Books

The Fleet of Malik Series – Spaceships, War, Intrigue, Romance

The All I Want For Christmas Series – Mistletoe, Monsters, Laughs 

The Heroes and Villains Series – Mayhem, Minions, Romance

The Time and Shadows Series – Clones, Murder, Time Travel

Short Stories

*:・゚✧*:・゚✧

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

Did you ever think that the Hallmark Holiday movies sound a lot like the plot to a horror novel? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. So here’s your dose of cozy, comforting horror for the holidays.

Who says monsters and mistletoe don’t mix?

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A WEREWOLF

💖 A Woman Who Hates Christmas
💖 December In Sunny Miami
💖 A Smoking Hot Co-Worker
💖 A Very Nice Breakfast
💖 Mistletoe In All The Wrong Places

Del hates Christmas. As a child, she spent too many Decembers on the streets after her parents abandoned her. As an adult, the enforced family focus, the clients who see the holidays as an excuse to get gropey, and the mistletoe her well-meaning colleague Maureen hung over her work desk just seals the deal: December sucks.

If only it could stay Halloween for a couple of months instead. Del loves the excuse to slay monsters, the spooky atmosphere—and of course, the werewolves. Because everyone knows werewolves make the best lovers… Pity they’re not real.

When Maureen conjures up a list of eligible bachelors for the holidays and insists Del take her pick, Del does the only reasonable thing: she lies. And when nosy office Grinch Rafael Kane asks who the lucky fellow is, Del announces it to the whole office: she’s getting a dog.

So now, the first item on Del’s holiday to-do list? Find a dog. Fast. Because if she doesn’t, nothing will protect her from Maureen’s list of Miami bachelor rejects.

A charming, sensual romance for everyone who believes in found families, happily ever after—and werewolves.

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

READ REVIEWS ON GOODREADS

Read The First Chapter

***

Somehow a delightful mixture of both the Grinch and Hope of the season, of loving bumps-in-the-night and jogs along the morning winter beach, this novella should be on every Colorful Goths romance list.

~ Erin Penn ~

I loved Del’s spunky, stabby personality but her soft spot for beautiful art and big furry, slobbery dogs! …  bit of loss and longing, a little fear, some witty, teasing banter and a whole lot of fun. I couldn’t put this one down, it was just what I wanted.

~ Angie on Goodreaders ~

***

 

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A REAPER

🖤 Chicago’s Very Own Grinch
🖤 Neon Goths
🖤 Hades & Persephone
🖤 The Shy One Loves The Loud One
🖤 Meet Me Under The Mistletoe  Hemiparasitic Plant

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

Meredith Kriesmas has the world’s Grinchest job ever. She is on the audit team of Markham and Sloan that goes in, evaluates every worker’s ROI, and hands out the pink slips just in time for the winter holidays.

And she loves it!

Like a modern-day Scrooge she waltzes through Chicago handling the finances of the biggest names in business. Then one fine day in April she’s called to the sets of Cozy TV, the home for heartwarming (and tooth-aching) holiday movies. Mid-spring the sets are all cozy Christmas scenes, snowflakes, and her best friend from Galena, Illinois, who desperately needs Merri to work her magic and save Cozy TV from the chopping block after being bought by Slasher Corp, the biggest name in streaming horror theater.

If Merri can work her magic she can find the missing money, cure Cozy’s woes, and make sure the Christmas Eve special is the movie of a lifetime. She just has to make sure she isn’t caught by the Cozy Curse, the evil menace that seems to convince sensible women to quit their jobs in the city and move to the middle of nowhere in the name of love.

And there’s plenty to love, from the cute set designer, to the B-list actor who made it big but still has one Cozy Christmas special in his contract. But it’s Seth, Slasher CEO, who rings Merri’s bell…

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

Read A Sample

*:・゚✧*:・゚✧

FLEET OF MALIK

BODIES IN MOTION

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

List on GoodReads

A body at rest stays at rest unless acted on by an equal and opposite force.
– Newton’s First Law of Motion

Selena Caryll lost everything in the war: her ship, her crew, her family. The only thing keeping her going is the hope that somehow the feuding, ground-bound settlers and the fuelless space fleet can set aside their differences. But getting the politically-fractured fleet moving again is more than she can manage alone. For now, she has to settle for working undercover with the planetary police force.

