Metaphysical Mysteries

A Year in the Borderlands writer Kevin Candela's wild second excursion into alternate realities includes 17 tales, twelve of which have appeared in previously released anthologies and are collected here for the first time. These short stories combine with five never before released works, including the novella It's Only Funny if You Laugh, to produce a wide-ranging panoramic view of the worlds and realities that exist beyond our own. Playing With Reality is another vividly detailed page in the Atlas of the Unknown.

In 1872, the American merchant vessel Mary Celeste was discovered adrift off the coast of Spain. Her cargo was intact, but the crew was gone. They were never found. While on a voyage to Africa, an unproven young writer named Arthur Conan Doyle hears of the Mary Celeste and decides to write an outlandish story about what took place. This story causes quite a sensation back in the United States, particularly between sought-after Philadelphia spiritualist medium Violet Petra and a journalist named Phoebe Grant, who is seeking to expose Petra as a fraud.

Be careful what you wish for. A year earlier, with the help of enigmatic industrialist Michael Walker, all of Penelope Drayton Spence’s dreams had come true. Now, as one of the country’s top journalists, she has discovered what she thought would make her happy was only making her busy. After months of avoiding her, Michael Walker burst back into her life with an outlandish plan to launch his controversial “Hermes” satellite into space. But she soon learns someone just as resourceful and well-financed is willing to go to any lengths to stop the launch.

If you could live forever, would you want to? This is the story of Anita and Kimmo's struggle against cancer, of Aender and Kiyoshi and the first interstellar war, and of An and Ki and Earth’s last days.

Rachel Connor has qualified as a physician, but her brother’s pain is haunting her. Locked in prison for murder, he carries the power of life and death in his hands. New Zealand has settled in an uneasy peace, but Rachel’s father, the Prime Minister, sees the threat of a nuclear holocaust on the horizon.

Deadly secrets. Burning love. Haunting past. A Shade of Mind brings you a complete pack of supernatural suspense mystery thrillers, full of twists and turns - an intriguing mix of Outlander and Downton Abbey, with modern interpretation and explosive action.

Ori may seem like an idealist, but he understands how this world works. Powerful people want it to stay that way, and a degree of social order is needed to ensure that. However, through everything he has done as founder and CEO of Singularity Group, Ori has proven what good can come from granting people certain freedoms. Though he hoped otherwise, he knew the day might come when powerful forces would threaten what he has built. When a series of suspicious events escalates to an attempt on his life, Ori must use all he is capable of to see who, or what, is pulling the strings.

Krygelski writes a compelling and startling story centered on the mysterious arrival of a man who claims to be the Creator. Clearly not a mortal, Elohim - as the stranger prefers to be known - astounds those he meets with unexplainable miracles and reality-altering answers. All of this is but a prelude to his announcement that he has come to do something...something which will affect every person on Earth...something which will occur in five days.

Exposed is quickly beginning to unravel the ties-that-bind Jackson Stafford's story together. Brent has revealed his true nature and his mission. The Defector has the director of the FBI in his corner intervening for a notorious assassin. Don and Nancy, NSA professionals locked in the final throws of uncovering the greatest of all truths about Jackson Stafford, stand stunned by the facts.

Evie Lynn is running from something. She just can’t remember what or why. Terrified, and with only an address to go on, Evie makes her way across the country, assisted by two strangers. Closing in are two men who once claimed to love her. But now, they only want what she took from them, no matter the cost to Evie or to them.

As a U.S. Homeland Security investigator becomes ensnared in a thicket of terrorist puzzles and codes unraveling his troubled past, his counterpart in a parallel Earth without Christianity experiences strange visions of our world after meeting a charismatic preacher with a new message of peace and forgiveness. The two men wade through intolerance, hatred, and terrorism while struggling with their own skepticism as a growing connection between them unwittingly leads toward destruction, redemption, or both.

Rada Dunn is used to the solitary life of the arid valley north of the little town of Peace. Nothing much happens there, and her bean and wheat crops provide her with just enough to keep her away from the rest of her kind...which is how she's come to like it. But when she comes upon human remains that have recently been burned so intensely that they are merely sticky black bones, her serenity is shattered.

Silicon Valley resident Marjorie Veil has been conditioned to ignore her own truth, to give away her power, to subjugate in relationships with others, and to settle for the path of least resistance. But she has many surprises in store, for there are synchronistic forces at work in her life that, if she listens, will lead her to her authentic heart and happiness.

When an ancient demon called the Soulstealer takes him as its host, Nythan’s normal life is thrown into torturous chaos. The demon has only one demand - help it steal the souls of the living so that it might leave this world. A secret order known as the Ordo Solis has other plans. They’ve been chasing the Soulstealer one host at a time for thousands of years, and their sights are set on Nythan. Their oath is simple - kill the host, save the world.

I don’t wish to frighten you, reads the anonymous note introverted and bullied eight-year-old Leo Cruz finds in his backpack. All the sender asks is that he avoid a certain spot on a certain day, or he’ll die. Leo has reason to be afraid. The warning hearkens back to nearly a decade ago - to the same site, where a murder has become local folklore and a favorite campfire tale reinvented year after year by the kids of Arenas, a small Spanish town.

He wanted peace. He found a life-changing adventure.... Tristan Blake’s time in the army left him scarred and broken. Now that he’s home from war, the atheist bishop’s son wants nothing more than the peace and quiet of the New Zealand coast. When a Maori priest named Rau offers him a lift, neither of them expect a ride that could change their lives forever. On a beach up north, a mysterious man scores Rau a colossal snapper with no bait. As Joshua joins the atheist and the priest on their journey to the heart of the nation, Tristan is surprised by his provocative friendship.

A seven percent grasp of the infinite. The universe may be limitless, but our senses are not. Just as the human eye sees but a small percentage of the cosmic wave spectrum, in the same way, most of us are only able to perceive a similar sliver of what we brazenly term “reality”, even with the use of all five of our scientifically acknowledged senses. This month-by-month account of people-supernatural relations spans its own sci-fi/fantasy/horror/comedy spectrum, touring the weird side of the cosmos while leaving the passengers comfy and unscathed in their listening chairs.

They reach the shore, barks and joyful laughter swallowed by the crashing waves. Suddenly, an odd-looking object in the sky draws closer. As dark clouds loom, a flicker of unease crosses Scotty’s face. Before he can react, an eerie glow surrounds both boy and dog. In an instant, they vanish without a trace. Now aboard an alien ship, Scotty faces a reality far from home. The walls breathe, the corridors pulse and his fear deepens.

Writing in England at the turn of the 20th century, G.K. Chesterton was dubbed the "prince of paradox" for addressing serious questions with his light, whimsical style. In this classic allegory, which has captivated generations since it was first published in 1908, Chesterton tackles such profound concepts as honor, truth, and God with insightful humor and colorful enigma.

In isolated British Columbia, girls, mostly native, are vanishing from the sides of a notorious highway. Leo Kreutzer and his four friends are barely touched by these disappearances-until a series of mysterious and troublesome outsiders come to town. Then it seems as if the devil himself has appeared among them.