Word Count: 77,200
Summary: It’s August of 1850, deep in the bayou country of southern Louisiana. Four good friends are working in the fields harvesting the crops when a sudden thunderstorm drives them all indoors. There’s kind, warm-hearted J. P. Ayo; eager, earnest young T-Joe Lirette; wry, hard-bitten Clovis Dantin; and gentle, easy-going Leandre Naquin. “Hell of a night,” Leandre remarks, as they share a drink and wait for the storm to pass. “The kind of night when the ghosts walk.” This seemingly offhand comment is the impetus to the four men sharing their own ghost story. The tale each man tells--by turns tragic, funny, frightening, and heartbreaking--gives them a window into their friends’ souls. When one of them confesses that his own personal ghost story isn’t over, that he’s still trapped in the middle of it, the events that follow will test the depth of their loyalty and friendship in ways that none of them could ever have dreamed. What is certain is that after that night, none of the four will ever be the same.
Word Count: 70,028
Summary: How Far Would You Go to Find a Lost Loved One? Ten years ago, a man and his girlfriend went into the woods at the end of Claver Road on what was supposed to be a weekend's camping trip, and never returned. Police combed the area, but nothing was found except for his car, abandoned where they'd parked it. It seemed like Brad Ellicott and Cara Marshall had been swallowed by the silent, brooding forest, leaving not a trace of what had happened or where they went. His identical twin brother, left to mourn his loss, has spent the last decade unable to let go of his grief, to accept that Brad and Cara are gone forever. Based on sinister hints from a few of the older residents of Guildford, New York, the closest village to the woods, he discovers that there might be more to the story than the disappearance of a couple of hikers. The woods has had an evil reputation for well over a century, and his brother and his girlfriend are not the first people to defy the warnings and brave the shadows under the trees-nor the first to vanish there. Becoming obsessed with discovering what happened to his brother, he delves deeper and deeper into the mystery that lies beyond the end of Claver Road, and he uncovers a terrifying truth that challenges everything he believes. Is the knowledge worth the cost? And will he get the answers he needs before the forest claims him as its next victim?
Word Count: 68,474
Summary: It’s the summer of 1971, and all ten-year-old Janina Starcevich wants to do is spend the seemingly endless warm days riding her bicycle, climbing trees, and catching frogs in the pond in her back yard. But when a young drifter named Justin Lazarus walks into the hardware store owned by her next-door neighbor, Kathy Christian, a series of events are set in motion that will change them all forever. Justin is a melding of opposites—charming but odd, friendly but frightening, seemingly ordinary but at the same time deeply strange. Kathy compares him to an optical illusion before you’ve figured it out. Something’s wrong, but it’s impossible to say exactly what. The events of that sweltering summer turn the little village of Guildford, New York upside down. So why, twenty-five years later, can Janina—now happily married, with three children of her own—barely remember what happened? A chance mention at work starts her on an obsessive quest to reconstruct how the tragedy in 1971 unfolded, and to try to figure out what had been her role in it. The more she uncovers, the more puzzling and disturbing it becomes—an enigma that has lain buried for two and a half decades, centering around one single question: Who was Justin Lazarus?
Word Count: 92.939
Summary: Two thousand years ago, a machine was forged by brilliant minds whose wisdom was outstripped by their thirst for power. Rather than being a mere mechanical calendar, the Antikythera Mechanism in reality harnessed a formidable and frightening power — one that could make or break the world. Men rose up and fought the Mechanism's owners, stopping them from using its psychic force for destruction. They destroyed the device, burying it — and themselves — in the depths of the Aegean sea. But the knowledge to rebuild it remained, and attracted power-hungry individuals who would stop at nothing to control it. When two archaeologists studying the Mechanism are killed, an unlikely team of heroes come to the horrifying realization that it's all starting again — an elderly minister, a student with prophetic dreams, an unassuming secretary and her best friend, a young and idealistic news reporter, and a skeptical university professor are drawn into a web of intrigue and danger. If the Mechanism is rebuilt, it will unleash an unimaginable cataclysm. Only they have the ability to stop it.
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Elections are stressful enough, and none more than this one. With so much riding on the vote this year, Sammy needed involvement to get her candidate elected and into the Whitehouse. Now on election night she’s had a terrible day, but plans to work on the phones until the bitter end. Already late for her volunteering, Sammy rushes for the ancient building’s elevator, mercifully being held for her by an attractive stranger. More than an election is held in the balance when the elevator gets stuck between floors, and Sammy finds out that the woman stuck with her works for the enemy camp. Who will win the election, and how will these two women make it out of the elevator in one piece?
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Halloween; a night of tricks and treats, but what happens when you take a stranger for a creepy night of mischief and fun? Anything can happen on Halloween, even the unimaginable.