When someone tries to reignite conflict between the planet-siders and the fleet, there’s only one person who has the rank and ability to help Selena protect the fleet: Titan Sciarra, Fleet Guardian—the one man she’s tried hardest to avoid since the war destroyed her life.

In a world where the stagnant weight of tradition can be as deadly as any knife, the only way to survive is to keep moving.

Start reading now!
Chapter 1

Change of Momentum eCoverCHANGE OF MOMENTUM

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

List on GoodReads

The rate of change of momentum of an object is directly proportional to the resultant force applied and is in the direction of the resultant force..
– Newton’s Second Law of Motion

Four years after Landing Rowena Lee is working as a Drill Instructor, a yeoman aboard the Danielle Nicole, and assisting the Jhandarmi in retrieving and identifying the stolen fleet tech. Her day-to-day interactions with the Office of Imperial Affairs is overseen by Commander Hollis Silar, an old enemy and now her regular sparring partner.

Their often contentious relationship is the topic of fleet gossip and betting, but they haven’t killed each other. Yet.

When a request from the Jhandarmi drags Rowena into the grounders silent civil war she’s off to war again. This time she’s trusting an enemy to guard her back.

A new adventure in the Malik System where the fleet is trying to take flight again and change their momentum.

Find out more! 

*:・゚✧*:・゚✧

HEROES & VILLAINS

Even Villains Fall In Love: Heroes and Villains Book 1EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

GoodReads

I knew from the first time I saw my wife that I wanted her naked. Of course, seven minutes later I wanted revenge. It wasn’t that she had handed me my first defeat or ruined my chances for world domination that year, it was the way she kissed me good-bye. She sent my head spinning, then walked away as if I were the least important person in the world.

Once my arm healed, I stole some new equipment, cloned some new minions, and I felt a little different.

I wanted revenge, with a side order of naked.

ACROSS THE DINNER table, Tabitha devoured him with dark, ocean-blue eyes. She put a bite of lettuce in her mouth, full lips pursing around it. Eating salad never looked so good. Her tongue darted out to lick away a stray drop of dressing. She winked at him, promising with every move to do the same to him. “It’s almost bedtime,” she said, her voice husky and luscious.

“I don’t wanna go to bed!” one of the quads screamed.

“What about cake? Don’t we get birthday cake?” another asked.

Evan winked back at his wife from the far side of the table, separated by a few feet and four precocious just-turned-five-year olds, all as stunning as their mother with big, round eyes and hair that fell in loose curls meant to trap hairbrushes and sticky substances. He had to peek at the eyes to see who was talking. Maria had green eyes, Angela’s eyes were blue like Tabitha’s, Delilah’s eyes were brown like his, and Blessing—their stillborn who miraculously survived—had purple eyes. The waif in question had blue eyes.

“Angela,” Evan said, “after dinner it’s pajama time, and then story time.”

“Mommy doesn’t have a bedtime!” Angela wailed.

Tabitha winked at him again. “Tell you what, tonight Mommy will go to bed the same time you do. Right after we eat cake.” She leaned over to give Angela a hug.

All Evan could see was the deep V plunge of her tight blue shirt. Oh, yeah. Crime didn’t always pay, but altering someone’s moral compass sure put the O’s back in the bedroom.

CONTINUE READING

EVEN VILLAINS GO TO THE MOVIES

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

GoodReads

Dear Mom,

New York is everything I hoped it would be. I love this school! Last semester alone the students showed a marked improvement over the previous year. And, so far, we haven’t had a single senior drop out. This might be our highest graduation rate ever.

I’m really excited by all the improvements. It makes me feel like I’m actually doing something useful. I’m in control of myself, and it’s wonderful.

The date with Simon was less exciting. He’s… um… ‘Dull as a brick’ might be the right term. You’d think it would be easy to find someone who could carry on an intelligent conversation in New York, especially with Internet dating. It’s 2032! But, no, this hypothesis has been proven incorrect yet again.

