Mike Morgan

Eve Morton

Danielle Davis

Matias Travieso-Diaz

Laura Engelhardt

Richard Zwicker

Marisca Pichette

Manny Frishberg

Lena Ng

Bruno Lombardi

Jason Sharp

Spencer Nitkey

S. D. Gibson

Roman Durkan

Matthew F. Amati

Melody Alice

Pete Barnstrom

Mia Dalia

Rebecca A. Demarest

M. M. De Voe

Mel Grebing

The Best of 2023 Stories that Upend Genre ConventionsThis anthology showcases 21 genre-busting stories to surprise even the most avid reader. Discover what talented authors can do with urban fantasy, westerns, romance, horror, sci-fi, mysteries, thrillers, and dystopian fiction. This collection proves that genre fiction doesn't need to stay in one lane.* The repentant villain from a high fantasy tale goes on a blind date with a disillusioned heroine from a rom-com romance.* A wise-cracking detective seeks the missing Goddess of Spring.* In the height of the 80's tech boom, a teen boy finds his missing brother at the heart of an apocalypse.* An interview with a werewolf, a vampire, and Frankenstein's monster goes horribly wrong.* From inside a psychiatric ward, a girl named Goldie tells her side of an encounter with the three bears.* A cowboy and a talking raven take a wild and wacky ride on the back of a velociraptor.And Many More!Each entertaining tale offers you a chance to discover a new author of unconventional fiction that twists the tropes and crosses genre boundaries.

An Anthology of Unconventional Stories

Tumbled Tales

Diamond "Di" Lamont is sick of her life in Vineland, a small town in Southern Ontario known for its nature pathways, its horticulture, and its wine. One afternoon Di escapes from her desk job for a walk in the park and soon stumbles on an enchanting naked woman who seems to be bathing in a nearby creek. Stunned by her discovery, Di is soon surprised again when the woman appears to be trans. When the woman runs away without exchanging a word, Di is left with too many questions and unfulfilled desires. In order to figure out her mystery woman, Di explores Vineland in a way she never had before, and along the way, finds out that the small town is host to a lot more interesting and unique people -- like the local bookstore that's also a coven, and numerous other trans women and queer people hiding in plain sight -- than she first thought. Genevieve Holloway never wanted to move to Vineland. Her girlfriend did, and now in the wake of her death, Gen continues to feel stuck. Her job sucks. Her apartment is filled with memories she doesn't want to have -- and getting caught naked in the local creek is the last straw. As the October moon waxes and wanes, Gen becomes determined to leave Vineland and never return, all the while just missing out on Di's affection and attention as she desperately seeks her mystery woman. Can a brief meeting during the first full moon of the month of October truly change these women's lives and lead them back to one another? Or is there no more magic left in Vineland for either one of them?

October Moons

Chandler Ford needs to meet his sales quota. He is convinced it is the only way his boss Elroy will pay any attention to him, and then Chandler can finally get what he thinks he wants: Elroy's love and affection. Selling anti-aging pills to the old should be easy, but as the month reaches its end, his numbers aren't where they need to be. And neither is Chandler. After a demoralizing interaction with his boss, one not ever the ever-cheerful security guard named Manny can soothe, Chandler stops a violent crime. When he realizes the victim is an android named Dash, Chandler wants nothing to do with him. Yet what Dash tells him about perfection, love and attraction, sinks in for the better. As the month nears the end, Chandler's boss Elroy, and the security guard Manny, both take on completely different roles in his fantasy life. Now if only Chandler could meet quota, maybe he'd know what to do next ...

Going for Glitch

After surviving a school shooting, Mona Ouellet moves from Montreal to Peterborough, switches her PhD discipline from English Literature to Psychology, and tries to move on with her life. Unfortunately, her nightmares follow her--and so do a host of "bad men" who seem to appear around every corner to make her life difficult. Her only escape is to fall into her research completely, where she soon becomes obsessed with retelling true crime case studies and enamoured by a waitress at a local diner. Kerri Reznik is a waitress by day and horror writer by night, where she turns elements of her two-month long captivity in the wilderness with her survivalist father into stories to scare others. Though over a decade has passed, Kerri is still haunted by her brother Lee's absence in her life and her inability to reconcile with it. She seeks camaraderie with Absalom Lincoln, a detective on Peterborough police's force, where the two bond over mysteries, both true and imagined. As Kerri and Mona's connection becomes stronger, their past traumas begin to intertwine and both of their worst nightmares begin to evolve and intensify. Each character must struggle to negotiate how to live in a world where survival is never guaranteed, and even when it is possible, there is always a cost.

