Showing results by narrator "Chelsea Stephens" in All Categories

What exactly is the difference between a love letter and a suicide note? Is there really any difference at all? These might be the questions posed by Dear Sweet Filthy World, Caitlin R. Kiernan’s 14th collection of short fiction, comprising 28 uncollected and impossible-to-find stories. Here are 28 tales of apocalypse and rebirth, of miraculous transformation and utter annihilation. Here is the place where professing your undying devotion might be precisely the same thing as signing your own death warrant or worse.

In The Dinosaur Tourist, Caitlín R. Kiernan’s 15th collection of short fiction, 19 tales of the unexpected and the uncanny explore that treacherous gulf between what we suppose the world to be and what might actually be waiting out beyond the edges of our day-to-day experience. A mirror may be a window into another time. A cat may be our salvation. Your lover may be a fabulous being. And a hitchhiker may turn out to be anyone at all.

From the bedroom mattress and pillows to daily cleaning products for the kitchen and bath, toothbrushes, and even furniture and clothing, toxins are embedded in many products and items used regularly in the home—and they are making us sick. Home Detox is a practical, accessible guide to understanding the problem and how we can address it in our own homes in a manageable and affordable way. Daniella Chace, a professional toxicologist and health writer, teaches listeners how to identify potential toxins, with an easy-to-follow, room-by-room evaluation.

In an effort to put her vengeful past behind her, Captain Branna Kelly charts a new course with the help of the Banshee's newest officer, Julia Farrow. Her first mission on the path to redemption is to restore order at a neighboring port. Julia's new fighting skills are put to the test when they go up against the deadly Ferryman and her cutthroat captain, Isaac Shaw. She more than holds her own, both with and without a blade, and Branna is torn between supporting and protecting her.

As a child, Angela Mathers was the victim of a top-secret experimental program that implanted neural chips in children to correct disorders and enhance intelligence. Shunned by society, she, and others like her were locked away in camps. Now an adult Luman, she is both brilliant and calculating. Her quest for redemption brings her to DC, where she works to get a government bill that would free the Lumans passed into law.

Under constant attacks, Matt and Natalia have weathered the storms of multiple plots against them. Now, with her ability to use her powers hampered by Dark magic, can she survive being held captive by one of the monsters from her past?

When his three-year-old daughter goes missing, Nick Rossi fears he’ll relive his sister’s disappearance from twenty-five years ago. Only this time officer Ruby Orton and her K-9 partner, Pepper, rescue the child. But as the kidnappers escalate to murder and target Nick, Ruby knows there’s more behind the abduction. Together, can they find the connection with a decades-old cold case…before the past turns deadly?

Doctor Rowan Dupont knows death. She grew up surrounded by it in her family’s Victorian funeral home, and it’s haunted her since the day her twin sister drowned years ago. Between her mother’s subsequent suicide and the recent murder of her father, coming home to run the funeral home feels fitting - even if it leaves her vulnerable to an obsessive serial killer.

Gem's life has gone from bad to worse faster than her secret demon baby can say "baby daddy". What started as a crappy job and a possible killer to bring to justice has become a full-blown conspiracy from hell. Literally. Demons are being summoned into New Orleans and Gem is sure there's a Nephilim behind it. Now, all she has to do is prove it. Oh yeah, and not get herself killed in the process. Too bad for Gem, everyone has secrets, including her. And when the powers-that-be find out what she's capable of, they'll stop at nothing to silence her once and for all.

Wibble & Pplimz, the Crucible's most unusual private investigators, must set off from their office in Hub City to clear the name of a former client. Along the way, their investigation broadens from a simple accusation of theft to include a missing person, a potential murder, and a highly unusual gem.

There’s a lot going on in Joy Howard’s life. She’s got an ex-husband who starts acting like he doesn’t want to be an ex anymore, a sixteen-year-old daughter in need of a guiding hand and a lot of rides to dance practice, more orders for paintings than she has time to paint, and a roster of tutoring clients who sometimes need far more than she can give.

In 1927, 17-year-old Elsie is dropped off in a new city with three other teenage girls, who have each trained since childhood to become the wife of a powerful man. And when they learn that their next target is earmarked to become president, their mission becomes more than just an assignment; this is a chance at the most powerful position in the society. But as these ambitious girls compete for the heart of a boy who has been given everything, Elsie starts to wonder what would happen if the name on that future ballot was hers.

At nineteen, she was an Instagram celebrity. Now, at thirty-five, she works behind the cosmetic counter at the "black and white store," peddling anti-aging products to women seeking physical and spiritual transformation. She too is seeking rebirth. She's about to undergo the high-risk, elective surgery Aesthetica, a procedure that will reverse all her past plastic surgery procedures, returning her, she hopes, to a truer self. Provided she survives the knife.

The desolate canyons of Alcoro - and the people desperate enough to hide there - couldn’t be more different from the opulent glass palace and lush forests of Moquoia. But the harsh desert and gleaming court are linked through their past, present, and future: a history of abductions in the desert to power Moquoia’s quarries and factories and a bleak, inhumane future built on the sweat and sacrifice of these bond laborers.

She’s booked every weekend, and her name is quickly becoming well known in the area. So it comes as a shock when her booking agent slowly stops calling her. That is, until she runs into the musician who’s been stealing her gigs. She can’t deny he has a voice to die for and the body of a god, but neither helps the fact that his personality is pure poison. Their exchanges never fail to boil her blood, but it’s a game she starts to look forward to, and she’s determined not to back down first.

Tales of blood, magic, and steel by masters of the craft!

When Amethyst Faye was six years old, she was almost stolen by a monster in the woods on the same night her mother mysteriously disappeared. Ten years, a half-dozen psychiatrists, and a slew of diagnoses haven’t made things any better; she is still plagued by nightmares, ridiculed at school, and misunderstood by everyone from her teachers to her counselor to her father. And lately she’s been sprouting thick green thorns out of her skin.

Vampire Alexis Black just wanted to be human again. Now she just wants to stay alive...and undead. After Alexis tried and failed to kill Delano Melazi, an ancient bloodsucker hell-bent on revenge, he’s been trying to repay the favor one pointy-toothed minion at a time. An army of undead intent on stalking and staking her.

Cupid's aim sucks worse than his curse. Noel was one craptacular boyfriend away from taking a vow of celibacy when she found her dull-but-reliable fiancé. Maybe he didn't get her, ahem, juices flowing, but so what? At least he wouldn't break her heart. But then Cupid had to go and shoot her in the ass with his ill-timed arrow and ruin everything by saddling her with the worst soulmate ever. Grayson Adler. He was everything she swore she'd never fall for again - arrogant and sexy in an obvious, Greek god kind of way.

Retired superstar Regan Lane is known for being outspoken. She’s never been one to keep her opinions to herself. When she lands a head coaching job in the women’s pro league with the Boston Ice, her brash promise to win the championship in her first year shocks no one. Especially not Tierney McGovern, head coach of the rival New York Lady Libertys.