Showing results by author "Rysa Walker" in All Categories

When Kate Pierce-Keller’s grandmother gives her a strange blue medallion and speaks of time travel, sixteen-year-old Kate assumes the old woman is delusional. But it all becomes horrifyingly real when a murder in the past destroys the foundation of Kate’s present-day life. Suddenly, that medallion is the only thing protecting Kate from blinking out of existence. Kate learns that the 1893 killing is part of something much more sinister, and her genetic ability to time travel makes Kate the only one who can fix the future.

Human cloning. Technology evolves faster than we do. The law shields us from our worst temptations. But the opportunity is there, dangling just out of reach - perfection and ascension or delusion and destruction. The choice is ours. In this collection of clone-themed stories, 10 of today’s top speculative fiction writers explore our morality and built-in societal restraints and reflect upon our state of grace. Similar is not necessarily the same.

When Ruth Townsend discovers Tessa Martin’s body in an abandoned factory, sprawled across a Ouija board, she does the responsible thing and calls 911. But by the time Sheriff Blevins arrives, the girl’s body has vanished. Blevins is convinced that Tessa is playing an elaborate hoax. But Ruth and her daughter, Cassie, know better. They both saw the body.

Simon Rand's life isn't exactly linear, but he's okay with that. He was older than his mother when they first met, and he's traveled pretty much everywhere the CHRONOS key can take him. Much of his childhood was spent in the 1890s on the Cyrist Farm with his friend, Kiernan Dunne, but summer vacations meant hanging out with his grandfather in the 2020s, training to be Saul Rand's right-hand man, and fixing bits of history to help build Cyrist International.

A teacup, a diary, and a body at the foot of the stairs.... When Ruth Townsend’s job and marriage both end abruptly, she heads home to the mountains for a fresh start. Nine months later, she has a new hobby, good friends, and a potential new romance - but only two dozen subscribers to the weekly newspaper she’s intent on reviving. What she needs is a good mystery...but nothing ever happens in sleepy little Thistlewood. Then Edith Morton is found dead at the bottom of her staircase.

The Cyrists are swiftly moving into position to begin the Culling, and Kate's options are dwindling. With each jump to the past or the future, Kate may trigger a new timeline shift. Worse, the loyalties of those around her - including the allegiances of Kiernan and the Fifth Column, the shadowy group working with Kate - are increasingly unclear.

To stop her sadistic grandfather, Saul, and his band of time travelers from rewriting history, Kate must race to retrieve the CHRONOS keys before they fall into the Cyrists’ hands. If she jumps back in time and pulls the wrong key - one that might tip off the Cyrists to her strategy - her whole plan could come crashing down, jeopardizing the future of millions of innocent people. Kate’s only ally is Kiernan, who also carries the time-traveling gene.

A simple blink is all it takes to yank Pru from the car with her dad into a world of hurt. She awakens in 2305 to find herself pinned under what's left of CHRONOS headquarters, thanks to a recent terrorist attack. Their prime suspect? Her mother, Katherine Shaw. And everyone wants to know how Pru got her hands on a CHRONOS key.

When two time-traveling historians cross paths during one of the most tumultuous decades of the twentieth century, history goes helter-skelter. But which one broke the timeline? In 2136 Madison Grace uncovers a key to the origins of CHRONOS, a time-travel agency with ties to her family’s mysterious past. Just as she is starting to jump through history, she returns to her timeline to find millions of lives erased - and only the people inside her house realize anything has changed.

When the rusted-out remains of a vehicle with a unique vanity plate are hauled out of the Freedom River, journalist Ruth Townsend and her best friend, Wren Lawson, think they’ve finally learned the truth about the disappearance of their high school friend, Tanya Blackburn. The rest of Thistlewood may have believed that Tanya simply packed up and headed for the bright lights of Nashville, but the story never made sense to Ruth and Wren, and the mystery has haunted both of them for more than three decades. Things aren’t always what they appear on the surface, however.

