Showing results by narrator "Kevin T. Collins" in All Categories

A dozen recent Liaden Universe short works are added to the collection in the third volume of A Liaden Universe Constellation. Ranging from comic to cosmic, only one of these works was first published before 2011. These welcome new additions bring the collected Constellation of Lee and Miller Liaden short stories to forty-five works in three volumes. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe with the excitement, action, and romance that fans of the hit series have come to adore.

The 12-year solstice has come. And with it, a sinister carnival brings a new sense of terror and wonder to a small coastal town. An enormous shoe is washed up on the shore...a tiny man disguises himself as a mouse...a crow provides eyes for a blind innkeeper...and three curious adventures discover the gateway to the Land of Dreams - where you don't always get what you want, you get what you deserve....

Seventy baseball seasons ago, on a May afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio lined a hard single to left field. It was the quiet beginning to the most resonant baseball achievement of all time. Alongside the story of DiMaggio's dramatic quest, Kennedy deftly examines the peculiar nature of hitting streaks and with an incisive, modern-day perspective gets inside the number itself, as its sheer improbability heightens both the math and the magic of 56 games in a row.

When the entire Montgomery family comes together, it makes for a holiday to remember. But it’s more than just the tree, decorations, and gifts that have everyone talking. With so many people crammed under one roof, there’s bound to be some drama. Between last-minute business crises, talks of retirement, a new relationship, a sprinkle of marital problems, lots of snow, and a surprise baby, this has all the makings of a blue Christmas. They’ll need more than one Christmas miracle to get everything back on track, and hopefully Santa—or William Montgomery—will come to the rescue.

It's been two years since Nate abandoned his boring life on Earth to travel to another realm. Two years of slaying monsters to level up his elemental powers. Two years of longing to become a hero. So when one of the realm's immortal rulers betrays their kin, he vows to do whatever it takes to bring the renegade to justice.

When FBI Agent Leo Xanthus invites the beautiful and beguiling Polly Benson to his family home in New Orleans, he does so knowing an introduction to his concealed life could change hers forever. As his plans to sweep her off her feet unfold, Leo learns every family has secrets - some more deadly than others. With ties to a high-profile mafia family and the FBI, Leo and Polly’s worlds collide in and out of the bedroom, and their insatiable need for one another will blur the lines between what is right, what is wrong, and what is impossible to resist.

Inspirational and magical, here is the story of a boy who grows up determined to save the world from its most savage ecological predator: Man himself. "What the hell do you want?" snarled Frogman at Raff Cody, as the boy stepped innocently onto the reputed murderer's property. Fifteen years old, Raff, along with his older cousin, Junior, had only wanted to catch a glimpse of Frogman's 1,000-pound alligator. Thus, begins the saga of Anthill....

Michael Ruhlman, author of best-selling books about professional cooking and chefs and best-selling cookbooks with such chefs as Thomas Keller, Eric Ripert, and Michael Symon, turns his reporter's eye and engaging style on himself to answer the question "how on earth did I get here?" In an unlikely and unplanned series of chance connections, and work often motivated primarily by fear of poverty, he managed to carve a unique place for himself in the increasingly obsessive world of restaurants, chefs, and writers.

FBI Agent Win Holloway is going home to Kentucky. At odds with his family, he carries not only a badge and weapon, but the unwarranted guilt of his mother’s death 23 years ago. When his father is found murdered in their family estate in an identical fashion, Win is forced to face his family’s past and the history of Winter Bourbon while searching for answers to not only his father’s death, but his mother’s unsolved murder.

"Something Passed By", a story by Robert McCammon, was originally published in his short fiction collection Blue World and was selected for inclusion in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Third Annual Collection.

After a stint living and working in Korea, Nebraska native Bart Schaneman sets out on a quest to live deliberately and with strength and purpose before returning to the States and figuring out what to do with his life and his writing. The only constant, his copy of The Idiot, Bart meets many eclectic characters along the way, themselves young travelers like him, and together they share adventures and experiences against the breathtaking backdrops of China, Mongolia and Russia.

The most civilized and 'decent' among us find that we are complicit with the most brutal murderers. We enter into literally unspeakable alliances - of which we dare not speak except through the obliquities and indirections of fiction, poetry, and visual art of the sort gathered here in New Jersey Noir.

Filled with strategies and powerful anecdotes about defining and setting goals and pushing for entrepreneurial success, The Everyday Entrepreneur reveals how readers can apply the ambitions of a go-getter in their own lives, position themselves ahead of the pack, examine how to calculate risk, and understand the mindset necessary to venture forward on their own.

A year ago, I thought my whole world had ended. My family was dead. The life that I knew had been changed forever. Now I know that was just the beginning. I faced down the devil who destroyed my family, and I f--king lost. I've become the thing I hate most in this world, and there is no turning back. Even a contract with a demon couldn't save me from the creature that now inhabits my body. 

"White", a story by Robert McCammon, was originally published in 2014 on robertmccammon.com.

Following the Weavers Enclave Grand Exchange, Feng Yu and his party had decided to venture to the mysterious and renowned Five Element Mirage Zone in hopes of quickly improving their strength to the next level. Of course, their fame from their endeavors had garnered the interest of a few powerful forces and rogue assassin groups, each moving with their own intentions. With their overwhelming power, you would think their quest to be a simple one, but little did they know, the secret of the special zone would lead to an unexpected change and the start of a disaster.

James Montgomery has achieved everything he'd hoped for in life...except marrying the girl of his dreams. After a terrible accident, Selena Ainsley left 10 years ago. She took his heart with her, and she's never coming back. But it's becoming harder and harder for him to forget their precious time together, and James can't help but wonder what he would do if they could ever meet again.

A high-profile attorney in the middle of a leave of absence following a personal tragedy is drawn back into the legal arena amidst a media firestorm when he agrees to represent a popular rap artist accused of brutally murdering his pop star girlfriend. With its powerful voice, pause-resisting tension, and strong cast of characters, Adam Mitzner’s novels are reminiscent of such best-selling authors as Scott Turow and John Grisham.

Working for Zach Montgomery is challenging on many levels - coming from a wealthy and powerful family, he lives by his own rules and doesn't answer to anyone. But Gabriella Martine has no intention of backing down. She's used to handling stubborn men, and it doesn't hurt that Zach is smart, charismatic...and gorgeous.

A city equal parts darkness and hope. A scarred city. An often violent one. But a resilient city, too. That's our Memphis. Like many cities we have a namesake - in Egypt, Men-nefer became Menfe became Memphis, enduring and beautiful, on the banks of the Nile. Centuries later, another continent, another people, another river: Memphis, Tennessee, the soul of the Mississippi Delta, was formed.