Highly commended entries from Oxfordshire Libraries' eBook Short Story Competition 2024, in the adult category:* Knock & Run by C L Bason* The Seamstress of Ham by Phil Blunden* Cassandra by Simon Lawton-Smith* The Golden Thread by Jennifer Taylor* The Swallow’s Song by Francesca Teal* A Vast Ignorance by Ashley Walker

NIGHTMARE is a digital horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror. Welcome to issue #138 of NIGHTMARE! We have original short fiction from Keith Rosson ("Second Deaths") and Fatima Taqvi ("Our Very Best Selves!"). Our Horror Lab originals include a flash story ("A Guide to Camping in the Forest") from Oyedotun Damilola Muees and a poem ("The Let Go") from E. Catherine Tobler. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and Adam-Troy Castro returns with some book recommendations.

Harlequin® Romance brings you a collection of four new titles, available now! Experience the rush of falling in love! This Harlequin® Romance box set includes:THE BILLIONAIRE'S FESTIVE REUNIONA White Christmas in WhistlerBy Cara ColterIt's the busiest time of year for billionaire ski resort owner, Brad. After losing his wife, he's determined to make this festive season memorable. But rescuing his first love, Faith, from a frozen lake isn't what he had in mind! The passion between them is as potent as ever, but now Brad knows true heartache he's wary of letting anyone close. Yet the yearning to uncover why Faith ran from him decades earlier is hard to ignore... Can Christmas weave its magic for a snow-kissed second chance?THEIR MIDNIGHT MISTLETOE KISSA White Christmas in WhistlerBy Michele RenaeFormer competitive skier Rayce and no-nonsense ski resort manager Cassandra are...

Renowned poet Mary Jo Salter, whose command of verse forms and high intelligence is universally acknowledged, selects the poems for the 2024 edition of The Best American Poetry, "a 'best' anthology that really lives up to its title" (Chicago Tribune).The Best American Poetry series has been "one of the mainstays of the poetry publication world" (Academy of American Poets) since 1988. Each volume presents a curated selection of the year's most brilliant, striking, and innovative poems, with comments from the poets themselves offering unique insight into their work. Here, guest editor Mary Jo Salter, whose own poems display a sublime wit "driven by a compulsion to confront the inexplicable" (James Longenbach), has picked seventy-five poems that capture the dynamism of American poetry today. The series and guest editors contribute valuable introductory essays that assess the current state of American poetry, and this year's...

A collection of the year's best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby, author of Razorblade Tears, and series editor Steph Cha.In his introduction, guest editor S. A. Cosby observes that writing short stories is "a special skill that combines brevity with wit and cleverness and the hint of the existential malaise that imbues crime fiction with its gravitas." The stories in this col-lection overflow with gravitas in the most unexpected ways: a cryptic note left on a windshield, a murder for hire meets a game of Mouse Trap, a swipe right on a dating app goes horribly wrong. From an eleven-year-old drawn to the neighborhood spookhouse to a scholarship kid at an exclusive boarding school, a nefarious Old West gunman to a Florida woman's struggle against both outer and inner demons, the characters in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024 are haunted and haunting, and wholly...

A collection of the year's top food and travel writing, selected by the trailblazing New York Times bestselling author and Emmy-nominated host of Taste the Nation and Top Chef Padma Lakshmi."Food and travel are natural companions," writes guest editor Padma Lakshmi. From this pairing comes "the possibility of seeing anew, of examining how we make and assign meaning." The essays in this year's Best American Food and Travel Writing circle the world—from Dakar in Senegal, to Michoacán in south-central Mexico, to the Camino de Santiago in Spain—and deepen our understanding of our place in it. An ode to the American grilled cheese spurs the desire to find beauty in the smallest daily activities. An obsessive odyssey for the perfect Chinese food blossoms into a heart-wrenching search for a lost childhood. Bold and insightful, joyful and moving, this collection celebrates the experiences that connect us all.The Best American Food...

