast for the senses, and a book that instructs as much as it does entertain.

    Seth Alkirk is a 30-year-old programmer who doesn't know he can control time. Problem is, others do. When he's kidnapped from his quiet Iowa life and taken to the parallel world of Galadir, Seth thinks he's in a dream from which he can't wake. His kidnapper, the warrior Malia, needs his help. Her kingdom is in danger from an evil wizard who will stop at nothing to exact revenge on those who exiled him. Seth needs her protection. The same wizard is after Seth's powers, knowing they will grant the advantage he needs to conquer Malia's kingdom. Seth and Malia must work together as they travel hundreds of miles to reach the safety of her castle. Learning to accept and control his powers is the hardest thing Seth has ever had to do, but the longer he spends in Galadir, the more he grows to love this new world and the female warrior accompanying him. When a much more ancient and dangerous wizard awakens and threatens to destroy Galadir, Seth is the key to defeating him. Now he must save a world he never knew existed with magic he never knew he could wield, if only he could learn to control it in time.

    Upon her coming of age, she is to marry the prince of Alder, the most powerful kingdom in the world. Though the idea of marriage to a complete stranger is appalling, she knows she has no choice. Without the marriage contract, Stonefall’s alliance with Alder will be lost, and her people will be safe no longer; Theros, King of Talos, has set his eyes of conquest on Stonefall and he wants Meredith dead.Connor, an elite soldier entrusted with Meredith’s safety, arrives at the palace just as things begin to take a turn for the worst. Together, they will embark on a journey of survival, in which Meredith will find that the only thing she never prepared for was falling in love.

    Duke Rogers finds himself in a racially charged situation. The case might have to wait... The immediate problem: getting out of South Central Los Angeles in one piece during the 1992 Rodney King riots and that's just the beginning of his problems.Private investigator Duke Rogers finds an old "friend" for a client. The client's "friend," an up and coming black actress, ends up dead. Duke knows his client did it. Now, feeling guilty, he wants to find the client/killer. He starts his mission by going to the dead actress' family in South Central L.A. - and while there the Rodney King riots ignite. And while he tries to track down the killer he must also deal with the racism of his partner, Jack, and from the dead woman's brother, Warren. He must also confront his own possible latent racism - even as he's in an interracial relationship with the murder victim's dead woman's sister.

    As far back as she can remember, thirteen-year-old Mag has lived with her father at a home for the mentally ill.The patients are all clearly mad, so when the usually silent Grace claims that she’s Mag’s real mother – and also a witch – Mag’s world is turned upside down.As things take a turn for the weird, and Mag sees things that others can’t, it may just be that she is a witch after all.In this new world, Mag discovers that the difference between good and evil isn’t exactly black and white…

    Obsidian Worlds brings together his 11 best-selling sci-fi shorts into a mind-bending philosophical anthology.In Your Averaged Joe, a man’s headache is large enough to hold the multiverse. Q46F is an obsessive-compulsive android who finds love in a zombie-embroiled apocalypse. The end of the world isn’t all that bad – The Experience Machine will fulfil your every desire (and some you hadn’t considered). A sex bot dares to dream of freedom in Dinner with Flexi. But mind what you eat, because The Photons in the Cheese Are Lost. Don’t fret though: The Cryo Killer guarantees that your death will be painless, or your money back when you’re thawed. Unless, that is, you’re The Man with Two Legs.Plug into Obsidian Worlds for these and other immersive stories, including the hilarious Time-Traveling Chicken Sexer. Your brain will never be the same again.

    But Zeph is also blessed with a gift, an uncanny ability to foresee the future,to know peoples’ deepest sins and secrets. He calls it the Telling, but he has abandoned this gift to a life of solitude, unbelief, and despair until two detectives escort him to the county morgue where he finds his own body lying on the gurney.   On the northern fringes of Death Valley, the city of Endurance is home to llama ranches, abandoned mines, roadside attractions...and the mythical ninth gate of hell. Now, forced to investigate his own murder, Zeph discovers something even more insidious behind the urban legends and small-town eccentricities. Early miners unearthed a megalith, a sacred site where spiritual and physical forces converge and where an ancient subterranean presence broods. And only Zeph can stop it.   But the scar on Zeph’s face is nothing compared to the wound on his soul. For not only has he abandoned his gift and renounced heaven, but it was his own silence that spawned the evil. Can he overcome his own despair in time to seal the ninth gate of hell?    His words unlocked something deadly,  And now the silence is killing them.

    But the discovery of a woman's dead body, bound and covered with snakes, sends panic through his community and ignites his investigative instincts.As the serial killer continues to target his prey, Herne must confront his haunted past to uncover the pattern in the deaths. He soon discovers that every victim suffers from a phobia. And every murder transforms the victim’s worst fear into reality.Tormented by his personal demons, Herne is forced to face his own fears as he hunts for a murderer who uses terror for a weapon.