CHRONOS historians Madi, Tyson, and Katherine and their cohorts are on the enemy’s trail, fixing the mess that sociopath Saul Rand has made of history - and of the Temporal Dilemma rules. Another time shift is on the horizon, and this time, it’s one that reflects Saul’s twisted vision. When the shift hits, it plunges the United States into a modern dark age where superstition trumps science and 17th-century witch hunts are no longer a thing of the past. But Saul has added a new hurdle to this insane reality: he’s hunting the Sisters of Prudence.

History is turned inside out when off-world travelers challenge Tyson Reyes and Madi Grace to a real-life game of Temporal Dilemma. Three rounds from the opponents and Hitler takes Europe, Pearl Harbor never happens, a fascist cloud hangs over the postwar United States, and CHRONOS itself is erased from existence. Now Tyson, Madi, and a team of seasoned players must make their moves - in 1930s New York. Jazz and the blues waft from Village clubs. The World’s Fair draws assassins. Madison Square Garden hosts Nazis. And the Manhattan Project never gets off the ground.

A chamber from an ancient civilization is uncovered deep below the surface of Mars. Science reporter Claire Echols is assigned to cover the story, but someone is determined to stop her. Is it the wealthy entrepreneur leading the ongoing terraforming effort? The mining companies desperate to protect their livelihoods? The cult leader who wants to put a stop to all scientific progress? Or is someone else so threatened by this discovery that they'll kill to keep it hidden?

Kiernan Dunne abandoned his family ties to help Kate fight the Cyrists, and he's never regretted that for one moment. But he doesn't understand why Kate can't remember that night in 1893 Chicago, when she turned back to face the killer chasing them through the smoky corridors of the World's Fair Hotel. Kate placed the CHRONOS key around his neck and made his eight-year-old self promise to wear it always, and that's a promise Kiernan has never broken.

As the Vanderbilt Ball approaches, a series of unexplained earthquakes have New York City on edge. Miriam's attempts to understand their cause lands her in the place she least wants to be. Confronting her deepest fears may be the only way to find the missing Pembroke Girls and save her sister. But the question that haunts Miriam most is whether Gwen can still be saved.

A familiar blip of green light in the corner of his room has Kiernan Dunne hoping the new arrival is Kate, so that he can abandon the rescue he's planning. But the time traveler who just blinked in is a future version of Kiernan, and judging from the number scrawled on his forehead, he's not the only copy.

Nine heiresses are missing in Gilded Age New York with no ransom demand. Journalist Miriam Cole's sister was the first to vanish twelve years ago. The only connection? They all attended the exclusive Pembroke School. Now, a bizarre murder has Miriam on the run, questioning the very nature of reality as she joins forces with a handsome ex-Pinkerton agent, a reluctant psychic, Mark Twain, and the NY League of Skeptics. Can Miriam save the girls or will New York City be destroyed in the crossfire?

Struggling with evolving psychic abilities, seventeen-year-old Anna Morgan and her equally exceptional friends are on the run from the ruthless Graham Cregg, leader of a covert operation known as the Delphi Project. Cregg has already killed repeatedly to test Anna's ability. Now, he and his father, a presidential contender, will stop at nothing to recapture the Delphi adepts, whom they see as weapons to be controlled - or destroyed.

It's never wise to talk to strangers...and that goes double when they're dead. Unfortunately, seventeen-year-old Anna Morgan has no choice. Resting on a park bench, touching the turnstile at the Metro station - she never knows where she'll encounter a ghost. These mental hitchhikers are the reason Anna has been tossed from one foster home and psychiatric institution to the next for most of her life.

Eighteen-year-old Anna Morgan is on the run from the very government project that created her abilities. Now they seek to weaponize the gift she doesn’t want and can’t control: the invasion of her mind and her body by spirits, some of whom have their own unusual powers. Her latest “hitcher” is a former top Delphi executive. Unlike Anna’s previous guests, this one has taken over, and he’s on a personal mission of revenge.