Award-winning environmentalist, author, and journalist Bill McKibben selects twenty science and nature essays that represent the best examples of the form published in the previous year."This was the most anomalous year (so far) in human history," guest editor Bill McKibben writes, "the year in which the relationship between people and planet showed its most dramatic signs yet of unraveling." The selections in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024 reveal a trying year for our planet—from the Lahaina wildfire tragedy to the lush Amazon jungle slowly turning to savanna—while also celebrating the earth's beautiful and mysterious ways—from the largest beaver dam on earth to the heroic innovation to prevent birds from crashing into Chicago's expanse of glass buildings. These essays offer solace in trying times, showing a way for a better future. They are, as McKibben says, "a reminder that this world is still a lovely and deep...

Short tales to get you through the long winter monthsFeaturing stories by Warren Benedetto, John M. Campbell, Brandon Case, Ryan A. Cole, Marc A. Criley, Sarina Dorie, Louis Evans, Evangeline Giaconia, Jon Hansen, Michel Harvey Hanson, N.V. Haskell, Alexander Hay, David A. Hewitt, Liam Hogan, Chris Kuriata, Hugh McCormack, L.P. Melling, Chaitanya Murali, Lena Ng, Stetson Ray, Cynthia C. Scott, Joseph Sidari, Jeff Stehman, Catherine Tavares, Xauri'EL Zwaan, and Richard Zwicker

NIGHTMARE is a digital horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror. Welcome to issue #145 of NIGHTMARE! We have original short fiction from Gemma Files ("Little Horn") and Simon Gilbert ("Perfect Water"). Our Horror Lab originals include a poem ("Possession") from Martins Deep and a flash story ("NotRob") from Isabel Canas. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and a de_crypt_ed discussion of the horror canon.

NIGHTMARE is a digital horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror. Welcome to issue #140 of NIGHTMARE! We have original short fiction from Daniel David Froid ("An Offering from the Void") and Victor Forna ("like blood on the mouths of death"). Our Horror Lab originals include a flash story ("Solve This One, Mrs. Miller") from Carlie St. George and a poem ("The Southern Bells") from Beatrice Winifred Iker. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and a feature interview with author J. Nicole Jones.

Part 3 of the Last Enemy, where the world order unravels following the ill-managed prohibition of Telomerax in the public domain, that sparks revolts and conflict on a worldwide scale. The team of Louis Picard endures bitter losses, fighting to avoid the collapse of mankind triggered by the environmental disasters of war.“The last enemy to be destroyed shall be death”, wrote St. Paul in his letters. But what if someone has already managed to defeat it? Thirty-four years have gone by since an ingenious biochemist, named Louis Picard, invented the ultimate anti-aging drug in 1981, that is known as Telomerax. Louis was obliged to form a selected group of technology entrepreneurs, finance mavens, and secret service professionals to help strategically spread knowledge of the drug. The discovery of Telomerax carried obvious dangers with it, eventually leading to the collapse of society and the near-extinction of mankind, in the ruthless war that broke out. Survivors set out to design a new society, specially designed for the half-gods that individuals were becoming. An action-packed and thrilling apocalyptic novel, “The Last Enemy”, brings to light many issues that we face today, from the clash between the power of the state and the right of citizens, to respecting our limits and controlling the human drive to push ourselves beyond those very limits.

NIGHTMARE is a digital horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror. Welcome to issue #136 of NIGHTMARE! We have original short fiction from George Sandison ("The Cut Cares Not for the Flesh") and H.B. Menendez ("Preamble to the Death of a Small God"). Our Horror Lab originals include a flash story ("First Girls") from Jessica Luke Garcia and a poem ("The Mourning of Sam Lillow, the Gardener") from Adriana C. Grigore. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and a book discussion from Sunny Moraine.

NIGHTMARE is a digital horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror. Welcome to issue #143 of NIGHTMARE! We have original short fiction from Erin Brown ("Butter") and Cody Goodfellow ("Queen of the Rodeo"). Our Horror Lab originals include a flash story ("Painted Surfaces") from Guan Un and a poem ("Witches' Sabbath") from Lisa M. Bradley. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and a feature interview with Michael J. Seidlinger.

