Alphabet Anthologies Series

The apocalypse will come in A is for Apocalypse, but in a many different forms. Within these covers the apocalypse comes with fire, with a sigh, with tears, in technological code, with alien intervention. It comes with survival in a nightmare landscape, it demands human sacrifice, it stalks through the pages with bloodlust. It freezes, it explodes, it howls. In stories as varied as the trials humanity can endure, this anthology brings together an alphabet of possible world endings. One story for each letter, and twenty-six stories later we have encountered the apocalypse in a myriad of imaginative ways that horrify, alarm, inspire, and spark a wild desire to embrace life. Here there is war, evacuation, insane symphony, drowning, dissolution. Here there is rage, despair, inspiration, and even hope. Including all-new stories from Pete Aldin, Beth Cato, Marge Simon, Suzanne van Rooyen, Sara Cleto, Gary B. Phillips, BD Wilson, Ennis Drake, C.S. MacCath, Alexis A. Hunter, Damien Angelica Walters, Brittany Warman and more, A is for Apocalypse will fire your imagination as surely as it sparks a keen desire to embrace life.

In the alphabet tapestry style of A is for Apocalypse, this book unspools tales of beauty and horror on a common theme. Within these pages is not the end of all the world but the ways in which individuals can break. The fragmenting of memory and self, of life and relationships. All the ways in which one can be broken or break a thing, all explored in wild ways here. What does it mean to break? How many ways can someone become pieces? An assembly of authors explain how the aurora can steal a soul, how curses can break a village and what it means to dissolve into nothing more than airy memories. Here there is an android frankensteined together for sex, a shattering of glass, a falling apart on the wings of mythological dreams, distress laid out in tarot and the exquisite isolation of diamond flesh. B is for Broken takes us deep into the varieties and horrific beauties of brokenness in stories as individual as their authors. With works by Brittany Warman, Sara Cleto, Gary B. Phillips, Beth Cato, Cory Cone, Steve Bornstein, Pete Aldin, Lilah Wild and so many more, B is for Broken is the ideal companion to A is for Apocalypse. It fires the imagination and sighs into the heart at the same time.

This installment of Rhonda Parrish’s alphabet anthology series asks skilled storytellers to write around the theme of chimera. The resulting tales are part fable, part poem, part dream. But like any chimera, the parts make up a greater whole. Blend reality with fantasy. Mesh science fiction with mystery. Mix history with what should have been. They are all chimera. A shadow tells a tale of schoolyard bullies. A long-vanished monster returns from the cold dark. Make-up makes up a life. Alchemy, Atlantis, and apocalypse. These 26 tales bring both chaos and closure to dark and elusively fantastic geographies.  Contributing authors include: ~ Alexandra Seidel ~ KV Taylor ~ Marge Simon ~ Pete Aldin ~ Michael M. Jones ~ Simon Kewin ~ BD Wilson ~ Gabrielle Harbowy ~ Sara Cleto ~ Megan Engelhardt ~ Michael Fosburg ~ Megan Arkenberg ~ Lilah Wild ~ Laura VanArendonk Baugh ~ Milo James Fowler ~ Brittany Warman ~ Michael B. Tager ~ L.S. Johnson ~ Beth Cato ~ C.S. MacCath ~ Sammantha Kymmell-Harvey ~ Steve Bornstein ~ Suzanne van Rooyen ~ Michael Kellar ~ Jonathan C. Parrish ~ Amanda C. Davis ~

For the fourth installment of Rhonda Parrish's Alphabet Anthologies, contributors were challenged to write about dinosaurs. The resulting twenty-six stories contain widely different interpretations of the dinosaur theme and span the spectrum from literal to metaphoric. Within these stories -- set in alternative histories, far-flung futures and times just around the corner -- dinosaurs whimper and waste away or roar and rage. People can be dinosaurs, as can ideas, fictions and flesh. Knitted dinosaurs share space with ghostly, genetically engineered and even narcotic ones. Teenagers must embrace their inner dinosaurs in order to find peace and belonging, a dying woman duels a God in a far future city that echoes aspects of our past, an abused wife accompanies her husband on a hunt for an ancient power and finds more than she could ever have imagined, a girl with wonderful magical powers stumbles across the bones of a giant long-dead lizard and so much more!

E is for Evil contains twenty-six individual stories which each shine a different light on the multi-faceted idea that is evil. Running the gamut from lyrical fantasy to gritty horror in these stories possessed toys, hellish bureaucrats, scientists with questionable morals, abusive partners and even lingerie sellers all take their turn in the spotlight. Featuring fresh new stories from Michael Fosburg, Lynn Hardaker, Stephanie A. Cain, Andrew Bourelle, Suzanne J. Willis, Samantha Kymmell-Harvey, Hal J. Friesen, C.S. MacCath, Michael B. Tager, Jonathan C. Parrish, Amanda C. Davis, Lilah Wild, Sara Cleto, Alexandra Seidel, Mary Alexandra Agner, Cory Cone, Jeanne Kramer-Smyth, Beth Cato, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, Megan Engelhardt, Danielle Davis, Brittany Warman, BD Wilson, L.S. Johnson, Pete Aldin and Michael M. Jones.

"Anyone who believes that faeries are wee, golden-haired creatures with dragon-fly wings and sweet intentions has never met a real faerie." –Suzanne J. Willis, "A Silver Thread Between Worlds" Retellings of familiar favourites from new perspectives, and brand new tales share the pages of this collection of fairy stories. Within these tales you'll find fairy music and food, contracts (making and breaking them), changelings, circles and curses–these stories deliver all the things you already love about fairies and a few new tricks as well. A dusting of dragons, shapeshifters and ogres accompany these tales which include feminist fairies overcoming trauma, Norse fairies breaking the rules to interfere in human affairs, intergalactic fairies hitching a ride to a new home, political satire featuring an idiot king and talking animals, a new Robin Archer story, fairy run nightclubs and so, so much more. Altogether this collection includes twenty-six brand new stories–one for each letter of the alphabet–from contributors Pete Aldin, Steve Bornstein, Andrew Bourelle, Stephanie A. Cain, Beth Cato, Sara Cleto, Cory Cone, Danielle Davis, Megan Engelhardt, Michael Fosburg, Joseph Halden, Lynn Hardaker, L.S. Johnson, Michael M. Jones, Jeanne Kramer-Smyth, Samantha Kymmell-Harvey, C.S. MacCath, Jonathan C. Parrish, Alexandra Seidel, Michael B. Tager, Rachel M. Thompson, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, Brittany Warman, Lilah Wild, Suzanne J. Willis and BD Wilson.

A teenage girl's classmates begin disappearing only to haunt her dreams, ships full of ghostly passengers in need of release test those who are tasked to give them peace, psychopomps whose job is guiding the spirits of the dead to the other side meet in a support group, and more fill these pages.   Featuring work by Pete Aldin, Andrew Bourelle, Stephanie A. Cain, Beth Cato, M.L.D. Curelas, Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, Amanda C. Davis, Roddy Fosburg, Joseph Halden, Lynn Hardaker, L.S. Johnson, Michael M. Jones, Jeanne Kramer-Smyth, Samantha Kymmell-Harvey, C.S. MacCath, Jonathan C. Parrish, Alexandra Seidel, Samantha L. Strong, Michael B. Tager, Rachel M. Thompson, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, Sarah Van Goethem, Xan van Rooyen, Lilah Wild, Suzanne J. Willis and BD Wilson.   These twenty-six ghost stories, each with a unique perspective and style, explore hauntings and specters in ways both new and familiar.