    At 12:15am, my fourteen-year-old son stumbled out to get a drink of water. "You're still up?" he asked. "Go to bed." I looked up from my Nook, smiled, and said, "Not on your life, dude. Not until this ends." ~A.M.**“The way the author weaves fantasy, humor, science fiction, and mystery is, for lack of a better word, brilliant. I read the entire thing with admiration/envy, taking notes and thinking 'THIS is how you write a novel.' Remember when Scream blew the horror world away by actually using technology in a realistic way? Well here's blogging and online forums and long distance cyber friendships, honestly depicting the way we live in the 21st century.” ~C.G.**AN OFFICIAL JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB MUST READ “The atmosphere of this book, so hard to simply label horror or paranormal…how about simply...A GREAT READ, is the true star. Ms. Tash so finely weaves a path of intrigue, terror, humor and suspense, that the reader is taken with each character, so very finely drawn. THIS BRILLIANT DARKNESS is that rare book that one truly does not want to end!! When it does...next question is ‘What else by Red Tash can I get my hands on? QUICK!!!’”~ R.F.**"Richly poetic: This is labeled as a dark fantasy. As such you would expect it to be dripping with imagery and poetic devices - and it is. There is horrific cleverness in the plot and in the characterization. You will find no better use of language and symbolism throughout the prose. It is well done. In addition to the dark fantasy, there's a flip side to the coin which is that this could also be labeled Sci-fi. There are aliens, a new star, physicists, and "end-of-the-world" fanatics. All of this is done artfully well and is believable. Without question, read this book ready to be challenged in your thinking, questioned in your understanding, and dared not to buy the next installment whether you like it or not." ~P.C.**“I liked the complete absence of familiar tropes. I couldn't tell you what book this book compares to. It's startlingly original. It's also pretty well-written. There is mystery, romance, rising tension, complex and compelling characters, and an ever-present sense of dread.” ~ B.N.**"Fast-paced fantasy, lots of mystery: The quick, snappy dialogue moves the story fabulously, and with the many change of POV's (each chapter), the story kept building in momentum into a tangled web of darkness, mystery, and paranormal terror. The fast pace was refreshing and I kept on reading, wondering what was going to happen to Christine and how all the characters twined into the bigger picture. There is a hint of more SF going on than seems apparent with the emergence of the flat sun, and the paranormal activities around its sudden appearance, not to mention the very strange and beguiling creature Greachin and its macabre habits--very cool SFF concept, especially when we get into the head of the 'thing'! The main character, Christine, is energetic and likeable. She fights . . . right to the bitter end." ~C.T.Synopsis:When an ancient, troubled entity identifies quirky Christine Grace as his latest threat, all hell breaks loose in the urban forest of Indiana University's Dunn Woods. Will Christine piece together his destructive plan in time to save herself? And what exactly is going on with this peculiar star, Stella Mirabilis?This fast-paced story moves quickly from character to character, through the headspace of not just Christine and the monster Greachin, but also to Tom, her devoted boyfriend, and Richard, an aging physicist interested in the time-traveling star overhead, and others. Along the way, singing street people, cosplaying environmental activists, and heaven-sent beings come to populate the unique cityscape of Bloomington, IN, where encountering the bizarre is an everyday experience.Book one of a series. Not intended for children.

    A reporter photographs the miracle, and wealthy, skeptical, Jewish psychiatrist Camillo Lombardi arrives in Naples to investigate. When she materializes the ghost of his dead mother, he risks his reputation and fortune to finance a tour of the Continent, challenging the scientific and academic elite of Europe to test Alessandra's mysterious powers. She will help him rewrite Science. His fee will help her escape her sadistic husband Pigotti and start a new life in Rome. Newspapers across Europe trumpet her Cinderella story and baffling successes, and the public demands to know - does the "Queen of Spirits" really have supernatural powers? Nigel Huxley is convinced she's simply another vulgar, Italian trickster. The icy, aristocratic detective for England's Society for the Investigation of Mediums launches a plot to trap and expose her. Meanwhile, the Vatican is quietly digging up her childhood secrets, desperate to discredit her supernatural powers; her abusive husband Pigotti is coming to kill her; and the tarot cards predict catastrophe. Inspired by the true-life story of controversial Italian medium Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918), The Witch of Napoli masterfully resurrects the bitter,19th-century battle between Science and religion over the possibility of an afterlife.

    Too bad they believe in her.Luna Graves is a tattoo artist who specializes in dark and foreboding designs. The creatures are a product of her imagination…or are they? When her estranged father dies, Luna must re-evaluate everything she thinks she knows about the world. It’s her destiny, she learns, to be a doctor to monsters.Caught between the demands of her human life and her new calling, Luna must learn about a secret world that hides in plain sight. With an ancient evil returning whose goal is to release the Black Death, Luna is the front line of defense for both non-humanity and humanity alike. Will she be able to cure the disease before it destroys Los Angeles and then the world?

    When Mia Malone’s grandmother asks her to take a week away from her restaurant job and come to Magic Springs, Idaho, she’s happy to oblige. Like Mia, Grans has witchcraft running through her veins, and life with her is never boring. Plus, the cause is a good one—helping Grans get the local food bank up and running again. But there’s an unappetizing surprise in store. While Mia is knee-deep in boxes of donated produce, she encounters the body of Dorian Alexander. Dorian was a warlock, leader of the local coven. He was also her Grans’ new beau. There’s no potion that’ll make this trouble disappear. But if Mia wants to keep her Grans—now a prime suspect—from serving a spell in prison, she’ll have to unearth the real killer fast. . . .

    An invasion of monsters. A desperate fight for survival...Alex Keener has lived all of his sixteen years in Bunker 108. He's walked the same metal halls, seen the same faces, has followed the same rules. All that changes when a viral outbreak forces him to flee the safety of his bunker.Outside, he discovers a barren world twisted by the impact of the meteor Ragnarok thirty years ago. Alone, he must wander a brutal landscape, where every breath is a fight for survival. Monsters haunt the planet's surface, and nothing of the old world remains.Can Alex survive this hellish wasteland, or will he become its newest victim?