Step back in time and experience the grandeur and romance of a previous era as Harlequin® Historical brings you three new full-length titles in one collection!This boxset includes: A HOUSEMAID TO REDEEM HIMby Laura Martin(Regency)Exiled gentleman Richard Digby has only returned home to check on his ailing father. Keeping his distance from intriguing housemaid Rose while they're living in such close quarters is a challenge he didn't foresee! A PROPOSAL TO PROTECT HIS LADYby Elizabeth Beacon(Regency)Max has done everything he can to forget about his first love, Georgia. Now, five years after she wed another man, widowed Georgia is standing outside Max's home, in desperate need of a convenient marriage! THE VIKING AND THE RUNAWAY EMPRESSby Sarah Rodi(Viking)Viking guard Destin is tasked with delivering the Emperor's...

  When 3-month-old Max is abducted, his parents are plunged into their worst nightmare. Devastated mum Sarah only took her eyes off him for a second, but that doesn't stop her guilt. Even husband Jake can't hide his anger that their little boy went missing on her watch. By contrast there are smiles and celebration at a caravan park in Lincolnshire, as baby Blaze is introduced to the Star family. Jenna and Gary are delighted with the new addition to their family. He is their fourth child and a real object of delight to their eldest - fifteen-year-old Willow - who once again will raise the child. But trouble is brewing for the Star family. Willow is concerned by the desperate online appeals from Sarah and Jake, baby Max has neonatal diabetes and without regular treatment will die. As baby Blaze becomes seriously ill, Willow makes a shocking discovery. What is the truth about her family? And how far will they go to hide their deadly secret?

Highly commended entries from Oxfordshire Libraries' eBook Short Story Competition 2024, in the children's category:* The Silent Saviour by Matilda Ferrero* The Dodo Who Could Fly by Mia Lovegrove* A Second Chance by Agnes Pelling* The Missing Pet Agency by Ada Skene* Halfway There by Eleanor Zhang

A collection of the year's best short stories, selected by celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, author of Matrix and The Vaster Wilds, and series editor Heidi Pitlor."There have never been as many exquisitely built stories in existence than there are now," proclaims guest editor Lauren Groff in her introduction. This abundance led to a volume of robust stories with the nerve to push against narrative expectations. The Best American Short Stories 2024 boasts a collection of twenty stories that "buzz with their own strange logic." A man becomes a tourist in his own hometown. An unemployed jeweler sails in an antique slave ship. A therapist decides to call an ex-patient years after their last session. Daring and resonant, the stories in this volume invite in Groff "a feeling that both the author and I were simultaneously discovering something together."The Best American Short Stories 2024 includes JAMEL BRINKLEY • ALEXANDRA CHANG •...

NIGHTMARE is a digital horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror. Welcome to issue #141 of NIGHTMARE! We have original short fiction from Manish Melwani ("MAMMOTH") and Ally Wilkes ("Billy Blue"). Our Horror Lab originals include a flash story ("The Dark Devices") from Bruce McAllister and a poem ("Penis Secrets of the Anunnaki") from Sonya Taaffe. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and a book review from Adam-Troy Castro.

NIGHTMARE is a digital horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror. Welcome to issue #139 of NIGHTMARE! We have original short fiction from Shannon Scott ("My Containment") and James Tatam ("Backseat Kiss"). Our Horror Lab originals include a flash story ("There Are Three Children Jumping Over a Can Outside a Bodega") from Mark Galarrita and a poem ("Ensabled Night") from John R. Turner. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and a book discussion from Sonora Taylor.

A collection of the year's best science fiction and fantasy short fiction selected by New York Times bestselling author of the Silo series Hugh Howey and series editor John Joseph Adams."These are dangerous stories. The kind that warp reality and threaten to change the world" warns guest editor Hugh Howey in his introduction. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024 promises a treasure trove of audacious characters, daring worldbuilding, and twisted realties. A sibling duo of supernatural hitmen. A traveling spellbreaker and his trusty alligator mount. Superheroes registering for work. Sentient spaceships with an AI-human interface grow up together with their human pilots. From a Korean folk-tale retelling about the goddess of shamans, to a car, resurrected from obsolescence via automancy, for a road trip from California to Maine, these are stories that, for Howey, "challenged my worldview, that made me exercise new mental...

