All change begins with water ...CRYSTAL CARSON wants to be a normal girl, play her fiddle, go to college, and dream about her future. But delight turns to horror when secret abilities and the birthday gift of her dreams drag her to the dark side on a run for her life.Targeted by black ops and a weird cult from the old country, she scrambles to get help from a family wizard. But there's a price.To find the truth and release her destiny, she must expose her unique par...

A right of passage in blossoming spirituality leaves a young girl in wonder. Can she become who she was born to be? Can she step into the beauty that encompasses all? This sci-fi thriller twists perspectives into shrinking dimensions.

Bury your face in the red sand, your eyes in the clear sky. The American Southwest shines with sunlight, clean air, and free range. Bone Pile, the mutated twin to Riley Hill's Burn Pile, digs us out of the darkness to the light of day, where nothing can go wrong. Unless you're down wind.These five tales of terror, dark humor, and horror uncover what lurks in the open, in broad daylight.THEY COME TO SEE GRAVES. Desert towns sometimes employ artificial means to survive.

CRYSTAL DISAPPEARS UNDER MYSTERIOUS circumstances and Glenn must find her before a depraved cartel uses her in an arcane ritual. Frantic, he plunges into strange alliances and teams with risky characters for clues.An alien threat ties to Crystal's abduction and Glenn spins through time and dimensions to unravel her whereabouts. But when allies turn against him, he's shot off-world to die. Will his paranormal abilities and intense love for Crystal be enough to reach her in time, or a...

PASSIONS AND FEARS EXPLODE when a crystal skull hidden in the sanctuary’s core summons Crystal. Slipping into Fredrik the Wizard’s book, Crystal learns what she must do to help the humans escape the skin slicker rain of terror. Sarah’s surprise visitor brings danger to the group hidden underground, and draws the draks from above. Glenn and Ashari must bury conflict and join as brothers to wield the power to help Crystal.As the draks close in for the kill, external and internal worl...

THE TIME IS NOW. Or is it? Our universe is grinding to a halt. Trapped in a perpetual time loop, we repeat the same lives, over and over. But worse, the loop is tightening into a noose, trapping humanity in a single moment of Now. How can one young woman change this?Naked Worlds Trilogy exposes the raw truths of our hidden civilization—painful truths of its crafting, and the powerful men using occult manipulation to control us. Before the worlds are bared, Crystal and the readers w...

This anthology of twelve creepy tales embraces the dark side of common people, bound together on an island in Washington by weird circumstances, an immortal dog, a long trailer, and the omnipresent burn pile."The Evening After" sets the stage as Jim awakens on a beach holding the remnants of his dog's leash. The dog has vanished and, apparently, so have portions of the man's mind. It doesn't take long for him to notice something is wrong with his sense of place and very wrong in th...

There's a delicate balance between mental health and mental illness…Who are STRANGERS AMONG US?We are your fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends and lovers. We staff your stores, cross your streets, and study in your schools, invisible among you. We are your outcasts and underdogs, and often, your unsung heroes.Nineteen science fiction and fantasy authors tackle the division between mental health and...

WHERE NO ONE KNOWS YOUR NAME...Thanksgiving, 2075. Shadowrunning vampire-mage Rick “Red” Lang used to make his living hunting dangerous insect spirits and twisted mages, but when he awakens after twelve years of involuntary hibernation, he finds the rest of the world has gotten even stranger.Red begins piecing together what had happened during his lost time—and who put him under in the first place. But as he journeys through the neon-drenched ruins of Chica...

Kirito awakens in a vast, fantastical forest filled with towering trees. In his search for clues to the truth of his surroundings, he encounters a young boy who seems to know him. He ought to be a simple NPC, but the depth of his emotions seem no different than a human. As they search for the boy's parents, Kirito finds a peculiar memory returning to him. A memory from his own childhood, of this boy and a girl, too, with golden hair, and a name he should have never forgotten--Alice.

A compilation of short science fiction and fantasy from Elizabeth Bear—tales of myth and mythic resonance, fantasies both subtle and epic in tone; hard science fiction and speculations about an unknowable universe. This collection, showcasing Bear's unique imagination and singular voice, includes her Hugo- and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winning story "Tideline" and Hugo-winning novelette, "Shoggoths in Bloom," as well as an original, never-published story. Recipient of the John W. Ca...

(Volume 1)The future--where a terrible battle against a parasitic virus called "Gastrea" has been fought, and lost. Humanity is cornered, and lives in despair. Rentaro and Enju face constant danger in their work as a team anti-Gastrea specialists known as "Civil Security." If the daily fight against oblivion weren't enough, they'll soon face a threat that could destroy all of Tokyo...