Chills and thrills abound in this wild story of marital discord and fuzzy threats from USA TODAY bestselling author Jaye Wells—from the Carniepunk urban fantasy anthology. One week after she is bitten by the dog-faced boy at a traveling carnival, a mild-mannered housewife gets a sudden, unrelenting craving for raw meat. She doesn’t remember eating the cat or running naked through the park under the full moon, but her husband’s getting strange calls from concerned neighbors. When he takes her back to the carnival a year later, looking for a cure, it’ll either get better…or a whole lot worse.
A star-studded urban fantasy anthology starring bestselling authors Rachel Caine, Jennifer Estep, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, and Rob Thurman, and including Delilah S. Dawson, Kelly Gay, Mark Henry, Hillary Jacques, Jackie Kessler, Kelly Meding, Allison Pang, Nicole D. Peeler, and Jaye Wells, whose stories explore the creepy, mysterious, and, yes, sometimes magical world of traveling carnivals. Come one, come all! The Carniepunk Midway promises you every thrill and chill a traveling carnival can provide. But fear not! Urban fantasy’s biggest stars are here to guide you through this strange and dangerous world. . . . RACHEL CAINE’s vampires aren’t child’s play, as a naïve teen discovers when her heart leads her far, far astray in “The Cold Girl.” With “Parlor Tricks,” JENNIFER ESTEP pits Gin Blanco, the Elemental Assassin, against the Wheel of Death and some dangerously creepy clowns. SEANAN McGUIRE narrates a poignant, ethereal tale of a mysterious carnival that returns to a dangerous town after twenty years in “Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea.” KEVIN HEARNE’s Iron Druid and his wisecracking Irish wolfhound discover in “The Demon Barker of Wheat Street” that the impossibly wholesome sounding Kansas Wheat Festival is actually not a healthy place to hang out. With an eerie, unpredictable twist, ROB THURMAN reveals the fate of a psychopath stalking two young carnies in “Painted Love.”
Come one! Come all! Witness Gin Blanco—aka the Elemental Assassin, aka the Spider—go toe to toe against the Esmerelda the Amazing's Wheel of Death and some dangerously creepy clowns! Only at The Carnival of Wondrous Wonders! A story from the forthcoming Carniepunk urban fantasy anthology starring bestselling authors Rachel Caine, Jennifer Estep, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, and Rob Thurman, and also includes Delilah S. Dawson, Kelly Gay, Mark Henry, Hillary Jacques, Jackie Kessler, Kelly Meding, Allison Pang, Nicole D. Peeler, and Jaye Wells. Samples of all fourteen tales are included to tantalize and to tease. Come to the Carniepunk midway and explore the creepy, mysterious, magical world of traveling carnivals today!
In Finding Awareness, author Amit Pagedar brings to light the struggles, confusions and frustrations we experience in everyday life and offers a way of examining them through the process of self-inquiry. Covering everything from comparison, insecurity, and addictive behaviors to anxiety, Amit offers a practical approach to observing and understanding these issues through the tool of insight meditation. By diving beneath the surface and unraveling the deepest patterns of egoic thinking, he explores uncomfortable truths and brings to light the unvarnished reality of who we are as individuals. Through this self-inquiry he hopes to empower the reader to face themselves, as they are, and bring about a profound and fundamental shift in the way they approach their problems. In this book he describes the structures of ego and suffering and the processes by which these forces sustain themselves. He further explores why and how these powerful structures sometimes collapse and bring about immediate and irreversible personal transformation in the individual.Along with accounts of real conversations with his readers over the past few years, Amit offers an account of his own personal journey through this book. He begins with simple ideas and progressively builds upon them to create a spontaneous insight into the nature of our being. The book also includes a comprehensive question and answer section, where readers will find the tools they need to begin the art of finding awareness and embark on their own personal journey of self-discovery.
