Tales From Another Dimension
Tales from another dimension is a strange and fantastical collection of ten short stories. Robbie Sheerin is inspired by classic Sci-fi, invoking nightmarish twists and turns with each story. Travel to another dimension and meet strange characters, sometimes human, and at times not so human. They will make you question the solidity of the earth and mankind. Explore prejudice, fear, imagination, kindness, empathy, and human frailty.
Curse of the Selkie Song
Ophelia is the daughter of a selkie, bound to land, sea, and a life that is killing her. Married young. Kept small. Taught to be unremarkable. Until a song breaks through and awakens her to the power she never lost.Ophelia has spent her life doing what she was told. Obeying her father, marrying the man chosen for her, staying small, and convincing herself it was enough.It never was.The daughter of a selkie who found her skin and fled, Ophelia has always felt the pull of the water and known she was different. She found her peace in the water's song and never asked for more.Until actor Greyson Campbell released his first album and his music spoke to her the way only the ocean ever had. Her soul broke open, and she began to breathe again. Ophelia began to create. She began to ache. And she fell in love with a man who didn't know she existed.When fate brings Greyson to Aotearoa, their paths cross, and Greyson discovers what Ophelia already knew... Some connections are not chosen.But Ophelia is not free.When she tries to leave her husband, she makes a violent discovery... she was born with a selkie's skin, and he has held it all along. A skin that in the wrong hands is a leash. And a death sentence.As her body fails and her life ebbs away, one thing could save her... submit to her husband once more.But she will never return to him. She will never cower. She will not drown herself quietly to be the wife he desires.To break the ancient hold on her skin, Ophelia must find her own mythic power to burn down everything she has been for too long.Curse of the Selkie Song is a dark and lyrical mythic romance about reclaiming autonomy, breaking generational curses, the power of found family and fated love, and choosing freedom no matter the cost.
Son of Anger
Son of Anger follows Albert "Al" Ornfel, a young man who should have been content with the life laid out for him-land to work, a marriage arranged, and a future measured in seasons and harvests. But on the verge of his coming of age, Al is seized by a dark prophecy so vivid it leaves him shaken long after waking: a skeletal figure called Cygnus stepping onto distant shores, as if an ancient evil is rising and an old nightmare has found its way back into the world. When Al confides in the wrong person, betrayal comes swiftly. His name is ruined, his home is lost, and he is driven into exile with nothing but a handful of coins and the terrible certainty that his dream was not imagination-it was warning.Hunted by the Odio Magisterium and their ruthless agents, Al becomes an exiled hero on the run, fleeing north into harsher country where old borders mean little and loyalty is never free. What begins as a desperate fight to survive becomes an epic quest for answers: who-or what-is Cygnus, why is Al being hunted, and why do the rumors spreading through the villages sound like echoes of his vision? Along the road he is forced to trust strangers, forming unlikely bonds with a streetwise orphan and a strangely sentient wolf pup whose intelligence feels almost unsettling. Each step deeper into the wild places draws Al farther from the boy he was, and closer to the war he never asked for.In the frozen north, nomadic clans guard one of the last great magical seals-an ancient barrier meant to hold back something the world has tried to forget. But the clans are fracturing under pressure, and the first signs of siege are already gathering: ogres and corrupted beasts, disciplined raiders, and an immortal warlord moving pieces from the shadows. To survive, Al is taken in and trained in the Warrior's Way, a lost martial discipline that teaches control of breath, mind, and inner power. The training hardens him, sharpens him-and awakens something in his blood that should not exist. As Al's abilities grow, so do the whispers of a darker legacy: that he may be the last of the Alfarbani, a feared bloodline forged for war-making him a possible chosen one, or a threat to be destroyed.When the north finally ignites, Al is forced into a role he never wanted-war leader, symbol of prophecy, and the final shield standing between a resurgent darkness and everything the southern kingdoms take for granted. Yet prophecy cuts both ways. The closer Al comes to the truth of what he is, the more he must fear what he was made to become-because the power that could save his world might also turn him into the enemy's perfect weapon.Son of Anger is the first installment in an epic fantasy saga of exile and redemption, forged friendships and brutal betrayals, ancient magic and rising war-a hero's journey with the grit of sword and sorcery and the stakes of a world on the brink.
