"There's a princess trapped in a tower. This isn't her story. Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right? But nothing with fairies is ever simple. Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering...

"Reed sees an opportunity to teach the school bully not to mess with him, but ends up mangling the lesson. Robert, an exhausted single father, gets a crash course in parenting when he buys a fancy new teddy bear to watch and entertain his young son. Chris, eager to join the Science Club at school, agrees to undergo a grisly experiment to be accepted. But in the malevolent universe of Five Nights at Freddy's, there's always an education in pain"--

Inspired by the title Dorothea Benton Frank planned for her next book-Reunion Beach-these close friends and colleagues channeled their creativity, admiration, and grief into stories and poems that celebrate this remarkable woman and her abiding love for the Lowcountry of her native South Carolina-a land of beauty, history, charm, and Gullah magic she so brilliantly brought to life in her acclaimed novels. --from Amazon.

"Quiver, a mostly-human astronaut, takes refuge from the monotony of harvesting minerals on remote asteroids by running through a virtual reality called the Lights, chasing visions of an elusive red-haired beauty. Her high-strung robot partner, Mic, pilots their Wobble and entertains himself by surfing the records of the obliterated planet Earth stored on his Swift Wheel for Al Pacino trivia, recipes for reconstituted sushi, and high fashion trends....

In his orchestral and moving new book, Peter Orner, a writer who "doesn't simply bring his characters to life, he gives them souls" (New York Times Book Review), chronicles people whose lives are at inflection points. In forty-four compressed gems, he grips us with a series of defining moments. Whether it's a first date that turns into a late-night road trip to a séance in an abandoned airplane hangar, or a family's memories of the painful mystery...

A collection of short stories and novellas includes tales of an illicit photograph collection, the poor treatment of the piano from "Casablanca," and the thoughts of an old folding chair.

"A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s--a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires. A couple isolate themselves on a remote island in an attempt to recover from their teenage son's death, when a mysterious young man knocks on their door during a storm... And a man confronts his neighbor...

Four stories of comedy, deception, and revenge (including one previously unpublished) showcases heroes who suffer from willful self-deceit. These not-so-innocents proceed from self-deception to deceiving others, who do not take it lightly. The novella "Dictation" imagines a fateful meeting between the secretaries to Henry James and Joseph Conrad at the peak of their fame. Timid Miss Hallowes, who types for Conrad, comes under the influence of James's...

Workaholic Henrietta Wegner can feel her edge beginning to dull in middle age. Once the company's hottest mergers and acquisitions executive, Henri can see the ambitious and impossibly young up-and-comers gunning for her job. When her boss makes it clear she'll be starting the New Year unemployed unless she can close a big deal before the holidays, Henri impulsively tells him that she can convince her aging parents to sell Wegner's, their iconic Frankenmuth,...

"Three holiday favorites from New York Times bestselling authors! Silver Bells by Debbie Macomber A single dad's rambunctious teenage daughter hatches a plot to find her father a wife, and she has just the woman in mind. He may claim he's not interested in remarriage, but perhaps the magic of the holiday season will help him change his mind. On a Snowy Christmas by Brenda Novak When their private plane crashes in the Sierra Nevada shortly before Christmas,...