Lazy, lusty, and more likely to be found lying in the sun than casting runes or sacrificing unfortunate goats, she'd really rather avoid dealing with challenges, errant apprentices, demons, dragons, death, and bureaucracy. These seven stories include "Third Time Lucky", Tanya Huff's first professional sale to George Scithers at AMAZING STORIES. Thirty years, thirty novels, eighty-three short stories, and one television show later, this is where it all began. Stories included are The Last Lesson; Be It Ever So Humble; Mirror, Mirror, on the Lam; Third Time Lucky; And Who is Joah?; Nothing Up Her Sleeve; and We Two May Meet.Long-time Tanya Huff fans may recognize many of these stories from the long out-of-print collection STEALING MAGIC. Each story here is accompanied by an author note, brand new for this release.

    Dark Carnival - With Signed Bookplate. Sauk City: Arkham House, 1947. First edition, limited to 3000 copies. Octavo. 313 pages. "The author's first book and his most representative story collection. Similar but not identical to the later collection The October Country" (Chalker 30).

    Attorney Clay McCann admitted to slaughtering four campers in a back-country corner of Yellowstone National Park - a 'free-fire' zone with no residents or jurisdiction. In this remote fifty-square-mile stretch a man can literally get away with murder. Now McCann's a free man, and Pickett's about to discover his motive - one buried in Yellowstone's rugged terrain, and as dangerous as the man who wants to keep it hidden.Blood TrailGame wardens have found a man dead at a mountain camp-strung up, gutted, and flayed as if he were the elk he'd been hunting. Is the murder the work of a deranged anti-hunting activist or of a lone psychopath with a personal vendetta? Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is the man to track the murderer and stop him, before someone declares open season on humans...Below ZeroSix years ago, Joe Pickett's foster daughter, April, was murdered. Now, someone is leaving phone messages claiming to be the dead girl. As his family struggles with the disturbing event, he discovers that the calls have been placed from locations where serious environmental crimes have occurred. And as the phone calls grow closer, so does the danger...Nowhere to RunIt's Joe Pickett's last week as a temporary game warden in the mountain town of Baggs, Wyoming, but his conscience won't let him leave without checking out the strange reports coming from the wilderness: camps looted, tents slashed, elk butchered. What awaits him is like something out of an old campfire tale, except this story is all too real-and all too deadly.Cold WindA body hangs from a wind turbine, a bullet hole in his chest: Earl Alden, millionaire property developer. His wife, Missy, is the prime suspect. It wouldn't be a problem for Joe Pickett, if Missy weren't his mother-in-law. Missy claims she's innocent, and for his wife's sake, Joe would like to believe her... but all the early signs point to her being as guilty as sin. With his wife on one side and the law on the other, Joe needs to get to the truth before his family is ripped apart.Force of NatureYears ago Joe Pickett's best friend, Nate Romanowski, was in a Special Forces unit abroad when his commander, John Nemecek, did something terrible. Now the high-ranking government official and cold-blooded sociopath is determined to eliminate anyone who knows about it - like Nate, who's hidden himself away in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains. And he knows exactly how Nemecek will do it-by targeting Nate's friends to draw him out. That includes his friend, game warden Joe Pickett, and Pickett's entire family. The only way to fight back is outside the law. Nate knows he can do it, but he isn't sure about his straight-arrow friend. And all their lives could depend on it.

    A Plague of Demons: One man found out the secret behind the aliens who controlled the world, harvesting "dead" soldiers to fight wars on distant worlds-and only he could stop them, if he could keep from getting harvested himself. Thunderhead: An officer has manned an outpost on a lonely planet for years, watching for the alien enemy that may never come, forgotten by the bureaucracy which sent him there-and then the enemy came! Test to Destruction: Aliens are testing a human prisoner to determine how serious a foe the human race might be-and they have chosen the wrong man to Test to Destruction. And much more.

    Fighting alongside the Raven Guard Legion, Marcus Valerius of the Therion Cohort has long scorned those who seek to deify the Emperor, but a flash of inspiration leads him to question whether or not there are greater forces at work in the universe...

    The story is available for free on Karen Chance's website.

