Showing results by narrator "Darla Middlebrook" in All Categories

Deor Smithfield had it all figured out. She had a great education, a new job teaching at a good university, and a plan to move across the country to start her new life. Then her body betrayed her, and she seemed to be falling prey to the same wasting sickness that killed her mother. When medical science failed her in spectacular fashion, Deor's grandmother told her that her long-lost father was more than just another deadbeat dad - he was a faerie, and she's a Changeling, half-human, half-fae.

This collection of stories from some of the brightest fantasy writers in the world run the gamut from steampunk to horror, from steamy romance to weird western, from Victorian thriller to contemporary bondage. But they all feature one thing in common - the corset. From vampire comedy to steampunk action to BDSM, Cinched is certain to free your mind. What else will follow?

What do you get when you mix mystery and speculative fiction, then toss in the holidays for good measure? A mobster Santa, genetic hanky-panky, Victorian villages, time-travelling detectives, Krampus, eerie bell spirits, and more-this collection of short cross-genre fiction is the perfect counterpoint to traditional holiday stories!

Isabel Kramer's dream of running competitively, frustrated since age 17, reveals itself when, on a lark, she joins her daughter in the Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco. Now age 60, Izzy challenges her misgivings, the sage and well-intentioned advice of family and friends, and prepares for long-distance running. Izzy, a psychiatrist and professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, has no illusions about the likelihood of success and the possibility of injury, but amazingly, she outperforms expectations.

In the sentient land of Veridia, Fila dreams of a simple future: using her women's magic of creation to help the Toiler people of the countryside. But when Veridia loses its Servant, the human conduit linking Veridia and its peoples, it chooses her daughter, Fila, as its new Servant. Mourning her mother and her lost dreams and doubting her worthiness, Fila sets out for the capital to be invested. On her journey, assassins attack, sent by a usurper with corrupted magic.

During a dark, foggy night, Vyking ships from the Isles of Welkstone slip into Hoffnung Bay to aid Lord Waxxon's coup to take Hoffnung's throne from half elf Queen Taube. As Lord Waxxon's guards storm the castle, Queen Taube flees to Lady Dawn's chambers to help her daughter escape. After Hoffnung's fall, Lady Dawn flees for her life in the hope of gathering together an army to overthrow Lord Waxxon, who killed her mother to take the throne.

Abbie had been treating two victims of the Chabot rapist who targeted girls, and as she's making progress in their care, unbelievably, someone abducts and strangles them. Their deaths devastate Abbie. During Abbie's difficult recovery, memories of past events gradually return. They are fragmentary and torture her with memory flashes and nightmares. Gradually, she begins to suspect that one of her adult patients may be the strangler.

Speculative fiction stories that are set in or about Archaeological Ruins. The protagonist in each story is an archaeologist who is a woman of color. Ruins range from those in the American Southwest to Central America, to the Andes Mountains to Egypt to the Middle East, Egypt to Aboriginal Australia, and across other areas. Some incorporate mythology of the ancient cultures who built and inhabited the ruins. Some of the protagonists are descendants of the ancient peoples of the ruins.

From a galaxy torn by civil war to a sleepy planet on the edge of the known universe, Enforcer Jakai del Quint pursues the failed Warlord Dorno Ban Sant to final showdown leaving Jakai alone and stranded on a planet called Earth far from the civilization he fought to protect. More than a hundred years later Jakai awakes, freed from his hibernation by a curious hiker.

Lands Ravaged. Dreams destroyed. Demons set loose upon the earth.War strikes at the heart of women's magic in Moisehén. Eolyn's fledgling community of magas is destroyed; its members killed, captured or scattered.Devastated yet undaunted, Eolyn seeks to escape the occupied province and deliver to King Akmael a weapon that might secure their victory. But even a High Maga cannot survive this enemy alone.

Winters are typically quiet and uneventful in Northern Michigan - but when Marge Christensen arrives in Traverse City to visit her mother, who is rehabilitating from a series of small strokes, Marge and her aunt soon become embroiled in trying to solve the deaths of two old ladies. Although the women resided in different nursing homes, is there a connection - or are the witnesses simply senile old ladies who are imagining intruders?

Skillfully narrated by storyteller Darla Middlebrook, this Robert Louis Stevenson tale of Keawe, a poor Hawaiian man, who buys a strange bottle from a sad, elderly gentleman who credits the bottle with his fortune. The elderly gentleman promises that an imp residing in the bottle will also grant Keawe his every desire. Of course, there is a catch - the bottle must be sold at a loss, i.e. for less than its owner originally paid, or else it will simply return to him. The currency used in the transaction must also be in coin (not paper money or a bank check).

Although it is not entirely to her liking, grief-stricken Satha, a dark-skinned woman from a poor Theseni clan weds young Loic, the wealthy Doreni son of the king's First Captain. Loic, graced with ability to see into the hearts and minds of others, begins to help Satha overcome her sorrows. Despite coming from different tribes, they begin to forge a life together. But when Satha's own compassion is used against her and a treacherous enemy contrives to dishonor her in Loic's absence, Loic's love turns to anger and disgust.

Tales of a Minstrel follows the adventures of a minstrel named Finbar as he travels from village to village telling his stories. His own experiences, however, tend to outshine even the most exciting story he tells.

One of America's first civil rights activists was a former slave named Sojourner Truth. Truth was born into slavery around the year 1797, and would wait thirty years to win her freedom. Her 1850 autobiography brought attention to the evils of slavery, and her work during the Civil War, her speeches highlighting injustice, and her efforts to ensure greater equality for all Americans inspired those who would follow.

Forty-seven-year-old housewife Marge Christensen finds her husband, Gene, dead in their garage, slumped over the steering wheel of his still running BMW. The police rule the death a suicide. Marge does not believe Gene killed himself and determines to discover what really happened to him. In the process, she discovers all their money is missing. So, what was Gene doing before he died? Why did he die? And what was she going to do now?

When Marge Christensen discovers a body buried in a park in Bellevue, Washington, she has no intention of getting involved. Until her best friend Lori's husband is accused of the crime, that is. He claims his arrest is Marge's fault because she told the police what she knew about his activities. So Marge and Lori set out, with perseverance and a disregard for their own safety, to discover what really happened.

Marge Christensen's employer and friend, Joshua Hurley, is found dead in the framing shop where she works. Her wedding to Detective Pete Peterson, who heads up the investigation, is in two weeks. Marge jumps into the investigation, unable to contemplate her wedding until the case is solved. In mourning, and struggling not to step too far over the line with the police, Marge also has to deal with an interfering mother-in-law and look for a new home.

On December 1, 1955, seamstress Rosa Parks took a stand by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Her defiance against an unjust system triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped spark the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Parks demonstrated the effectiveness of unified peaceful protests, and throughout her life she advocated an end to violence, discrimination, and injustice, eventually establishing the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development.