The Final Steep
He's a murdered prince with seven days before he becomes a monster. She's an outcast necromancer who might be his only hope.Teyra Tepes brews tea for the dead. Kicked out of the Academy for feeling too much, she scrapes by running a crumbling tea shop in Athergard's poorest district, helping ordinary ghosts say their final goodbyes. Her quiet life shatters when a stranger walks out of the rain: a solid ghost with a royal signet ring and no memory of his death.His name is Ash. The lost Thornwick prince, murdered five years ago in a conspiracy that stole the throne. His spirit is destabilizing. In seven days, his soul will tear itself apart into a violent, mindless poltergeist.To save him, Teyra must break every rule the Academy taught her. But a ruthless underworld boss known as the Moth is tracking their every move, the woman who killed Ash wants him back, and an ancient darkness is waking beneath the city streets.With time running out and her forbidden magic devouring her from the inside, Teyra faces a choice no necromancer should have to make: walk away and survive, or hold on and lose everything that makes her human.Perfect for fans of slow-burn fantasy romance, morally grey characters, and gothic worlds where the dead don't stay quiet.The Final Steep features a seven-day countdown, a murder mystery wrapped in a prophecy, a forbidden magic system fueled by empathy, and a love story between a woman who feels too much and a dead man who can't afford to feel at all.The Final Steep is the first book in The Athergard Trilogy, a gothic romantasy of tea, ghosts, and the dangerous weight of caring too much.
Trunk
"Not all those who wander are lost," as Tolkien famously said. Sometimes they're just taking the scenic route.Here are 20 great science fiction and fantasy stories that took the long way to success. Each of these stories met with initial rejection before finding a home here. Publishing is a weird alchemy of mood, taste, and happenstance, and it takes tenacity to find just the right combination to let a story shine as it should. These are stories by authors who refused to give up on their work, and wisely so! Here you'll find not only good stories, but author notes about each piece's circuitous route to publication. Enjoy these fine stories that almost didn't make it!ContentsAfter the Moon - J. H. SiegalAmberblight - Robert Luke WilkinsFalling Jupiter - Jeff ReynoldsAcquired Tastes - Liz LevinTake Another Little Piece of My Heart - Michael HaynesLost Souls - David WhitmarshThe Schoolteacher's Baby - Susan TaitelThe Ways of Plants and Spells - Daniel AusemaSuicide Grove - Steven MathesDog Days - Cara Masten DiGirolamoA Breath of Salt - Benjamin C. KinneyCrossing - Greg ClumpnerHad We Eyes, We Would Have Wept - Suzanne J. WillisA Moth Emergent - Colleen AndersonThe Grand Seeming - S. L. HarrisWorlds Bloom Through Cracks - Jo MilesThe Transformation of Tabitha Magee - Pete LeadFatherhood - B. Morris AllenDistillation Made Stronger - Rebecca BennetPlease Come Again - Pamela Weis
May Day
If the murderer you're tracking is a vampire, then you want a vampire detective. Just maybe not this one.It's not that Jack Valentine is bad at her job. The youngest member of Oxford's Seekers has an impressive track record, but she also has an impressive grudge against the local baron, Killian Drake.When a human turns up dead on May Morning, she's determined to pin the murder on Drake. The problem is that none of the evidence points to him. Instead, it leads Jack into a web of conspiracy involving the most powerful people in the country, people to whom Jack has no access. But she knows someone who does.To get to the truth, Jack will have to partner up with her worst enemy. As long as she can keep her cool, Drake will point her to the ringleaders, she'll find the murderer and no one else will have to die.Body bags on standby.May Day is the first book in Josie Jaffrey's Seekers series, an urban fantasy series set in Oxford, England.
Play Nice
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A woman must confront the demons of her past when she attempts to fix up her childhood home in this devilishly clever take on the haunted house novel from the author of Black Sheep and So Thirsty. Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio's parents' messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That's not what Clio's sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped her of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house. After Alex's sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother's claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother's book, a sinister presence in the house manifests, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio's beautiful life to its very foundation.
