Showing results by narrator "Morgan Hallett" in All Categories

A small boy and his grandmother set sail for China in the mud of her backyard; a supermarket car park becomes a graveyard of strewn blueberries; migratory birds fly over a marshland ringing with the sound of wooden spoons on kitchen pots; and the breaking of a silence between two roommates leads to disquieting revelations. Eliza Robertson's delicate and startling stories tell of the adventure of the ordinary and the magic within the everyday.

Ronnie, an engaged hairdresser with a history of teenage recklessness and mystery childhood illnesses, feels stifled by the unavoidable pull of the predictable, comfortable life laid out before her. Charlie, an anxiety-ridden, award-winning writer, feels suffocated by his literary success and familial responsibility, including a bread-winning wife and a child with autism.

Rachel feels like she doesn't fit in - until she finds heavy metal and meets Fern, a kindred spirit. The two form their own band, but the metal scene turns out to be no different from the misogynist world they want to change. Violent encounters escalate, and the friends decide there's only one way forward....

Actor Matthew McConaughey descends into a surreal desert of the soul, an admirer of Miley Cyrus performs a 3,000-word sentence in defense of his passion, an aging porn star dons a dinosaur costume to film the sex scene of a lifetime, and Leonard Cohen shills for Subway: these mercurial and wildly varied stories explode the conventions of short fiction.

Alternating between a woman's childhood in a small town and as an adult in the city, this novel traces a Jehovah Witness family's splintering belief system, their isolation, and the erosion of their relationships. As Emily becomes closer to her closeted Uncle Tyler, she begins to challenge her upbringing. Her questions about the Jehovah's Witnesses' insular lifestyle, rigid codes of conduct, and tenets of their faith haunt her older sister Lenora too.

Ellis Eaton has always felt she's been a disappointment to her stuffy, traditional Boston family. Her sights are set on something entirely different: Hollywood. Though she's captured the eye of Griffin Phillips, she knows that "dutiful wife" is one role she can't picture herself playing - even if he makes her head spin and her heart quicken. Besides, Ellis seems to make a mess of any situation, despite her good intentions. She's simply not worthy of an up-and-comer like Griff. When a look-alike friend begs Ellis for a favor, Ellis finds herself working shifts at the city telephone exchange.

When 27-year-old image consultant Poppy Ross discovers that her handsome and seemingly devoted husband Parker is having an affair, she is dumbfounded. Before she has chance to confront him, however, he is struck by lightning. When he regains consciousness, he has lost his short-term memory - including that of the affair. Given a chance to erase history and possibly save her marriage, Poppy decides to remake herself in the mistress's image, so that Parker might never be tempted to stray again.

Mara Brennan is about to unravel. Three days after her twenty-eighth birthday, her boyfriend dumps her, leaving her with nothing but a basement apartment, a futon and a pile of unpaid bills. On top of that, her job, working as a receptionist at a cosmetic surgery clinic is a nightmare; her boss is a tyrant; and her friends have gotten ahead of her in the game of life. Mara realizes it's time for an identity makeover. She devises the OM List, a personal pathway to perfection inspired by her best friends, Olivia and Mitz, and her newfound love for yoga.

The recipient of the Journey Prize and Edna Staebler Award, Heather Birrell made a splash in the literary world with her first collection, I Know You Are But What Am I? In Mad Hope, Birrell employs her keen insight into the human condition to present tales featuring a complex array of characters, including a gay man caring for a friend and a science teacher faced with a shocking request.

CBA best-selling author Tracie Peterson has won numerous awards for her more than 80 novels. In House of Secrets, Bailee Cooper reunites with her sisters - but the gathering soon becomes shrouded by memories of an unpleasant past. As the sisters wrestle with recollections of their mother’s illness and their father’s desperate choice, can Bailee, with God’s help, finally learn to let go?

Set in Revolution-era America, The Messenger features Hannah Sunderland, a young woman who is devastated when her brother is jailed for joining the Colonial cause. Spy Jeremiah Jones sees in Hannah a way to access the prison to obtain valuable information, but Hannah’s Quaker beliefs stand in the way. Nevertheless, Hannah and Jeremiah develop a mutual fondness, even as they become caught in history’s tumultuous churn.

The Acrasian army has swept through Eledore, nearly massacring the entire race in fear and hatred of the magic they possess. This same magic is all that was keeping the demon incursion at bay, but now the great evil that was banished is seeping into the world. Watchers are formed to warn of any sightings of the demons, but little can be done if one encounters them in shadow or at night.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, the endlessly-mysterious moon is explored in this reprint short science fiction anthology from award-winning editor and anthologist Neil Clarke (Clarkesworld, The Best Science Fiction of the Year).

Marked by Darklings and Death alike, Saskia is a mechanically minded Mundane, raised by Barton and Phae on daring stories about Roan Harken. But the world Roan left behind is in turmoil. The Darklings now hang in the sky as a threatening black moon, and with the order-maintaining Elemental Task Guard looking to get rid of all Denziens before they rebel, Saskia's only option is to go into the Brilliant Dark and bring Roan back.

Daniel Green makes crop circles. As a member of a secret organization, he travels across the country creating strange works of art that leave communities mystified. He's always been alone; in fact, he prefers it. But when a dying farmer hires him in a last-ditch effort to bring publicity to a small Vermont town, Daniel finds himself at odds with his heart. It isn't long before he gets drawn into a family struggling to stitch itself back together, and the consequences will change his life forever.

Three months after the battle of Zabor, the five friends who came together to defeat her have been separated. Burdened with the Calamity Stone she acquired in Scion of the Fox, Roan has gone to Scotland to retrace her grandmother’s steps in an attempt to stop further evil from entering the world. Meanwhile, a wicked monster called Seela has risen from the ashy Bloodlands and is wreaking havoc on the world while children in Edinburgh are afflicted by a strange plague.

Lena "Horror" Horowitz leads the Daughters of Forgotten Light, one of three vicious gangs fighting for survival on the deep-space prison of Oubliette. Their fragile truce is shaken when a new shipment arrives from Earth carrying a fresh batch of prisoners and supplies to squabble over. But the delivery includes two new surprises: a drone and a baby. Earth Senator Linda Dolfuse wants evidence of the bloodthirsty gangs to justify the government finally eradicating the wasters dumped on Oubliette. There's only one problem: The baby in the drone's video may be hers.

Homeless after being released from a women's reformatory in 1939 Toronto, Olivia Rosetti is taken in by an angel of mercy, Ruth Bennington. The two discover they share a painful past and together decide to open a maternity home for troubled women. Despite the success of the home, Olivia is haunted by her inhumane treatment at the reformatory and the way her newborn son was taken from her. She feels undeserving of love - until she meets businessman Darius Reed. Although his attention makes her heart soar, he can never learn of her past.

Rory's in a tight spot. Technically, she's in a lab refrigerator, hiding for her life. Who just stormed the primate facility with a gun, leaving the lab tech Andy shot through the neck, dead in a pool of his own blood? For Rory, survival consists of folding herself into the only hiding place available to live another day, affording her the opportunity to search for answers to the violence raging around her. And of course, the mystery of her missing research primate.

A bracing, hypnotic, coming-of-age story about the bond of best friends, from the New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor's Children. Julia and Cassie have been friends since nursery school. They have shared everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their birthplace, the quiet town of Royston, Massachusetts. But as the two girls enter adolescence, their paths diverge and Cassie sets out on a journey that will put her life in danger and shatter her oldest friendship.