Sarah is travelling to rural Maine to visit an old friend, Midge Parker, who disappeared under peculiar circumstances almost a decade earlier. She drives 400 miles only to discover that Midge has moved on again without leaving any forwarding address. But the journey's end offers an unexpected revelation.Neil Black is a run-down assassin desperately looking for his magic hit - the one hit on a drug lord or a dictator that might save thousands from addiction and oppression. So when he glimpses that magic hit in the form of a big time mob boss, he takes the chance and gets his dream hit. He doesn’t, however, predict the horrific cost that his parents and younger brother may have to pay after he succeeds. Now it’s up to Neil and his fellow assassin Trecheon Omnir to use all their skills and knowledge to fight the coming storm – before Neil’s family become the mob’s next victims. Views: 268
40 short stories by Alex Shvartsman, winner of the 2014 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction.
An elder god trapped in a pocket dimension turns up in the world's oldest magic pawn shop.
A cybernetically-enhanced assassin who can't feel pain faces a dangerous adversary.
A computer hacker and a mystic team up to break into the Book of Fate and change their futures.
Vatican investigators are called to examine a miracle on another planet.
and much, much more!
The e-book includes 23 bonus stories not featured in the printed edition, for a total of 63 stories! Each story includes author notes, written for this collection.
Praise for "Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma":
"Wit, sentiment, imagination--Alex Shvartsman's got them all." -Mike Resnick, Hugo award winner.
"Fantastic variety and scope ... Prepare to be entertained, delighted and amazed." -Esther Friesner, Nebula award winner.
"His stories feature tightly constructed, intricate, puzzle-like plots with clever banter and plenty of fresh, twisted pop culture references." -Ken Liu, Hugo and Nebula award winner
"Full of intriguing ideas and wit." -Jody Lynn Nye, bestselling author
"A wonderful collection of short stories that will make you laugh, think and feel." -Gini Koch, bestselling author
"If you ever need to explain Cthulhu to your Grandma, this is the place to start." -Henry Gee, senior editor at Nature.
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Love with a big 0x004c is an experimental Sci-Fi short story following the evolution of an Artificial Intelligence after the extinction of humankind.It was inspired by the prompt of Goodreads user "Aura" (https://www./user/show/15363571) in "Goodreads Friends with benefits".Nicolas, a once successful author, now struggles to make a comeback. His agent pays him and unexpected visit, and triggers a series of things that start to go terribly wrong. A past as grave as Nicolas' is best left undisturbed. Views: 268
It's the love story I never saw coming. One moment my heart is broken, and in the next, I'm looking into his eyes. Ride waves of emotion in this sensual love story which begins on the luscious island of Martha's Vineyard.Travel writer Daisy Blanchard discovers the worst news ever. Her boyfriend is now engaged to her best friend! To add insult to injury, she learns about the blessed affair through a Facebook status update. Daisy escapes her life in shambles by taking a last-minute assignment to Martha's Vineyard where she immediately catches the eye of a bold billionaire named Belmont Lord. But is Daisy ready to betray her broken heart and jump two feet into taking the most sensual ride of her life?Find Her Keep Her is book 1 of the LOVE in the USA series. This book can be read as a standalone and ends happily ever after. Views: 268
A young boy named Francis finds himself in his room one night after years of reading high thrilling and chilling novels, and isn’t sure what to make of a certain experience that follows only minutes after hearing three knocks on his bedroom door.When the human mind begins to experience a certain level of media, fiction, or other forms of prevarication, they slowly lose their ability to reason and sort through the information correctly. Such events will take place throughout a person's life where they won’t be able to tell if something is real or not; this is thanks to our desire to consume and experience things that remove us from our everyday lives. The unworldly is an addiction, and like every addict, people build up a tolerance to said addiction, and soon, they might not be able to separate a fantasy from reality. In a rather twisted way, this story takes a look into exactly what this could mean when a young boy named Francis finds himself in his room one night after years of reading high thrilling and chilling novels, and isn’t sure what to make of a certain experience that follows only minutes after hearing three knocks on his bedroom door. Views: 268
Book one in an Exciting, Young Adult, Fantasy that enthralls readers with its unique blend of technology and magic that draws readers in of all ages.Book One in an exciting new trilogy that combines the worlds of both magic and technology to create an epic adventure that will spellbind readers of all ages!Tom Alerio, a young boy, soon realizes that his unique ability to wield magic will change his life forever. Sent away by his mother at a young age to protect him from the sisterhood who destroy all boys with the ability, Tom quickly finds those he can and can't trust. Between the many adventures he has, Tom encounters both. These experiences, with the addition of a trusted mentor and a new found relationship with a young enchantress, teach Tom that magic must be shared by men and women alike. Along the way Tom realizes that an ancient order called, Order of The Rose must return if he's to save those he has come to rely on and who now rely upon him. New technology and old magic rip the land apart while Tom fights to save all he has come to love and care for. Praise for Order of The Rose: Forsaken Petal: "There is action, drama, and you can't help but wonder and care about the characters closest to Tom." - Dee (Fantasy Writer) " What fascinated me the most was the history of magic and those who use it." - Christine Rains (Author of 13th floor series) If you enjoyed books like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Dragonlance You'll love this epic adventure Views: 268
