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Story spotlight: “Ghost Case” by Bonnie Elizabeth


After moving her business into the new building owned by Rain McFarland, Meg Barringer wonders if having to combine their businesses is really a deal with the devil.

When Rain leaves for a conference, Meg gets a call about a marketing group. Except she’s not there to market. They’re plagued by a ghost and want her to solve a century old mystery. Meg needs to dig into Whisper’s history in order to find answers. By the time she’s done, she might just miss her new business partner.
 
 
 
“Ghost Case” is in the Fantasy in the City bundle. You can learn more on BundleRabbit, Goodreads, and the bundle’s Facebook page.

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About the Author

Bonnie Elizabeth started writing fiction when she was eight years old. Fortunately that manuscript has long since been lost.

In between a variety of odd jobs, including working as an acupuncturist, Bonnie wrote articles about acupuncture and the business of being an acupuncturist for a variety of acupuncture journals. She also blogged as her cat while transitioning to her real love of fiction writing.

She writes the Whisper series, which begins with Whisper Bound, and has a number of other fantasy, urban fantasy and mystery projects in the works.

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Story spotlight: “To Be a Monster” by Jamie Ferguson

Scylla is caught by surprise when her mother, the river nymph Crataeis, shows up unexpectedly. Mother’s infrequent visits are welcome, but also serve as a painful reminder of what Scylla’s life had been like before the evil witch Circe turned her into a hideous, people-eating monster.

The cliff Scylla lives on juts out into a narrow straight of water; an arrow-shot away lives the monster Charybdis, who sucks water – and any ships unfortunate enough to be close by – down a whirlpool and into her great maw several times a day. Mother asks Scylla to allow a ship that belongs to a young man named Odysseus to pass by unharmed a few days hence; that way his boat won’t have to venture too close to the whirlpool. Scylla agrees, on the condition that her mother go to Circe and plead with her to return Scylla to her normal human form.

But when Odysseus’ ship appears, Scylla realizes that perhaps things are not as they seem…
 
“To Be a Monster” is in the Beneath the Waves collection. You can learn more on BundleRabbit, Goodreads, and the collection’s Facebook page.
 

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Jamie focuses on getting into the minds and hearts of her characters, whether she’s writing about a saloon girl in the American West, a man who discovers the barista he’s in love with is a naiad, or a ghost who haunts the house she was killed in—even though that house no longer exists. Jamie lives in Colorado, and spends her free time in a futile quest to wear out her two border collies since she hasn’t given in and gotten them their own herd of sheep.

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Story spotlight: “Lexie’s Choice” by Deb Logan


Prom is just around the corner, but Lexie has mixed emotions. The guy of her dreams has issued the invitation, but she can’t afford the kind of dress that makes her drool. Fortunately, her best friend is a faery princess. No. Really. Claire is an honest-to-goodness faery princess with flower faeries at her command. The girls want gorgeous prom dresses? No problem! The flower faeries can deliver.

Unfortunately, nothing in Faery is what it seems, and prom dresses for mortal friends carry a hefty price. Will Lexie earn her dream dress? The outcome is totally in her hands.

Too bad no one told her she’s on trial…

“Lexie’s Choice” is in The Faerie Summer bundle. You can learn more on BundleRabbit, Goodreads, and the bundle’s Facebook page.
 

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A prolific copywriter by day, Deb Logan has been published in WMG Publishing’s Fiction River anthologies, Dreaming Robot Press’s Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide anthologies, Windrift Books’ Chronicle Worlds anthologies, and other markets. She has also released several short stories, short story collections, and novels for young readers, including the popular “Dani Erickson” series.

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Story spotlight: “The Haunting of Melsbury Manor” by Rebecca M. Senese

Charlotte and her maid Trudy stalk the halls of Melsbury Manor, alone since the last tenants fled. But now new tenants are moving in, Andrew and his son Mark, and their presence threatens the careful equilibrium Charlotte has developed.

Will she be able to escape them?

Just who is haunting who?
 
 
 
 
“The Haunting of Melsbury Manor” is in the Haunted bundle. You can learn more on BundleRabbit, Goodreads, and the bundle’s Facebook page.
 

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Based in Toronto, Canada, Rebecca M. Senese writes horror, science fiction and mystery/crime, often all at once in the same story. Garnering an Honorable Mention in “The Year’s Best Science Fiction” and nominated for numerous Aurora Awards, her work has appeared in Fiction River, Tesseracts, Ride the Moon, TransVersions, Deadbolt Magazine, On Spec, The Vampire’s Crypt, Storyteller, Reflection’s Edge, Future Syndicate and Into the Darkness, among others.

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New release: Beauty and Wickedness

Dangerous spirits lurk in the woods
A bargain can bind a soul
Enchanted sleep can only be broken by true love’s kiss…

You know these things are true…even in this modern world. Your heart still recognizes the power and mystery you can only find in a fairy tale.

In Beauty and Wickedness, the first volume in the anthology series Ever After Fairy Tales, sixteen authors retell and reimagine some of the most enchanting fairy tales ever told. Within these pages, you’ll find beauty and treachery, magic and courage, innocence and wickedness…and at least some happy endings.

Come and lose yourself in the delights and dangers of Beauty and Wickedness.

Amazon ~ iBooks ~ Kobo ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Books2Read

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Story spotlight: “The Ballad of Molly McGee” by DeAnna Knippling


Witches weave curses out of words; the less you use ‘em, the more powerful they are. Blessings are weaker—but you can use them more often, wear them in like shoes.

