Mystery, Dragons, Spies, and Custard
Available Now
Bothering With the Details: A Copyediting Cozy Mystery Short Story
Longtime copyeditor Lydia Menchin prides herself in having memorized The Chicago Manual of Style and being able to focus despite distractions. But the tech company she works for still fires her, assuming her age made her unable to understand electronic newsletters.
Lydia still reads the newsletter and finds the mistakes the new, clearly inferior editor misses.
Until she starts to suspect the errors might just be intentional….
“Bothering With the Details” originally appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, 2018.
Available Now
Dragons. Who doesn’t love them?But this collection isn’t just about the brutes or beasts. No, there are philosophical dragons. Technological dragons. Even sexy dragons.Not just fantasy dragons. But science fantasy. Or straight science fiction. Historic and future dragons.You’re going to meet dragons from all walks of life in the pages of this anthology. Mostly unexpected. Not the kinds of dragons you’ve met before.
Come and explore all the myriad facets of these fascinating creatures.
Available in both ebook and print.
This anthology contains my story “Beautiful Soul,” set in Victorian London.
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Set your cauldron to bubbling, and read these fifteen tales of magic, sorcery, and enchantment!What if you could smell magic—or go to a bar and get a shot of magic to go with your cocktail? Will an aging sorcerer’s last pupil ever learn anything? And what could possibly go wrong when a pair of witches enter the local chili cook-off?Includes stories by DeAnna Knippling, Leah R. Cutter, Robert Jeschonek, Debbie Mumford, Annie Reed, Rei Rosenquist, Alicia Cay, James Pyles, Grayson Towler, Jamie Ferguson, Dayle A. Dermatis, Thea Hutcheson, Leslie Claire Walker, Sharon Kae Reamer, and Steve Vernon.This anthology contains a reprint of my story “Telling the Bees,” part of the Holly and Willow hedgewitch series.
Available for Preorder
The Florentine Exchange:
A Page-Turning Spy Story Full of Twists and Turns
During a sultry summer in Florence, Italy, rule-following Libby must make an information exchange when her mentor, Antonia, sprains her ankle.
But then she discovers Antonia had two identical thumb drives. Was Antonia planning to give the wrong one to her contact?
Libby must make split-second decisions while her own life is on the line.
Clever spy thriller “The Florentine Exchange” transports readers to the sticky sumer humidity and historical beauty of Italy and keeps them on the edge of their seats, as only accomplished writer Dayle A. Dermatis can do.
“The Florentine Exchange” originally appeared in Fiction River Special Edition: Spies, 2019, and was reprinted in Voices Carry, and Other Stories of Women and Crime, 2020.
Available for Preorder
Custard: A Romeo and Juliet Story (Sort Of)
Brownies—not the little girls or the fudgy treat kind, but the Scottish pixie kind—help take care of households by being superior with household chores.
Agnes and Neil, from different brownie clans and working at different manor houses, both pride themselves in their custard. Custard, which requires the best, freshest eggs.
A chance meeting over a favorite clutch of eggs starts Agnes and Neil on an adventure, and the chance to create something new.
Their story will never be forgotten.
Editor Dean Wesley Smith says of “Custard,” “Dayle Dermatis…is a storyteller whose compelling and playful prose I will follow down virtually any path.”
“Custard: A Romeo and Juliet Story (Sort Of)” originally appeared in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, 2021.
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Enjoy the urban fantasy stories of the 
Amabella: intelligent, inquisitive, artistic, sporty. She leads a perfect life, with perfect friends.
Dark and deadly passions fuel crime. Often violent crime. The stories in this compelling volume traverse an emotional rollercoaster. Some revenge stories uplift, while the very darkest stories shine a light on the disturbing underbelly of human nature. But heroism—or at least an attempt to do the right thing—provides hope. So, brace yourself for a swirl of emotions—and some dark and deadly passions.
When the head of their local HoA tries to impose new rules on the annual Winter Solstice ritual, the four reigning witches of the gated community resolve to fight back.
Brittani Menchin, decidedly not popular high school student, stumbles across her former BFF, Charlotte, in the girls’ bathroom.
The Magic, Monsters, and Myth Storybundle has a wonderful variety of work, and as curator Kristine Kathryn Rusch says, “…this bundle is all about the sparkle. Sometimes the sparkle is magic. Sometimes it’s a made-up world. Sometimes it’s love.”
