So many, many, many books today!
Click here for the Instafreebie Science Fiction and Fantasy March madness lineup.
Want more? Of course you do, because life is all about the Extra.
Scroll through the offerings in the Mystery Magic Adventure giveaway.
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Sunday Sci Fi--the Next Big Thing
I have a minor in geology and always had a soft spot for trilobites. I wrote this story for a contest a few years ago.
The Next Big Thing
Priscilla Newnam had seen some peculiar things
in her 87 years, but she had never seen anything like the bug that crawled
across her spotless kitchen floor one sunny July morning as she was eating her
oatmeal.
For one thing it was huge, at
least a foot long, maybe more. And it
was strange in a disturbing way. It
looked like what you’d get if you mated a roachy bug to a lobster. She decided it probably was some kind of
mutated crustacean that had somehow crawled up from the harbor and found its
way into her house. And now she was
going to have to deal with it before she’d had a chance to finish her coffee.
riscilla Newnam had seen some peculiar things in her 87
years, but she had never seen anything like the bug that crawled across her
spotless kitchen floor one sunny July morning as she was eating her
oatmeal.
There wasn’t much that Priscilla Newnam was afraid of but the
sight of the creature scuttling across her kitchen linoleum was…unsettling. Priscilla’s husband Tom had been a lobster
man, and once or twice he’d brought home some strange things he’d found in his
pots. There’d been a yellow lobster
once, a freakish thing that he’d sold to the owner of a clam bar in Massachusetts who wanted
to keep it in a tank to attract customers.
A reporter and photographer from the Cape Courier
had come up to the house to interview Tom.
The photographer, a young fellow named Julien Thibidoux, had take Tom’s
picture holding the yellow lobster up by one claw. Then Julien had taken a picture of Tom and
Priscilla just because he wanted to and sent it to them later. That had been nice of him. She still had the picture on her bedside
table.
As she watched the thing move from one end of the kitchen to
the other, Priscilla decided that she was going to play the “age card” and turn
the problem over to someone else. She
hardly ever did that because she didn’t want people to start thinking of her as
an old biddy, someone who’d outlived her usefulness. But just this once, she
decided she would call animal control and let them deal with it.
Labels:
Science fiction,
short fiction,
tigers,
trilobites
Friday, March 2, 2018
Patricia Abbott picks her favorite short stories
Edgar Award finalist Patricia Abbott, author of Shot in Detroit, Concrete Angel, and a new collection of short fiction, I Bring Sorrow and Other Stories of Transgression, has written more than 150 short stories that have appeared in print and online publications. She won the Derringer Award in 2008 for her story "My Hero." She is co-editor of the anthology Discount Noir. She has published two previous collection of short stories, Monkey Justice and Other Stories and Home Invasion. She also maintains one of the most entertaining blogs around, Pattinase, which features everything from author interviews, to a regular Friday column, "Forgotten Books." I don't know anyone I'd rather talk short stories with. Here are her favorite picks today.
My Ten Favorite Short Stories (today)
Since I have spent most of the last twenty years writing
short stories, I also read a lot of them. For me, a good short story is closer
to a good poem than a good novel. It manages to tell you something, hopefully
something important, in a few pages. I always read them in one sitting. (Except
perhaps here for the Munro story which is quite long.)
Here are a few of my favorites. Ask me next week and they
might change but for now this is the ten. Incidentally nearly all of them are
available in PDFs online.
1. So Much Water, So Close to Home, Raymond Carver
A group of men on a camping trip stumble on a dead girl as
soon as they arrive, but do not let this detail interfere with their good
times. Truly a chilling story and there is a good film of it called JINDABYNE.
Monday, January 15, 2018
Author interview...Sadie Carter
Bestselling author, Sadie Carter
wanted to blend her love of writing, Sci-Fi (why did they cancel Firefly - sobs) and sexy, dominant
males. Sadie lives in gorgeous New Zealand where she dreams up stories
about strong, sassy heroines and sexy, Alpha aliens. Her story, “A Christmas
Most Alien,” appears in the limited-edition boxed set, Wicked Winter Tails.
You live in New Zealand. One of the most
otherworldly experiences I ever had was gong to Waitomo Cave and seeing the
glow worms. If a traveler could only visit three places/cities in New Zealand,
where would you suggest they go? So
many places to choose!! But my favorite area of New Zealand is Queenstown. It’s
absolutely beautiful with mountains and lakes. Next, I’d choose Bay of Islands
and lastly, I’d choose the West Coast of the South Island.
I know you loved Firefly (Who didn’t?).What are your favorite science fiction books?
Any writers whose books you can’t wait to read? Sci-fi romance is one of my favorite
genres. And Ruby Dixon has to be my top pick. If you haven’t read her Ice
Planet Barbarians then you need to!!
