Showing results by narrator "Suzy Jackson" in All Categories

Sixteen-year-old Celstia spends every summer with her family at the elite resort at Lake Conemaugh, a shimmering Allegheny Mountain reservoir held in place by an earthen dam. Tired of the society crowd, Celestia prefers to swim and fish with Peter, the hotel's hired boy. It's a friendship she must keep secret, and when companionship turns to romance, it's a love that could get Celestia disowned. These affairs of the heart become all the more wrenching on a single, tragic day in May 1889.

This short story is from the anthology Mitigated Futures. Twelve science fiction stories about the oncoming future, each of them representing a possible glimpse of what could be just around the corner... or much further down the corridor. These stories previously appeared in places like Clarkesworld Magazine, The Year's Best SF, Subterranean Magazine, and in various anthologies. They deal with the future of war, our climate, and technology's effect on our lives.

Tides is a short story from the collection Tides from the New Worlds. Caribbean-born novelist Tobias Buckell established himself as a gifted new voice in science fiction with his stunning first novel, Crystal Rain. Now, in his first collection, Buckell demonstrates his strengths in the short form, offering listeners a collection of stories that are compelling, smart, wonderfully imagined, and entertaining.

With a head plagued by hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet stuffed with frilly, violet dresses, Hanna's tired of being the outcast, the weird girl, the freak. So she runs away to Portero, Texas, in search of a new home. But Portero is a stranger town than Hanna expects. She discovers secrets that would terrify any normal soul. Good thing for Hanna, she's far from normal. As this crazy girl meets an even crazier town, only two things are certain: Anything can happen, and no one is safe.

Most people want to save the world; 17-year-old Tora Reynolds just wants to get the hell off of it. One of the last survivors in Earth's final years, Tora yearns to escape the wasteland her planet has become after the sun turns "red giant," but discovers her fellow survivors are even more deadly than the hostile environment. Holed up in an underground shelter, Tora is alone - her brilliant scientist father murdered, her mother and sister burned to death. She dreams of living on a planet with oceans, plants, and animals.

In a busy school cafeteria, a teenage girl is confronted by a classmate who questions her identity. He explains to the students who have crowded around that the girl bears an uncanny resemblance to his cousin, who was taken away by social services five years ago. Her parents abandoned her, fleeing the country after being accused of embezzling millions of dollars. The students are intrigued, but the girl shrugs off the attention as a case of mistaken identity.

A talented runner fully committed to Olympic dreams, Sabrina Rice's future was shattered by a devastating diagnosis. One forfeited scholarship and several years later, she has new goals and dreams that have nothing to do with running - something that's become far too painful to think on. Until the day she sees Brandy Philip running across the community college campus, easily outpacing security. Soon, Sabrina begins to feel an uncomfortable nudge that her new life is just about to be toppled...that God may be calling her to minister to this talented but troubled girl.

For the audience that made Commencement a New York Times best seller comes a novel about women making their way in the world. Self-doubting Ruth is coddled by her immigrant mother, who uses food to soothe and control. Defiant Francesca believes her heavy frame shames her Park Avenue society mother and, to provoke her, consumes everything in sight. Lonely Opal longs to be included in her glamorous mother’s dinner dates - until a disturbing encounter forever changes her desires. Finally, Setsu, a promising violinist, staves off conflict with her jealous brother.

It's springtime of senior year, and psychic sleuth Daisy Giordano is preparing to say goodbye to Nightshade High. But no college acceptance letters have arrived yet, and she's beginning to worry about where she'll end up come fall - and if it will be anywhere near her boyfriend, Ryan. But that's not the only uncertainty Daisy's dealing with. Theres a vamps-versus-shifters war going on in Nightshade, and things are so tense that there is talk of canceling the prom.

It's Saturday night in Santa Barbara and it seems like everyone is headed to the same destination. The reason is simple: To celebrate the end of school. But for eleven different people the motives are bit more complicated - to be noticed, to hook up, to make friends, to numb the pain, to get over an ex, to say goodbye. As each character takes a turn and tells his/her story, the eleven individuals intersect, reconnect, and combine in ways that none of them ever saw coming.

