Showing results by author "Mel Todd" in All Categories

Cori Catastrophe. They call me that sometimes, and I hate to admit it, but it isn’t wrong. Things go weird around me. Electronics die, things break, and if something odd happens, I seem to find it. Finding another dead body just made me late to work. Nothing will stop me from getting my degree, getting a job, and getting away from this tiny town - though leaving my best friend will hurt more than anything else. Reality seems determined to make reaching my goals impossible.

Being a double merlin sucks. You’d think having power, having people treat you with respect, an insanely awesome inheritance waiting for me, and knowing you could do really awesome (awful) things would be cool. It isn’t. I’ve got strings you wouldn’t believe attached to the inheritance. Then it turns out other people want it, so instead of suing me, I mean that would be logical, right? No, they are trying to kill me. And I don’t mean a single person, a freaking country! How insane is that? Well, screw them. I’m getting my degree and getting the inheritance.

With my best friend going to college to learn how to use her magic, I'm job hunting in Atlanta. We're sharing an apartment, and I've never been happier. The last thing I needed was to be involved in a murder investigation. Now, the police are sure I had something to do with it. News alert: I don't. I've got a job, Jo's going school. I finally am on the track to have my own life. Working as an EMT is great, but something weird happened at work. Something I can't explain. What if I'm wrong, and I am a mage? But I can't get the dead girl out of my mind. Who was she, and why did she die?

I did it: I've graduated, and there's no more pressure. And I've got a house - me, a house! Road-trip time for Jo, Sable, and I up to Albany, New York. The house both is and isn't what I expected. Beautiful - yes. Locked rooms with mysterious stuff - yes. But it also seems alive, which isn't possible. This isn't a movie, houses aren't alive. But before I get to finish exploring the house, the draft office has decided I need another trial run, and of course Agent Steven Alixant is their errand boy.

Cori Munroe just wants to enjoy her life after her draft service has completed. The kids are delightful, her home life is good, but as always, trouble finds her. Rips between Earth and the realms are appearing, and she seems to be to the only mage who can easily close them.

Doctorate achieved! Now time to pay off my mandatory service obligation to the government. The same government that may, or may not, be trying to occasionally kill me. But hey a job is a good thing, right?I didn't expect it to be all rainbows and sprinkles, but neither did I envision being thrown in with a training group of misfits and potential criminals. How did I end up having to make decisions to let someone die, or try to prevent it, when keeping them alive is breaking the law?

Do you love sparkly vampires? Well, too bad, because you won’t find a single one of those fancy-dancy bloodsuckers anywhere in this collection! It Came from the Trailer Park began as a fun idea to revisit the classic horror and old-school creature feature genres, with a hefty helping of B-rate tropes thrown in for good measure. Who doesn’t love a good Bruce Cambell or classic Vincent Price flick on a dark and dreary night? Emmy award winner Bill Oberst, Jr. opens the collection and sets the stage for the stories to come.

Weddings are never easy. But a wedding for your best friend has its own certain brand of joy. Jo and Sable are getting married and I'm going to be their Person of Honor. Easy, right? Between defending my dissertation, dealing with wedding plans gone wild, freaking out brides, and my own misgivings, it's going to take a miracle to get us all to the altar.

Rips are happening across the world, and I'm the only one that can close them all by myself. They have me hopping everywhere, and I'm running out of energy and running down my health. But if I don't do this, people are going to die.

Cori Munroe just wants to enjoy her life after her Draft service has completed. The kids are delightful, her home life is good, but as always, trouble finds her. Rips between Earth and the realms are appearing and she seems to be to the only mage that can easily close them. When Esmere calls her to attend the council, something she thought she was well clear of, she finds herself forced to take up a position as Lord of Earth.

Charles Wainscot never expected to be a mage, but when it came with a familiar he thinks it might all be worth it. College, new life, maybe new friends. Too bad his old life has followed him with the presence of a high school bully. Either way, he'll manage by himself. But when Cori Munroe bursts into his life things get a lot stranger.

A half-orc discarded at birth, a fairy-elf part of neither world they both long to belong. They just want lives where they matter. They are worlds apart in everything. But together Nyc and Stel are a wrecking ball that is almost unstoppable.

Handling the cat calling as a female police officer is one thing, being a literal cat is something else. When the world's population shifts into animals, the last thing McKenna expected was to be at the center of the controversy. Much less for her to be the star in a viral video. Harried by her internal cat, resentful co-workers, freaked out neighbors, and a partner who's turned into a bear, she's got enough on her plate. And no one knows why they changed, which is scary enough.