Bringing together 34 flash fiction stories from 14 authors, SPARK offers a host of stories to thrill, move, and challenge fans of short-short fiction. A woman physically at war with her mother's legacy inside her own body, a young girl given a vision of a utopic past at the end of the world, a man psychically bonded to the living weapon for which he is the failsafe, a harem of "female" androids newly capable of questioning their subservient status—these are a few of the characters you'll m...

A beautiful story about Art; a living, breathing boy in all respects - who happens to be made of inflatable plastic. POP ART is an exceptional, must-read of a short story.Joe Hill is the New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2, Horns, and Heart-Shaped Box, and the prize-winning story collection 20th Century Ghosts. He is also the co-author, with Stephen King, of In the Tall Grass.

The fourth volume of the annual Unidentified Funny Objects series features the theme of dark humor.What happens when you ask some of the genre's masters to interpret this theme? The enclosed twenty-three darkly humorous tales range from black comedy to biting satire to morbid irony and everything in between.Inside this book you'll find Faustian bargains gone awry, time-traveling ghosts, flawed supervillains, talking hamsters, and much more.Featuring stories by:

"A heady, infectious celebration."-The New Yorker"Shaughnessy's voice is smart, sexy, self-aware, hip . . . consistently wry, and ever savvy."-Harvard ReviewBrenda Shaughnessy's heartrending third collection explores dark subjects-trauma, childbirth, loss of faith-and stark questions: What is the use of pain and grief? Is there another dimension in which our suffering might be transformed? Can we change ourselves? Yearning for new gods, new worlds, and new...

This story collection "showcases that lighter side of Paul Di Filippo . . . with some memorable moments of brilliant wit and storytelling" (Infinity Plus).With twenty tales, a bold lack of restraint, and amazing stylistic diversity, Di Filippo makes strange bedfellows of a range of characters—from Jayne Mansfield to Pythagoras to Disney "imagineers" to the Virgin Mary—fit together inside a bountiful collection of surprises, humor, and the very, very strange. William...

Interludes often focus on events and characters far from the The 33's action-packed front lines.The motto of the Five-By-Five is Narum Regnum, Principium et Finis — The Backbone of the Kingdom, The First and the Last. It's a fitting phrase for this global network of specialists who support The 33, an unlikely team of world-saving misfits.Rags and Skids are Five-Bys. The jaded mechanics work in the basement of the Farmhouse, The 33's strange headqua...

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.

Las Vegas is considered a modern icon of excess. It offers every imaginable extreme of greed, pleasure, and despair, all supported by technology that enhances fantasy and allows residents and visitors alike to forget reality and responsibility. The authors of the fourteen stories in Dead Neon imagine Sin City in the near future, when excess has led to social, environmental, or economic collapse. Their stories range from futuristic casinos to the seared post-apocalyptic desert, fro...

Our young narrator has many skins. Shedding and taking on new ones help them to find their way back home after leaving to avoid more tragedies and assaults. But what price do they have to pay to acquire the one true skin that fits the best?At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Christopher Solomons father instilled in him his own love of running. Eventually it became their common ground. So what do they do now when they can no longer run together?

“They” worried about the impression she’d make. Who could imagine that she’d fall in love, passionately, the way others of her blood must have done?

This is a compilation of 21 various poems with a range of topics from humorous to spiritual / ethical .