"Mastihooba" by Joshua Palmatier Close Encounters of the Urban Kind We've all heard the stories of what happens to those who go to lovers' lane and of the folly of flashing your lights at another car at night. We all know someone who knows someone that survived a meeting with Bloody Mary and another who picked up a hitchhiker that then disappeared. And we all know these stories aren't true. They're just urban legends. Right?
Wrong.Sometimes the stories we hear are true. Often they're more than they seem. These are the urban legends with alien explanations and the alien encounters mistaken for urban legends. The line between one and the other is so blurred in this anthology of stories about Close Encounters of the Urban Kind that you will never look another urban legend the same way again.
Featuring stories by Alma Alexander, Nathan Crowder, Carole Johnstone, Pete Kempshall, Jennifer Pelland, Erik Scott de Bie, Bev Vincent, and many others.
"Tears of Blood" by Joshua Palmatier
Beauty Has Her Way Beautiful, Stong-Willed Women. We Love Them. Now read an anthology filled with stories about them. This is not a heroine's book ... unless the heoine knows how to do bad in the name of good. This anthology is about women across the ages overcoming all obstacles to win their pirze. Sixteen tales where Beauty Has Her Way ... even if she has to get down and dirty to do it!
Stories by: Paul D. Batteiger, Ramsey Lundock, Joshua Palmatier, Maurice Broaddus, Kenneth Mark Hoover, Chuck Wendig, Pete Kempshall, Ed Greenwood, Filamena Young, Erik Scott de Bie, David A. Hill Jr., Amanda Gannon, Keffy R. M. Kehrli, KV Taylor, Ann Wilkes, Kay T. Holt and Bart R. Leib
"The River" by Joshua Palmatier River It begins. Somewhere. An insignificant trickle of water.
And it changes.And it grows up, and gathers a history, and finds its way into atlases and maps, until it finally reaches the sea, and vanishes into its vastness.
You might think it of no importance. That it does not matter.
But you follow where it leads...
Rivers have always been very important to humankind. They've been explored. They've been navigated. They've been called gods. They've been blessed and cursed and venerated and used and enjoyed and exploited and polluted since the beginning of recorded history.
They've been sung about and dreamed about and followed on epic journeys of discovery. They capitals of empires have risen on the banks of rivers - and so have a thousand fishing villages, and river landings, and water mills.
There is only one River. Really. And it's all of them. Every river is dfferent - and yet they're all the same, vast and full of life and death and mystery and history and adventure and quiet dreams.
Full of life. Full of mystery. Full of stories.
Stories by: Mary Victoria, Tiffany Trent,Jay Lake, Deb Taylor, Keffy R.M. Kehrli, Jacey Bedford, Joshua Palmatier, Brenda Cooper, Seanan McGuire,Ada Milenkovic Brown, Nisi Shawl, Joyce Reynolds-Ward
"Daughter of the Sands" by Joshua Palmatier Apollo's Daughters Some of the best and biggest names in science fiction have lent their talent to Silence in the Library for this collection of genre stories, all featuring some of the coolest and most complex female characters.
From a woman trapped in a robotic suit in a grim Australian future to a magick-wielding Russian soldier on the run from her own side, "Apollo's Daughters" is a concentrated dose of exactly the kinds of stories you're looking for.
This collection was created as a companion to Silence in the Library's ATHENA'S DAUGHTERS, and, as a bonus, contains "Disarray," the last novella by New York Times Bestseller Aaron Allston.
"An Alewife In Kish" by Joshua Palmatier, writing as Benjamin Tate Condemned by the gods to spend her life serving others, the alewife Kubaba tricks Gilgamesh into taking her place as the undying guardian of the Ur-Bar. featured in:
After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar The first bar, created by the Sumerians after they were given the gift of beer by the gods, was known as the Ur-Bar. Although it has since been destroyed, its spirit lives on—in each age there is one bar that captures the essence of the original Ur-Bar, where drinks are mixed with magic and served with a side of destiny and intrigue.
With stories by Benjamin Tate, S.C. Butler, Jennifer Dunne, Barbara Ashford, Maria V. Snyder, Kari Sperring, D.B. Jackson, Patricia Bray, Seanan McGuire, Juliet E. McKenna, Laura Anne Gilman, Ian Tregillis, Avery Shade, Jackie Kessler, and Anton Strout.
"Seeds" by Joshua Palmatier, writing as Benjamin Tate Dwarren lands are being threatened by human settlers moving in from the west. Only shaman Mikatl recognizes the dangers that the humans pose to the dwarren way of life and it's up to him to make those dangers clear to his clan chief and the head shaman...even if that means defying them both. featured in:
Unexpected Journeys
In this collection you'll find epic fantasy favorites; youthful rites of passage, enchanted artifacts, experienced heroes fighting with (and against) swords and sorcery, brains outmanoeuvering brawn and wise elders imparting wisdom. You'll find a great deal more besides. As traditional elements unfold in unexpected ways, these tales are enriched by contemporary fantasy's much broader view, taking in previously overlooked and disregarded characters. These stories no longer deal with the affairs of kings and wizards alone--though such tales have plenty to say about kings and wizards, and by extension, the uses and abuses of many kinds of power.
With stories by Anna Lyle, Benjamin Tate, Gail Z. Martin, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Liz Williams, Stephen Deas, Chaz Brenchley, and Kate Elliot.
"Mirror, Mirror" by Joshua Palmatier featured in:
Liminal Spaces
Liminal Spaces is a quiet horror anthology from Cemetery Gates Media featuring stories from well-known dark fiction writers such as: Joanna Koch, Jessica McHugh, Mark Allan Gunnells, Anthony J. Rapino, Gwendolyn Kiste, Michael Wehunt, Bob Ford, Kelli Owen, Richard Thomas, Todd Keisling, Chad Lutzke, Kristi DeMeester, Joshua Palmatier, and Norman Prentiss.
“The word ‘liminal’ comes from the Latin root limen. It means ‘threshold.’ A liminal space is a ‘crossing over’ space–a space where you have left something behind, yet you are not fully in something else. It’s a transition space.
“This is my favorite kind of horror and speculative fiction. Fiction which takes place in that ‘crossing over’ space. Stories about characters who have–wittingly or unwittingly–crossed a threshold. Those who have left something behind, yet are not quite somewhere or something else. They are in-between, and are neither one thing, nor another. Classic anthologies like Shadows, edited by Charles L. Grant epitomize these kinds of stories, as did Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, the work of Charles Beaumont and T. M Wright, Joyce Carol Oates, Shirley Jackson, and the ‘strange stories’ of Robert Aickman.” -Kevin Lucia, Editor
"The Cloud" by Joshua Palmatier featured in:
Silence in the City
Sudden disruptions in power and other major services sends a city into chaos. In the blink of an eye, the modern technological world fails. Is it a government plot? Experiment gone wrong? A foreign cyber attack? Alien invasion? A mystical incursion from beings beyond this dimension? Who knows? Now the noise and the bustle of the city has vanished and an eerie silence settles over the urban landscape. Within, there are stories of human violence, depravity, and desperation, but also heroism, selflessness, and sacrifice. Silence in the City is an anthology of speculative tales asking what happens when a city—and all of modern civilization—is plunged into darkness.
