Plant Fiction

Janie Mason just wants to get through the season. She's under enormous pressure at work, her boss is brilliant but self-centered, and the holidays bring up a lot of memories she'd rather leave unremembered. The only thing that's making things tolerable for her right now is that she's getting to work more closely with Bill Sparks, the man she's crushing on, and Jeremy, someone who was just beginning to be a friend pre-lockdown and who has become the only person she can rely on now that everyone is back in the office. January really can't come soon enough.

You have an incredible idea that you can’t get out of your head. It’s all you think about, day in, day out, but you’re reluctant to share it with anyone because you’re afraid you lack the experience, knowledge, or capital to put it into action. Benjamin VandenWymelenberg not only believes in your idea - he thinks it’s essential to the survival of our planet.

1979 Iran: Hours before the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty, eight American-trained SAVAK intelligence officers defect to the United States carrying with them a secret that could one day propel Iran to the rank of superpower. 2018 United States: When another series of peace talks over Iran's nuclear program fails and a rogue Iranian general flees to Greece to meet with a high-ranking CIA officer, the Iranian Supreme Leader, who's determined to redraw the map of the Middle East, orders the execution of an operation decades in the making.

In a world without rain, the desert sands are controlled by the only group with the technology and infrastructure to give water to the thirsty: The Distributor. When Friedrich, a nerdy engineer, discovers a bug in the Distributor’s systems, he realizes this is a chance to overthrow their oppressive regime. Friedrich’s tech can offer a better life to thousands in the Barrens, but he’ll need to reach the Distributor across hundreds of miles of empty desert.

Miss Mary Morstan has been receiving pearls and she knows not why or from whom. Now she receives something else: a letter that promises to reveal the mystery and to "right the wrongs" against her. "If you distrust me," continued the correspondent, "bring two friends." She brings Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

Reuben Downes is a Mallard. The kind that dominates the Co-Ed Fastpitch Softball League for Adults in Western Vermont, aka COFSLAW VT, aka The Coleslaw League. As a newcomer to the team and the town, Reuben is viewed as the oddball “from away” by his teammates and the quirky, curious, often opinionated locals. So, when he puts an “art” installation in his backyard that sets off a firestorm in the community, people demand answers for what it means. But Reuben, always more inclined to let others call the shots, keeps his motivations to himself.

Meet Nancy Youngblood, a blithe and vivid heroine of an investigating disposition. When Nancy inherits a minor interest in a factory soon to become vital to the winning of World War II, she sees it as a chance to get closer to Robert Dalhart, who has taken over the factory on his father's death. Nancy has always loved him but because they grew up together on the same block Robert thinks of her as a kid sister. But soon sabotage, murder, and strikes threaten the plant and Robert - who evidence suggests may be the culprit, perhaps as an agent of the German government.

The year is 1888. A pall of fog blankets London, obscuring the gaslit streets and lending an air of sinister mystery to the unfolding events. The city, a labyrinth of opulent mansions and impoverished slums, is gripped by fear. A killer stalks the shadows, leaving behind a single red rose as their chilling calling card the Rose Killer. Their victims, plucked from the diverse tapestry of London life from the women of the night to unsuspecting patrons are found with a horrific brutality that sends shockwaves through the metropolis.

Bobby Greystein is a successful entrepreneur whose health concerns and sudden stewardship of a ninety-million-dollar trust dedicated to revolutionizing food leads him to launch Camelot, a sugarless ice cream that can compete favorably with the best super premium full-sugar brands. Camelot gets off to a tremendous start – but the company's good fortunes have put it on the hit list of The Food Mafia. And now the future of Camelot – and possibly Bobby's own life – hangs in the balance.

Plant Your Feet Firmly is an intimate glimpse of Asian America. Through the pages of seven short stories, the listener is treated to a delicate taste of ordinary people living extraordinary lives - from a cool grandpa to a grieving mother to a disillusioned husband.

Chris Astor is a man in his early forties who is going through the toughest stretch of his life. Becky is Chris's fourteen-year-old daughter, a girl who overcame enormous challenges to become a vibrant, vital young woman - and now faces her greatest obstacle yet. Miea is the young queen of a fantasy land that Becky and Chris created when Becky was little, a fantasy land that has developed a life of its own and now finds itself in terrible, maybe fatal trouble.

H Is for Hell is the eighth book in an epic series of 26 horror anthologies. In this book, you will find a collection of 13 horrific tales from some of the most talented independent horror writers on the scene today. Each tale brings to life a different vision of Hell, each unlike anything you have heard before. H Is for Hell will take you to the depths of the Underworld, and you may not return unscathed.

The girl he’d planned to marry shattered his heart into a thousand pieces. His best friend stabbed him in the back. He was heartbroken, angry, and ashamed. Then he met Fiona. Could she help put his life back together, or would her witchy ways lead him further down a dark and wrathful path? And what of the plant? It had grown from a cursed seed that he’d nurtured with his own blood. Vengeance has teeth, and sometimes it comes in the form of a flesh-eating ecological horror.

What may we become? How will we endure? The future is a daunting realm, filled with real and imagined perils. So enter it prepared! Here are vivid tales about possible tomorrows, from the keen eye and colorful pen of David Brin, a modern master of speculative fiction.

Throughout their married lives, baseball star Gaspar Bethlen's wife gave him a lovingly crafted mystery every year for Christmas. Solving the clues led him to his present, but the mysteries themselves were the true gift. Now, Beth has died, leaving Gasper a wreck of a man. But Beth left behind a clue, the beginning of one final Christmas mystery, and it's much more than either of them expected.

As a child, Annie Baskin envied her older sister. Sarah was beautiful, smart, popular, and contemptuous of her messy, graceless kid sister. Annie grew up in Sarah’s shadow, knowing she was second-tier, second-rate, an also-ran. The other Baskin girl.

Imagine the mid-1980s, last day of school, summer break. A teen rushes to meet his mother, who is being released from the hospital after cancer surgery. When the teen arrives, he finds out his mother is dead, but his ex-gangbanging dad, who's been in jail the last eight years, is at the hospital, ready to take the teen home. Mendel is a coming-of-age story about a high school senior who must learn how to forgive as he navigates life without his mother. To honor his mother, he joins Mendel's track team, but his father's thuggish past catches up with them.

Jimmy Kozlowski has a regular gig playing Paul McCartney in the Beatles tribute band Help!. The band is part of a cottage industry built around mimicry, where each group strives to be the ultimate Fake Fab Four. And none strives harder than Help!, thanks to Gene Klein, its John Lennon and leader. Gene's just gotten his Medicare card and spends much of his time caring for his ailing mother. But he hasn't lost a step on guitar or vocals and is determined to take Help! to the top, his goal being to perform in Liverpool one day.

In the 1990s American workplace, survival of the fittest is sometimes less about clawing your way to the top than developing good camouflage. And Audrey Rohmer is doing her very best to blend in as an undistinguished middle manager. Uninspired by her job and uneasy about her father's new marriage, Audrey coasts through the work week leaning on her “partner in apathy”–an admin assistant named Pooter–to keep her relationship with the married head of her department from becoming water cooler gossip.

Ben Seidel wasn't sure how serious they were when he and his wife, Shira, discussed having an open marriage. But when Shira announces that she is going on a date with Liz, any ambiguity evaporates. Suddenly, every day is new terrain for Ben, navigating between keeping things together with Shira and exploring new partners. And when one of those new partners begins to matter to him more than he ever anticipated, he discovers that the complexities of this new life are only just beginning.