To be published July 22nd 2021…
Zhu-Chongba is marked for greatness. But then he dies. It is no simple thing for his sister, marked for nothing, to take his identity and, with it, his fate. At first she is driven by desperation, by survival. Then by want. And later, by desire. First a monk, then a soldier, then… She will climb as high as she dares, but if Heaven sees her girl’s body inside of Zhu-Chongba’s man’s fate then all will be lost.
In trying to save her daughter from ruin a well-meaning mother accidentally curses her instead, binding her for four lifetimes to a doomed relationship cycle with different reincarnations, the man who ruined her. Juliette and Marchant in 1890’s France, Nora and Billy in 1930’s Los Angeles, Sandra and Rick in 1970’s Los Angeles, and Helen and Roger in 2012 New York. Each reincarnation they are slightly different, and their relationship is slightly different, but the eventual mutual destruction is inevitable. The only person who stays the same, except for his increasingly modernised wardrobe, is the dashingly handsome demon administrator of the curse, Lucian Varnier, who is himself cursed to watch the woman he loves makes the same mistakes with the same wrong man lifetime after lifetime. Helen could finally be the one to break the cycle, but the price for her freedom is high.
Born covered in feathers, Marea grew up hidden away from view. Even though the women in the whorehouse where she lived revered her and treated her as a precious treasure, she began to hate that which made her special and to question more and more her own existence. Eventually she makes the difficult decision to fly the nest and leave to find her father, a near-mythical figure in her mother’s bedtime stories. Her journey takes her to the City of Murmurs and, whilst there, she finds much more than she ever expected to.
Kara, a.k.a Carrot, is going through a tough time: she’s penniless, homeless, and getting a divorce. But when she moves in with her Uncle to help him run the ‘Wonder Museum’, she makes a discovery that causes all her other troubles to pale in comparison. The hole to another dimension seems sinister from the outset, and it only gets worse. She decides to explore this strange world with her neighbour Simon, but it isn’t until they find the remains of previous explorers that the horrible reality starts to finally reveal itself. Something is out there, and They can hear your thoughts; the more you think of Them, the easier you are to find, and if you are found then you best hope that They are hungry because the alternative…
This anthology introduces the forgotten women ‘weird tale’ writers from the last two centuries and presents us with some of their previously unexplored short stories. It contains everything from ghosts and vampires, to carnivorous plants and cursed songs; it has mystical fog, magical hands of creation, fortune-telling gypsies and mystery horses. Interwoven with the elements of the ‘weird’ are the more typical story themes of romance, kindness, and the strength of familial bonds, as well as the darker elements of revenge, scandal, and death. In short, there is something for everyone. So if a story doesn’t strike the right chord with you, don’t let it hold you back from enjoying the next one.
When Sigil Agent Al MacBharrais loses yet another apprentice in a freak accident, he starts to think there might be more to his curse than he realised. Not being able to speak aloud is one thing, but seven dead apprentices is more than he can handle. When he starts to investigate Gordy’s death, he realises Gordy may also have been more than he realised and the caged hobgoblin in his bedroom is only the beginning.
Sherlock Holmes is on the case of a serial killer who is working through the alphabet, killing off philanthropists with dark pasts; a killer who Scotland Yard refuses to believe exists. He is hindered by the new head of Scotland Yard, Titus Billings, who would rather have him arrested than let him help on a case, and by an onslaught of unfavourable journalism trying its hardest to paint him as a devil. With the death toll rising quickly, and fears that his brother Mycroft is next on the list, Sherlock needs Watson’s help to close this case as swiftly as possible. Fortunately Dr Watson has decided that now is the perfect time to take a holiday from work to visit his old friend.
Coriolanus Snow lost everything during the war: his parents, his family’s money, his innocence. The only things he has left are his grandmother, his cousin, his home, his name, and his reputation. To protect the Snow name and reputation they must keep their destitution a secret. In private they live off hoarded tinned lima beans, black market bargaining and a lot of make-do-and-mend; in public Coriolanus must maintain a perfect congenial, imperious persona, giving no one any reason to look beyond it and question the truth.
Continue reading “‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ by Suzanne Collins”
This book promised an alternative ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ “as never seen before” and it definitely delivered. The human lovers of the original tale become galactic entities, whilst the fairies and mythical elements of Shakespeare’s story become the central focus of the narrative. Furthermore, every inch of the book is hyper-sexualised to an explicit extent.
Continue reading “‘Wild Time’ by Rose Biggin and Keir Cooper”
After an attempted suicide, Nora Seed hovers between life and death in a library where every book is a possible life she could have lived. Guided by her old school librarian, and a book titled ‘the book of regrets’, Nora explores the many different choices she made in life and the alternative choices that she could have made. Each choice leads to a different life which is contained within a different book. Having chosen a book Nora opens it, reads the first page and lets the book pull her in. Literally. If she finds a life in which she is truly happy then Nora will be allowed to stay in that life and claim it as her own. If not…
Escape to the Bookshelf