A collection of out-of-this-world short stories that ring true in mortal hearts
Breath: The Guardian of Souls realizes her life is incomplete and sacrifices everything to find what’s missing.
Awareness: To achieve the status of Magi, Jyn must pass his father’s ultimate test.
Phoenix: Orion loses his wife on their wedding day and uses dark magic to seek her in the afterlife.
Life Under Research Conditions: Can a bioweapon possess a soul and make choices to save humanity?
The Year of No Foals: A miraculous colt and a mysterious old man bring healing to a family ripped apart by tragedy.
Naoki No Yokai: Yokai have overrun a local village, and it’s up to Saga Naoki to discover the reason why.
Jilted River: An Appalachian fairy tale attracts visitors to a state park, but then they start to disappear.
Tower Gods: A thirteen-year-old boy with an oxygen mask befits the role of hero in Watcher Benson’s eyes.
Reality As We Know It: Where otherworldly magic fails, is Row’s friendship enough to mend Singer’s grieving heart?
60 Seconds to Midnight: Fleeing an ancient evil, a young woman from amongst the stars finds unlikely refuge on Earth.
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About the Authors:
Jodi L. Milner lives among the most epic vistas of the Rocky Mountains in Utah and uses them for inspiration when writing fantasy. When not shepherding her children, she dreams of magic and getting a good night's sleep. She's published fiction and poetry in the online literary magazine Soft Whispers.
Timothy Vincent splits his time between his home in Kentucky and his work in Nanjing, China. A published writer and scholar, he teaches for an American Overseas program. His previous creative writing publications include: “Prince of the Blue Castle” (The Bacon Review 2013); “Star-Crossed” (Winner, Terri Ann Armstrong Short Story Contest, Suspense Magazine, 2012); “The Blanket” and “Standing on the Doorstep with Borges” (The WriteRoom Literary Magazine). He was a top 25 finalist in Glimmer Train’s new writer contest in 2010.
Elise Stephens illustrated and wrote her own storybooks from an early age, binding them with staples, and displaying them to a captive audience of family and friends. She thanks her mother for teaching her the confidence to perform, and thanks her father for reading books out loud to her. She received the Eugene Van Buren Prize for Fiction in 2007 and was a quarter-finalist for the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. She has published two novels. Moonlight and Oranges (2011) and Forecast (2013). She lives with her husband and son in Seattle where she loves to paint, sing, see live theater, dance in the rain, and eat tiramisu in generous proportions.
Thaxson Patterson II is a 30-something, single, African American writer, living in Denver, Colorado. He is the child of an Air Force retiree and loving mother who’s wild about superheroes and fantasy literature. He graduated from the University of Denver in 2003 with a degree in Electronic Media Art Design. His lifelong obsession with a variety of literary genres including Lovecraftian horror, Stephen King supernatural tales, and the heroic myths from antiquity and Jack Kirby fueled his passion for art design. His family has been a constant thorn of encouragement in his side. Writing has been an ongoing journey full of creativity, joy, and tears spanning several years.
Scott E. Tarbet is the author of "A Midsummer Night’s Steampunk" from Xchyler Publishing; "Tombstone", in the paranormal anthology "Shades & Shadows"; "Ganesh", in the Steampunk anthology "Terra Mechanica". He writes in several speculative fiction genres, sings opera, and was married in full Elizabethan regalia. He loves Steampunk waltzes, cosplay conventions of all flavors, and slow-smokes thousands of pounds of authentic Texas-style barbeque. An avid skier, hiker, golfer, and tandem kayaker, he makes his home in the mountains of Utah. Follow Scott E. Tarbet online at
http://scotttarbet.timp.net/ or on Twitter @SETarbet.
F.M. Longo spent most of his career as a software designer and consultant. An accomplished musician, he played professionally with several jazz greats, and he has won awards for his photography. He now has his own boutique publicity agency, and spends most of his time writing press releases, designing print ads, and producing radio spots. He is also the co-editor of the regional newsletter for a large non-profit organization. Longo lives in a small rural town in Western Connecticut.
Ginger Mann is a poet, musician, and digital security engineer. If you can't find her doing those things, look for a woman chasing around her small children with a camera. A Texas artist, she enjoys writing for other Texans. Her song, "River Night", premiered on October 12, 2013 in North Austin. During that same weekend, her first short story, "China Doll," began selling on Amazon.com.
She is also a key writer, and digital security adviser, for "Think Before You Click," the Cyber-Safety campaign of legal counsel, Rick Mann. Ginger lives with her family in the Austin, Texas area.