Give my love to Daddy, Gideon, and the minions. If Maria stops by, tell her I’m worried about her. Delilah and I talked about staging an intervention. I’m not sure, but Delilah thinks Maria will calm down once the shock of losing Martin is over. It may be just a phase.

Oh, and Blessing wrote me. She’s in South Africa and loving it. She sent the most hideous picture of a giant bug ever. I forwarded it to Gideon. And I told her not to bring it back no matter how much she adores its fangs.

Your loving daughter,

Angela

CONTINUE READING

EVEven Villains Have Interns: A Superhero RomanceEN VILLAINS HAVE INTERNS

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

GoodReads 

Dear Dad,

Just because Mom mentioned she liked Claude Monet’s ‘Grand Canal’ painting does not mean she wants a copy of it for the house. I know it doesn’t mean she wants the original. And telling me not to steal the piece while it’s on tour at the Art Institute here in Chicago is not going to convince me to pick it up in time for Christmas. Reverse psychology stopped working when I was twelve.

In other news, you will be happy to learn that Peter Manigault, as painted by Allen Ramsay, mysteriously appeared at the Art Institute this weekend. The curator was very surprised. Personally, I think his shock was more over the two-dollar price tag left on the picture frame than the return of the old painting. It’s possible I’m biased.

Locke

DELILAH WATCHED IVAN PETROVICH step toward her on the pier made ghostly by the nighttime gloom. “Don’t take it personally, Miss Samson,” he said, broken nose still purple from where she’d punched him a week before. “It’s not that we don’t like you.”

“A lot,” his companion added. She’d never learned his name. His file was marked ‘Snail’ because he was always trailing the rest of the gang. “I’d get your autograph if you weren’t handcuffed.”

A freezing wind whipped the snow at her feet as Delilah smiled. “Take ‘em off, big boy. I bet we can find a pen.”

Snail stared, confusion clouding his round face.

Ivan shook his head in frustration. “No. You stay handcuffed, we stay alive. We’ve been over this.”

CONTINUE READING

THE POLAR TERROR

Polar Terror eCover

The only villain north of the 66th parallel just met his match. 

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

GoodReads

Kaddy Chaak’s career is in jeopardy, her social life is non-existent, and instead of spending the holidays at home with everyone she loves, she’s in the hospital with her chronically-ill, probably-dying nephew Everett, wondering if her dead sister could have fixed this. The one bright note in an otherwise bleak winter is a potential visit from the Polar Terror, the only super villain north of the 66th parallel, to make little Everett’s hospital wish come true.

Kaddy’s not really expecting him to show. At best, she expects a lackluster cosplayer with a half-hour to spare.

What she gets is a swoon-worthy stranger full of secrets, who might just sweep her off her feet–and maybe help her leave the past behind, once and for all.

Read the first chapter here!

EVEN VILLAINS PLAY THE HERO

The Heroes & Villains omnibus. 

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

GoodReads 

We all have our favorite superhero stories – now it’s the villains’ turn to talk.

Zephyr Girl broke into Dr. Charm’s lab looking for the affair of the century; she found happily ever after instead. But now, seven years later, Tabitha walks away with no warning, and Evan faces the ultimate decision: world domination, or the woman he loves? With their four loveable daughters, Evan sets out to rescue his wife—and his marriage—proving that Even Villains Fall In Love.

Hunted by The Company as a rogue hero, Angela, eldest of the quads, heads to California—because Even Villains Go To The Movies. When a gang of super-powered jewel thieves hit town, Angela must choose between lying low or helping a superhero who’s too hot for his own good—in more ways than one.

In Even Villains Have Interns, Angela’s sister Delilah hears rumors of big-game hunters in town and a mysterious drug that everyone—including The Company—is after. Teaming up with the spooky Spirit of Chicago, she aims to take down the dealers, the mobsters, the kingpin, and The Company. The only thing that might be difficult is doing it all without falling in love…

*:・゚✧*:・゚✧

TIME & SHADOWS

THE DAY BEFORE

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

Friday May 17th, 2069
Alabama District 3
Commonwealth Of North America

With an asthmatic wheeze the engine died. It figured. Stuck in a man’s craw, it did. This truck had been his daddy’s and his pappy’s, and before the Commonwealth government forced him to replace the diesel engine with the newfangled water doohickey, he was certain he’d pass the truck onto his son.

