Urban Short Stories

Urban fantasy offers a diverse playground for some extremely powerful stories. Professional writer and editor Kerrie L. Hughes pulled some fantastic tales out of 14 top writers for this fifth installment of Fiction River. Set in urban lands from modern Portland, to a future Detroit, to a wild Washington, D.C., and ending the tour in London, these top writers take the idea of "Hex" and stretch and twist it into stories with a magickal grip on the imagination.

There are no holidays in the Abyss. Despite her friends' less-than-enthusiastic reception, Olivia is determined to have a wonderful Christmas - and if she has anything to say about it, Holden will, too. A brilliant idea for the perfect present to remind him of what is important at this time of year opens up more than she bargained for.

Las Vegas is a city with a past, a place where visitors dream of hitting it big. A town with a glittering strip just blocks away from its seedy underbelly. A town where those dreams are born, used up and spit out like an over-the-hill showgirl clinging to the tattered remnants of her youth. Harry is one of the dreamers, a cheat at cards who has just gotten out of prison. He's ready to find the big pay off on the strip, with a new fool-proof way to take the whales.

Being a fledgling vampire is hard, especially when you want to eat everything with a pulse. It's time for Victoria's first feeding, and Harlow has taken it upon himself to teach her how to be a proper vampire. But what could a werewolf possibly know about being a vampire?

From the New York Times & USA Today best-selling author Tamara Rose Blodgett. Almost 15-year-old Caleb Hart is a Cadaver-Manipulator in the year 2025. When teens receive a government-sanctioned pharmaceutical cocktail during school, paranormal abilities begin manifesting...making the teens more powerful than the adults.

The Bluesman - musician, magician, lethal killer. Thrown to Earth from a parallel universe, the Bluesman seeks to save our world from being overrun by the horrid, mutated creatures that came with him. Armed with magic, skill, and his companion, Scotch, he faces these monsters hoping to create a peaceful world for all. In Death House Jam Session, an after hours barroom jam session turns deadly when a ferocious monster that likes dark places attacks.

Children disappear in Vargas County. There's no soft or kind way to put it. In days long past, I lost a sister and then my Weesie and I lost our son. Some live in peace with the specter, some rise up and make accusations, but all of us breathe a sigh of relief when our young'uns reach puberty and we don't have to worry about them anymore.

"I'm a time pirate - born in 1810, now a 21st-century woman. I travel through time trying to right wrongs without disrupting the fragile balance between what is and what can never be. That's why it's vital that I go to 1836 and find the man who conned my brother out of his Time Travel Mechanism as quickly as possible. If the technology falls into the wrong hands, it could change the world as we know it."

Published in Middle English near the end of the 14th century, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, became an important part of literature and history because it captured the people and the stories of an era. Author Andy R. Bunch has compiled a modern equivalent of his own tales. Like the original, this is an opus and destined to meld with the fabric of history and literature.

Haunted grandfather clocks, dragons, witches, wizards, ghosts, metaphysical foes, enigmatic robot dolls, battling leprechauns, stone-age girlfriends, and Jesus arriving in Liverpool on a steam train are just some of the amazing goings-on in this Tom Slemen audiobook, which can be listened to by little people from 12 to 120!

"Dusted": Being a highly skilled predator doesn't necessarily put you at the top of the food chain at Club Nexus. A southern vampire with a hankering for blood and wanton violence may have bit off more than he can chew. "Demonized": The demon attorney we love to hate has his eye on a certain rockabilly human. Too bad she's brought a crossbow loaded with holy-water-dipped bolts for this night on the town. "Jinxed": Just when Jinx needs a carefree girl's night out with Ivy, a smoking-hot demon tries to buy her a drink. She really is the unluckiest human on the planet.

This lighthearted tale is the first of ten that will ultimately be compiled into an anthology titled "Denny's Tales". This tale, and a few others, will be available individually, through Kindle Direct Publishing.

Nach dem tragischen Tod seines Vaters führt Jack Deveraux dessen alten, staubigen Buchladen weiter. Es ist ein ruhiges Leben ohne jede Aufregung - bis zu dem Tag, als eine überirdisch schöne Frau den Laden betritt. Sie verlangt nach einem besonderen Buch, einem Erbstück von Jacks Vater, das natürlich unverkäuflich ist. Und doch kann Jack nicht anders: Wie in Trance greift er nach dem wertvollen Stück.

TV actor Charles Keating provides superb narratives of "Araby", "Eveline", and "Counterparts" from Joyce's brilliant collection of stories, rich with memorable characters and displaying his genius for the subtleties and nuances of language.

A mysterious presence stalks the hallways of the Sky-King's palace, stealing dreams and condemning the king's dancers to a living death. The task of unraveling this mystery falls to young Aesva, the last living bearer of the Gift. But she is young; inexperienced; and the woman most able to assist her has already died. Only Aesva can see the heartfires that flicker in the souls of the king's dancers. Only she knows that the heartfires are vanishing.

The Bluesman - musician, magician, lethal killer. Thrown into our world from a parallel universe, the Bluesman seeks to save the Earth from being overrun by the horrid, mutated creatures that came with him. Armed with magic, skill, and his companion, Scotch, he faces these monsters hoping to create a peaceful world for all.

Er ist jung. Er ist mutig. Und er ist auf der Jagd: Jack Deveraux - der Dämonenjäger. Du wirst niemals in Sicherheit sein! Seit ein paar Wochen ist es verdächtig ruhig, doch Jack Deveraux, Buchhändler und Dämonenjäger wider Willen, wagt es nicht, aufzuatmen. Er weiß, dass noch immer übernatürliche Kreaturen da draußen lauern. Und richtig: Etwas greift seine Assistentin Emma an und verwandelt ihre Wohnung in einen regelrechten Dschungel mit Lianen, die alles in ihrem Würgegriff fesseln, was ihnen zu nahe kommt. Jack ahnt, dass nur eine dahinter stecken kann: Selina, eine Sirene, die grausame Rache üben will!

>"Chi insiste nell’idea peregrina che il racconto fantastico italiano è stato un episodio minore quanto tardo apparso sulla scena europea, non valuta appieno il contributo di Tarchetti". Tarchetti "per ardore sperimentale" scosse "la tradizione del fantastico con una invenzione formale che non avrà emulatori." Lo fece con i suoi Racconti fantastici e in particolare con il racconto I fatali.

Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat, jackboots, and the black marks on his soul that every debt collector carries. He's just in it for his cut, the ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, the people who will make the world a better place with their brains, their work, and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja's sex workers keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane...until he collects again.

I can stop time, but I can't change anything. I can access memories, but not far enough. My name is Mira, and my life is about finding the Russian mobster who killed my family.