WYRD WORLDS II is the work of an international collection of science fiction and fantasy writers, independent authors old and new, who have come together through the book recommendations site Goodreads to contribute to this anthology.
This ebook contains a bumper 19 short stories from 17 authors from around the world, encompassing a wide range of science fiction and fantasy. Here lurks tales of the future, steampunk and time travel; of magical realms and fantastical deeds; and of things so weird they defy categorisation!
* Amazon retail price is not entirely within my control, but Kindle-compatible ebooks are freely available from Smashwords.
Contents
HORIZON - KIRA: PART 2 by Ross Harrison It was just her and a boy, alone. Kira had to concentrate on keeping him alive.
THE VISITOR by Neil Shooter Time is relative. On an ordinary blustery British night an extraordinary visitor comes.
A WORLD TAKEN OVER by Douglas Schwartz He had conquered the world. How much more effort was it going to be to unconquer it?
THE JOY OF SOCKS by A.L. Butcher The imps knew what they wanted from the Bringer of Offerings...
THE COLONIAL PLAGUE by L.L. Watkin It's been years since Missra was executed and now her soul is shut away, but being the most powerful magical healer of her generation gets her out of the box occasionally...
HUMANITY WAS DELICIOUS by Ubiquitous Bubba Imagine you were the werewolf who ate the last human. What will you eat now? More importantly, how are you going to get off this alien ship?
MY LAST DAY by Zach Tyo Disaster awaits the Earth, yet an unexpected gift brings joy.
GUISARME by Barbara G. Tarn Members of the Assassins' Guild can be as honorable as anyone. They might be trained to kill, but they're just people with loved ones to protect and avenge.
ROCK OF AGES by Steph Bennion Letters from the past were hidden for a reason. Breaking into the secure facility was child's play compared to a family reunion... [Recently revised and available here!]
THE DINER by Michael Puttonen Sometimes a life lived hasn't been lived at all.
HOMELESS by Neil Shooter Winter didn't end, but his world has. Is he completely alone? In a world gone cold, what can keep the spark of life shining?
GY by Peter Lean The Book was the knowledge that could open the door, but the worlds had been separated for a reason...
IRREVOCABLE by L.J. Hick He did not accept finality. All he knew was that he had to change the impossible.
POISONED GROUND by Laurel A. Rockefeller Lady Abbess Cara of house Ten-Ar must find the cause of a mysterious plague of illnesses before it is too late for the city of Nan-li...
SASHA AND THE COLLARED GIRLby Stan Morris The man was willing to trade his prized possession, but she was already lost.
QUEST FOR THE PURPLE PUMPKINby Victoria Zigler A glittering surprise in the woods leads Polly to another world, where just being human is punishable by death...
FREE WILL by A.L. Butcher The other Grand Wizards thought Leonardos eccentric, indulging the little World Marble like a favoured child...
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LAKE by Clark Graham A tabloid journalist discovers his outlandish stories just might be true.
CHANGING EVERYTHING by Josh Karaczewski Two men set out into one of America's roughest neighborhoods as one piece of a grand plan to change everything...
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Author Biographies
STEPH BENNION is a writer, musician and civil servant, born and bred in the Black Country, who after surviving ten years in the big, bad city of London now lives in Hastings on the south coast of England. Her science-fiction stories are written as a reaction to the dearth of alternative heroes amidst bookshelves swamped by tales of the supernatural. For every aspiring vampire or wizard, the world needs an astrophysicist, an engineer, or at the very least someone who can make the trains run on time.
UBIQUITOUS BUBBA spends a significant amount of time surrounded by imaginary characters from bizarre universes. He's been known to hold conversations with animals, inanimate objects and food, which frequently diverge into philosophy, speculations on the nature of Reality/Unreality, and the proper role of cheese in society. He enjoys relaxing at home with his wife and three kids. His debut novel, Reality Challenged, was published in 2012.
A.L. BUTCHER is the British author of the Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles fantasy series and several short stories in the fantasy and fantasy romance genre, including the mythic Tales of Erana. She is an avid reader and creator of worlds, a poet and a dreamer. When she is grounded in the real world she likes science, natural history, history and monkeys.
CLARK GRAHAM is a writer of fantasy. His book Dwarves of Elvenshore started it all. Now there are six books in the Elvenshore series and a standalone novel, Slayer of the Osgarth.
ROSS HARRISON is a writer of, primarily, science fantasy. He has been writing since childhood without thought of publication. When the idea was planted by his grandmother to do so, it grew rapidly, and here sits the fruit. The NEXUS series is his main body of work, but he has made brief forays into steampunk with Kira, and noir thriller with Acts of Violence. Ross lives on the UK/Eire border in Ireland, hoping the rain will help his hair grow back.
