Experience the Strong Literary Culture of Local Iowa AuthorsIndependent or Traditionally Published, it doesn't matter. In the end, we're all IOWA.Step into a world of fantasy, love, business, mystery, adventure, and horror as you open the pages of this book to discover the intense literary culture that resides in Iowa. This Annual Short Story Anthology is a collection of works by writers of all walks of life. If you're interested in partaking in Next Year's...

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Shades of Magic series, The Near Witch, and The Archived, comes "Warm Up," a Tor.com Original prequel story to V. E. Schwab's ViciousIt's been 297 days since David died--and came back. He may have survived the avalanche, but the aftermath has been far worse. His wife moved out, taking his son with her, and a devastated David hasn't left his house since, terrified of the m...

Not all love is innocent. Some desires swallow you whole. . .There's more than meets the eye to the twenty twisted pleasures collected here, with death and desire lying in wait behind every corner.One goth girl finds the man whose love can make her beautiful and whose body can bring her ecstasy—if she can stomach the price. . .A zombie apocalypse destroys a man's family, but "til death do us part" is a vow his wife won't forget—even if she's now more on the undead s...

Having inflicted the smug homes of suburbia with witches and werewolves. Esther Friesner now unleashes the undead to tap a vein of blood and humor, and drain the suburbs dry of both.Vampires and the suburbs are a match made in heaven, or maybe Levittown. Remember Dracula? He didn't run into any real problems until he took his act on the road and traveled to the Big City. But in the suburbs, everyone is polite and respectful of their neighbors' right to privacy. And if your neighbor...

For some, death is not the end. There are those who are doomed to walk the earth for all eternity, those who are trapped between one plain of existence and the next, those who, for whatever reason, cannot or will not let go of the lives they left behind. These are the vengeful spirits, the tortured souls, the ghosts that haunt our realm. Welcome to FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE, a collection of 19 original ghost stories from:Brent AbellGordon Anthony BeanRose Blackthorn...

Shelly can't wait for the work day to be over – it's Saturday, she's hung-over and wants to go home with her partner Melissa.Melissa, has other things on her mind, namely a mysterious elderly man who has been watching their shop from across the street – but what could he possibly want in a women's beauty salon?

Nineteen original tales of the Pandora legend-as no one has ever imagine it before. When Pandora's Box was opened, so the ancient tale goes, all the evils that would beset humanity were released into the world. When the box was all but empty, the only thing that remained was hope. Now some of fantasy's finest writers have taken on the task of opening Pandora's closet. It is naturally chock full of an assortment of items, including a ring that can bring its wearer infinite health, a special...

LIGHTSPEED is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine. In its pages, you will find science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF--and fantasy: from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales.This month, we have original science fiction by Sofia Samatar ("How to Get Back to the Forest") and Chen Qiufan ("The Mao Ghost," translated by Ken Liu), along with an S...

Emma Baker’s husband, Jonathan, has just divorced her, shattered her heart and left her and her young son, Christopher, to fend for themselves. Bitterly lonely, she accepts a girlfriend’s suggestion to go out on her first night as a newly free woman. She vows not to let a man turn her head, vows not to let love make a fool of her again. But she never counted on meeting a charismatic and sexy nightclub bouncer like Ben Lauery, who takes her for an exciting ride on his Harley, sweeps her off...

Decades ago, when bands like the Everly Brothers rode the airwaves and vacancy signs shone like beacons in the night, a young man gets his first taste of love, loss, and the ethereal satisfaction that comes with knowing that the world is turning and life is being lived.

A teenage girl sends out a warning after a cheating ex-boyfriend begins to stalk her immersive fantasy world.

John Reddington always wanted to write a bestselling novel... He had no idea it would be so painful. With the house empty, as his wife and daughter are away at her mother's house in California, John dives straight into a mystery novel he has been working on. As he writes--or thinks, rather--thin, red streaks run down the computer monitor, and lightning flashes and fills the room with blinding light. Then a stranger, wearing a porcelain mask, appea...