Old Fantasy

The Beaverton High School Breakfast Club show up for what they thought would be cleaning the locker room with a toothbrush when the morning goes horribly wrong, and they fall victim to a deadly, dark spell. Some jerkwad moon mage shoves the consciousness of Petra's three-year-old into the body of a musclebound barbarian, and she is transformed into a halfling. The kids get stuck as a cleric, fire mage, and other stalwarts of your typical fantasy gaming party.

From the vast lore surrounding King Arthur, Camelot, and the Knights of the Round Table comes an anthology of gender-bent, race-bent, LGBTQIA+ inclusive retellings.

It's Angel's birthday and she can't wait to celebrate with her purrmaid and mermicorn best friends! But the girls don't seem very excited to celebrate with her. They keep sneaking off to be alone. Angry and hurt, Angel swims out in the ocean by herself and finds Minnie—a manatee who needs help! Can the girls all work together to save Minnie? Or are Angel's friends too busy with their secret plans?

For nearly 200 years, the Wrights have controlled the Elements, shaping them to their will. But, the new era of industrialization threatens their extinction. Journeyman Wright Rebecca Fuller has more important things to worry about, though, like paying bills and keeping a roof over her head. Unfortunately, she inherited her father’s debts along with his shop. With the Guild limiting her prices, even a brisk business barely makes ends meet. If only the Guild would consider her application for Mastery.

I’d led a deadly squad of genetically enhanced, uber-powerful magic wielders through life-threatening missions multiple times in the first 21 years of my life. When marked for death, I’d led the escape from those who’d bred us, controlled us. Utterly annihilating the Collective’s compound, and destroying everything that had gone into creating us—the Five. I found Christopher and Paisley a home, a safe haven.

I’d given myself and Sisu 12 days to get settled into our new life before tackling my first official day as the head archivist of the magical archives at the National Museum of Ireland. Our new kitchen was under construction, with the electrical and plumbing upgrades in the main rooms of the estate well on the way. I knew how and where to buy groceries, and had arranged a tutor for Sisu. Totally under control.

Twelve-year old Lia Park just wants to fit in. Her parents work with a mysterious organization that makes them ridiculously overprotective. Lia’s every move has been scrutinized since she was born, and she’d love to have the option of doing something exciting for once. So when she gets invited to the biggest birthday party of the year—and her parents say she can’t go—Lia sneaks out. But her first act of rebellion not only breaks her parents’ rules, but also an ancient protection spell, allowing an evil diviner spirit to kidnap and ransom her parents for a powerful jewel.

I had new cupcakes to bake, a new treasure to hunt, and a new dragon in town—literally. Who wouldn’t be ecstatic filling their days with chocolate, trinket collecting, and martial arts training? Yeah…me.

When all new threats are dealt with, old enemies emerge from the shadows. Dean Parker has brought his wife home, and he’s looking forward to relaxing and having a future with his family on New Spero. The Iskios vortex is gone, vanquished by the Hero of Earth, but unforeseen enemies linger in the universe. The Bhlat send a warning to the humans, one that suggests the Kraski may not all be dead. All signs point to Lom of Pleva, a wealthy and very dangerous enemy to have.

Three days. That was all the reprieve we got before one of the five showed up, injured and on the run. The snowstorm that had encased the property, as well as stifled the town, hadn’t even melted away. That wounded prey led our newest adversary directly to me. To Christopher. Inconvenient timing, but not unexpected. It was the betrayal forcing me to stay my hand against that adversary that shocked me. Betrayal from the least likely of sources. Or so I would have thought.

We had chosen our place, etching our lives into a new land. Then, we had defended that land when called upon to do so. And we’d won. We’d maintained our freedom. But magic attracts magic. As they say. So, when the sorcerers showed up, holding my recent past hostage - along with a future I had dreamed I might build - it was just as expected. In fact, I might have been getting just a little bored playing at being Emma Johnson.

I knew that opening the letter from the sorcerer Azar would have deadly consequences. So we had prepared. We’d planned. We knew we might have to defend ourselves, our freedom. And that I might finally get a chance to exact the revenge I kept telling myself I wasn’t interested in exacting. What we didn’t know was that we’d find ourselves hosting a dysfunctional family reunion — the kind where everyone tries to kill someone at least once over dinner.

Psychic Nora Ashcroft can't tell the future, but she's starting to look forward to it. And with the support of Donovan and the rest of the town, she's ready to leave the past behind. Too bad the same can't be said for Eastwind's most newly departed. After a body is discovered in the street, everyone has a theory about what might've happened...including the deceased himself. Though he swears he was ready for death and has no unfinished business keeping him around, Nora knows something must be tethering him to this plane.

I wasn’t even remotely interested in collecting the third instrument of assassination. It was far better for everyone involved—and for Warner, specifically—if I just let it be. And since I was the only one who could retrieve the artifacts, I figured it was my call to make.

Marcus Bola and his friends barely made it through their last self-imposed mission. He found and rescued his estranged son from the clutches of a Seelie drug cartel bent on taking over Columbus, but success means that they’ve proven their ability to get the job done. Now tasked with retrieving the Huntsman's Mantle in hopes of giving the Wild Hunt new life, Marcus and his friends leave the High Table for Grestal, the birth place of nightmares.

Mabel lives with her parents in the Mermaid Hotel, where she keeps an eye on all the guests, particularly her friend, the endlessly fascinating Madame Badobedah. Madame Badobedah, who considers herself part of a long tradition of daring women such as Amelia Earhart and Zora Neale Hurston, has pirouetted through pyramids, swum with mermaids and helped a triceratops with a toothache. Just opening one of the drawers in her dressing table full of mementos elicits tales of banshees and curses and an exciting new quest – a reverse jewel heist!

I preferred it when life came in tidy packages. When it didn’t — when something went awry — I was exceedingly skilled at packaging it back up. It was my job to do so after all. I was a reconstructionist. I collected the puzzle pieces, then I gave those pieces to an investigative team to sort out. I didn't ask questions. I didn't offer answers. I saw. I recorded. I moved on. I didn't dwell or obsess. I didn’t hunt down suspects. I didn’t follow clues to find a killer. And I certainly didn’t work side by side with anyone.

Here be an oracle. Despair all ye who seek her. Magic will have its cake and eat it, too. Okay, well. So I was mixing metaphors. I was new to the gig. But as far as I could tell, there were three kinds of people. Those who wanted confirmation that they’d chosen the correct path. Those who wanted to deny there was any sort of destiny at all. And those who wanted to tear it all down. So why was it always the third type that showed up at the door to my 1975 Brave Winnebago, dragging me into their power struggles and using my past against me?

Shane Daniels and Romany Zetz have been drawn into a war that is not their own. Lives will be destroyed, families will be torn apart. Trust will be broken. When the war is over, some will return to a changed world. Will they discover that glory is a lie? Claire G. Coleman's new novel takes us to a familiar world to again ask us what we have learned from the past. The Old Lie might not be quite what you expect.

Sanderson’s army is still running rampant south of the new community in northern Alabama. Chaos, hunger and gangs still plague the country. The group grows in numbers and skills when Jeff discovers two compatible groups nearby. His small town is growing and this violates his belief that survival depends on keeping a low profile, but life is comfy and going well.