Touched by Light
The age of power has ended, or so the Hand of Reason would have the world believe. Yet when a father returns from a season's fair to find his newborn daughter able to command fire and air, the fragile order of his world begins to unravel.As fear grips the land of Reor, the knowledge of his child's power could expose his family to the wrath of the regime. Bound by love yet torn by ambition, fear, and duty, husband and wife face an impossible choice between the child who defies their world and the legacy that sustains it. Giving her away may be their best option.Into their heartbreak steps Peryst de Arranu, who takes the child as his daughter as he follows his own path of resistance against the Hand of Reason.From the arid plains of Reor to the forests of Mehru, Touched by Light unveils a sweeping tale of forbidden power, sacrifice, and the quiet heroism that endures when hope seems lost. Touched by Light explores the limits of devotion, the peril of blind belief, and the bonds of blood and love.For readers drawn to deep themes, political fantasy, and power entwined with choice, Touched by Light asks the haunting questions: How far would you go to protect the light the world condemns? How far would you go to protect those you love?Touched by Light reminds you what's worth saving.
Collision with Andromeda
The Milky Way is conscious. Thirteen billion years old, spanning four hundred billion stars, thinking in timescales that make civilizations look like sparks. It has a plan. Humanity is part of it.They just don't know that yet.Collision with Andromeda spans seventeen million years and follows the Okonkwo family across the full arc of that plan and everything that follows from it. Scientists who build weapons they don't fully understand. A woman who becomes the galaxy's living interface. A man who spends four centuries answering a wrong that was done to his family. Generations who scatter across the stars carrying names that mean more than they know.Above them all, the galaxy watches. Patient. Hungry. Telling itself that what it is doing is necessary.It is wrong about that. The consequences are larger than it imagined.The novel works at two scales simultaneously. Its galaxy POV chapters render non-human consciousness with genuine alienness, no pronouns, no human grammar, a mind that measures time in stellar rotations and cannot quite perceive anything as small as a person. Its human chapters are grounded in grief, stubbornness, and the persistence of identity across millennia.Readers of Iain M. Banks and Arthur C. Clarke will find the scale familiar. The moral territory is harder to place. Collision with Andromeda does not resolve into lessons. It resolves into consequences, and it makes you feel the full weight of them.A seventeen-million-year story about what it costs to mean well, and what it costs when meaning well is not enough.
Fire Magic
A veteran of the Mage War, Brenna Hunter vanished from the magical community so she could live a magic-free life and raise her daughter in peace. When her daughter is kidnapped by Kirra, a mage bent on vengeance, Brenna has to draw on her long-dormant magical skills to rescue her. Now, Brenna finds herself caught up in the fight between Kirra and the Belfries as she fights to find her daughter and bring her home. As Brenna starts the hunt for her daughter, she finds herself being pulled back into the magical community. The further down the path she goes, the more she finds out that her daughter's disappearance is not about Brenna's part in the Mage War, but instead is one piece of Kirra's plan to destroy the world on her path for revenge. Drawing on new and old resources in the magical society of the Belfries, Brenna joins three brother mages who have been drawn into the plot, as well as her former lover from the war, to find out just how to stop the vengeful, power-hungry mage.
Heart's Betrayal
Intrigue, romance, and murderGregor, a druidic bard, a mystic in the certainty of imminent death, is supernaturally catapulted from the world of the ancient Britons to the slopes of the Black Mountain in the heart of medieval Wales. Stunned by his new surroundings, gravely injured, he stumbles into a beautiful valley only to be immediately chased and arrested for the murder of a woman.Angharad, an outspoken young woman with a taste for adventure beyond the tiny hamlet she came from and na簿ve in the ways of the castle court, finds herself torn between two men of very different character. One, a nobleman's son of high station, one a landless warrior.This mystery romance embroils these four characters in a sinister crime, in this epic tale of betrayal.
To Rise from Death
Liana Incubore is dying, and nothing will save her.Neither magic nor medicine can cure the illness ravaging her body, so she is left with no other recourse than to do it herself. By combining her independent research of medicine and magic, and with the help of her war-veteran sister and a group of magic students, she seeks to invent a new form of magic to fix herself, and maybe fix the world.To Rise From Death is the debut novel from Gwendolyn Gunn, re-released here as an Anniversary Edition with brand-new chapters including a completely rewritten first act, and heavy rewrites to expand and enrich her fantasy world.To Rise From Death, like its sequels, is a character-driven story of death, loss, and purpose featuring a reforged, intricate, unique fantasy world, LGBT characters, and dark themes with elements of body horror, existential dread, violence and vengeance, death and loss, and what it means to chase one's self-made glorious purpose, damn the consequences.