Summer days drift by slowly in Meadville, South Carolina - that is, until Sherman the one-legged pigeon flies into town and causes a ruckus. First Stella, who's been begging for a dog, spots him on top of a garage roof and decides she wants him for a pet. Then there's Ethel and Amos, an old couple who sees the pigeon in their barn keeping company with a little brown dog that barks all night. The pigeon lands smack in the middle of Mutt Raynard's head, but he's the town liar, so no one believes him. And when Stella's brother Levi and his scabby-kneed, germ-infested friends notice the pigeon, they join the chase, too.

High school freshman Jessica Walsh is a Virago - a woman warrior who must protect her hometown from danger. And in Nightshade, California, trouble is always lurking. At the town’s Battle of the Bands, Jess’ boyfriend, Dominic, and his band, Side Effects May Vary, are up against Hamlin, a band so popular,their fans follow them everywhere. Soon,the competing musicians are doing risky, illegal, and even fatal things - and claiming that they heard strange music that compelled them to do it. Can Jess and her friends track down the tuneful tyrant before it’s too late?

Sixteen-year-old Kayla was born with the ability to move things with her mind-things like credit cards and buttons on cash registers - and she has become a master shoplifter. She steals to build up enough money for her and her mom to be able to flee if her dad finds them again… which would mean grave danger for them both. When she's caught stealing by a boy named Daniel - a boy with the ability to teleport - he needs her help and is willing to blackmail her to get it.

For Ruby Pepperdine, the "center of everything" is on the rooftop of Pepperdine Motors in her donut-obsessed town of Bunning, New Hampshire, stargazing from the circle of her grandmother Gigi' s hug.

When Martha decided she must have a pet, she marveled and mulled over what she should get. But much of the choices made Martha quite glum. Instead of magnificent, most were humdrum. And just as it seemed like it might be no use, she made up her mind that she must have one...moose! When Martha gets an unusual pet, she's delighted by all of the fun things they do together.

Austin Gray is almost 15 and sheï¿¿ï¿¿s tired of not being noticed. So she hatches a plan to become Prosper County's Sweetheart in order to ride through town during the annual parade waving and smiling to everyone. To make her dream come true, however, she'll have to join the Future Farmers of America. But what's a little hunting and fishing (and livestock raising) to a determined teenager?

Kissing Cousins recalls the author as a teenager: peppy, earnest, and a bit self-important. Hortense Calisher documents her family's surprising history as Southern Jews adrift in New York. Finding her new city and school boorish, the young Calisher takes solace in the enduring friendship she develops with Katie Pyle, a gregarious nurse turned "kissing cousin" 15 years Calisher's senior. Katie, an unmarried woman, possesses her own secret, depicted here with a novelist's touch for the dramatic.

Jessica Walsh is starting her freshman year at Nightshade High and trying to forget about the tragic events surrounding her brother’s graduation. She wants to have a normal high school experience. But that’s easier said than done in Nightshade. There’s a new guy at school who seems to be turning the girls into lovesick zombies. And Jessica has other worries - like her crush on a cute but moody lead singer, and the mysterious tattoo that appeared on her arm one day that lets her know whenever there is trouble brewing. Jessica learns she’s a Virago, a woman warrior chosen to fight evil whenever it threatens her hometown.

Critically acclaimed author and master of the macabre David Lubar is back with 30 more warped and creepy tales for fans of his best-selling Weenies story collections, which have sold more than 1.7 million copies to date.

Once upon a time there was a princess...who made a pit stop. While the birds and beasts changed her tires, her fairy godmother told her she was in last place! With just one lap left! She might as well give up! Give up? Not this princess! Instead, she hit the gas! Join Her Royal Highness in the driver's seat for a mad dash to the finish in this exciting ode to auto racing.