J.R. Potter has succeeded in the great dream of never growing up. He writesfor young readers, and those like him who don’t want to give up on magic. He like dinosaurs who can speak with polished accents, who wear vest coats and carry robotic briefcases; he likes fearless young girls with mechanical arms who risk everything for love and honor and a glimpse of the world above the clouds; he like to rewrite and re-imagine the past because it feels both old and new all at once, and well, the victors of history have been doing it for years.
Potter’s world is equal parts fantasy, obsession, and transformation. He feels he has been lucky to bring this world to life through publication in The Portland Review, through winning short story competitions in the realms of Horror and Fantasy, and through a continued bond with his faithful publisher Xchyler Publishing who truly lives up to their motto “enhancing lives one book at a time." He invites readers to “come fly with me inside a WWII robot, or step out on the wings of a pneumatic ‘Whirly-Bird’ in my upcoming novel Pneumatica: Adventures in Steampunk. Together I know we will find some magic.”
Danielle E. Shipley's first novelettes told the everyday misadventures of wacky kids like herself. Or so she thought. Unbeknownst to them all, half of her characters were actually closeted elves, dwarves, fairies, or some combination thereof. When it all came to light, Danielle did the sensible thing: Packed up and moved to Fantasy Land, where daily rent is the low, low price of her heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears, firstborn child, sanity, and words; lots of them.
She's also been known to spend short bursts of time in the real-life Chicago area with the parents who home schooled her and the two little sisters who keep her humble. When she's not living the highs and lows of writing, publishing, and all that authorial jazz, she's probably blogging about it at
EverOnWord.wordpress.com.
TC Phillips hails from tropical central Queensland in Australia, where he currently lives with his loving wife, three young children, a spoilt cat, and an overactive imagination. An avid reader from a young age, he has held a long standing attraction for the written word and is excited to able to make his own contributions to the vibrant and ever shifting world of storytelling. Holding degrees in both Theatre Studies and Education, he is also currently completing his Master of Arts (writing) through Swinburne University of Technology.
Sexy, tattooed and inevitably dangerous. Memphis is all that and more…
I live for the pain; it’s what drives me to keep moving. But there comes a time when one has to push the demons aside in order to survive.
I thought I buried them deep. I thought I was ready to finally live. Until… my brother, Alex; he throws me into the fire—right into the place I could never control myself, the one place I never want to be again.
When I put my hands on people, they get hurt. Things happen that bring me back to that night. The one that will forever torment me.
I’m doing fine, keeping to myself in order to ensure no one gets hurt by me. Then along comes Lyric, and all I want to do is touch her, to put my hands in places that I know will only lead to her being crushed by me.
She’s the rush that I crave. The darkest of poison running through my veins, killing me bit by bit; like a drug I can’t get enough of even though I’m almost down to my last breath.
And being around her only hurts more, but what she doesn’t understand is that I welcome the pain; I get off on it, which in the end leaves me with the hardest decision of my life—one that might get us all killed…
Lyric steps away and laughs before walking over and stopping in front of me. She looks up into my eyes and licks her bottom lip. Her whole body is glistening with sweat now, and all I can think about is tasting every inch of her. “Dance with me, Memphis.”
I pull my eyes away from her lips and flex my jaw. As much as I want to put my hands all over, I need to fight it, but this fucking liquor isn’t doing much to help it.
“No, Lyric.”
She takes a step closer and runs her tiny, soft hand down my arm. “Just once. It’s not even a big deal. It’s just a dance. It’s not like I’m asking you to fuck me. I’m asking you to touch me.”
“You want me to touch you,” I growl. I roughly slide my hands over her hips before gripping her waist and slamming her up against the wall. Leaning in, I fist her hair in my hand and whisper in her ear. “Is this how you want me to touch you? Touching someone that I know always leads to them getting hurt.” I grip her waist tighter and press my body flush with hers. Her body trembles against mine and her breathing picks up as my bottom lip brushes over her ear. “I’m fucking tainted, Lyric. Running now would be your best option.”
She looks up into my eyes and wets her lips, fighting to catch her breath. “I. Want. You. To. Touch. Me. I’m not running anywhere.”
FUCK! Those words do me in.
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author.
Victoria Ashley grew up in Rockford, IL and has had a passion for reading for as long as she can remember. After finding a reading app where it allowed readers to upload their own stories, she gave it a shot and writing became her passion.
She lives for a good romance book with bad boys that are just highly misunderstood and is not afraid to be caught crying during a good read. When she's not reading or writing about bad boys, you can find her watching her favorite shows such as Sons Of Anarchy, Dexter and True Blood.
She is the author of Wake Up Call, This Regret, Slade (Walk Of Shame #1), Hemy (Walk of Shame #2), and Get Off on the Pain. Victoria is currently working on more novels for 2015.
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