Judith’s red-headed granddaughter Molly, also a witch, curses her way through life, and now look at her—pregnant, a widow, and an adulteress with the spirit of a mountain to boot. Not that Judith can complain; it’s only been time that’s worn off her own rough edges. And what else is a grandmother to do, but love her grandbaby?

Now it’s time for the baby to be born, to a powerful witch who can’t be touched by painkillers, with a father who’s being strip-mined by a company town, in a cabin at the top of the sky, and a midwife who’s tired of the drama.

What else could possibly go wrong?

And of course there has to be a storm rolling in…

“The Ballad of Molly McGee” is in the Witches’ Brew bundle. You can learn more on BundleRabbit, Goodreads, and the bundle’s Facebook page.

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DeAnna Knippling is a writer, a parent, and an overthinker who boldly paranoids where no one has paranoided before. Her superpower is speed reading. She ghostwrites novels for fun and profit. She has an essay in the award-winning Women Destroy Science Fiction! collection. She has had stories published in Penumbra, Three-Lobed Burning Eye, Black Static, and more. Her latest novel, Alice’s Adventures in Underland: The Queen of Stilled Hearts, comes out of her obsession with all things Alice. She writes books for middle-graders as De Kenyon.

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Story spotlight: “Imuji” by Liz Pierce


Tim’s would-be girlfriend has snakes in her hair.

His best friend appears to be incombustible.

And during the night, a dragon tattoo has appeared on Tim’s arm, a symbol of his half-Korean heritage.

Tim MacLaren was an ordinary student at Olympus High, until the day after his seventeenth birthday when he discovered that, like most of his friends, he was anything but “ordinary.”

An Olympus High short story.
 
“Imuji” is in the Fantasy in the City bundle. You can learn more on BundleRabbit, Goodreads, and the bundle’s Facebook page.
 

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Whether it’s the exploits of the teenage offspring of the Gods walking the halls of Olympus High, or Faerie Folk moving to the Real World and trying to cope with jobs, neighbors, and everyday life, Liz Pierce writes “suburban fantasy” – stories that blur the boundaries between the real world and the fantastical, but are lighter and less edgy than their urban cousins. And, hopefully, a little more fun.

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Story spotlight: “Freshly Ghost” by Chuck Heintzelman


 
Being dead was unlike anything Chance Phillips had expected. For one thing, he’s forced to change his name. For another, he discovers he can move through time.
 
When Chance learns a friend, an alive friend, is in danger will he and his ghost friend Jeremy be able to save her in time?
 
 
 
 
“Freshly Ghost” is in the Haunted bundle. You can learn more on BundleRabbit, Goodreads, and the bundle’s Facebook page.
 

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Chuck writes quirky short stories, usually with some sort of fantastical element. He’s as surprised by this as anyone. Even after dozens of stories he stills stays up too late at night, feverishly working on the next tale.

He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his beautiful wife and their three daughters.

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Story spotlight: “We, the Ocean” by Alexandra Brandt


When Thalassa’s Children—the mer-like, genderless protectors of the ocean—experience the trapped and suffocating death of one of their own, a single member chooses to take action. Against the wishes of the collective mind.

But can a lone mer ever hope to convince the humans of what they have done to the ocean, in a language they will understand?

And will it be worth losing everything?
 
 
“We, the Ocean” is in the Beneath the Waves collection. You can learn more on BundleRabbit, Goodreads, and the collection’s Facebook page.
 

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Alexandra Brandt spent most of her childhood dressing up in fairy wings and parading in front of the mirror telling stories to herself. Not much has changed – she still loves a good costume, and tells herself stories every day. Her short stories currently appear in Fiction River anthologies and your favorite ebook retailers.

When not spinning tales, reading, or debating worldbuilding details with her writer husband, she writes web copy and functions as a content marketer and graphic designer. She also dabbles in art, watches too many Sci-Fi TV shows, and welcomes any excuse to sit down and play tabletop games – from D&D to board games to cards.

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Make a basic gradient layer with Photoshop

A gradient in an image is a gradual transition from one color to another color.

Example of using a gradient layer to make text stand out

Here are the before and after versions of a book cover where a gradient layer was used to improve the readability of the title text. The color transition is from one of the blues in the image itself, and because the opacity is set so low, the effect is very subtle.

And here’s what the gradient layer looks like without the image.


 
How to create a gradient layer

  • Create a new layer.
  • In the new layer, create the desired shape using the appropriate selection tool. You can add a gradient to any shape.
     

     

     
  • Select the gradient tool.
     

     
  • Select the two colors to transition between. This is done using the same color selection tool you normally use. The top square sets the starting color of your gradient, and the bottom selects the ending color. The top left corner of your window will show an example of what the gradient will look like.
     
  • Select the desired type of gradient from the menu at the top left: linear, radial, angular, reflected, or diamond.
     

     
  • Determine where on the shape you just created that you want the gradient to start. Click on this spot and hold the mouse down.
  • Drag the mouse pointer to wherever the gradient should end. You’ll see a line from the starting point to the end point. Release the mouse.
  • The gradient you created will appear on your layer.
     

     

References

Photoshop version

The version of Photoshop used for this post was the 2017.1.1 Release of Adobe Photoshop CC, 20170425.r.252 x64, on OS X 10.13.1.