    What's even worse is getting expelled from private coven school on Halloween and having to attend public magic school, where Santa's son is visiting and has all the girls in a frenzy. Fairies, mermaids, elves, even the trolls are swooning over Kris Kringle Jr. All except for one girl, and she's a North Pole mystery that has Chris intrigued. Will he be able to put his prejudices aside in time to see the true magic all around him?

    Dick award and was optioned by Hollywood. He followed this up with two further novels continuing the adventures of Takeshi Kovacs - BROKEN ANGELS and WOKEN FURIES. He also wrote two further standalone SF novels, MARKET FORCES and BLACK MAN (which won the Arthur C. Clarke award).All five of these novels are collected here as the perfect introduction to Richard's work, or a welcome reminder of his power as a writer. Richard has also written two computer games (CRYSIS 2 and SYNDICATE), comics for MARVEL and is currently working on a fantasy trilogy comprising OF THE STEEL REMAINS, THE COLD COMMANDS, THE DARK DEFILES.

    But I’ve discovered my purpose is something much bigger. Lily - Uncovering Victor’s evil side changes everything. While I struggle with the truth I’m still destined to save a clan. But which one?

    Become entranced with the basic struggle of good vs. evil as you travel to a galaxy far, far away.

    Now he's starring in a big-budget action thriller that offers him the chance to become a box-office titan.Except the action and the thrills aren't just in the movie. Dangerous and destabilizing new technology is floating around behind the scenes. Police and cartel lords lurk in the shadows. An assassin is on the loose, and has already claimed his first victim.Sean could be next in the killer's sights, unless he can find out what the bad guys want, who's hiding it, and how many people he's going to have to betray in order to save his life--- and more importantly, his celebrity!

    Portfolio in envelope.

    Humans don’t believe in magic anymore, and their ignorance renders them easy prey. So when an FBI contact hires her to consult on a possible haunting in a missing person case, Shade seizes the opportunity to see justice done. The investigation takes an unexpected turn when an undead crime lord shows up on her doorstep. A bold thief stole the vampire’s little black book of secrets—and he’ll pay a lot more than an FBI consulting fee to get it back. To collect, Shade will have to confront a rogue sorceress—or two, a vengeful wizard, and a lethally seductive fey, with only her wits, her growing magic, and a sarcastic pixie familiar. Success means bringing a killer to justice and taking the first step to redemption. Failure means a war between humans and the Otherworld. No pressure. Magic, murder, and mayhem will excite and delight you. Expect no sleep until the last page turns… Blood Trails is a captivating new urban fantasy mystery series that will plunge you into a deadly world of secrets and hidden motives. Let the intrepid PI Shade Renard and her precocious pixie familiar teach you that in a world where the supernatural run rampant, nothing is as ordinary as it seems…

    Faced with the annual family reunion in Lake Tahoe, Amanda Harding cringes inwardly like the awkward teenager she used to be, not the successful bookstore owner she is now. Once again she'll be bombarded by questions about her dreadful status as a single woman. And, like always, she'll feel the weight of her parents' disappointment that their only child isn't happily married and pregnant with their first grandchild.  As she relates her troubles to her good friend Leo, she's shocked to the core by his offer to pose as her soon-to-be fiancé. Then all she can think about is getting tangled up in the sheets--and with Leo's deliciously hard body.  Leo Prentice has always wondered what his quiet, bookish Amanda looked like beneath the conservative suits, but the prospect of wrecking their friendship has kept his dirty mind in check. Until their first fake kiss. Playing Amanda's lover seemed like a win-win. But the little bookworm stirs a fire in him unlike any other woman. Soon, the teasing touches and sensual looks are all too real...and not nearly enough. Warning: this title contains a yummy construction man, a shy bookstore owner and a very naughty weekend filled with sizzling friends-turned-lovers sex.

    Their father drowns his pain at the bottom of a bottle.They begin a new life in Florida, where Michele meets a White Witch boy, but the divide between Black and White Witches is as dangerous as ever. Soon Michele is caught between love and loyalty, truth and lies.Could falling in love be the deadliest mistake she's ever made?