Amazingly, we’re already at issue number 3 of this odd and fun little project. The time really has raced by. With two issues under our collective belt, we decided to branch out a little and add a new twist: we invited USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch to be our very first guest author. As you might guess, she accepted!
This issue’s theme is Heartspells: urban fantasy romance. Once again, an amazingly gorgeous and diverse group of stories…just in time for you to start getting into the romantic, Valentine-y kind of mood.
I set my story on a rainy night in Vienna, drawing on my memories of the few days Ken and I spent there…
“This is the World Calling”
Tansy and Ki’s families are two of the most powerful witch dynasties—and the feud between them puts the Hatfield and McCoys to shame. So why, then, did their parents not care when the two would run off and play as children, lost in their own little world? When they meet again as adults, Tansy and Ki’s mutual attraction makes it vitally important that they find the answer to that question.
Buy it at any of these fine online retailers:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Omnilit | Smashwords | iBooks
The other incredibly fabulous authors—go check out their stories!
“Heartfire,” Leslie Claire Walker
— Vengeance is mine. —
Someone kills a woman in the alley behind Snake Bite Tattoo—a clear declaration of war against its dangerous proprietor, Malek, the serpent from the Garden of Eden made an immortal man. If he can work a spell in time to bring the woman back to temporary life, she can tell him who murdered her and why. He’ll track them down and make they pay. End of story.
But he doesn’t count on remembering that he once knew her, or the feelings that rise in him along with the memories. Or that the reason for her death and the declaration of war are not what they seem.
“For more than a decade now, I have adored the work of Leslie Claire Walker.”
— Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“Lovebirds,” Michele Lang
Nancy gave up on love a long time ago, and lives a well-researched, rational life in Buffalo, New York. But winter gives way to spring, and the voodoo love store downtown sells not just lovebirds, but the potential for a different kind of life. When she finds the courage to say yes, love swoops out of Nancy’s dreams on borrowed wings.
“Lang is a writer to watch.”
— Booklist
“The Midnight Gardener,” Leah Cutter
Joanie finally found her heart out in the backyard, hanging in an old fir like a Christmas ornament, covered in bees…
Now she must discover what it means to hold her heart open for another.
“Love Stinks, Inc.,” Annie Reed
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Dyte started her anti-Valentine’s Day business as a way to get even with her dad, none other than Cupid himself, after he scared away her boyfriend. She just never expected Love Stinks, Inc., to become quite so successful.
The last thing Dyte wants is the title Zeus plans to bestow on her: Goddess of the Chronically Single (her company’s profits were that good, and boy do the old gods have a thing about tithes and offerings).
With Love Stinks on the verge of a record-setting year, Dyte has two choices to avoid the dreaded title: admit her dad was right and she was wrong about the whole boyfriend thing (like that will ever happen), or find true love (without the benefit of spells or magical arrows) before the clock strikes midnight on February 14th.
“Switchback,” Phaedra Weldon
Skylar loves Erin. Erin loves Skylar, only as a friend. Because Erin loves men.
Frustrated with her feelings and the impossible situation she finds herself in, Skylar seeks out a local witch for advice. The witch gives her a spell, with a warning, that once the spell is sealed with true love, there is no going back.
Guest Author
“Track 61,” Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Kessa possesses only small magic. But her skills allow her to help those who wield bigger magic.
Her latest job takes her deep into the bowels of New York City’s subway system, hunting for bits of history long since forgotten.
And what she finds deep down in the dark will both threaten her life and change it forever.
“Rusch is a great storyteller.”
—RT Book Reviews
Final Info
As a reminder, we do have a website and a newsletter, for the sole purpose of telling you when the next batch of stories is available.
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Layde leads a double life: as a Duchess on the Hll, and as a mysterious assassin in a blood-red cloak. Born without a soulstone, set apart from every other person by her difference, she wanders adrift until she falls in love with Sehra, also a hired killer…and a mother. Layde takes jobs to fill the hollowness inside, but Sehra kills by a code. Their differences threaten to drive them apart, and tragedy threatens to destroy Layde. Only the love of a child has a chance of bringing her back from despair’s edge.