A Crown of Fire and Ice
One reckless leap. One broken portal. A love forged in chaos and fire.LaylaI've never belonged anywhere.So when I hit rock bottom, fresh off losing a nationally televised "superhero" competition, a devastatingly handsome man with pointed ears asks me to jump into a swirling vortex and help save his world...I jump.Was it reckless? Absolutely.Was it smart? Not even a little.Within minutes of landing, we're attacked by shadow demons. Two things are clear: my beautiful elf is not as competent with portals as advertised, and dying might be the best outcome, because whatever these creatures are, becoming one of them would be far worse.RaithConvincing a human to fight in Domhan should have been the hardest part.Instead, Layla leaps into the portal without hesitation, and that's when everything goes wrong.I've spent my life failing to live up to my family's legacy. I'm not the perfect son, like Aaran. Not the honored soldier, like Liam. I'm the third son, the disappointment who has too much power and not enough discipline.My magic is strong, but my focus slips at the worst possible moment. The portal shifts and drops us onto the wrong world-a dying hell, crawling with the witch queen's minions.I've made another catastrophic mistake, and this time an extraordinary human is paying the price. I'm going to make this right, even if it means walking through fire and ice to get her home.
Of Shadows And Light
Of Shadows and Light (Book Two of The Chronicles of the Aethlum)When the light within grows dim, the shadows do not conquer - they whisper.And in their whisper lies the memory of what was lost.Thirteen months after the fires of Eternal Ember, young Eldryn Ravencourt's gift has outgrown his years. Under the stern gaze of his mentors and the quiet devotion of those who love him, the boy who once trembled in the dark begins to forge his own destiny. Yet beyond the towers of Stormhaven and the sanctuaries of Kingsreach, ancient forces stir - and the darkness that fell upon Illyndor has not been vanquished, only waiting.As new friendships take root and old wounds are reopened, the fragile peace begins to unravel. Auren, proud and broken, walks a path that leads ever closer to ruin, while whispers of the Storm Hawk return to haunt the skies. Between light and shadow, love and vengeance, the fate of the realm will be written in the choices of those too young to bear them - and in the light that refuses to die.Sweeping in scope and intimate in heart, Of Shadows and Light continues MJ Kaye's acclaimed Chronicles of the Aethlum: a tale of courage, loyalty, and the quiet defiance that keeps hope alive when all seems lost.For readers of Brandon Sanderson, Robin Hobb, and Samantha Shannon, this is an epic fantasy of found family, forbidden power, and the enduring struggle between the light we carry and the darkness we inherit.
We Were Made of Fire
In a world shaped by fire and fear, where power is both inheritance and curse, two heirs bound to opposing legacies collide in a struggle for what is worth saving... and what must burn.General Frejara has spent her life waging war in the name of her mother - the Sorcerer Queen who wields her ancestral magic as both weapon and leash. Born into the only bloodline that commands the power of the Dragon Fire but never manifesting it herself, Frejara instead earned every inch of her command by bleeding for it in battle. Yet as each campaign pulls her deeper into a web of loyalty, duty, and the dangerous secrets her mother has spun around her, the General begins to question the cause she has given her life to - and the cost of every victory in service of it.Mathias has the Sight - a curse left behind by the long-absent gods, inflicting visions of blood and fire upon those unlucky enough to inherit it. Feared for what he sees and pitied as each revelation steals a piece of him, he is shunned for visions everyone believes will one day drive him mad... just as they have every Seer before him. As the Queen's war spreads, Mathias volunteers to cross enemy lines in a desperate act of reconnaissance, determined to take action in a life where so little has ever been his to choose.One beginning to turn against all she was raised to defend, the other searching for a purpose he can call his own, the soldier and Seer are drawn toward a reckoning neither is prepared to face, forcing them to question everything they believe about power, prophecy, and each other... and whether the legacies they inherited still bind them, or are at last ready to burn.
Double Shadow
In this thrilling installment of the Splinter Effect series, time-traveling archaeologist Rabbit Ward returns to the past to help save his former adversary and track down a murderous thief in first century Jerusalem. ROME, 2019. Time-traveling, Smithsonian archaeologist Rabbit Ward is back in the present, but not for long. Helen, his former adversary and growing ally, is in trouble with the law after being framed for a murder she didn't commit. Stuck in hiding and running out of other options, she turns to Rabbit for help. "Help" in this case involves a trip to first century Jerusalem to track down a mysterious man named Einar Eshek. But Rabbit won't have to do this mission alone; as soon as he arrives in 68 CE, he meets a younger version of Helen, one who has never met him before. Together, they work to track down Eshek, who turns out to be not only a time-traveling thief, but a murderous psychopath. As they pursue Eshek through time, Rabbit and Helen feel something even bigger pulling them together. Torn between the two versions of the woman he knows, and with the clock ticking down on Helen's fate in 2019, Rabbit might have no choice but to betray her past self to secure Helen's safety in the future. Tensions rise as Jerusalem prepares to go to war with Rome, and Rabbit races to capture Eshek, clear Helen's name, and make it back to 2019 in one piece--a feat that's proving to be easier said than done--before everything falls apart.
