Recommended Reading List: May, 2022

Well, May was super busy, with finals and a workshop that I was teaching and the Licensing Expo. I got behind writing up the recommended reading, and then I got sick in the first part of June, so I couldn’t finish this. I did manage to read a startling amount, though, considering I was also reading manuscripts and I was gone much of the time. […]

Read Me 2 Comments

Free Fiction Monday: Sole Survivor

From the award-winning, bestselling Retrieval Artist Universe comes a story about a pulse-pounding race for survival and a foreshadowing of dangerous events yet to unfold. Takara Hamasaki made plans to leave the far-flung starbase for weeks, but something always stopped her. Until today. Now, she finds herself running for her life as bodies fall all around her, cut down by dozens of identical-looking men. If […]

Read Me 4 Comments

Free Fiction Monday: Unknown Baby Girl

A former LAPD homicide detective, Carolyn moved to Oregon to escape crime. Yet when she takes a job making houses energy efficient, she discovers a baby’s skeleton in a crawl space. She can’t ignore the forgotten bones; they speak to her. So, she uses her old skills to track down shocking family secrets, still reverberating from long, long ago. Gritty and powerful, “Unknown Baby Girl” […]

Read Me 1 Comment

Free Fiction Monday: Bonding

Marisa relishes her undercover work—it suits her loner nature. But when an assignment meant to bust a ring of Ce’nark poachers goes sideways, Marisa finds herself in a position she never wanted—caring for another life form. Even worse, returning the creature to its family proves more complicated than she imagined. And the truth she uncovers might have lasting ramifications throughout the system. “Bonding,” by Hugo Award-winning author Kristine […]

Read Me 1 Comment

Free Fiction Monday: Rehabilitation

The man who calls himself Matt Sturtz only connects with other human beings at Christmas. He takes a job as a mall Santa, and marvels that no one checks his résumé, or his identification for that matter. But this year, something goes wrong. Something he will not stand for. Something he must stop. No matter how much it costs him. No matter what goes wrong. […]

Read Me Leave comment

Free Fiction Monday: Pudgygate

Imagine a dinner party in an English country manor with an American cook named Bubba making a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, waiters from Cal Tech, British royalty among the guests, a cat named Pudgy, and a thief. Honestly, what could go wrong? This delightful holiday mystery by New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch offers a veritable buffet of intriguing characters. “Pudgygate,” by New York Times bestselling […]

Read Me Leave comment

Free Fiction Monday: Unity Con

When Paladin calls Secret Master of Fandom and private detective Spade and asks him to come to a new con he swore he’d never attend, he agrees. Because he can’t say no to Paladin. But what Spade finds when he arrives at the con makes him immediately regret the decision. A dead writer. Missing money. Organizers at each other’s throats. Spade wonders if saving the […]

Read Me Leave comment

Free Fiction Monday: Ghosting

Cudahay tracks ghosts. Not the ethereal kind. The regret-dating-you-so-they-disappear kind. He makes a business out of it with his partner, Serena. She deals with the losers and their sob stories, he tracks down the rather-not-be-found to provide proof of life so the losers can move on. When a real ghost from Cudahay’s past turns the tables and tracks him, however, Cudahay must decide just how […]

Read Me 1 Comment

Free Fiction Monday: The Demise of Snot Rocket

All serious runners know about snot rockets. At least in pre-pandemic times, they did. But one particularly talented runner relishes snot rockets more than others. When he turns up dead, the list of potential murderers runs longer than the list of medals he collected over the years. But when an investigative journalist sees the true crime potential of the case, what she uncovers surprises even […]

Read Me Leave comment

Free Fiction Monday: Parking Space Vigilantes

Stacy calls herself a Parking Space Vigilante. As a member of the city’s program to ticket able-bodied drivers who park in handicapped spaces, Stacy believes she serves as protector for her small corner of the world from the insensitive, the stupid, and the just plain ignorant. But when she discovers her nemesis, the driver of a Suburban who insists on parking illegally every time he […]

Read Me Leave comment