He’d been playing under the hood of trucks since he was six and now he was stranded. Embarrassing, that’s what it was. He climbed out of the cab to check the engine out of habit. The ice blue block of modern fuel efficiency stared back. Three hundred bucks it’d cost him, straight from his pocket.

Oh, there was a government subsidy, all right. A priority list. Major Population Centers, they said. Unite the countries of the Commonwealth on a timeline, they said. And what did all that mean?

It meant the darn Yankees got upgraded cities and free cars before the ink was dry on the Constitution and what about the little man? Nobody thought about the working class. No one cared about a man covered in oil and grease anymore.

CONTINUE READING

CONVERGENCE POINT

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

If all life is sacred, then Mr. Gant is a blasphemer of the highest order. He is everything humanity strives not to be.
~ Detective Samantha Rose at the trial of Nialls Gant I3–2071

Monday September 26, 2072
Brevard County, Florida
Federated States of Mexico
Iteration 3

Gracie, a bearded Latino man with a shiny bald head, punched Nialls Gant’s arm. “Wanna a tat, brah? I got more ink.”

Nialls kept his focus on the guards in the prison tower as they rotated.

“You hear me, brah?” The fetid odor of onions and poor hygiene entrapped him.

Blinking once, Nialls turned to the other inmate. “No.”

“Come on, Gant. We could do a couple of teardrops on you. Maybe a gun on your back,” Gracie went on, oblivious to Nialls’s focus.

“Prison tattoos make it easier for people to identify you when you’re out of prison,” Nialls said. “It’s hard to run a con when you have your criminal record embedded in your dermis.”

CONTINUE READING

DECOHERENCE

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

“Decoherence (n): a period of time when all iterations collapse and there is only one possible reality.”
~ excerpt from Definitions of Time by Emmanuela Pine, I1

… three. Rose stood and peered through the frosted, warped glass of the conference room as the speaker turned away. It didn’t matter which iteration she was in, Emir was predictable. She had seven seconds to do a head count. She didn’t need that long.

A quick head count was all it took to confirm that the einselected nodes she’d been sent to assassinate were where they belonged.

Every iteration had nodes, people or events that kept that variation of human history from collapsing. Dr. Emir had created a machine that allowed people not only to move along their own timeline, but at critical convergence points, it allowed them to cross between realities. But the Mechanism for Iteration Alignment’s greatest ability was the one that allowed Dr. Emir and Central Command to steer history by erasing futures they didn’t want.

Rose knelt beside the door, did one final sweep for alarms, and nodded for her team to move in. It was her job to cross at convergence points, kill the nodes, and collapse the futures that no one wanted.

CONTINUE READING

*:・゚✧*:・゚✧

SHORT STORIES

THE INKLET COLLECTION

Available August 2023

Aurealis Award-winning author Amy Laurens, along with beloved authors Liana Brooks and Thea van Diepen, bring together this collection of all 100 short stories in the Inklet collection – plus seven more.

Imagine…
• …discovering your friends’ new kitten can talk – and wants to hire you as their psychologist.
• …learning that your enemies-to-lovers attraction rests on a shared divine heritage you never knew you had.
• …the lengths the fairy godmother might go to in order to ensure the prince marries the right girl.
• …the torment of receiving everything you’d ever dreamed of – literally – only to realize you have to give it up to stay alive.
• …realizing all the old myths about monsters in the deep are true.

Welcome to the Inklet Collection. Inside, find heroes prepared to rearrange the universe in order to be with the ones they love, women breaking free of societal oppression to live rich lives and fulfill their dreams, teens who feel all-too-ordinary finding their place in a magical world, protagonists who wield power to protect the downtrodden, immortals carving space in a finite, mortal world and people who make mistakes – that sometimes kill them.

Oh, and a smattering of fatal unicorns.

