Plant Fiction

All of this was because of the dragon stone necklace I scavenged from that dead mage. I knew it was magic when I saw it. Well, it was and it wasn’t. Dragon stone, they call it, but what it actually is, is a dragon’s egg. When I touched it, I felt the need to put it around my neck for safekeeping. When I did, the necklace embedded itself inside my skin, making me the new dragon’s envoy. It has since been my duty to protect the egg until she’s ready to hatch. How do I know the egg is a she? Easy, she talks to me and is helping me to bring out my natural magic talents.

Peter and Henry are playing at being gardeners, but when nature starts to take over, the results are disastrous!

Mike Walton had experienced terrorism from every angle. As a covert field operations officer, he thought he'd seen it all, but that was before terrorism struck him directly at home. Suffering devastating physical injury and unthinkable personal loss, Mike had one of two choices: give up or fight back, and giving up wasn't in his makeup. Mike and his wife, Lisa, a medical doctor and fellow counter-terrorism expert, are recruited to lead a hastily assembled team to Europe to stop the madness before time runs out.

Chris Astor is a man in his early forties who is going through the toughest stretch of his life. Becky is Chris's fourteen-year-old daughter, a girl who overcame enormous challenges to become a vibrant, vital young woman - and now faces her greatest obstacle yet. Miea is the young queen of a fantasy land that Becky and Chris created when Becky was little, a fantasy land that has developed a life of its own and now finds itself in terrible, maybe fatal trouble.

The year is 1200, well, let’s just say it’s a time of brutal beauty, where the clash of steel echoes through the valleys and the stench of death hangs heavy in the air. Forget the polished tales of valiant knights and virtuous queens.

Myriam Gurba has lived in California her entire life, with its plants and soils, forests and ecology, immersing herself in the language of the landscape as refracted through the languages and memories of her ancestors. In Poppy State, California plants serve as structural anchors in a wildly inventive work of narrative nonfiction that is part botanical criticism, part personal storytelling, part study of place. Gurba traverses themes of language, power, ancestry, and California's ecology, in masterfully constructed sentences that seem to defy gravity.

In a world without rain, the desert sands are controlled by the only group with the technology and infrastructure to give water to the thirsty: The Distributor. When Friedrich, a nerdy engineer, discovers a bug in the Distributor’s systems, he realizes this is a chance to overthrow their oppressive regime. Friedrich’s tech can offer a better life to thousands in the Barrens, but he’ll need to reach the Distributor across hundreds of miles of empty desert.

Dragon’s Envoy David Slinger, Em, and their friends continue to face new challenges and opportunities. But with new opportunities, old rivals and animosities return. They must also remain vigilant to the growing threat of the dark priests and their thirst for power. It seems very few can be trusted, as everyone has their own agenda.

The borders are blurred in the woods around Eilegate House. The nearby town has borne witness to the centuries of bloodshed and upheaval that crafted modern Scotland and . . . retains vestiges of an old and dangerous magic. In 1934, the threat of war lingers just beyond the horizon. When Great War veteran Albert Lerrant and his new bride Victoria move into the stately home of Eilegate, the couple realize the house is not quite as abandoned as it first appeared. Tensions take a turn for the dire when Albert wakes up one midsummer morning to find his wife vanished without a trace.

The year is 1888. A pall of fog blankets London, obscuring the gaslit streets and lending an air of sinister mystery to the unfolding events. The city, a labyrinth of opulent mansions and impoverished slums, is gripped by fear. A killer stalks the shadows, leaving behind a single red rose as their chilling calling card the Rose Killer. Their victims, plucked from the diverse tapestry of London life from the women of the night to unsuspecting patrons are found with a horrific brutality that sends shockwaves through the metropolis.

Bobby Greystein is a successful entrepreneur whose health concerns and sudden stewardship of a ninety-million-dollar trust dedicated to revolutionizing food leads him to launch Camelot, a sugarless ice cream that can compete favorably with the best super premium full-sugar brands. Camelot gets off to a tremendous start – but the company's good fortunes have put it on the hit list of The Food Mafia. And now the future of Camelot – and possibly Bobby's own life – hangs in the balance.

Pru and her husband, Christopher Pearse, are long overdue for a getaway. So when Pru is invited to redesign an Arts and Crafts garden in Cotswolds, she and Christopher jump at the chance. Unfortunately, their B&B is more ramshackle than charming, and the once thriving garden has fallen into neglect. With the garden's owner and designer, Batsford Bede, under the weather, Pru tackles the renovation alone. But just as she's starting to make headway, she stumbles upon Batsford's body in the garden - dead and pinned beneath one of his limestone statues.

There is an old adage...be careful what you wish for. Truer words were never spoken. When it comes to changing the world, one step at a time can have thousands of meanings. Short fiction (less than 7,000 words), The Plant is submitted for your entertainment and is 100 percent fiction...to the best of my knowledge.

Darker than the night, like a piece of reality had been ripped out of the world to grant a view into the endless abyss of the void, a shape rose from the low hills of the moor, towering above all. Sherlock Holmes, his brother Mycroft, and their associate Mary Morstan are some of the most adept mages in London, safeguarding the peace of the city. Their daily life of solving crimes is interrupted when an ancient threat rises in Dartmoor.

Plant Stories: original stories related to plants plus a taste of plant-related African, Yoruba myths. Every culture has its myths and fables - tales from around the world that have evolved to explain how we interact with each other, nature, and the elements - tales that, above all, have evolved to help us cope with our fears, achieve our dreams, and help us understand our planet and our place in it.

When a woman claiming to possess an unearthly connection to plant-life dies mysteriously, her sister becomes compelled to put to rest unanswered questions in the matter and begins an investigation of the plant/human communication phenomenon. Her shocking conclusion is that her sister's house-plants are not only cogent key-witnesses to her murder, but may be atte.mpting to warn her that she is in similar danger.

Mina Kane’s next undercover op is of the green thumb variety. Tasked to break into a penthouse at the tip-top of a megascraper and air-meld incriminating data on a hydro-shipping mogul, Mina must first pose as an apt gardener who knows a thing or two about roses. The only problem is the rookie’s along for the ride, and he’s a pro at making everything more difficult than it has to be.

Humble, absent-minded Doctor Kinoklevsky, after travailing as a scientific researcher for twenty-odd years, is suddenly excommunicated from the institute he works for because they fear he may actually find a cure for The Plague which would negate all future funding. Rather than despair, he soon realizes he's free to get to the crux of the matter in the privacy of his own apartment/lab.

Allegra Gordon knew there was much she could learn from Faith Hale. From the moment she met the esteemed writer and feminist icon on the campus of New York's Abigail Stone College, Allegra understood that Faith would be a force in her life, one that would wrench the best work from her and encourage her to lay her soul bare. The relationship that evolved would simultaneously be the most liberating and most shattering Allegra ever encountered. And it would change both women in profound ways.

What may we become? How will we endure? The future is a daunting realm, filled with real and imagined perils. So enter it prepared! Here are vivid tales about possible tomorrows, from the keen eye and colorful pen of David Brin, a modern master of speculative fiction.