Not all portals take you to nice places; some times they lead you to places you never expected. Even worse, you might end up somewhere you definitely didn't want to go...and you might never get home from. Dimensional Abscesses is a collection of ten stories that explore a few of these "bad" portals.

A visit from Yanko’s older brother is interrupted when an alarm blasts through the mine. Mutilated workers have been found dead in a newly opened tunnel.Yanko has been studying to become a mage, and his brother is a soldier, so they believe they are prepared to deal with this unknown threat, but what awaits them in the subterranean depths is nothing the mine has seen in its hundreds of years of operation.Death from Below is a 13,000-word novella.

"The Desecrator" is an original short story from the Draegaran Empire, by bestselling author Stephen Brust. This is a tale of the Hawklord Daymar, and of a particular Morganti blade. Vlad Taltos fans will enjoy new insight into Stephen Brust's fantasy series.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A young man seeks to understand the strange connection he feels to the wolves that live hear his village.Originally published in the anthology WEREWOLVES, edited by Jane Yolen. Republished in Bruce Coville's solo collection, ODDLY ENOUGH.

Needles: Part 1 is the fifth episode of THE 33: award-winning author J.C. Hutchins' innovative new monthly series.The Mojave Desert: bleak, merciless, murderous. Few people know this better than the residents of Needles, a windswept town on the California border. Strange things happen out there in those ancient sands ... and one townie has just paid the ultimate price for his curiosity.The 33, a team of world-saving misfits, has been dispatched to ...

A short science fiction story with adventure and romance starring psychics and aliens.On the eve of the festival of lights, Rosa Spruce is alone and half the galaxy away from her home planet. On the remote planet of Jangalore, she serves as the guard for Psi Master Varan. He is a man of immense power and influence, well above her lowly status. Their perilous venture to seek the ancient site in the jungle challenges all their skills and brings unexpected re...

In postapocalyptic America, a solitary man crafts the world's latest form of escapism: dreamsFor eighty-five years, Par Sondak has crafted dreams. Each night he retires, probes attached to his sleeping body, and builds magnificent worlds for the people of the City to enjoy. His dreams have been bestsellers for decades, and he has more than three hundred still in circulation. Sondak's niche is escapist fun; his current project is a ten-hour swords-and-sandals epic. M...

An army of men that set about cleaning the moon each month. A cursed queen. A man whose job is to create moons. A love story. A couple overwhelmed by the emptiness of their home. A lonely deity. All these stories - and more - are centered around the theme of the moon and can be found in the pages of The Suicide of the Moon. In this collection of twelve flash fiction stories (super short stories), the moon is portrayed as many things: capricious, rebellious, sad, dangerous,...

Evangeline Miller's dreams have pulled into a fantasy world. Will she find the meaning? And who is the mysterious falcon-keeper? A short story of 2000 words.

After the end of the world, a young shapeshifter learns to open his wings...When Dalan discovers the last of a mutant species of beautiful, golden horses, he's forced to make a difficult decision.This short story takes about 15 minutes to read and is set before the events of The Last of the Ageless, a post-apocalyptic adventure novel. You can read them in any order, but the chronological order is: The Last Tail-Horse, When All Is Lost, The Beginning of the ...

Jazz, Season One, Episode TwoJazz and Ship were forced to crash-land in one of the most dangerous places outside of the wilds, the monster ghetto known as Clowntown. She's already hurt, tired, and hungry and time is running short as even her shadow sight won't do her much good against the residents of this nightmare neighborhood once it's dark. If she keeps moving, keeps quiet, and gets lucky she might make it out unnoticed.But a golem of make up and design too horrible to ...

Mayenta has returned once again to the land with no recollection of where she had gone. All she knew was, every time she returned to the vale, she returned lying in the same spot underneath a dogwood tree growing high upon Honor Mountain--and, as usual, she returned naked. What did it mean that she left Paigorya without warning? Where did she go? WHY did she go? And, most importantly, who was she?The Dogwood Tree eBook short story includes a free excerpt from Laurie Y. Elrod's nove...