This prize-winning debut of twelve stories explores a femininity that is magical, raw, and grotesque. Aghast at the failings of their bodies, this cast of misfit women and girls sets out to remedy the misdirection of their lives in bold and reckless ways. Figure skaters screw skate blades into the bones of their feet to master elusive jumps. A divorcee steals the severed arm of her ex to reclaim the fragments of a dissolved marriage. Following the advice of a fashion magazine, teenaged girls binge on grapes to dye their skin purple and attract prom dates. And a college freshman wages war on her roommate from Jupiter, who has inadvertently seduced all the boys in their dorm with her exotic hermaphroditic anatomy. But it isn’t just the characters who are in crisis. In Lungs Full of Noise, personal disasters mirror the dissolution of the natural world. Written in lyrical prose with imagination and humor, Tessa Mellas’s collection is an aviary of feathered stories that are rich, emotive, and imbued with the strength to suspend strange new worlds on delicate wings.
Includes 3 brand new essays on Gale, the Games, and Mockingjay! **Already read the first edition of The Girl Who Was on Fire? Look for The Girl Who Was on Fire - Booster Pack to get just the three new essays and the extra movie content.** Katniss Everdeen's adventures may have come to an end, but her story continues to blaze in the hearts of millions worldwide. In The Girl Who Was on Fire - Movie Edition, sixteen YA authors take you back to the world of the Hunger Games with moving, dark, and funny pieces on Katniss, the Games, Gale and Peeta, reality TV, survival, and more. From the trilogy's darker themes of violence and social control to fashion and weaponry, the collection's exploration of the Hunger Games reveals exactly how rich, and how perilous, Panem, and the series, really is. • How does the way the Games affect the brain explain Haymitch's drinking, Annie's distraction, and Wiress' speech problems? • What does the rebellion have in common with the War on Terror? • Why isn't the answer to “Peeta or Gale?" as interesting as the question itself? • What should Panem have learned from the fates of other hedonistic societies throughout history—and what can we? CONTRIBUTORS: Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Mary Borsellino, Sarah Rees Brennan, Terri Clark, Bree Despain, Adrienne Kress, Sarah Darer Littman, Cara Lockwood, Elizabeth M. Rees, Carrie Ryan, Ned Vizzini, Lili Wilkinson, Blythe Woolston, Diana Peterfreund (NEW), Brent Hartinger (NEW), Jackson Pearce (NEW)
A collection of vampire tales includes Charlaine Harris's heroine Sookie Stackhouse in "Dracula's Night," Jim Butcher's wizard hero Harry Dresden in "It's My Birthday Too," and other stories by Tanya Huff, P.N. Elrod, Christopher Golden, and Bill Crider.
In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina Kane has the only profession fit for an outcast: assassin. But, her latest mission threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races and Sabina must scramble to figure out which side she's on. She's never brought her work home with her -- -until now. This time, it's personal.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Hounded—“a superb urban fantasy debut” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)—comes an Iron Druid Chronicles short story in the captivating Carniepunk anthology. The ancient Druid Atticus O’Sullivan gets more than greasy corn dogs and flat soda when he visits a carnival in Kansas to which his apprentice, Granuaile, drags him. He runs across a barker with a strange power over the crowd: attractive women leave their men and disappear into an unmarked tent, never to be seen again, and the men wander away, forgetting that they ever had girlfriends or wives. When Granuaile falls under the barker’s influence and enters the tent, Atticus isn’t about to forget it and move on. He and his Irish wolfhound, Oberon, pursue her and discover the horrifying secret to the carnival’s success.
Four stories of inhuman passions from four of the hottest authors in paranormal romance... “Alpha and Omega” by Patricia Briggs The werewolf Anna finds a new sense of self when the son of the werewolf king comes to town to quell unrest in the Chicago pack—and inspires a power in Anna she’s never felt before. “Inhuman” by Eileen Wilks Andie has a secret gift of sensing thoughts and desires. What she senses in her neighbor Nathan could be dangerous. Because he has a secret gift too, and it’s about to be let loose… “Buying Trouble” by Karen Chance A Lord of the Fey crosses paths with a fiery red-headed mage named Claire in a New York auction house. But in this strange underground society, the rarity up for sale is Claire herself. “Mona Lisa Betwining” by Sunny Among the children of the moon, Milady is of mixed blood—part Monère, part human, and destined to be alone. Until she meets a man who could be her salvation—or her downfall.
