Lake People and Other Speculative Tales

By Anna D. Allen

From a padded cell to Jacobean England to a distant planet, the fiction of award-winning writer Anna D. Allen is as eclectic as ever in her second collection of short stories, Lake People and Other Speculative Tales.

Bella would be a master mage... if only she could remember her vocabulary.

On the planet Caledonia, little Ellie Fisher-Jones quickly discovers tree-climbing just isn’t the same when the trees ask questions.

What’s a Horsewoman of the Apocalypse to do when she wearies of bloated babies? Go shopping, of course.

In space, there are no rest stops.

Sir Henry’s collection of Egyptian antiquities is the finest in Europe. Now, if his granddaughter Beatrice would just stop raising the dead....

Alison hears voices. Some people think that’s a bad thing. The voices disagree.

Thomas Reed just wanted to buy some land. He didn't intend for the village midwife to go up in flames in the process.

The Natives say if suitable offerings are made, the Lake Spirits return what was lost to the waters. But Kate never lost anything... so what out on the dark lake is watching her?

Ten tales relating snippets of the human experience, each with a speculative twist, from dark fantasy to science fiction—plus a touch of warped humor, along with a dash of creepy.

Includes: “Voices in a Distant Room” (Young Adult), “Mordecai’s Grimoire,” “Lonely Famine, Happy at Last,” “Lake People,” “Hallyhee, Cried the Trees” (for kids and their grown-ups), “Upon the Daily Cargo Run” (Middle Grade), “Immolation,” “The Mage, the Siege, and the Miscast Spells” (Young Adult), and “Sir Henry’s New Mummy” (Middle Grade), as well as the post-apocalyptic western, “Ten Gallons a Whore,” winner of Writers of the Future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anna D. Allen
• Release date: Jun 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458062970

Anna D. Allen

An award-winning writer, Anna D. Allen lives deep in the forest with too many books and not enough dogs. She holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Arts in Language and Literature. Her short story, "Ten Gallons a Whore," appeared in Writers of the Future, and she is a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Her future plans include growing tomatoes and cleaning out the freezer. When not writing or reading, she can be found in the kitchen. Her collections of short stories, Mrs. Hewitt's Barbeque: Seven Eclectic Tales of Food, Humor, and Love, and Lake People and Other Speculative Tales are now available. Charles Waverly and the Deadly African Safari is her first published novel.

Book preview