PRIME SENSATIONS

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

GoodReads 

Left for dead three years ago by the man she thought she loved, Lana can handle anything—even a sudden invasion by space pirates. What she can’t handle? Discovering the leader is the man who left her for dead.
Kaleb thought three years was long enough to heal his broken heart. That was until he realized Lana was actually still alive. Her sudden re-entrance into his life sends his heart, and his world, reeling.
But together, they might just be able to pull off the heist of the century.

CHAPTER ONE

“Unidentified vessel, we are Waste Hauler 133 out of Darrian 6. We carry no trade or crew,” the ship’s AI droned in a bored monotone.

Lana dropped into the waste hauler’s modified control booth and took over. “Uniden-tified vessel, be advised. I steer like a drunken moose, alter your course.” The reverb over the frequently patched comm lines made her sound like an old man with a lifelong bitter-root habit.

Sweat dripped down her nose. The waste hauler had a hull thirty years older than she was, and an environmental system older than that. It had survived two major system wars by being too worthless to target. And Lana was well aware that, as a debtor working off her ransom to the Iloni nation, she was slightly less valuable than the ship.

The comm crackled and she thought she heard the word “boarding.”

“Unidentified vessel, I am deaf and blind. I give you no authorization to come near this vessel. If you keep to your projected course I will have no choice but to heartlessly smash your hull because of physics.”

The other ship tried to respond.

CONTINUE READING

 

FEY LIGHTS

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

GoodReads

A story about lost love, second chances, and revenge…

When Jeani crash lands on a backwater world, she knows she’s in trouble. The slave trader Hothi is looking for her, and her bosses are going to eat her alive if she screws up another mission.

Discovering she’s half a world away from the planet’s only space port is a blow – but it doesn’t rock her nearly as much as her reunion with a man she barely remembers, from a past she wants to forget. Can she do the right thing, and leave him again?

 

 

ESCAPE

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

GoodReads  

“If we value the freedom of mind and soul, … then it’s our plain duty to escape” – Ursula K. Le Guin

Nine short stories: nine teeny-tiny escape hatches from reality. A chance to run away from worries, to explore the distant stars, to conquer death and save the world.

Take a chance, make a choice: a better future is out there. Let Escape be yours.

 

 

Includes The Following Short Stories:
Neon Snow (post-apocalyptic) – Seventy (exploring new worlds) – Level Nine   (VR games) – Red Planet Refugees (exploring new worlds) – Dream Away  (VR games) – The Boy Named No (human evolution) – The Dog Is Dead (speculative futurism) – The Lies We Know (military sci-fi) – Here She Lies (futuristic spies and secrets)

IF YOU GIVE A SKELETON A 3D PRINTER

PRINT | EBOOK | Inkprint

GoodReads 

Meet Skeleton, usually from the pond, currently hiding out in the town library trying to 3D print a body. Humans tend not to take skeleton rights seriously otherwise, see.

And this skeleton needs to defend their rights, or else pfft goes their pond.

Of course, there might be an even bigger disaster lurking on the horizon…

A charming, heart-warming story about being yourself and finding your place in the world.

 

————————————————————

Chapter 1: What The Skeleton Did In The Dark

I found the internet! So helpful!

It took three tries, but I broke into the local library at night, and I’ve been spending all my midnights researching 3D printing material that feels like skin. It’s not great, but I think I can get the squish right.

Let’s see… does Thingiverse have muscles?

No? Why not??

Oh, right, I’m the only immortal skeleton wandering around St Louis—or probably anywhere. How would I even know? How do you even start that conversation? “Hi, so… are you just an undying skeleton in a suit too?”

I don’t see that going well.

Okay… 3D scans of muscles… Oddly enough, Google is less helpful here.

I’m probably on a watch list now.

I know, 3D scans of famous statues.

Ooo! Do I want to be David or Venus de Milo? Hmmm. What was I when I was alive? I was… alive. Yup, remember that. I think I broke my leg once, pretty sure, there’s a line there that I have to glue up sometimes. I had an actual brain once too, but I guess some things soak into the bones and some things don’t.

Maybe I’ll print one set of muscles from each?

…Did you know the David statue was 17 feet tall? I did not.

Venus is 6’8”. Eat your heart out, Gwendoline Christie!

CONTINUE READING HERE

Comments are closed.