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: When the holidays aren’t what they’re supposed to be. When you’re on your last nerve because your boyfriend recently dumped you and your family lives out of state. What are you supposed to do? Sit home alone and be miserable? That’s exactly what David planned on doing this Thanksgiving. However, he needs to pick up his less than festive meal at the grocery store. While shopping, fate and the universe decide to step-in with a chance encounter placing Fernando and his pumpkin pie right in David’s path. How will this Thanksgiving remind David that events happen around us all the time to be thankful for? Will David be grateful and open to meeting someone new?
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Prom Night. The last hurrah before college. Brandon and Ed are the chaperons for the LandsEnd High School Senior Prom, hosted at the LandsEnd Yacht Club. Its a night of dreams until the ground shakes and flashes of light brighten the sky, knocking out everything electrical, casting the dance into darkness. Cut off and alone, the adults and the students have to figure out what to do and what’s happening. Worryingly, what’s that strange clicking sound off in the distance that seemed to scare off the animals?
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: The chase is on for the soul of San Francisco! Norton, Iria, and Madge's grand plan has fallen through at every turn. Now they find themselves scrambling to improvise in a battle across time against a new and unexpected foe! Jaunt across the centuries by these scrappy heroes' sides as they dive headlong into eras both familiar and strange to each. With allies old and new, they must weave a magic spell on the fly to save their beloved city from the clutches of Mammon--and from something even worse!
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: REAL ESTATE IS HELL - SOMETIMES LITERALLY Wedged between real estate speculators, startup bros, and gentrified neighborhoods, it’s gotten hard to get by in San Francisco and it’s getting harder all the time. Now two witches have decided the time has come to do something about it. Using all their arcane skills, Iria – tall, dark, and genderqueer – and their partner and mentor, Madge – the granddaughter of Chinese immigrants and a powerful magician – have summoned back to the world of the living one of San Francisco’s greatest eccentric heroes: Joshua Norton, self-declared Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. Binding him to themselves and to the city, Iria and Madge need Norton’s charisma and tireless dedication to the city to help them save San Francisco from a demon of greed. With an exciting combination of spell-slinging and derring-do, Norton and his modern-day patrons embark on a series of adventures across San Francisco’s past and present to save the city’s soul! THIS EDITION COLLECTS ALL FOUR VOLUMES IN ONE BOOK!
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Something is taking their loved ones… Haunted by the violent disappearance of his twin, private investigator Cisco Cavalera tries to provide people with answers that he never got. When his best friend’s son is kidnapped, Cisco dives headfirst into the search. But the more he digs, the less anything makes sense. Rian Denver isn’t the only person who’s disappeared under the same bizarre circumstances. All the signs point to something unexplainably supernatural. When Cisco comes face to face with the brother who’d disappeared 11 years ago, things become far more complicated and far more dangerous than he expected. Is it possible that the man he’s mourned is not only alive, but connected to these disappearances? Surrounded by real-life monsters, can Cisco save the people he loves before time runs out? Or will he lose his family for a second time?
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: A collection of five speculative short stories by H. L. Moore, including award-winning tales Entente and No Place of Honour.
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Riven kan Ingan may have married his beloved Barbara. He may have become a noble by the margrave’s grace but the gods aren’t finished with him. Not yet. Though Riven admits married life makes him a lovestruck fool, he refuses to be the cuckold when he returns from battle to find his wife pregnant with a child he couldn’t have sired. In a fury at her supposed infidelity, he dares the gods’ wrath and abandons her, only to become the scapegoat when a blood curse strikes his people. Haunted by Barbara’s memory, Riven begins a quest to find the one who cursed him. He’ll return to the land of his birth, unearth long-hidden family secrets, and suffer more loss and grief. Only when his pride is ground to dust and he’s dependent upon an old enemy’s mercy will he be free to rid himself of the blood curse.
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: What happens when an AI assistant is always whispering in your ear? Does hacking into the structure of reality help you get a prom date? When your world is dying, how far are you willing to go to save its people? What is the nature of identity, and who are you, anyway? Flashes in Time explores these questions and more in sixteen imaginative short stories set atop a fourfold table of science fiction and fantasy, contemporary and far off. A diverse cast of characters explores the limits of what it means to be human, and what our choices make of us. From darkness to light and lingering in between, the scenarios and thought experiments take the reader on a journey with surprising yet inevitable twists.
