Weird Fiction

One night and my life completely jumped the tracks. Actually, a pack of expired condoms did that - the rest of the night was pretty amazing. Open bar at a friend's wedding. Bad dancing all around. Stupid trivia bets with my fellow Ice Knights hockey teammates. And Tess Gardner. The factoid-blurting, fandom-T-shirt-wearing, no-I-don’t-want-a-relationship-with-you woman makes me forget for one night that I’m a man with a routine and my future all mapped out. Still, it sucked she left our room without giving me her number.

(Sixth edition with new stories) This edition adds two new stories and several photos to make the reading experience more pleasant. Wild Wise Weird now has 47 stories featuring the Bird Village and its central protagonist character, Kingfisher. This quirky and eccentric bird helps unveil corners of the Village, simultaneously exciting and unnerving many of its residents. As laws of physics transcend this remote community, a typical resident can be both peace-loving and war-mongering at the same time, the same way as Kingfisher discusses the philosophy of life with the fish inside his beak! ...

Nine stories. Infinite realities. From time-traveling assassins to cursed pianos, telepathic women to boring accountants, this genre-defying collection crashes through the borders of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Adventure, and Literary Fiction. Inside, you'll meet: A detective chasing clues across timelines. A struggling dad fighting for one perfect day with his daughter. A jinn with a dark secret. A musician whose final song might cost him everything. And an astronaut hurtling toward the end of the world… or the beginning of something else. Smart, strange, and unforgettable, Nine Stories: Astronauts...

A collection of 'neo-pulp' stories in the style of the classics but with a modern outlook and twist. Cichol's Children - Mythos/Weird Stain - Detective Shanks - Western The Black Rat - Masked vigilante The Dastard - Sword and Sorcery Wild - Jungle adventure Rink Rash - Exploitation/Post Apocalypse/Sport Mimsy Burogrove - Detective/Psychedelic Doc Osmium - Action/Adventure Tessa Coyle - Science Fiction/Detective Ace Slamm - Science Fiction One Man McCann - War/Science Fiction

A trio of outlaws are released from an orbiting prison and sent back to their home planet. The catch? Find the president's missing son, and you’ll be pardoned by the Federation. Welcome to the desert planet of Lazarus, the hottest place in the universe inhabited by humans. It’s not only the heat that will kill you. Lazarus is also home to a spectrum of deadly creatures who have clawed out a living in the harsh desert, and they don’t take kindly to visitors. Not to mention the gangs of vicious bandits roving the land in search of anyone to kill and steal from. As descendants of tough ...

The Meowy Republic stands proud in its traditions and its military might. Unlike the savages to the west and the barbarous centaurs to the east, every meowy has a say in how they are governed. But who shall lead them? Meowllary Clawton? The liberal lion who strives to help the less fortunate? Or Meowgaret Scratcher. A staunch conservative who yearns to expand the nation’s borders for the sake of security. The Republic needs wise leadership in troubling times. How should it deal with the pair of giant fairy-like creatures who look like hairless apes? These humans, as they call themselves, ...

A pirate lost to time. A siren bound in chains. And a love that should have drowned—yet refuses to die. Two hundred years ago, Jack Kelly should have died at sea. Instead, a siren dragged him into the stars, remaking him into a monster. Now, cursed to wander the galaxy as a cyborg, Jack hunts for the past that was stolen from him. And then he finds her. Alien kraken princess Nerissa knew better than to save a human, but she couldn’t let Jack die. Not when she’d spent so many nights watching him from beneath the waves. Not when she knew he was meant to be hers. But love has a price, ...

Or so its citizens believe. Sixteen-year-old Nelly is skeptical of the stories until one night she spots a strange light sneaking through the abandoned house on her family’s farm. When she investigates, she finds … fairies. Within hours of this discovery, Nelly's grandmother is catatonic, and the otherworldly trespassers are offering up a cure. But only at a terrible price. It turns out that Nelly is a rare find for the fae. And the shocking reason why is buried in a past only the dead can remember.

"TIME TO GO HOME, FRANNIE." Fran didn't want to return to the old homestead. Too many awful memories. Or in her case, blank spaces in her mind. However, her brother's invitation is difficult to ignore. Fran hasn't seen him in years. A reunion might jog her memory. It might kill her, too. Erik Handy, the author of The Mummy Kills The Brides, unleashes the next level of horror with Macabre! You'll never see the surprise ending - and neither will Fran!

