Urban Short Stories

Three suburban friends had normal and routine lives. The one thing they had to look forward to each week was their wine night. This all changed when one of the women decided to shake things up and brought a mysterious book of spells and magic to their wine night. She had a terrible, wonderful confession. She had been using magic to improve her life and it was working. Now she wanted to share this gift with her two best friends. It seemed harmless enough at the time and when their wishes started to come true, the three friends didn't see the harm in trying more and more dangerous spells.

From the vaults of the British Library comes a new anthology celebrating the best works of forgotten, never-since-republished supernatural fiction from the early 20th century. Waiting within are malevolent spirits eager to possess the living and mysterious spectral guardians - a diverse host of phantoms exhumed from the rare pages of literary magazines and newspaper serials to thrill once more.

Everyone needs to be a hero at one point in their life. The small town of Elliot Lake will never be the same again. Caught in a sudden thunderstorm, Zoe, a high school senior from Elliot Lake, and five of her friends take shelter in an abandoned uranium mine. Over the next few days, Zoe's hearing sharpens drastically, beyond what any normal human being can detect. She tells her friends, only to learn that four others have an increased sense as well. Only Kieran, the new boy from Scotland, isn't affected.

Twenty-two short stories that will lift your spirits or break your heart from acclaimed author Warren Adler, well known for iconic novel turned international box-office hit The War of the Roses. Written to celebrate the author’s return to New York City after 40 years away from it, Adler focuses his laser eye on New York City in these 22 deftly crafted and compelling short stories. New York, the frenetic, tough-minded, generous-hearted city, magnet for people’s hopes and aspirations, is as vividly and lovingly portrayed here as any of the characters.

Oliver Caradog saves a small boy from a white dragon. Unable to find his family and suspecting him to be not entirely human, he names him Jude and takes him home to be cared for by his wife in the realm of the tyrant King Vortigern. This is a fantasy fiction short story based on the real history of Wales, a beautiful and wild country where dragons have always lived.

Nights of the Creaking Bed is full of colorful characters involved in affecting dramas.

Der erste Band mit Kurzgeschichten, mit der fast schon zum Klassiker avancierten Geschichte "Alles wird gut", in der Johnny Tristano sich den Ratschlag gibt: "Wenn du dich stützen musst, stütze dich an Mauern, nicht an Menschen!" Einmal mehr kann man bei Fauser lesend lernen, was es heißt, tief zu fallen, aber niemals unterzugehen und neben Witz und Melancholie auch die Lust auf das Leben und ein Bier zu bewahren.

EPIC award finalist Howard Odentz has penned 26 disturbingly fascinating horror stories about the youngest predators among us. From Andy and Boris to Yuri and Zina, this eclectic anthology is filled, A to Z, with psychopaths, monsters, and murderers.

Just because Jenny was born without a head doesn't mean she isn't still annoying to her older brother, and just because the Man of the Future's carefully planned extramarital affair ends in alien abduction and network fame doesn't mean he can't still pine for his absent wife. Romping through the fantastic with big-hearted ease, these stories cut to the core of what it means to navigate family, faith, and longing.

Gordon Lightcap and his partner, Moira Donatelli, have created an organization to rid the world of a rising threat. But to better understand that threat they must look back into the horrific events leading up to their current predicament. Join them as they search for the answers through 10 short stories of flesh-devouring madness. Learn about the very first incident and others to discover an even more dangerous foe who is ready to surface.

Quiet As They Come is a beautiful and at times brutal portrait of a people caught between two cultures. Set in San Francisco from the 1980s to the present day, this debut collection explores the lives of several families of Vietnamese immigrants as they struggle to adjust to life in their new country, often haunted by the memories and customs of their old lives in Vietnam. While some are able to survive and assimilate, others are crushed by the promise of the "American Dream."

Plötzlich kriecht eine Hand blitzschnell von der Seite in den Hosenladen seiner Lederhose und greift zu. "Das fühlt sich aber gut an!" flüstert eine Stimme in sein Ohr. Er zuckt zusammen wie eine Katze, die man am Schwanz packt. "Bist du verrückt?" flüstert er zurück und kneift die Beine zusammen. Als ob das etwas nützte. Eben saß doch noch die Eva von der Maske neben ihm.

Aguanten la respiración y sean testigos de los prodigios más sorprendentes: conozcan al increíble hombre que se comunica con un fantasma escribiendo mensajes en la puerta del servicio de un bar, a la extraordinaria gata enamorada de su vecino, al vendedor de enciclopedias que acaba suplantando al hijo de una de sus clientes, a la fabulosa niña que recibe cartas de su muñeca perdida, al asombroso hombre que se desdobla con cada decisión que toma, y toda una troupe de criaturas maravillosas.

Connor McKnight, former acolyte of film, Zen, and Japanese literature, is not unaware that these avocations are wildly different tfrom his present occupation (fledgling celebrity journalist). Meanwhile, his longtime girlfriend, the fashion model Philomena, seems curiously remote, and soon decamps for the West Coast.

Bevor Charles Dickens mit "Oliver Twist" berühmt wurde, schrieb er Kurzgeschichten. 1836 veröffentlichte er die "Londoner Skizzen". Es sind Beobachtungen, Fantasien und Fiktionen, in denen Dickens das alltägliche Leben humorvoll beschreibt und gleichzeitig die sozialen Missstände im England des 19. Jahrhunderts kritisiert. Sie alle zeigen das London, das er so gut kannte, im Guten wie im Schlechten – seine Straßen, Theater, Gasthäuser, Pfandhäuser und Gefängnisse. Mit seiner eindringlichen Stimme erweckt Tom Vogt Dickens’ Alltagsszenen zum Leben.

There's a saying in Brooklyn that if you come from my part of town, you're from around the way. Well Lyric, Juicy, and Precious are all from around the way. They all live in Crown Heights, one of the most notorious sections of Brooklyn, but to them it's just a place they call home. Around the Way Girls 2 is a fast-paced look at the life of some street-smart women who think they know it all but are about to get the lessons of their lives.

Three uncommon tales of the common man. Two technicians of an unutterable trade. A home for the elderly whose secrets must remain underground. And a meat factory where homogeneity hides all evils.

The complete collection of Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. short stories! Including the three previously published shorts: Dearly Departed, Hair of the Hellhound, and Season's Reapings, plus three all-new shorts: Pre-Mortem (set in the 1700s), Post-Mortem (set in the 2300s), and Death or Something Like It, a crossover short story with Jesse Sullivan, the heroine of Kory M. Shrum's Dying for a Living series.

Utah can be a weird place, but do you really know just how weird it can be? Find out with this collection of strange tales set in the Beehive State. We're not going to say they're true...but they're true.

This collection of stories by science-fiction and mystery author Gary Alan Ruse explores fantasy realms and the dark side of human - and nonhuman - nature with thrills and chills, and, in some cases, a touch of humor.