Word Count: 120000
Summary: War between the stars... It was started and fought by an AI. Few humans even knew there was a war at all. But now people are dying—and the AI wants it to stop. But a war is easier to start than to stop, and the computer can't alter its course without outside help. When the Gnostic Control System searches for co-conspirators, it chooses its friends carefully. Pali: a brooding public relations director. Ramo: a flamboyant senso-dancer, who prefers a musical jamdam to serious conversation. Sage: a systems designer for whom the AI rapture-field is realer than life. And three of the alien Ell: Harybdartt, who would rather die with dignity than betray his people; Lingrhetta, who tries to unravel the meaning of human dance and music, pain and love; and Moramaharta, the binder, who must persuade his fellow decision-makers to risk everything for the sake of a fragile bridge of understanding across the stars. A thought-provoking novel from the award-winning author of Eternity’s End and The Chaos Chronicles, and recipient of the Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award for science fiction writing. REVIEWS: “The story is meaty and satisfying. I enjoyed this one greatly.” —Analog Science Fiction “An absorbing, suspenseful novel of first contact and interstellar war. It’s a complex book, requiring concentration from the reader, and is well worth the effort.”—Aboriginal SF “A lively dance of ideas—first contact, interstellar war, artificial intelligence, alien culture—and it moves at a rapid pace, from Earth through cyberspace to the Horsehead Nebula, and various points between. It’s well-worth the trip ticket.” —Roger Zelazny
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Aric kan Ingan is an Exile... Stripped of title, wealth, and citizenship for treason against the Arcanian Empire, a crime of which he is innocent. For a decade, he’s wandered the Emeraunt Galaxy, haunted by fear of instant death, while earning barely enough to survive, performing chores no self-respecting citizen would touch. Destitute and addicted to the two most powerful illegal substances in the galaxy, he finds only one path left open: He enlists as a guard for a Terran mining colony. From his point of view, he’s now hit rock-bottom. Life among aliens is bad enough, but life with Terrans is near-unbearable for the prejudiced former prince whose pride is currently wallowing in the mud…until Aric meets two people who become a special part of his life. Susan Moran is the company physician, a woman with secrets of her own. Miles Sheffield is his former mistress’ brother, a young, brash, wet-behind-the-ears Terran, who is as shocked as Aric when he becomes the Exile’s best friend, especially since their first meeting ended, not with a handshake, but with a fist to the jaw. With Susan and Miles, Aric will experience friendship, passion, and grief, and eventually make a decision affecting the future of the entire galaxy as he unknowingly takes another step in the ancient prophecy of the GodChosen.
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: The five princesses of Bellarossa have lost their parents and must now abide under the control of the man responsible. But they have their art. They have each other. And still, they hold on to hope. They do what they can to ease the suffering of their kingdom under an unfeeling King and his cruel Admiral. But when a mysterious Renegade Mage arrives with powers of skill and magic, perhaps—perhaps, there is more that can be done. In memory and celebration of author Jubilee Cho, 1998-2024. Author royalties will be donated to Los Angeles-area efforts dedicated to directly supporting LGBTQIAP+ people in crisis.
Word Count: 66500
Summary: Aviana Aquila does not have much, but she does have structure. No home but whatever she is currently assigned to, no family, and the closest to a relationship she has is a not very clandestine affair with her emotionally inhibited commanding officer, with whom she dreams to run away. As an Imperial soldier, ever on deployment, she knows she may die at any moment. As a commander, she knows she will need to order people to their deaths. After years on years, she is dull to all of that, existing to exist. But when an Alliance Admiral comes aboard on what was just supposed to be a routine mission, her structured semblance of a life is completely overturned. The Admiral is not a normal being, and possibly insane. Yet her presence may save Aviana in more ways than one and make her rediscover the woman she loves. A stand-alone book in the Worlds of the PACT universe.
Word Count: 78164
Summary: Ismat’s dating life is terrible, and a lot of it has to do with honesty. Not that he doesn’t want to be honest, he just can’t – or it will ruin his life. He can’t tell anyone he works for the Dominion Security Bureau counter-terrorism division; he can’t tell his date who his father is, even if he knows them, and he most definitely can’t tell them how he actually feels about the gender he has to wear. A possible security breach in the Bureau means that he and his immediate boss are the only people who can be trusted with a case. Things rapidly become more complicated as the Bureau’s Director pulls two foreign agents into the mix. More complicated than others because Ismat finds one of them very attractive, something which he would rather the agent not know. Unfortunately – she’s telepathic. When the investigation leads them to a women-only charity event, Ismat finds some use for the dresses kept in the back of the closet and finds out that having a partner who knows what you think is not such a bad thing. A stand-alone book set in the Worlds of the PACT universe.
Word Count: 49504
Summary: What if the side quest is really the main quest? Divine, a healer of the Goddess of Souls, has chased the thief who stole her talisman across half of Trelvania. The talisman is the key to accessing her magic well, and without it, she is powerless. While chasing her betrayer, former girlfriend, and servant of the Goddess of Condemnation, Divine meets Saph, a flirty tavern owner with an eyepatch and a proposition. Saph will help Divine locate her talisman if Divine helps her complete a mysterious quest in a chest. Inspired by RPGs and set in scenic autumn, prepare for an adventure with gods and goddesses, deceitful exes, axe throwing, and fantastical creatures. Can Divine learn to trust again and find romance in the middle of finding her magic?
