Showing results by author "William Carter" in All Categories

We all look up at the moon and wonder. And maybe dream. For centuries, the moon filled our imaginations. Eleven professional writers took those dreams and set original stories on moons scattered all over the galaxy. Yet, as the dreams of centuries, every story holds a human touch. From a mythical man fulfilling a childhood wish to a fantastic addition to Kristine Kathryn Rusch's best-selling Retrieval Artist series, this volume of Fiction River allows you to travel to 11 different moons without leaving the comfort of home.

Jason Rosewood loves to draw. In fact, he'd rather draw than do anything else - especially rather than hang out with his annoying ten-year-old sister, Emily. But on the day of Emily's tenth birthday, his sister is kidnapped by three black demon-creatures with glowing white eyes and huge wings. All hope seems lost until a strange little creature named Naja arrives with news that Emily is alive - in a world called Rymadoon, as a prisoner of Dago the Dreaded, an evil dictator who rules the Lost Land of Nogero.

Equal parts riveting and stirring, Carter takes a staple of campfires and rainy nights - the ghost story - into surprising new territory in this collection. No gore or gratuitous splatter here - these tales are meant to raise the hairs on the back of the neck and leave the reader feeling quietly discomfited hours after reading. These five tales have all the makings of good ghost stories with a touch of strange thrown in for good measure.

When an old flame of Dexter Duff's shows up out of the blue, claiming her rich husband is missing, Duff has mixed feelings about getting involved. She's willing to pay top dollar, though, and like usual, Duff is broke. The case turns even stranger when it turns out her husband, who was once an android, became a human for her sake through a costly and risky procedure - and then went back to being an android when she seemed happier with him the way he was before. Then he vanished without a trace.

It was a simple plan. She would help him pass algebra. He would help her win the student election. What could go wrong? Take one geeky 16-year-old girl deathly afraid of speaking to any crowd larger than one, but who desperately needs something on her application other than perfect grades to get her into Stanford. Add in a star basketball player who's Mr. Popular to everyone else, but who's hiding more than a few startling secrets. Throw in a crisis of identity, a scheming girlfriend, and troubled family lives.

Seventeen-year-old Trevor can't catch a break. Just when he finds out that Janna, the girl of his dreams, is finally available, his mom tells him he's being shipped off to a boarding school because of his awful grades. A desperate call to his dad, who owns a rubber chicken factory in Las Vegas, gets him nowhere. His father is more interested in enlisting Trevor's aid writing what he sees as the perfect gag gift - a how-to manual about rubber chickens. That's Trevor's life for you. Everyone around him is totally and utterly insane.

They meet on a rainy night, penniless and alone, both of them without a friend in the world. He's a disgraced, down-on-his luck giant, short for his kind, banished forever from his tribe. He just wants to be left alone and pity the poor person who annoys him.

Although this fact is well known among historians, what is not known is what else happened that day - when a deranged, dimension-hopping descendant of a Confederate general attempted to assassinate Lincoln long before he became the 16th President of the United States.

Former FBI agent turned full-time drifter, Karen Pantelli pursues a promising lead on her long missing mother to Orcas Island, Washington. Toiling as a hotel maid, she reaches a dead end until an encounter with an eccentric math professor raises a gruesome possibility. Her mother may have been murdered by a serial killer, the work of a cunning monster who has claimed hundreds of lives and evaded detection for decades by camouflaging his kills as accidents, suicides, or random acts of violence.

In the aftermath of a devastating EMP blast, Lloyd and Al face a world plunged into chaos and darkness. Amidst this turmoil, a relentless blizzard adds to their ordeal as they navigate a lawless city, determined to reunite with their families. Battling ruthless gangs and braving the savage wilderness, their journey is a profound testament to resilience and courage. In a land where survival amidst the cold, merciless grip of winter is the ultimate victory, their relentless pursuit to find their loved ones becomes a beacon of hope.

This is not about a super woman or a dominating hard driven woman doing unreal things. This is a story of a young teenage girl who grows into the unspoken leader of a strong and very close family. She holds them all together with strength and love. She guides them through hard times with her cunning and hard making decision.