Modern Fiction

The world has quite literally gone to hell. Rohan and Nora find themselves stranded and without transportation in a world where spirits and demons are wreaking havoc. The battle for the world’s survival depends on them. But along the way, they'll discover others with powers that may be able to help in this spiritual warfare. Will they find a way to banish the demons or, in the end, find themselves in their own eternal hell?

In this modern version of the fairy tale classic, who wouldn't want to marry a rock star? That's what Petra told herself when she agreed to fly from Minsk to Los Angeles - a mail-order bride to the lead singer of Bluebeard, one of the most popular American rock bands of the twentieth century. The question really was - why would a rock star want to marry her? Find out in this modern tale on the Bluebeard fairy tale by Selena Kitt!

In this modern version of the fairy tale classic, although her dreams are filled with sensual imagery, and she's often awakened with a throbbing sense of release, Rose has never had a sexual climax - at least, not while conscious. When she's forced to confess her faked orgasms to her fiancé on the eve of their wedding, she finds herself alone, abandoned and suicidal - until her aunt gives her a business card with the name of a special clinic.

In this modern version of the fairy tale classic, recently orphaned Mae finds herself taking care of her ill grandmother and trying to negotiate the big, wide world of New York. Aside from Griff, a drifter she's befriended on the long walk to her grandmother's, she is alone, a frightened country mouse in the big city. Mae can't believe her good fortune when she meets Lionel Tryst, a charming and charismatic real estate agent, who arranges the miraculous sale of her grandmother's expensive apartment, in the horrible buyer's market of the Great Depression, so they can both move out of the city.

This volume pays tribute to the work of 20 poets whose careers were profoundly influenced by the First World War - "the war to end all wars".

He wanted to bring his fiancée back from the dead. If he's not careful, he'll join her. Evans's world was turned upside down when he lost his fiancée Senna in a tragic accident. He misses her so desperately that he's resorted to the dark arts to bring her back. Frank Altemus is a doctor with strange connections to the occult who promises to revive Senna from the afterlife in exchange for Rohan's help on a "special" expedition.

In this modern retelling of a fairy tale classic, former beauty queen Jolee Mercier finds herself in big trouble, locked in the trunk of her husband's BMW on her way to a remote location in the woods of northern Michigan where she's going to be killed. Her crime? Knowing too much. An anonymous letter arrived addressed in her name with proof that her husband, Carlos, a state logging and mining mogul, had been the one responsible for her father's death years earlier, killed for supporting the unions.

Rachel runs Rapunzel's, a high-end salon on the lower level of a downtown Chicago high rise and lives happily in self-imposed exile in an apartment at the top of the tower - that is until Jake Malden walks in with his teen daughter, Emma, and presents Rachel with a dilemma. Young Emma is determined to defy her mother's wishes and get her long, beautiful, untouched hair cut off so she can donate it to charity to honor a friend with cancer.

When former first lady Gwen DeVere Queen is discovered to be hale and hearty - after falling victim to a successful (and very public) assassination - the jig is finally up. Arthur Penn, a.k.a. King Arthur, reveals his true identity, and the existence of the Holy Grail, to the world. Unable to cope with the sick and dying who desperately entreat him to heal them with the power of the Grail, Arthur accepts an offer from an entrepreneur with a new approach to health care: siphon water through the Grail, bottle it, and sell it as a curative.

More than 1,500 years after his disappearance into the mists of Avalon, King Arthur has returned. This time, he's prepared to rule the Camelot of a new millennium: New York City. Handsome, charismatic Arthur Penn is running for mayor on a platform of common sense, humor, and knightly virtues. His advisors include a gifted 10-year-old named Merlin; Percival, an immortal accountant; and Gwen, a lovely young woman with no end of problems.

This chilling tale of greed, lust, and deception opens on a midwinter night when Felix Canaris, a despairing writer about to take his own life, is saved by a knock at the door. The mysterious visitor, a Jasper Helwyze, promises Felix fame and fortune in return for his complete devotion.

Scratch Sullivan just wanted to survive the apocalypse in peace...but when the undead bring their war right to his doorstep, it's time to ranger up and rain hell down on his enemies! It's been eight years since the bombs fell and the dead rose, and the world has become a very dangerous place. But unlike most folks, former Army Ranger Scratch Sullivan is getting by just fine. Sure, it's hell on earth, but Scratch seems to fit in. He makes his living by hunting the dead, vampires and zombies alike, with the odd revenant thrown in for good measure.

As a hunter in post-apocalyptic central Texas, Scratch Sullivan has survived zombies, vampires, and rogue military units. Heck, he's even the only human ever known to go hand-to-hand with a werewolf, and survive. But what’s a man to do when the local ‘thrope pack destroys your town and abducts your best girl?

Lady Charlotte French-McGrath has successfully ruled over her family with a rod of iron until the arrival of Cynthia: beautiful, young, talented, selfish - and engaged to her son, Desmond. When Cynthia enters the Jazz Age, on the surface her life passes in a whirl of hunting, drinking and romance. But the ghosts of Garonlea are only biding their time: they know the source of their power, a secret handed on from one generation to the next.

A husband armed with a sword hacks apart his wife in a Denver grocery store. There are dozens of witnesses, and the crime is captured on the security cameras. To the police, it's an open-and-shut case. To Naomi, the daughter of the couple, it's evidence of dark magic. She hires her ex-lover, a private investigator named Jonathan Shade to prove her father is innocent.

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales III: Modern Verse Translation collection.

Savushun chronicles the life of a Persian family during the Allied occupation of Iran during World War II. It is set in Shiraz, a town which evokes images of Persepolis and pre-Islamic monuments, the great poets, the shrines, Sufis, and nomadic tribes within a historical web of the interests, privilege, and influence of foreign powers; corruption, incompetence, and arrogance of persons in authority; the paternalistic landowner-peasant relationship; tribalism; and the fear of famine.

Lucy is a lapsed Catholic whose adolescent pretentions to sainthood are unexpectedly revived. It all starts when her cousin Zoltan, in hospital following a bizarre incident at a party, offers her a disturbing deathbed confession. Lucy's grief takes an unusual turn: Zoltan's death appears to have turned her into a magnet for the unshriven. Lucy is transformed into a self-described "flesh-and-blood Wailing Wall" as strangers unburden themselves to her. She becomes addicted to the dark stories and finds herself jonesing for hit after hit.

Jane Day is racing to stay ahead of the paid assassin who had been her fiance. On the run in Wichita Falls, Texas, she meets Nellie Luckadeau, a spitfire of an elderly lady, who desperately needs someone to drive her home and work on her ranch. But Nellie's drop-dead gorgeous cocky cowboy grandson "Lucky Slade" is sure he can spot a con artist a mile away and no way in hell is he going to let some upstart fleece his granny.

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales II: Modern Verse Translation collection.