  This is one case Detective Miller won't want to open . . . The second rip-roaring mystery from multi-award-winning international bestseller Mark Billingham starring Detective Miller - unique, unconventional, and criminally underestimated . . . Unconventional Detective Declan Miller has a problem. Well, two problems. First, there's his dead wife and her yet-to-be-solved murder. He really should stop talking to her ghosts . . . Second, and most pressing, a young man has just appeared on his doorstep with a briefcase . . . containing a pair of severed hands. Miller knows this case is proof of a contract killing commissioned by local ne'er do well Wayne Cutler - a man he suspects might also be responsible for his wife's death. Now Miller has leverage, but unfortunately, he also has something that both Cutler and a villainous fast-food kingpin are desperate to get hold of. Sprinkle in a Midsomer Murders-obsessed hitman, a psychotic welder, and a woman driven over the edge by a wayward Crème Egg, and Miller is in a mess that even he might not be able to dance his way out of.

NIGHTMARE is a digital horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror. Welcome to issue #135 of NIGHTMARE! We have original short fiction from R.A. Busby ("Ten Thousand Crawling Children") and Andrew Snover ("The Forgetter"). Our Horror Lab originals include a creative essay ("Chase Scene") from Megan Kiekel Anderson and a poem ("In Our Bodies, There Is Heat") from Somto Ihezue. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and a feature interview with author V. Castro.

Cuddle up with us this Valentine's Day!Wyngraf's beloved romance edition is back and bigger than ever! Fill your heart with three new cozy fantasy romances—plus a tea recipe!* "Mail-Order Husband" by J. Alexander Cohen: Silas is a dragon rancher who dreams of romance. But good men are hard to find west of the Rift, and Silas's personal ads in a newspaper back east seem to achieve nothing but annoying the editor... A funny, poetic M/M romance.* "Frozen Hearts" by Nathaniel Webb: Ravvie is an adventurer, searching the snowy north for dragon eggs. After breaking her leg, all she wants is to heal up and head south. But how can she survive the cold when her unflappable barbarian healer doesn't even speak her language? A heartwarming F/M romance.* "Rahat al-Hulqum" by Lynn Strong: When the God-Emperor's third brother shows up at the House of Jasmines, owner Ashar pretends he doesn't recognize him. But as Ashar warms to...

Highly commended entries from Oxfordshire Libraries' eBook Short Story Competition 2024, in the young adult category:* Ghost Grid by Sophia N. Irwin* Parisian Heartbreak by Amelie Smith* A Sea of Help by Emily Wang

A collection of the year's best essays, selected by Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Wesley Morris and series editor Kim Dana Kupperman."Imparting some piece of yourself—any part—is arduous and warrants some kind of commendation," writes guest editor Wesley Morris in his introduction. Both personal and personable, the essayists in this volume use their own vulnerability to guide readers on excursions that unfold on uncomfortable edges. From contemplating the nuances of memory to exploring the complexities of family, romance, gender identity, illness, and death, Morris's selection of essays presents a roundup of the thinkers who masterfully grapple with the issues of our time.The Best American Essays 2024 includes TEJU COLE • MICHAEL W. CLUNE • YIYUN LI • JAMES McAULEY • RÉMY NGAMIJE • JENNIFER SENIOR • SALLIE TISDALE • JERALD WALKER • JENISHA WATTS and others

Will de Young read the signs before the rest of the world. He saw the mistakes people in power made to their benefit. He knew the consequences of such actions. Now, Russia is waging a nuclear war with The United States, and only one thing bears on Will's mind. Get his family to safety. They travel to Frenchtown, Wyoming, trying to escape the fallout, but land in the middle of a guerrilla war on U.S. soil. Can Will protect his family from both sides? Will his military training save them, or make things worse?