This not too long story has been written as an attempt to answer some of the questions surrounding the disappearance of the Malaysian airliner in March2014. It is entirely fictional but it is quite possible that the plot could be uncomfortably close to the truth. The plot provides answers which fit closely with the available facts.A commercial airliner disappeared on a regular flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March eight 2014. The mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 and the fate of those on board remains unsolved and the final resting place of the crew and passengers remains unknown. This is despite a massive effort by a number of nations to locate the missing plane. It seems unthinkable, to most of us, that a large commercial aircraft cannot be quickly and accurately tracked if it has crashed or flown off course.The best technology available was initially unable to determine just where the plane may have gone. Did it crash? Was it hijacked? After frantic days of searching it was finally revealed that communication systems on the aircraft had been disabled, presumably by the pilots. It was further revealed that military radar had tracked a complete change of course with the aircraft heading in a Westerly direction and away from its original destination.The movements of the plane then became a little uncertain but it was clearly under the control of a competent pilot and on a set course. Media reports suggested that the plane then headed South over the Indian Ocean. This route was indicated by regular information being received by engine manufacturers and other sources. The subsequent search of the target area provided a few pings thought to be from the aircraft’s black boxes but an underwater search has not provided any further contacts.The slow and uncertain progress of the search has raised many unanswered questions.Why was there no debris found in the search area? If the plane ran out of fuel surely a fall of thirty five thousand feet would cause massive damage on impact with the ocean. (A part of the plane was found some months after the disappearance. It has been assumed that this debris would have drifted a considerable distance from any crash site)Why was it necessary for the pilot to fly the plane thousands of kilometres to one of the most remote places on earth where the ocean was deep? Perhaps there is a good reason to make the plane (or possibly the cargo) completely disappear. Who were the two passengers travelling on stolen passports? Reports that no passengers were deemed suspicious were issued only days after the disappearance. This seems to be much too small a time frame to complete thorough checks. Surely the fact that that these two passengers were not who they claimed to be should ring alarm bells.The manifest indicated that there was nothing suspicious in the cargo hold. Could the Malaysian Government be a little embarrassed that it may be possible to smuggle undeclared freight on to the aircraft? Are their security controls all that tight?The disappearance of MH370 is likely to remain the greatest mystery of this century.This story (entirely fictional) is an attempt to explain some of the remaining unanswered questions. In doing so it was necessary to examine any possible justification for this obviously well planned and executed event. As the plot unfolds the reader may find many likely answers to their questions. At the same time our moral and ethical values may well be challenged. Views: 267
In the year 1195, the great philosopher Ibn Rushd, once the qadi, or judge, of Seville and most recently the personal physician to the Caliph Abu Yusuf Yaqub in his home town of Córdoba, was formally discredited and disgraced on account of his liberal ideas, which were unacceptable to the increasingly powerful Berber fanatics who were spreading like a pestilence across Arab Spain, and was sent to live in internal exile in the small village of Lucena, a village full of Jews who could no longer say they were Jews because they had been forced to convert to Islam. Views: 267
How an avid dog lover gets a glimpse into what is in store for Man's Best FriendHow an avid dog lover gets a glimpse into what is in store for Man's Best Friend. Views: 267
For fans of Agatha Christie and Midsomer Murders, Reckoning in Ice is a crime-lovers must-read.When accountant Richard Garston is summoned to Scotland to meet with the chairman of a multi-million pound company that he is auditing, he has no idea of the danger that lies ahead.Paul Villeneuve, the scientist and chairman at International Metals, believes somebody is out to steal his latest discovery. And he wants Richard to prove it.Enlisting the help of Villeneuve's beautiful daughter, Paula, they set sail for Greenland to follow up on a lead. But with danger lurking round every corner, Richard must keep all of his wits about him and track down the culprit, before the culprit tracks him down.Brimming with greed, murder and a hair-raising showdown, J.R.L. Anderson's, Reckoning in Ice, is not to be missed. Views: 267
Walker and Rebecca’s story. A missing woman, thought to have been abducted by Shifters leads to deeper problems that Walker Danielson, the human liaison between Shiftertown and the Shifter Bureau must solve. Rebecca, the bear Shifter who volunteers to help him proves very distracting Views: 267
This is a very short, fun interlude in the Hiding Behind The Couch series. Unlike the rest of the series, which is written in third-person (semi-omniscient) past tense, this short story is written in first-person present tense. It has no real bearing on anything else that happens in the series; it is what it is: an Easter Egg.This is a very short, fun interlude in the Hiding Behind The Couch series.Unlike the rest of the series, which is written in third-person (semi-omniscient) past tense, this short story is written in first-person present tense.It has no real bearing on anything else that happens in the series; it is what it is: an Easter Egg.It is entirely self-indulgent, for which I make no apologies.~ Deb ~ Views: 267
In the brief golden years of King Edward VII’s reign, Rosie McCosh and her three sisters are growing up in an idyllic and eccentric household in Kent, with their ‘pals’ the Pitt boys on one side of the fence and the Pendennis boys on the other. But their days of childhood innocence and adventure are destined to be followed by the apocalypse that will overwhelm their world as they come to adulthood.
For Rosie, the path ahead is full of challenges: torn between her love for two young men, her sense of duty and her will to live her life to the full, she has to navigate her way through extraordinary times. Can she, and her sisters, build new lives out of the opportunities and devastations that follow the Great War?
Louis de Bernières’ magnificent and moving novel follows the lives of an unforgettable cast of characters as the Edwardian age disintegrates into the Great War, and they strike out to seek what happiness can be salvaged from the ruins of the old world. Views: 267