Trunk
"Not all those who wander are lost," as Tolkien famously said. Sometimes they're just taking the scenic route.Here are 20 great science fiction and fantasy stories that took the long way to success. Each of these stories met with initial rejection before finding a home here. Publishing is a weird alchemy of mood, taste, and happenstance, and it takes tenacity to find just the right combination to let a story shine as it should. These are stories by authors who refused to give up on their work, and wisely so! Here you'll find not only good stories, but author notes about each piece's circuitous route to publication. Enjoy these fine stories that almost didn't make it!ContentsAfter the Moon - J. H. SiegalAmberblight - Robert Luke WilkinsFalling Jupiter - Jeff ReynoldsAcquired Tastes - Liz LevinTake Another Little Piece of My Heart - Michael HaynesLost Souls - David WhitmarshThe Schoolteacher's Baby - Susan TaitelThe Ways of Plants and Spells - Daniel AusemaSuicide Grove - Steven MathesDog Days - Cara Masten DiGirolamoA Breath of Salt - Benjamin C. KinneyCrossing - Greg ClumpnerHad We Eyes, We Would Have Wept - Suzanne J. WillisA Moth Emergent - Colleen AndersonThe Grand Seeming - S. L. HarrisWorlds Bloom Through Cracks - Jo MilesThe Transformation of Tabitha Magee - Pete LeadFatherhood - B. Morris AllenDistillation Made Stronger - Rebecca BennetPlease Come Again - Pamela Weis
Finding Innocence
Raped and left for dead, Army Sergeant Rebecca Farnsworth is court-martialed because her superiors don't believe her. Upon her acquittal, her life's trial begins.Sergeant Rebecca Farnsworth was alone, unarmed, and simply following instructions when she was attacked and left for dead in a deserted part of a sprawling military installation. But her superiors see things differently. Instead of victim, they see her as the perpetrator and charge her with dereliction of duty and drug use. Defended by a tough-as-nails attorney, she is acquitted on a technicality. Unsatisfied, however, with the judge's pronouncement that she is "not guilty," it will take Rebecca twenty years to prove her innocence and, along the way, change forever the direction of her life.
Her Vampire Fated Mate
Dr. Mandlyn "Maddy" Daniels has built her life on logic, discipline, and control. Raised by her strict but loving grandmother after losing her mother young, she trusts only what she can see, touch, and heal. Magic is a myth. Monsters are metaphors. Her future is secure: a prestigious career in Advanced Trauma and Regenerative Surgery and a sensible, arranged engagement to a man she's never met.Then her world fractures.Her fianc矇 betrays her.Her father and stepmother confess to murdering her mother.Her grandmother is bound to a Fay prince.Her blood carries power.Her magic runs deep.Every truth has been hidden from her.Until Xavier.When Maddy is attacked and left dying in a deserted car park, Xavier is the one who finds her-and the moment forces him to reveal everything she was never meant to know: He is Xavier Valerius-an ancient vampire, her human fianc矇's uncle... and her fated mate.With Xavier and his right-hand wolf, Luke Maddox-once known as Lucios Fenrith-Maddy is thrust into a supernatural world where her lineage is coveted, her magic is hunted, and her destiny is older than the blood in her veins. If only she knew how to wield the power she carries.But darkness has already marked her.Pamula Molly Sweed, her murderous stepmother, is coming for her.Mimmi Donohue, her half-sister, is twisted by envy and malice.And every secret Maddy uncovers drags her deeper into a war of blood, betrayal, and fate.Now she must decide whether a love written in destiny can survive when family becomes the enemy...and the darkness wears her stepmother's face.Her Vampire Fated Mate is a seductive, emotional paranormal fantasy romance perfect for readers who crave fated mates, hidden heritage, ancient magic, and slow-burn supernatural tension that ignites into destiny.
