In ‘The Goose Girl’, the queen sends her daughter awayto her fate with a bloodied handkerchief tucked in her bosom, and in ‘Sleeping Beauty’, Mama’s best efforts cannotprevent one little prick from having disastrous consequences for the heroine. Danielle Wood’s Mothers Grimm brings characters from these stories into the modern world in a collection of four long stories that interrogate contemporarywomanhood and motherhood. Happy endings not guaranteed.

    Schow received the World Fantasy Award for "Red Light" and the Twilight Zone Magazine Dimension award for "Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You", both of which are included in this volume.

    . . and trust as essential to survival as it is hard-earned.Trust was rare and precious in the wide-open towns that sprung up like weeds on America's frontier—with hustlers and hucksters arriving in droves by horse, coach, wagon, and rail, and gunmen working both sides of the law, all too eager to end a man's life with a well-placed bullet. In these classic tales that span more than five decades—including the first story he ever published, “The Trail of the Apache”—Elmore Leonard once again demonstrates the superb talent for language and gripping narrative that have made him one of the most acclaimed and influential writers of our time.

    Tremblay (author of The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland) features fifteen stories of fear and paranoia, stories of apocalypses both societal and personal, and stories of longing and coping.

    Sylvia would take long walks in the country; Pam would have tea ready by the fire for when she returned. Nice fantasies...The house had that kind of effect on people. It felt cosy, lived-in, though it had been empty for many years. Oddly, there was rubbish everywhere, but there was no other sign of a squatter's brief inhabitation.And though the windows were unbroken. the doors securely locked, Pam could never entirely rid herself of the thought that she and her sister might not be alone in the house...One of 13 terrifying tales of terror...

    From the battlefields of a Vietnam veteran's memory to an old-time movie hero's search for a serial killer, from Halloween in a special town--where the rules of trick-or-treat are written in blood--to a Texas road where a wrong turn leads to a nest of evil, horror master McCammon is at his terrifying best in this collection of stories.

    Angela Carter takes real people and literary legends - most often women - who have been mythologized or marginalized and recasts them in a new light. In a style that is sensual, cerebral, almost hypnotic, "The Fall River Axe-Murders" portrays the last hours before Lizzie Borden's infamous act: the sweltering heat, the weight of flannel and corsets, the clanging of the factory bells, the food reheated and reserved despite the lack of adequate refrigeration, the house "full of locked doors that open only into other rooms with other locked doors." In "Our Lady of the Massacre" the no-nonsense voice of an eighteenth-century prostitute/runaway slave questions who is civilized - the Indians or the white men? "Black Venus" gives voice to Charles Baudelaire's Creole mistress, Jeanne Duval: "you could say, not so much that Jeanne did not understand the lapidary, troubled serenity of her lover's poetry but, that it was a perpetual affront to her. He recited it to her by the hour and she ached, raged and chafed under it because his eloquence denied her language." "The Kiss" takes the traditional story of Tamburlaine's wife and gives it a new and refreshing ending. Sometimes disquieting, sometimes funny, always thought-provoking, Angela Carter's stories offer a feminist revision of images that lie deep in the public psyche.

    Eleven of the world’s best female thriller writers from Diana Gabaldon to Charlaine Harris are paired with eleven of the world’s best male thriller writers, including John Sandford, C.J. Box, and Nelson DeMille. The stories are edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child and feature:-Lee Coburn and Joe Pickett in “Honor & …” by Sandra Brown and C.J. Box -Tony Hill and Roy Grace in “Footloose” by Val McDermid and Peter James -Temperance Brennan and Jack Reacher in “Faking a Murderer” by Kathy Reichs and Lee Child -Jamie Fraser and Cotton Malone in “Past Prologue” by Diana Gabaldon and Steve Berry -Liz Sansborough and Rambo in “Rambo on Their Minds” by Gayle Lynds and David Morrell -Jeffrey Tolliver and Joe Pritchard in “Short Story” by Karin Slaughter and Michael Koryta -Harper Connelly and Ty Hauck in “Dig Here” by Charlaine Harris and Andrew Gross -Regan Pescoli and Virgil Flowers in “Deserves to be Dead” by Lisa Jackson and John Sandford -Lucan Thorne and Lilliane in “Midnight Flame” by Lara Adrian and Christopher Rice -Bennie Rosato and John Corey in “Getaway” by Lisa Scottoline and Nelson DeMille -Ali Reynolds and Bravo Shaw in “Taking the Veil” by J.A. Jance and Eric Van Lustbader

    We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, a man-made virus taking over bodies and minds, filling them with one, unstoppable command...FEED.Countdown"Everglades"San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California BrowncoatsHow Green This Land, How Blue This SeaThe Day the Dead Came to Show and TellPlease Do Not Taunt the OctopusAll the Pretty Little HorsesComing to You Live

