Showing results by narrator " Therese Plummer" in All Categories

Four "delightfully twisted" scripted stories by Erin Mallon are now available as a bundle.

The del Cisne girls have never just been sisters; they’re also rivals, Blanca as obedient and graceful as Roja is vicious and manipulative. They know that, because of a generations-old spell, their family is bound to a bevy of swans deep in the woods. They know that, one day, the swans will pull them into a dangerous game that will leave one of them a girl, and trap the other in the body of a swan.

Cassidy Kincaide owns Trifles & Folly, an antique/curio store and high-end pawn shop in Charleston, South Carolina, that is more than what it seems. Dangerous magical and supernatural items sometimes find their way into mortal hands or onto the market, and Cassidy is part of a shadowy Alliance of mortals and mages whose job it is to take those deadly curiosities out of circulation.

The dusty files of a venerable dictionary publisher, a hidden cache of coded clues, a story written by a phantom author, an unsolved murder in a gritty urban park: all collide memorably in Emily Arsenault's magnificent debut, at once a teasing literary puzzle, an ingenious suspense novel, and an exploration of definitions: of words, of who we are, and of the stories we choose to define us.

Ramona was only five years old when Hurricane Katrina changed her life forever. Since then it's been Ramona and her family against the world. Standing over six feet tall, with unmistakable blue hair, Ramona is sure of three things: She likes girls, she's fiercely devoted to her family, and she knows she's destined for something bigger than the trailer she calls home in Eulogy, Mississippi. But juggling multiple jobs, her flaky mom, and her well-meaning but ineffectual dad forces her to be the adult of the family.

The juniors at Paloma High School all have their secrets, whether it's the thespian who hides her trust issues onstage, the closeted pansexual who cares only about his drug-dealing profits, or the neurotic genius who's planted the seed of a school scandal. But it's Juniper Kipling who has the furthest to fall. No one would argue that Juniper - obedient daughter, salutatorian, natural beauty, and loyal friend - is anything but perfect.

Ignatius Lohman longs to make his mark, to be someone. But in a world populated entirely by superpowered beings, he’s nothing but a powerless white-collar civilian. Iggy’s plight is not helped by the fact that his father, General Lancelot Lohman of the defense agency PEERLESS, is one of the most powerful men on the planet. Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, Iggy finds himself in the crosshairs of Erle P. Van Owen, a megalomaniacal corporate overlord with the astonishing ability to neutralize any superpower.

"No one gets something for nothing. We all should know better." Teenagers at Wisconsin's Nottawa High School are drawn deeper into a social networking site that promises to grant their every need...regardless of the consequences. Soon the site turns sinister, with simple pranks escalating to malicious crimes. The body count rises.

Sarah Holtz rose to stardom as a child only to crash and burn in her late teen years. Gideon was there to help put the pieces of her life back together, and she now relishes her life far away from the paparazzi flashes. Her need for privacy is the one thing holding her back from exploring something more with him. When a video of their kiss goes viral, she's left wondering if he's worth the risk of stepping back into the spotlight to become his leading lady.

Robotics engineer Jenny Nguyen has given up on finding Mr. Right. So when her brother and his husband approach her to act as surrogate for their child, she sees it as her only chance to have a child and accepts. One week after she initiates the process, however, she meets a man who gets her heart pumping for all the right reasons and gives into the temptation.

Lia Mantovani has created one of the hottest restaurants on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, but all that could disappear if she loses her lease with Kelly Properties. Having had her dreams ripped away from her before, she'll do everything in her power to keep her restaurant. Her fate hangs on the whims of the frustratingly handsome Adam Kelly.

Air force pilot Caleb Kelly has come back home with one mission in mind: to propose to the woman whose letters and lucky charm helped him survive his deployment in Afghanistan. But when he finds their apartment empty, with a note saying she's left him, he arrives at her mother's house in rural Alabama less than a week before Kourtney is about to marry another man. Now he's out to win her heart again and gets some unexpected assistance from her younger sister, Alex.

In her new collection, Story Prize finalist Maureen F. McHugh delves into the dark heart of contemporary life and life five minutes from now and how easy it is to mix up one with the other. Her stories are post-bird flu, in the middle of medical trials, wondering if our computers are smarter than us, wondering when our jobs are going to be outsourced overseas, wondering if we are who we say we are, and not sure what we'd do to survive the coming zombie plague.

What happens when The Firm meets Anita Blake? You get the Halls of Power - our modern world, but twisted. Law, finance, the military, and politics are under the sway of long-lived vampires, werewolves, and the elven Alfar. Humans make the best of rule by “the Spooks”, and contend among themselves to affiliate with the powers-that-be, in order to avoid becoming their prey. Very loyal humans are rewarded with power over other women and men. Very lucky humans are selected to join the vampires.

Life as a merchant marine is not for the faint-hearted. People are not easy. For Jozzun, living with a bunch of blunt-brained humans is even more difficult. Especially when less-than-legitimate operations go from bad to worse … The human saying “may you live in interesting times” is starting to make sense to Jozzun. He finds himself wishing he’d considered the consequences of signing up to the crew of the Atlanta. The crew are bound for trouble, or perhaps trouble is just bound for them.

Daria was not having a good day, even before she found herself locked up. Betrayed by her brothers-in-arms, Daria barely escaped being killed in the fallout. Without a friend in the galaxy, she finds herself dragged away for something those treacherous bastards did. What else could go wrong in one day? Help is coming, just not the kind Daria was expecting. A dapper gent she’s never met blasting the doors off her cell pulls Daria deeper into the rabbit hole. She must decide whether to fight the charges against her or make a run for her life with her rescuer.

The Angelos Dominion is done playing coy. Their Red Crow lackeys are pulling out all the stops and things are getting dicey. Lombe, Daira, and Jozzun are going to have to figure things out—even if they have to break a few dynasties to do it. There will be chaos, gunplay, killer robots, and…podding? Don’t ask. Seriously, just don’t.

When Nichelle Clarke is invited to be the maid of honor in her friends' Virginia Vineyard wedding, she looks forward to the celebration. The storybook ceremony has been planned to the tiniest detail, and the rehearsal dinner is going off without a hitch. Until a dead body is found in a barrel of award-winning Riesling. But when the dust settles, the corpse is no longer Nichelle's biggest worry. There is a growing list of evidence pointing to her friend the groom as the killer. Nichelle doesn't buy it, but finds herself the lone skeptic.

When Richmond police find a young woman's bloody remains spread across a candle-lit altar in an abandoned power plant on the banks of the James River, they give crime reporter Nichelle Clarke an all-access pass in exchange for her help. But the information Nichelle gets from the victim's friends only draws her deeper into the mystery. Where did Jasmine come from? The answer trail stops at the front doors of a sprawling compound in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, where Nichelle finds a secretive cult leader and his devoted following.

When a body is discovered in a high-rise in Richmond, Virginia, crime reporter Nichelle Clarke races to the scene. The victim is a brilliant doctor with an unusual past. But before Nichelle can decide what to make of the murder, the local police radio is filled with a dreaded distress call. There is an active shooter at a nearby hospital. The gunman has taken hostages on a patient floor, and gives the police a single demand. He wants to speak with Nichelle. In person.