When you wrote your first Zerconian Warrior
book did you conceive it as a series or were you happily surprised by the reader
response? I was amazed
when the first book sold so well! I did see it as a series but I may not have
moved past book three if it hadn’t been for my amazing readers!
Your long-running Zerconian Warrior series
is set in the same world as your story for Wicked
Winter Tails, “A Christmas Most
Alien.” Did you
invent Tiran (the matriarchal location of the story) for this tale or is it
mentioned in the other books? The setting for A Christmas Most Alien isn’t
in the other books. It was made for this story.
Friday, January 12, 2018
Wicked Magic is here....
If you're looking for something to read this weekend--I've got you covered. Wicked Magic has just published and it's 99 cents on Amazon (or free if you're in Kindle Unlimited.) Pick up your copy here.
Here's the sales pitch:
A little bit of wickedness can be fun ...
Six novels and two bonus novellas of twisted magical tales with romance, adventure, and enchantment. Meet trickster fae, dark elves, mercurial heroes, faery queens, southwestern witches, shifters, draghans, and vampires. See the Devil himself get his due and fall in love, right along with these extraordinary heroes and heroines.
None of these stories are available anywhere else, and this is a special limited-time curated collection. Don't miss any of the wicked fun -- download it today!
About the Books
Soul Marked ~ C. Gockel
From the USA Today bestselling author of I Bring the Fire. When Tara finds a man passed out in her alley she hopes he's just a junkie ... and then she sees his pointed ears.
Sympathy for the Devil ~ Christine Pope
From the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Witches of Cleopatra Hill series. The Devil has never met a bargain he didn't like...but he might have met his match in one mortal woman.
Queen Mab ~ Kate Danley
MCDOUGALL PREVIEWS AWARD-BEST FANTASY OF THE YEAR. When Faunus, the god of daydreams, breaks the heart of Queen Mab, revenge is the only answer. But when this bitter fairy queen meets a gentleman named Mercutio, she will do anything, even if it means destroying the world, to save him.
Wicked Grove ~ by Alexia Purdy
As operatives of the elite Wicked Grove Supernatural Regulatory Agency, three fiercely independent and unstoppable siblings, Amy, Jay, and Craig, know the risks that come with the job. Get contaminated by one of the magicals, and you're screwed. Scratched by a werewolf? You're going to be howling come full moon. Bitten by a vampire? You might as well stamp "bloodsucker" on your face. You certainly won't be welcomed at the agency anymore. It's a no-brainer.
Elfhame ~ by Anthea Sharp
From USA Today bestselling author Anthea Sharp, a richly-imagined fantasy romance uniting an adventurous young woman and a fearsome Dark Elf warrior, in a magical tale reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast.
Here's the sales pitch:
A little bit of wickedness can be fun ...
Six novels and two bonus novellas of twisted magical tales with romance, adventure, and enchantment. Meet trickster fae, dark elves, mercurial heroes, faery queens, southwestern witches, shifters, draghans, and vampires. See the Devil himself get his due and fall in love, right along with these extraordinary heroes and heroines.
None of these stories are available anywhere else, and this is a special limited-time curated collection. Don't miss any of the wicked fun -- download it today!
About the Books
Soul Marked ~ C. Gockel
From the USA Today bestselling author of I Bring the Fire. When Tara finds a man passed out in her alley she hopes he's just a junkie ... and then she sees his pointed ears.
Sympathy for the Devil ~ Christine Pope
From the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Witches of Cleopatra Hill series. The Devil has never met a bargain he didn't like...but he might have met his match in one mortal woman.
Queen Mab ~ Kate Danley
MCDOUGALL PREVIEWS AWARD-BEST FANTASY OF THE YEAR. When Faunus, the god of daydreams, breaks the heart of Queen Mab, revenge is the only answer. But when this bitter fairy queen meets a gentleman named Mercutio, she will do anything, even if it means destroying the world, to save him.
Wicked Grove ~ by Alexia Purdy
As operatives of the elite Wicked Grove Supernatural Regulatory Agency, three fiercely independent and unstoppable siblings, Amy, Jay, and Craig, know the risks that come with the job. Get contaminated by one of the magicals, and you're screwed. Scratched by a werewolf? You're going to be howling come full moon. Bitten by a vampire? You might as well stamp "bloodsucker" on your face. You certainly won't be welcomed at the agency anymore. It's a no-brainer.
Elfhame ~ by Anthea Sharp
From USA Today bestselling author Anthea Sharp, a richly-imagined fantasy romance uniting an adventurous young woman and a fearsome Dark Elf warrior, in a magical tale reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
New title for the blog formerly known as Kattomic Energy
Because most of my writing is now done under my pseudonym "Kat Parrish," I'm renaming the blog to reflect that. Welcome to Eye of the Kat. Same content. Same me. But new name.
Fantastic Fantasy Freebies!
Just click here to choose from among three dozen free science fiction and fantasy books.
Labels:
fantasy,
Freebie books,
Science fiction
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