Fantasy and Science Fiction Short Story Series

When Sue crash-lands back on Earth, she didn't know what to expect.What she found was a telepathic wolf pack, capable of reasoning and the dominant life form on the planet. The were in a fight for survival with the feral specieds of wolves, as well as the remnants of humankind.  In the first part of this, Sue learns to communicate and to travel with the pack as they fight and escape from the hunting ferals. In doing so, she fights alongside Tig, the hunting pack leader, to save both their lives.  What she wanted was to get back to the moon base to rescue her family. She didn't know how bad the collapse was.  But before she can get anywhere, she has to prove to the sentient wolf pach that she can be trusted. This means a "probe." Something no human has survived. Sue has special talents and information the wolf pack needs.  While she is preparing for this process, the wolves are fighting for their own survival as a species. The ferals know where their hidden valley is and how to get in. The Sentient wolves intend to attack first before anything can happen to them. Within the pack itself is a conflict between Snarl, and Tig, who were both raised to lead the pack. The Chief is old, too sick to lead the hunt any longer. Snarl has something planned... Excerpt: The wolves had selected an old hooman foundation for the probe site. It was circular, and legend had that the old building was mostly for storage and sheltering livestock. Hooman's called it a "barn". Those that hunted in and around it said it was a slave building, trapping the beings within. Supposedly, this was by mutual consent, as the beings who sheltered in that barn had few defenses without hoomans around. Those days were before the hoomans leaving in their sky-ships. Sentience wasn't widely available until after they were gone. After the plague took most of the remaining hoomans. Today, that foundation would be for the ceremony. It would mark where the probe would take place, and where the sentient wolves and their cubs could watch in relative safety. Or so they thought. No hooman had survived the probe before. But this one was different. No hooman had been to the valley since the days of the hooman plague. This was completely new. And yet, more vital than ever. The ferals knew where the valley was. And the hooman settlements had been growing in size. Not just locally, but in every area where hoomans still survived. This news was brought by the migrating birds and insects. Unless a way was found to communicate with hoomans and ferals, it would mean a new world war that would destroy both sides. A war that would never end until one or the other side was exterminated. Tig-she led Soo-she up to the circle and then stopped. The wolf looked at her and sent her a faith-filled prayer for the best outcome. Soo-she nodded in reply, then entered the circle. A hawk flew in lazy circles overhead, riding the thermals. With a cry, she dove to earth. Soo-she ducked, but the wolves didn't flinch. On landing with a graceful back-sweeping, the hawk alighted without a sound. Eying the assembled wolves, the hawk bowed its head. A shimmering covered that form, which showed a wolf when it cleared. Grey, almost white fur - it was Teacher...

From the author of The Wizard of Oz comes a high-flying adventure featuring intrepid girl aviator Orissa Kane. Like Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, Orissa is intelligent, self-reliant and always persevering. Secrets, spies, mechanical genius, sabotage - all merging on on Orissa to save the fledgling aircraft company by winning top prize at an air meet in the pioneer days of powered flight. Even though she'd never flown before. Circumstances force young Orissa Kane into the air in her brother's innovative new airplane. But a deadly foe is intent on sending her crashing back to earth. Just like her brother had days earlier. Soar to new heights with the Flying Girl as she braves countless dangers to achieve worldwide acclaim. Excerpt: From the far end of the field Steve swung around and started back, straight for the grand stand. He had nearly reached it when he threw in the clutch that started the propellers and at the same time slightly elevated the front rudder. Up, like a bird taking wing, rose the aircraft, soaring above the grand stand and then describing a series of circles over the field. Gradually it ascended, as if the aviator was ascending an aërial spiral staircase, until he had mounted so far among the clouds that only a grayish speck was discernible. The spectators held their breaths in anxious suspense. The speck grew larger. Swooping down at a sharp angle the aircraft came suddenly into view and within a hundred feet of the ground resumed its normal position and began to circle around the field again. Now a mighty cheer went up, and Orissa, who had been pressing Sybil’s hand with a grip that made her wince, found herself sobbing with joy. Her brother’s former flights had been almost as successful as this; but only now, with the plaudits of a multitude ringing in her ears, did she realize the wonderful thing he had accomplished. But on a sudden the shout was stilled. A startled, frightened moan ran through the assemblage. Women screamed, men paled and more than one onlooker turned sick and faint. For the Kane Aircraft, while gracefully gliding along, in full view of all, was seen to suddenly collapse and crumple like a pricked toy balloon. Aëroplane and aviator fell together in a shapeless mass toward the earth, and the sight was enough to dismay the stoutest heart. But Steve’s salvation lay in his altitude at the time of the accident. Fifty feet from the earth the automatic planes asserted their surfaces against the air and arrested, to an appreciable extent, the plunge. Had it been a hundred feet instead of fifty the young man might have escaped without injury, but the damaged machine had acquired so great a momentum that it landed with a shock that unseated young Kane and threw him underneath the weight of the motor and gasoline tank. A dozen ready hands promptly released him from the wreck, but when they tried to lift him to his feet he could not stand. His leg was broken... Scroll Up and Get Your Copy Now.

