Short Days

When Kris visited that psychic, she thought it would be fun. She thought the woman would tell her things that she wanted to hear: that there was true love in her future, that there was fortune, fame...but what she got was a dire warning. "The woman you kill will come back to you, asking for forgiveness. You must give it to her." But Kris would never kill anyone....

A woman gets a cursed tattoo on her hand. A crow. If she does something against "the rules" it pecks at her. At first the rules are easy. Don't eat this food. Can't use that color lighter.... But they've gotten worse. So has the pain from the bites.

She's not the biggest fan of Christmas–which is akin to a major sin in the little town of Snowflake Hollow. And with a name like Holly White, it's fitting that she owns the only B&B in town. The whole season is a huge deal, and the people coming to stay at the B&B are paying a premium to get the ultimate festive experience. She's trying to keep the guests busy, but Hank the Handyman just broke his leg trying to hang the lights. Now she has to figure out how to make the holiday festivities happen all by herself.

Denver Moon is Mars’ top private eye. She works the tunnels of Mars City, a struggling colony ravaged by the mysterious red fever. Her latest client, Jard Calder, is demanding results. Someone is dismembering the pimp’s prostitutes and salvaging their body parts. But since the victims are robots instead of humans, is it really murder?

NOVIO POR TREINTA DÍAS: Nunca debería haber aceptado ese acuerdo… Hace treinta días, mi jefe —un tiburón de Wall Street— acudió a mí con una oferta que no pude rechazar: poner mi firma en una línea de puntos y fingir ser su prometida durante un mes. Si accedía, podía rescindir mi contrato laboral con una indemnización por despido «extremadamente generosa». Las normas eran muy sencillas: prohibido besarse y tener sexo.

Existe un territorio difícil entre el cuento y la novela al que ni siquiera se le puede dar nombre. Jorge Volpi demuestra con estas tres historias que es uno de los maestros en ese género impreciso del relato de largo aliento.

A young man wakes up in a mysterious land, injured and not knowing who he is. He finds a group of shepherds who he must accompany on their annual journey to the Great Forest to see the Great Star. On this journey, he will discover not only who he is, but where his home really lies.

Hayden Summers just landed the job of a lifetime taking pictures for Time magazine, but she's determined to leave with no regrets. The first thing on her list? Erase the memory of her cheating ex with a wild night of anonymous sex. The second? Figure out why her best friend, sexy bar owner Jace Jennings, stopped speaking to her the night she told him about the job.

Alyssa Day introduces the dangerous game one woman plays when her family's curse dooms her to kill the man she loves. Meljean Brook delivers a new story in her steampunk world of the Iron Seas, as a man who's lost everything returns home to find that he must fight air pirates who intend to steal his one remaining treasure - his wife. And Lucy Monroe, author of the Children of the Moon novels unleashes the feral passions of a werewolf on the body, mind, and soul of his prey, his lover, his lifemate.

Here is where the saga ends and the legend begins...You may not remember the glorious age of VHS, but that is not a prerequisite. As has been the custom in compiling these anthologies, the crème de la crème of authors and filmmakers who both lived and thrived during the period in question, like the Avengers assembled to bring you this - the last dance.

The Mynah bird longs to be special like the other animals, but he is just a dull black bird. A snake suggests that he would be more popular if he tried to be like more the other animals, and so the Mynah bird tries doing impressions.... This is a story about both the empowerment of identity and the bankruptcy of people-pleasing.

The dog enjoys a carefree start to life, but soon finds himself being trained about good and bad behaviour. When he is sold, he finds that his new master is very different to the trainer. This is a story about both the power of grace overcoming the power of law and of true identity discovered.

The donkey has always felt less significant than the self-important race horses, until a purebred white horse comes and tells him he is to race.... This is a story about both the power of sacrificial love and the strength found in a name.

The Caterpillar sees eating as her only joy and purpose in life, but it becomes an addiction robbing her of her joy. A dragonfly heaps shame on, but a butterfly sees something deeper in her. This is a story about both the roots of shame in addiction and transformation though suffering.

The mackerel carries injuries and is angry and bitter. But these injuries never heal because blood-sucking lampreys are attracted to the wounds. When he is hooked by a fisherman he finds out how he can be free of the blood suckers.... This is a story about both the crippling nature of bitterness and the liberty in forgiving.

The crab has taken many knocks in his life and has developed protective armour. When he meets a transparent prawn he sees a different way to live...This is a story about the self-protecting nature and false identity of the flesh. This is the second of The Animal Parables series. Each tale features an animal who finds that things turn out to be quite different from how it imagined and profound life lessons are learned along the way.

More tales from Davon Montgomery.

In Lustfully Ever After, classic fairy tales are reimagined for an adult audience with twists (and kinks) to keep readers entertained. In Michelle Augello-Page's romantically charged BDSM tale "Wolf Moon", Little Red Riding Hood is the big bad wolf, while Kristina Lloyd rewrites "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" as a scorching-hot MFM threesome in "The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces". Shanna Germain's "Mirror Mirror" shows the sensual Sapphic side of Snow White's stepmother and Andrea Dale pens a contemporary version of "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" in the poignantly erotic "Steadfast".

A journalist finds something on a recording that she made. A soft, ghostly voice. Her reporting piece is put on hold as she tries to discover who the voice belongs to. Or belonged to...

What scares you more? The monster under your bed or the one staring back at you in the mirror? Authors C. M. Chapman and Larry Thacker blur the lines between the kinds of monsters that roam the Earth in their latest short story collection, Everyday, Monsters. In 21 stories, listeners encounter monsters ranging from mythological and psychological to maliciously human and darkly comical. Monsters creep from the deepest parts of humanity, the kind that we are born with, proving that even those with the best senses can overlook shadowy lurking beasts.