Urban Short Stories

Will Donovan has big plans on his last free weekend before he joins the FBI. With romance on his mind, he tells his girlfriend, Emma, she can pick anywhere she wants to go. To his dismay, his mystery-loving girlfriend chooses the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast. Not quite the romantic backdrop he had envisioned, but for Emma, he would go anywhere. Especially if it meant securing their future together before he leaves. At the Inn, things are not what they seem. Late in the night, curious meowing wakens the guests. Perhaps Max, the resident cat, desires a midnight adventure?

A small eastern community becomes over-run by a growing army of scarecrows.

In this irreverent take on the holidays, Ian gets a new quest in a virtual reality video game: kill a monstrous villain named Sinter Klaws. (And no, he is NOT a jolly old elf.) Join Ian, his succubus Alaria, and his imp Stig as they journey through a winter wonderland full of killer reindeer, lecherous elves, and the worst mall Santa in the history of the world.

With the pandemic looming, a listless social media editor accepts a job working for her former college friend Seraphina. A popular Instagram influencer, the subject of obsessive message-board surveillance, and a newly minted Karen of the Day, Seraphina is living out 2020 in the luxury of her “ultimate self-quarantine.” As the year escalates into upheaval and chaos, both women try, in increasingly secretive and complicated ways, to maintain the upper hand.

After 14 years as a stay-at-home mom, Kate Connor has finally rejoined the workforce. But unlike most working moms, Kate can't rearrange her home obligations to fit the needs of her job. Well, not easily, anyway. And not without a few little white lies. Because the truth is, no one in her family has any clue that she's returned to the job of her youth. Which means no late nights working beside her husband at the kitchen table while the kids watch television. Although, when you think about it, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

In this psychic magical-fantasy short story tale, Amanda, Jeff, and Lukas travel to South America for their vacation. Later on, after an unfortunate incident leaves the trio stranded on a remote and vast stretch of land, they’re forced to find their own way back home. Yet as the group encounters an unknown tribe in the thick wildness of jungle, they’d come to find all of their initial suspicions about the place to be wrong...Where the heck were they? How were they still alive?

The night brings more than darkness after the Fall. With her fangs bared, Tilla attacks a camp of savages until a mysterious young girl emerges from the wrecked, post-apocalyptic landscape. “The Hunt” was originally published as Retrograde and won first prize in the 2009 Boutique du Vampyre Short Story Contest.

The time is 1921. The place, Aaronsville, Indiana. When Carrie McFarland is accused of putting a voodoo hex on the keynote speaker at the Negro Voters League Banquet, it's clear that someone has it in for her. Is it ward boss William C. Tisdale, a major bootlegger and the town's only Negro lawyer? Is it Herman Scott, the ambitious politician angling to take Boss Tisdale's place? To get to the bottom of things, Carrie will need the help of her mentor, 80-year-old Hoodoo Queen Sister Marie Brown. The women will need to use their psychic gifts and street smarts to clear Carrie's name.

Take a trip into theheart of passion as seductive samba rhythms pulse in the warm evening breezes. Escape and savor these three scintillating stories set against the beautifulbackdrop of Brazil.... Two weeks in Rio - surely that's enough time for marketing VP Sydni Lawson to forge a lucrative merger. But instead of sweet-talking real estate mogul Gabriel St. James, she's being swept away by their sizzling and unexpected attraction.

From murderous crowd-sourcing apps to nefarious faeries, Reflections is a collection of short stories posing a single question: Where does goodness end, and evil begin? Ten soaring stories, each exploring original and thought-provoking perspectives of love, secrecy, loyalty, and destruction. Tangling future and fantasy, Reflections is a kaleidoscopic exploration of the frailties, foibles, and dreams of humanity.

Every time Rueben Peet dies, he "returns" to his body with the memories of what's to come. He gets to "repeat" his mistakes again and again and hope he can do something different to prevent the future. It's Groundhog Day meets the worst super-spy, ever. When New York City comes under threat of nuclear destruction, Rueben is the only one who can save the city. But even an infinite number of re-dos is not enough, for lurking in the background is a nefarious force threatening, not only NYC, but also the world.

Six books and more than 30 hours of shifters, vampires, witches, and slayers fill this complete LGBT-friendly urban-fantasy omnibus collection.

Jessica Grant knows vampires only too well as she runs the York Council tracker programme. To Jess, vampires are arrogant and far too sexy for their own good, particularly her ex-colleague Sil. But when a demon turns up and threatens the whole world order, the stakes are high. They are also very, very pointy and Jess isn't afraid to use them, even on the vampire that she's afraid she’s falling in love with....

On the seventh day of Christmas, I and my buddy David Eckstrom finally got around to holding that shindig we've been talking about for so long. Only, we weren't the only bodies looking for a good time on New Year's Eve. There were monsters afoot on the lake, and the remedy for 'em was something I didn't expect at all.

One morning can change everything. Five mornings can change a life. Friends. Lovers. Enemies. Allies. Alex McCann and Teodora "Ted" Vasquez never had a simple relationship. But you couldn't call it a boring one, either. Five mornings in their past shape who they will become to each other. To their families. And to the mysterious town they call home.

This short story combines the multiverse concept of changing one’s fate with a new-adult level of mystery. Animator-style printing and colorful illustrations give this quick audiobook a real adult-swim, comic book store feel. When Eva studies quantum physics in a seedy bar, she finds some unwelcome attention, and Killian...the best transdimensional research subject she could ask for. Eva is fascinated, and invites him for a drink. In return, he explains how he can trek through different dimensions to find other versions of his life.

When a client claims her house is being haunted, Ivy tries to keep her mind open and her weapons handy. If her psychic gifts and recent cases have taught her anything, it's that you're better off arming yourself for the unexpected.

What ancient evils live beneath the waters of the great Lakes of North America? During a massive snow storm in a small diner, we get a glimpse of the terror below.

What happens when a man starts life as a corpse? Two hundred years ago, Frank Victorsson awoke as a semi-dead, monstrous abomination reanimated by his hubris-ridden father, Victor Frankenstein. But Frank refused to become the infernal hate his father spewed at the world. He walked away from his origins - and into a small, Minnesota town overflowing with magic.

This novel collects the five novellas in the Succubus Schemes series into an episodic novel. Helen and Amy, the heroines from The Succubus Apprentice, have now graduated from apprentices and are pursuing their new careers of mage and succubus respectively. They start off trying to steal an egg from a pterodactyl's nest, and from there go on to serve as bodyguards for a dark elf, try to fix a couple of other supernatural relationships for their friends, and then run a scam on the most powerful corporation in the world with the help of some very unreliable allies.