Under normal conditions a whole person has a decided advantage over a handicapped one. But out in deep space the normal may be reversed—for humans at any rate. The "Empress" was a derelict. It had become legend. A luxury space cruiser that is devoid of life and runs the spaceways with its lights on. All the wealth of its passengers intact. Waiting for salvage. But no one who goes after her ever returns... Excerpt: It was Steena who told Bub Nelson about the Jovan moon-rites—and her warning saved Bub’s life six months later. It was Steena who identified the piece of stone Keene Clark was passing around a table one night, rightly calling it unworked Slitite. That started a rush which made ten fortunes overnight for men who were down to their last jets. And, last of all, she cracked the case of the Empress of Mars. All the boys who had profited by her queer store of knowledge and her photographic memory tried at one time or another to balance the scales. But she wouldn’t take so much as a cup of Canal water at their expense, let alone the credits they tried to push on her. Bub Nelson was the only one who got around her refusal. It was he who brought her Bat. About a year after the Jovan affair he walked into the Free Fall one night and dumped Bat down on her table. Bat looked at Steena and growled. She looked calmly back at him and nodded once. From then on they traveled together—the thin gray woman and the big gray tom-cat. Bat learned to know the inside of more stellar bars than even most spacers visit in their lifetimes. He developed a liking for Vernal juice, drank it neat and quick, right out of a glass. And he was always at home on any table where Steena elected to drop him. This is really the story of Steena, Bat, Cliff Moran and the Empress of Mars, a story which is already a legend of the spaceways. And it’s a damn good story too. I ought to know, having framed the first version of it myself. For I was there, right in the Rigel Royal, when it all began on the night that Cliff Moran blew in, looking lower than an antman’s belly and twice as nasty. He’d had a spell of luck foul enough to twist a man into a slug-snake and we all knew that there was an attachment out for his ship. Cliff had fought his way up from the back courts of Venaport. Lose his ship and he’d slip back there—to rot. He was at the snarling stage that night when he picked out a table for himself and set out to drink away his troubles. However, just as the first bottle arrived, so did a visitor. Steena came out of her corner, Bat curled around her shoulders stole-wise, his favorite mode of travel. She crossed over and dropped down without invitation at Cliff’s side. That shook him out of his sulks. Because Steena never chose company when she could be alone. If one of the man-stones on Ganymede had come stumping in, it wouldn’t have made more of us look out of the corners of our eyes. She stretched out one long-fingered hand and set aside the bottle he had ordered and said only one thing, “It’s about time for the Empress of Mars to appear again..." Scroll Up and Get Your Copy Now.  

The Reason for This Book The mystery of Covfefe was first hinted in a late-night tweet by our President, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe...” 2:06 a.m., from @realDonaldTrump What did this mean? The twitter lines burned. News media, formerly consumed with generating fake news for both right and left, now was devoted to finding and exposing the mystery of this sentence fragment. For my own reasons, I delved into the original translations of the top 100 literary works (on Gutenberg.org) that we have always looked to for diversion and inspiration in times of trouble. Here the source of this word and its permutations were found. No longer do you have to cast about for meaning to these seven letters. The secret origins and meanings of “confefe” have now been collated and assembled into a ready reference for your education. Now you can rest assured that all the world from here forward will know and understand the value of Covfefe in our lives and the effect on our political climate forever. Perhaps no other word has united this country – for a moment – in humble non-understanding. And that silence was deafening, for a second. After that, we got back to partisan squabbling and fake news as usual. But it was fun while it lasted. Scroll Up and Get Your Copy Now.