Urban Short Stories

In best-selling author J. R. Rain's exclusive audiobook short story, Samantha Moon takes on a dead man's riddle...and soon finds herself on the hunt for real buried treasure. Also included: "Grampire" - Somebody has to be the world's oldest vampire; "More Sugar" - Benjamin the Baker has all the answers, but the key to his success is surprisingly simple; Plus, bonus material...

In this long-awaited collection, Hopkinson continues to expand the boundaries of culture and imagination. Whether she is retelling The Tempest as a new Caribbean myth, filling a shopping mall with unfulfilled ghosts, or herding chickens that occasionally breathe fire, Hopkinson continues to create bold fiction that transcends boundaries and borders.

From Nebula Award winner Gregory Benford comes this ambitious hard SF anthology that collects five original novellas. Each one takes the very long view - all are set at least ten thousand years in the future. The authors take a rigorously scientific view of such grand panoramas, confronting the largest issues of cosmology, astronomy, evolution, and biology.

Dr. Bruce Banner. Emil Blonsky. One a brilliant scientist, the other an agent for the KBG. Both men whose lives were irrevocably altered by gamma radiation - transforming Banner into the incredible Hulk and Blonsky into the deadly Abomination. For years, the two super-strong creatures have clashed. Now they are brought together for their most deadly confrontation yet. The Abomination has allied himself with the URSA, an organization dedicated to restoring the Soviet Union - but he is using the URSA to further his own mad quest for vengeance on all those who wronged him in life.

"Blue Moon" - In best-selling author J. R. Rain's short story, Samantha Moon is about to meet someone very unexpected in a local Starbucks...someone who looks hauntingly familiar.

Samantha Moon gets in touch with the creature inside of her and takes a trip beyond where she's ever gone before, deep into the revelations of her inner self, and into the black vastness of outer space. She risks everything to discover just how powerful she is, and finally connects with a deeper truth inside of her - a truth that will unlock something unexpected and powerful.

Before being torn down in 2007, the Stateway Gardens public housing projects on Chicago’s South Side were ridden with deprivation and crime. But for some, like Tracy, the shy, intelligent young boy at the center of this enthralling collection of linked stories, they are simply home. Set in the mid-1980s and taking listeners up to the point of the destruction of the infamous Cabrini-Green housing projects, this collection gives an intimate look at the hopes, dreams, failures, and fortunes of a group of people growing up with the deck always stacked against them.

This bundle includes books 4-6 in the Hex Files series, a fast-paced paranormal mystery series with a kickass heroine, hilarious sidekicks, and an immersive world that will pull you in faster than you can say pizza: Wicked Moon Rising, Wicked All The Way, and Wicked Twist of Fate.

Private investigator Samantha Moon gets up close and personal with her dead ex-husband's mistress, Nancy, who might be a woman who knows too much. When Nancy opens up to Sam about her history with Danny, Sam tries to forgive her and move on with her life, maybe even be friends. After all, Danny didn't play it straight with either of them. Despite her good intentions, something rises up in Sam, something dark and evil, and something that she can barely keep under control.

Lana undergoes a near death experience. Michael’s life, as a baby, is just beginning. What tethers together the two lives? This pseudo-paranormal short story has a few mysteries that beg to be unpacked. From having to contend with notions of the Lazarus effect, to briefly flirting with other dimensional space, find yourself entreated to an odd day, as Francistown folk grapple with life, friends, family, and courage.

Hank and Josie own a small nursery in Mays Landing, New Jersey. They have three kids and a house with a mortgage. Josie has worked hard making and selling wreaths to make money for Christmas presents. Two days before Christmas, while she is collecting pine cones for her wreaths, she finds a woman named Helen lying in the woods behind her house. She is bruised and beaten, but won't let Josie call for help.

Inequality. Influence. Fraud. Sabotage. These are the themes of great fiction and our modern economy. In this collection of short stories by some of today’s most scintillating writers, the rich get poorer and the poor get richer. Yeah, right! From the heartbreaking to the hilarious, here are eight instantly classic battles over currency, class, privilege - and social distance.

In a world of criminals, thugs, con artists, cheats, and swindlers, there must be a man to stand against the powers of darkness and corruption. A man not afraid to walk the mean streets—whether they be those of 1930s Los Angeles, an ancient fantasy realm, or some far-flung planet of a future star empire. He is a man who knows that a “good man” is not always a “nice guy”. But when the chips are down, he understands that a hero does the right thing, even if it means losing everything.

Saving the world - by repossessing earth-shattering magical artifacts! In a modern world where magic coexists with technology, Finley Viggio Agard is among the best government agents in the Arcanum Repository. He is assigned to retrieve powerful magical artifacts and prevent their misuse. And save the world in the process.

One night in Lagos, two former friends reunite. Obinna is a dutiful and unsophisticated stay-at-home husband and father married to a powerful businesswoman. Eze is single, a cautious rebel from his university days whose arrival soon upsets the balance in Obinna’s life. In a world where men are constantly under surveillance and subject to the whims of powerful women, more than Obinna’s ordered and accustomed routine might be on the line.

With the pandemic looming, a listless social media editor accepts a job working for her former college friend Seraphina. A popular Instagram influencer, the subject of obsessive message-board surveillance, and a newly minted Karen of the Day, Seraphina is living out 2020 in the luxury of her “ultimate self-quarantine.” As the year escalates into upheaval and chaos, both women try, in increasingly secretive and complicated ways, to maintain the upper hand.

Soar among the redwoods in this bite-sized adventure with Chloe, the recently divorced fairy inventor. She's the one who'll discover the encroaching zombie horde, but what will she do when she does? Come for the campy creature face-off. Stay for the inventiveness, adventure, romance, and intrigue. Torn between her handsome ex-husband and the brave and beautiful captain of the fairy guard, Chloe must fight to save her unborn young and the rest of the fairies.

The complete first installment of the Bruins' Peak Bears stories. Books one through five now with an extra book zero backstory! Book zero: Lily - The year is 1885, and the dusty little town of Iron Bark is just a stage stop on the vast frontier. Lily Cunningham steps off the coach to find a strange man greeting her. Luther Campbell is dapper, rich, and definitely interested in her, but Lily senses something sinister about him from her very first glance.

The (black) magical season is here - and whether it's a solstice seance gone demonically wrong with the incomparable Kim Harrison, a grossly misshapen Christmas with the remarkable Lynsay Sands, a blood-chilling-and-spilling New Year's with the wonderful Marjorie M. Liu, or a super-powered Thanksgiving with the phenomenal Vicki Pettersson, one thing is for certain: in the able hands of these exceptional dark side explorers, the holidays are going to be deliciously hellish!

Classic fables take on new meaning as five of today’s most original bestselling authors serve up some deliciously modern twists. New reflections on evil queens, charmless princes, and star-crossed lovers branch out in provocative and enchanting directions. Follow the path and see where it leads...