Urban Short Stories

Un'oscura genia di umanoidi che minaccia la sopravvivenza di tutti gli uomini. Una folle fuga nel microcosmo psichedelico della metropolitana di Londra. Un cagnolino in grado di diventare lo strumento più forte del male assoluto. Il lato in ombra della mente può oltrepassare i limiti della ragione, confondendosi con la realtà e sostituirsi a essa? I racconti di "È solo nella tua mente ed è reale" si muovono in queste atmosfere stranianti e bizzarre, inquietanti e surreali, cercando di rispondere al segreto della psiche con uno sguardo attento e brillante.

Take a trip into theheart of passion as seductive samba rhythms pulse in the warm evening breezes. Escape and savor these three scintillating stories set against the beautifulbackdrop of Brazil.... Two weeks in Rio - surely that's enough time for marketing VP Sydni Lawson to forge a lucrative merger. But instead of sweet-talking real estate mogul Gabriel St. James, she's being swept away by their sizzling and unexpected attraction.

It’s that time of year again. In the shadows, otherworldly creatures lurk, under the gravestones, the dead begin to rise, and in that old house down the lane, ghosts rattle their chains. For once more, Trick or Treat Thrillers brings you our pick of the best Indie-paranormal short stories for 2020! Before you begin listening to our selection of 13 stories, however, we recommend you first check under your bed, in your closet, and outside of your window. You never know what may be coming your way.

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.

With these captivating initial glimpses into her storytelling psyche, Jo Walton shines through subtle myths and reinvented realities. Through eclectic stories, subtle vignettes, inspired poetry, and more, Walton soars with humans, machines, and magic-rising from the every day into the universe itself.

A race of tiny magical beings lives on Earth today. But humans are totally unaware of their hidden civilization. They are kirins. While a group of daring explorers battles to save the kirin race, a disgruntled magician interrupts a worldwide spell, making kirins everywhere suddenly visible. Taking advantage of this breach, Jeremy Bailey, an Alaskan fishing boat captain, captures a kirin named Till and, under threat of torture and violence, exploits his gifts for Bailey's own benefit.

Magic and madness don't always run hand in hand, but there's a reason they call it the Touch. Delaney Green is one of them that don't burn, not that no one ain't never tried. After her mama tried and failed to murder her for pulling on the future like it was a piece of string, Del has spent her whole life in a mental institution for her own safety. And everyone else's. No one wants to see what might happen if she goes cracked. When a dozen young women turn up burned to a crisp, local folks are quick to point the FBI straight at Del.

Welcome to the horrific and poetic world of Sam Stone, where angels are stalking the undead and a vampire becomes obsessed with a centuries-old werewolf. Terror and lust go hand in hand in the disturbing world of the Toymaker, and the haunting Siren's call draws the hapless further into a waking nightmare. Here are 14 chilling short stories from the Queen of Vampire fiction. This collection includes a bonus story, "Walking the Dead", which does not appear in the printed edition.

These twenty two tales of horror will transport you into the world of darkness and fear, a dim, shadowy netherworld just beyond the veil, just past the threshold, just after midnight.

In this collection of 19 short stories, Craig Nybo invites you to visit the lives of mostly unfortunate souls as they face the most terrifying moments of their existences. With everything from vampire hunting to zombie bashing, from steampunk death devices to shifty soul brokers, Nybo brings his own sense of perspective and, of course, his sense of humor to this collection of departures from reality. Terrifying Lies contains Nybo's acclaimed story, "The Mechanic", along with 18 other tales of the macabre.

Karlie Houston hasn't seen a raise in forever, but the payday loan office she manages is raking in the cash. So why not get what she's rightfully owed by masterminding a heist? Once her lover Sidney's boys hit all the company's locations at one time, there's a fortune to split. But suddenly bodies start dropping - and Karlie better devise the perfect plan to survive.

Visit a world where a wild-land firefighter must use his mysterious powers to save his crew from a roaring inferno. Follow an eco-tourist's frantic efforts to escape an African quarantine zone ravaged by a deadly virus. Meet a gumshoe journalist as she tracks down a figure that'sable to predict the future with terrifying accuracy. And tune into Texas station KRAP (don't touch that dial, there's KRAP on it!) as a pair of down-home country deejays try their damnedest to stop a murder...while they're still on the air.

Dalio, der Maler hat ein Problem: Eine wahrhaft faszinierende Frau hat es auf ihn abgesehen. Er wird sie nicht mehr los. Schließlich verschwindet er...

Small Press newcomer, Paper Golem, debuts the first in a annual series of single author collections by brilliant new authors. Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight brings together twenty stories from the extraordinary talent of fantasy author Cat Rambo. Here are tales from seaport city of Tabat, both before and after the sorcerous wars that destroyed the Old Continent. Here are alchemical explanations for failed blind dates. Here you'll find a dryad, the last great elephant, and an uneasy blur of humanity.

Fifteen dark tales by USA Today best-selling author J.R. Rain. "Vampire Nights": Samantha Moon meets someone unexpected on a late-night trip to Denny's, someone who seems to know all her secrets and has all the answers. "Book Burning": Two brothers find themselves on a late-night mission to burn a legendary book of supposed dark powers. "The Silo": The land is dying and crops are failing. The city of Wheatopia is in the middle of the worst drought in recent memory - that is, until a city slicker and his too-thin wife arrive in town.... Plus 12 more!

Untouched by Human Hands consists of 13 stories of beings who dwell on the strange borders of reality. Some of these stories tell of people you know or of events that might happen - but haven't yet. Some will take you to the furthermost reaches of the sky and to planets whose names are unknown this side of Arcturus. And some - perhaps the richest and most memorable of these stories - open into the interior of strange minds to reveal the reflection of ourselves.

Thirteen hundred years ago, the treaty was shattered. Lord Kammoloth, the King of Heaven, had fathered the Starchild, Merai hin'Dana: a half-mortal girl with the power to steal the divine essence of the gods themselves. But rather than fulfill her prophesied destiny and destroy the Gods of Shadow, Merai rejected both sides of the Pantheon, stealing their power and casting them to earth. To ensure that this power would never be abused, Merai then gave it to Lady Kyia, the spirit of Metamor Keep, to protect the mortal inhabitants she was sworn to serve.

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.

Whether they are undeniably heroes and heroines or bloodthirsty monsters (or something in between), the undead are a lively lot. This anthology offers some of the best short fiction ever written by the "blood sisters" who know them best: stories you can really sink your teeth into.

He has taken me away from everything that I know and love. I only have one choice: to do everything he says or my fate will be worse than death. What does he want? He wants to play a game. But I’m not the only one playing. There are others. Prettier, smarter, more charming than I am. But only one of us can be the winner. Only one of us can be his wife.