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Story spotlight: “The Pizza Man” by Mark Leslie


 
 
 
A group of students who just moved into a residential house keep getting pizza deliveries that they never ordered.

Is it a strange prank, or is there something more to the mysterious man who keeps showing up at their door?
 
 
 
 
 
“The Pizza Man” is in the Haunted bundle. You can learn more on BundleRabbit, Goodreads, and the bundle’s Facebook page.
 

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Mark Leslie Lefebvre has been writing since he was thirteen years old and discovered his mother’s Underwood typewriter collecting dust in a closet. He started submitting his work for publication at the age of fifteen and had his first story published in 1992, the same year he graduated from university.

Under the name Mark Leslie, he has published more than a dozen full length books. He pens a series of non-fiction paranormal explorations for Dundurn, Canada’s largest independent publisher. He also writes fiction (typically thrillers and horror) and edits fiction anthologies, most recently as a regular editor for the WMG Publishing Fiction River anthology series.

The very same year, Mark saw his first short story in print he started working in to book industry as a part-time bookseller, and was bitten by the book-selling bug. He has worked in virtually every type of bookstore (independent, chain, large-format, online, academic and digital). He has thrived on innovation, particularly related to digital publishing, and enjoys interacting with the various people who make the book industry so dynamic.

Between 2011 and 2017, Mark worked at the Director of Self-Publishing and Author Relations for Kobo where he was the driving force behind the creation of Kobo Writing Life, a free and easy to use author/small-publisher friendly platform designed to publish directly to Kobo’s global catalog in 190 countries. By the end of 2016, Kobo Writing Life established itself as the #1 single source of weekly global unit sales for Kobo and, in primarily English language territories, responsible for 1 in every 4 eBooks sold.

Mark has spoken professionally in the United States and Canada, in the UK and across Europe, specializing in advances in digital publishing and the vast and incredible opportunities that exist for writers and publishers.

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Story spotlight: “Domestic Magic” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch


 
At a high school for the magical, the most picked-on kid dreams about J. Rutherford Wisenhaur II killing people with a fire spell. She knows her nightmares portend the future, but her domestic magic lacks the power to do most difficult spells.

To make matters worse, no one will believe her.

So, what’s a young, nearly powerless witch to do?
 
 
 
 
“Domestic Magic” is in the Witches’ Brew bundle. You can learn more on BundleRabbit, Goodreads, and the bundle’s Facebook page.
 

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New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.

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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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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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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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