You Can't Outrun a Nightmare

Survival

Steve Hockensmith

Hilary Davidson

Kevin Quigley

L. C. Tyler

Dave Zeltserman

Robert Lopresti

Nick Manzolillo

Marilyn Todd

Kay Hanifen

Eve Elliot

Wendy Harrison

Warren Moore

Shiny Nyquist

F. D. Trenton

Fratricide is funny-in the hands of STEVE HOCKENSMITH-but, mostly, bad neighbors (related or not) are bad news and endlessly infuriating, as in HILARY DAVIDSON's "King of the Castle," or endlessly preying on your goodwill, as in EVE MORTON's "Vengeance Takes a Holiday." (Yet what relief!-be honest now-when that neighbour hits the dance floor for their final dance: the great Mortal Coil Shuffle!) Sometimes, naturally, the hatred is mutual and one against one, as in EVE ELLIOT's "One Spye After Another," or one against many, as in KEVIN QUIGLEY's "The Woman Who Cried Cat." And a bad neighbor should never underestimate their victim, as WARREN MOORE's "One of Us Is Dying" venomously suggests or F. D. TRENTON's "I Found Me a Bigger Flea" tells us in a disagreeable escalation of, er, disagreeableness. (And what's not to like-come, search your soul and tell me I'm wrong-with a little bit of biting back?) In a traditional vein, a little investigation can go a long way, as we find in WENDY HARRISON's "A Little Power," or the wrong way in DAVE ZELTSERMAN's "Woops!" Happily, a bad neighbor might turn out to be the worst possible neighbor to themself, as in L. C. TYLER's "Fifty Something," or ROBERT LOPRESTI's "Lambs and Wolves." While KAY HANIFEN portrays a dedicated handmaiden to bitter non-regret, and MARILYN TODD bangs the rock into rock star, and NICK MANZOLILLO challenges us to take a trip next door. But only SHINY NYQUIST can tell us what "Sir Fergus Allison's Bench" is for. Themed these stories may be; same-ish they are not. This crime and mystery anthology is edited by JACK CALVERLEY.

Death of a Bad Neighbour - Revenge is Criminal

Felicity Garland wants to be left alone. She has her video games, her own apartment in a new city away from her controlling mother, and a PhD to complete sometime in the future. When she is invited to a Renaissance Faire with another student, she finds herself getting a tarot card reading -- but only as a joke. But the cards seem to reveal a secret dream landscape in which she suddenly finds herself trapped at night, and now Felicity isn't sure what to do next. Enter Dakota, a fellow PhD student slash bartender and trivia maven, who seems to know just about everything there is to know about tarot, myth, and the unruly reality of our inner dream lives. With Dakota's help, Felicity starts to crack the riddles at the heart of her unconscious dream landscape known as The Twilight Kingdom. As she gets closer and closer to the dark castle at its center, Felicity also begins to unravel the secrets she's kept from her youth spent institutionalized and her crumbling family life. When dreams turn to nightmares, and the darker prophecy of the tarot cards starts to become a reality, Dakota disappears and Felicity is left picking up the very-real pieces of her waking life all by herself. Will Felicity be able to confront the shadows of her past in order to find a better future, one in which she and Dakota can remain partners in more than just a passing dream world? Or will she slink back to her virtual reality video game and refuse the call to adventure over and over again?

The Twilight Kingdom

Tarot cards lift the veil on the magical world of love both Paige and Saul could have never predicted. After her roommate moves out, Paige Latimer finds a deck of tarot cards in her apartment. It seems like the perfect side hustle for her busy life. She manages to score her first gig at an office party, where she does a reading for Saul Wexler. Saul, an aging yet still attractive insurance salesman, is desperately trying to seek some sort of guidance as his wife dies of cancer. As Saul addresses the cards, he rediscovers his lost sense of sexuality—gone during years of chemo treatments for his wife. He also finds himself falling for Paige in all the ways he does not want, especially as his wife remains alive. When Paige’s business takes off, she leaves behind everything she thought she knew about the everyday world—including what to do when she also starts to fall for Saul. Their attraction reaches an apex on Halloween, the time when the barriers between the worlds are the thinnest. Can Saul continue to live his life by other people’s guidelines and blotting out his own feelings? Can Paige continue to predict the lives of others while ignoring herself? Both turn to the cards in order to see if love, regardless of any barriers, is worthwhile.

Something from Nothing

Eve Morton

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