WELCOME TO THE HOTEL GALILEO It's the Roaring Twenties. Humanity has ventured out into the stars, and out there, on the shoulder of Orion, sits Earth's crowning achievement -- the awesome space palace known as the Hotel Galileo. Returning to Earth after a long vacation, detective Barclay Heath decides to stop at the famed space hotel for one night only. But Heath soon discovers dark forces are at work . . . before the night is over an Arcturan dignitary is found murdered in his bed. With the future of Earth hanging in the balance, only the keen mind of Barclay Heath can see through the ...

The year is 1984 and a 16 year old Jake Corba is just a misunderstood kid in need of a good home. It seems the world has given up on him already, but he finds new hope in a unique group home in Oak Bridge, CA. Jake finds a new life in the small town, but unfortunately his old problems won't seem to go away. No matter where he goes, he cannot escape the dark secret that has cursed his life since the day he was born. While Jake finds enemies, he also finds friends, but their help may not be enough to prevent the darkness that is destined to come. He is about to face the most intense challenge...

In honor of Presidents’ Day, A.J. and Andrea from Ella Mentry will compete against their Dirk School rivals in the ultimate Presidents’ Day Challenge! The winning school will get bragging rights, a free trip to an amusement park, and a top-secret prize. The only problem is that A.J. doesn’t know anything about US presidents, unless it involves their use of toilets! Will A.J. and Andrea be able to work together as a team and bring home the win?

Mr. Klutz is retiring! (A surprise even to him, courtesy of scheming Dr. Carbles.) Vice principal Mrs. Jafee thinks it’s her time to shine, but Dr. Carbles has hired someone else for the job! Stand-up comedian Mrs. Stoker is ready to defend her place as principal in a joke-off against Mrs. Jafee.

The rise of the Master of Elements shall mark the return of the Wizard King. Weirden’s where . . . . . . chocolates are free, . . . people have windows instead of tummies, . . . and humans are called Ordinaires . . . because it’s a magical realm in the sky! An ordinary high-school boy, Ariston Baker, takes a risky plunge into an archaic picture book to save his friend, Kylan. Ariston soon realizes he has teleported into a magical sky realm called Weirden. Time is of the essence, for he must cross the tricky magical mazes, fetch his friend, and pass the exit gate before sunset, or he ...

A collection of stories: The Possessed Printer Blues: A woman buys a printer at a yard sale. The Long Day Sun: A photography student helps out a friend. Savory Taro Pudding: A short nightmare based on true events. Billionaire Babies: It turns out you can't trust billionaires. Bath Salts Vampire: Teen girls with low self-esteem + a drug dealer who thinks he's an ancient vampire. What could go wrong?

- A fugitive finds himself in a deadly predicament- Reality show producers push the envelope to please their superiors- A group of test subjects take an unexpected journey- A rogue scientist takes genetic modification to the next level- People who eat Tide Pods turn into detergent-craving zombies- Something terrifying lurks in the Canadian wilderness- Evacuees from a doomed Earth colonize a distant planet.- A malfunctioning android threatens humanityTake a journey down the psycho path in Volume 3 of Mandy White’s Dysfunctional Fiction series.This ebook is DRM-free. Can be read on non-...

Featuring all-new tales of dark fantasy, cosmic horror, supernatural revenge, and the sorcery of terror from masters of the craft, this issue includes stories and poems by Alma Katsu, Heather Graham, Maurice Broaddus, Fran Wilde, Priya Sharma, Anne Walsh, Yvonne Navarro, Jake Bible, Gabrielle Faust, and Christina Sng.

In the golden age of steam, the London train wends its way across the Tamar into the strange and mystic land that is Cornwall, having left most of its length at Plymouth. A weary doctor is gazing at the countryside when the train grinds to a halt and his professional attention is demanded. A young woman. An apparent suicide. Who was she? What brought her to Cornwall? What drove her to kill herself? Or did she?

In this third book in the My Weirder-est School series, A.J. and his friends learn about good oral hygiene. Grab your toothbrushes! It’s National Dessert Day, and Ella Mentry School has asked local dentist Dr. Floss to educate A.J. and his friends on the dental dangers of sweets. But Dr. Floss has other plans. She wants the kids to eat as much sugar as possible so that they’ll need a dentist! Will someone get a cavity?

Seamlessly shifting between the speculative and the blindingly real, balancing the bizarre with the subtle brutality of the mundane, A Manual for How to Love Us is a tender portrait of women trying their best to survive, love, and find genuine meaning in the aftermath of loss. In these unconventional and unpredictably connected stories, Erin Slaughter shatters the stereotype of the soft-spoken, sorrowful woman in distress, queering the domestic and honoring the feral in all of us.