    Both timeless and urgent, these eleven stories confront misogyny, violence, and the impossible economics of America with van den Berg's trademark spiky humor and surreal eye. Moving from the peculiarities of Florida to liminal spaces of travel in Mexico City, Sicily, and Spain, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears is uncannily attuned to our current moment, and to the thoughts we reveal to no one but ourselves.In "Lizards," a man mutes his wife's anxieties by giving her a La Croix-like seltzer laced with sedatives. In the title story, a woman poses as her more successful sister during a botched Italian holiday, a choice that brings about strange and violent consequences, while in "Karolina," a woman discovers her prickly ex-sister-in-law in the aftermath of an earthquake and is forced to face the truth about her violent brother.I Hold a Wolf by the Ears presents a collection of women on the verge, trying to grasp what's left of life: grieving, divorced, and hyperaware, searching, vulnerable, and unhinged, they exist in a world that deviates from our own only when you look too close. With remarkable control and transcendent talent, van den Berg dissolves, in the words of the narrator of "Slumberland," "that border between magic and annihilation," and further establishes herself as a defining fiction writer of our time.

    

    That’s the idea behind Paranormal Women’s Fiction, where you’ll find women of a certain age kicking ass. These are powerful creatures who know what they want, who they are, and won’t let anything get in their way—not exes or demons, hot flashes, crow’s feet or crime. Dive into this selection of stories from some of today’s best-selling PWF authors (listed in alphabetical order).Lucía Ashta - Smexy Shenanigans (A Witches of Gales Haven Novella)Luanne and Shawna head out of Gales Haven for the day, expecting to drink a little too much and dance the night away. What they don’t expect is to unearth secrets they believed long buried. Secrets that mean a whole new kind of trouble for the Gawama witches.Morgana Best - Sixty, Sassy, and Sleuthing (Colt Calling Horse Rescue Mysteries Prequel)The world is determined to put 60-year-old Cally Colt out to pasture, but she's no one-trick pony. When she’s suspected of murder, Cally must clear her name, keep a horse rescue financially stable, and stay alive. Will she do it, or is she on a foal's errand?Annabel Chase - Wet My Plants (The Bloomin’ Psychic)During an overnight visit to a historic house, Mia discovers she isn’t the only thing that goes bump in the night.Renee George - The Importance of Being GillyMidlife dating is all fun and games until someone falls into the flambé and catches on fire... When Nora Black's BFF Gilly Martin requests her help, Nora agrees to employ her psychic nose for the good of her bestie's future.Colleen Helme - License to Steal (A Shelby Nichols Novella)A PI license, a stolen figurine, and the sinister plot behind it... another day for mind-reader, Shelby Nichols, that could be deadly.Shéa MacLeod - Some Enchanted Reading (A Season of the Witch Novella)One unexpected tarot reading, one enchantment gone awry, and one very befuddled witch in dire need of a cocktail.HP Mallory & JR Rain - Black Cat Cocktail Club (A Haven Hollow Story)While brewing potions and boozing with the other ladies of Haven Hollow, Poppy accidentally knocks two potions onto Wanda’s familiar, Hellcat, who immediately vanishes! Soon it becomes a mad dash to find Hellcat in order to reverse whatever magic Poppy inadvertently subjected him to.Rebecca Regnier - Rock of Mages (A Widow’s Bay Short Story)The newest neighborhood in Widow's Bay is an HGTV addict's dream! But while the floorplans may be open concept a curse is closing in. Only the empty nest coven can save the sinking shiplap!Christine Zane Thomas - Midlife MatchmakingAfter exhausting all the dating apps available, Lauren Whittaker tries a spell. Surely, her dating life can't get any worse. But magic always has a way of complicating things.Nancy Warren - Bleeding Between the Lines (The Vampire Book Club Prequel)Seattle witch Quinn Callahan knew she wasn’t supposed to mess with death. Now, the Grim Reaper’s turned up at her book club and he’s not there for the gossip and the cheese plate.Louisa West - You Look ‘Familiar’ (A Midlife in Mosswood Novella)One near-miss with a kangaroo and vet Veronica’s highschool sweetheart has bounced back into her life. Is this her chance to reconnect with the one that got away, or will he skip town for good and take his strange secret with him?Deborah Wilde - A Deader Shade of Pale (A Magic After Midlife Short)Miriam Feldman had high hopes for her big date, but a body count wasn’t one of them. Now it’s up to her and a grumpy French wolf shifter to hunt the possessed man down before anyone gets hurt.

    but we know that's not the truth. Dark tales of wicked tykes and dangerous kids playing vicious games that lead adults - sometimes their own parents - to their demise are a staple of frightening fiction. Beware the schoolyards and playgrounds, even the sanctity of the familial home, especially after dark. And don't be fooled by a trickle of tears or tiny hands reaching for you. These youngsters do not want to love or comfort - only to inflict pain! Bad Seeds: Evil Progeny offers twenty-seven tales of terrifying offspring by both masters of the genre and imaginative newcomers.

    It follows the groundbreaking, highly acclaimed Jesus’ Son. Written in the same luminous prose, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating old age, mortality, the ghosts of the past, and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. Finished shortly before Johnson’s death in May 2017, this collection is the last word from a writer whose work will live on for many years to come.

    In "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.Including stories being published for the first time as well as some of his rare and classic uncollected work, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic—revelatory.