L.J. HICK is an author, guitarist and former advisor to major banks. Born in Birmingham, he now lives in Warwickshire, England with his wife and three children. His debut novel Gods and Monsters is the first book in his series The Last Days of Planet Earth, which concerns myths, religion, the environment and politics, delivered in a humorous style. The second book in the series is due for release later this year.
JOSH KARACZEWSKI sometimes feels like he is the only writer living in San Leandro, California, but that's only until he can retire somewhere warmer. His stories have been published in several literary journals, while his books include the seriocomic novel Alexander Murphy's Home for Wayward Celebrities and My Governor's House and other stories. Until the riches pour in, he will continue forcing high school students to read, write and think.
PETER LEAN is the pen-name used by the author for his fiction works. Jurist in 'real life' and author of several law books in his native Italian, he started recently to write fiction. He has published a number of ebooks, including his collection of short stories Photographs: A Journey Through Space, Time, and More. His debut novel The Guns Of Napoleon, based on his short story that appeared in Wyrd Worlds, was published 2013.
STAN MORRIS was born in Linwood, California. At age twenty-one he moved to New Mexico, where he met the teenager he later married. Now with two sons, they have since moved to Maui where he retired after years of assembling computers. He is the author of seven books: Surviving the Fog, Surviving the Fog - Kathy's Recollections, Sarah's Spaceship Adventure, The Colors of Passion and Love, Sam's Winnings, Kate's Movie Star, and Amy's Hero.
MICHAEL PUTTONEN is a Minnesota native and author of young adult adventure/fantasy novels, short stories, and children's tales. His Sanyel series tells the story of a gifted teenage girl born into a dangerous world. Seven and One Tales for Young Readers is a collection of thought-provoking stories for young children. Michael sees life from a philosophical angle, loves all things anomalous, and dabbles as a cartoonist, albeit one with debatable artistic aptitude.
LAUREL A. ROCKEFELLER, born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska USA, is an amateur scientist and amateur historian known for her lavish world-building in her The Peers of Beinan science-fiction series and her meticulous research in her Legendary Women of World History series. In 2014 she released Good-bye A672E92 Quintus, Catherine de Valois, and Boudicca: Britain's Queen of the Iceni, now available as an audio books from Amazon, iTunes and Audible.
DOUGLAS SCHWARTZ lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and two children. He funnels his creativity into fiction writing and tabletop game design. Checkered Scissors, his first novel, was published in October 2013, and he has a short-story collection due out very soon. His quirky, imaginative writing style has been described as the "They Might Be Giants of prose". An avid Whovian, Doug also considers himself a chronological time traveller.
NEIL SHOOTER grew up in northern England and now lives in a quiet suburban corner of Ontario, Canada. After the stunning success he has not had over the past eighteen months of self-publishing, Neil finds himself limited by reality, but escapes whenever possible into one fantastical realm or another.
BARBARA G. TARN is a writer, sometimes artist, mostly a world-creator and storyteller. She's been building her world of Silvery Earth for a number of years: stories, comprise shorts, novels and graphic novels. Her Silvery Earth novella The Hooded Man received a honorable mention at the Writers of the Future contest. Used to multiple projects - a graphic novel is always on the side of the prose - she writes, draws, blogs and ignores her day job.
ZACH TYO is an American author from the Ohio Valley area. Though his first loves are his wife and son, he found a third two years ago in writing. Having been an avid reader all his life he dove head first into writing 'the great American novel', but quickly discovered he had no idea what that meant. His short-story collection The Reaper's Opus, tales connected via a love for a happy ending wrapped in tragedy, was published in October 2014.
L.L. WATKIN is the pen name for writing partnership Liz and Louise Smith, two sisters from the North of England who have been writing fantasy, paranormal and science fiction for nearly ten years. To date they have published four novels and several short stories in two series Leviathan and The Handmaiden, plus numerous other short stories. As well as writing they publish a couple of fanzines, blog a bit and enjoy spoiling their rabbit, Buzz Lightyear.
VICTORIA ZIGLER is a blind author of children's fiction and poetry. When she remembers to spend time in the real world, it's with her hubby and pets, though she sometimes indulges in other interests such as crafts, music, movies, figure and role-playing games, and doing a little cooking and baking. Victoria was born in the shadow of the Black Mountains in Wales and has been writing since she knew how. She became a self-published author in 2012.
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