NOW ON SALE FROM ME (autographed of course) AT A REDUCED PRICE! $15.00 plus postage. Checks (once cleared), money orders, and Paypal accepted.
SCARBOROUGH FAIR, my short story collection published in a limited quantity (and availability) by Five Star Press, is now going out of print and I have gleaned 50 copies from the last of the books to sell online. I handpicked these 11 stories from all of those I've done for anthologies over the years.
They include
1.Mummies of the Motorway (set in Scarborough and featuring fictional versions of my niece and nephew, Cindy and Jason Scarborough) in which angry ancient Egyptians whose supposedly immortal remains were used to pave the motorways all over Britain rise from the pavement to wreak havoc with the traffic.
2.Final Vows: Featuring the late Mustard in his next life as Brother Catfael, detective, investigating his own murder.
3. Whirlwinds: Navajo and Irish beliefs about whirlwinds and crossroads meet in an adventure set in the Bosque Redondo, the place of captivity at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, where the Navajos' trail of tears culminated.
4.Worse Than the Curse: What does a wicked wizard do when turned down by the fairest in the land? He curses her to gain weight and become a queen sized outcast! But a true princess doesn't mind a terrible waist and sets forth to figure out what the devil happened and regain her throne, finding true love in the bargain, of course.
5. Boon Companion: Sassafrass is a country cat without a barn when her mother dies and the other barn cats try to kill her. But Sassafrass knows a thing or two and when she meets a girl whose mother has also died and whose relatives are trying to take away her inheritance, the two orphans whomp up some powerful spells to protect their home.
6.Long Time Coming Home: Written with my friend, decorated combat veteran Richard Reaser, this is a ghost story and a love story of how one lost soul found his way back and in the process, helped save his friend from the domestic dangers that drove so many Vietnam vets to suicide. This was written for an anthology also published by Five Star Press called SHADOWS OF THE WALL edited by Byron Tetric.
7.Mu Mao and the Court Oracle: Any of you who have read LAST REFUGE , the second of my apocalytic novels set in Tibet, will recognize the bodhisattva cat, Mu Mao the Magnificent, who also makes a cameo appearance in Final Vows. In this story Mu Mao must help The King of the Cats realize his true destiny, which is a bit of a problem since they're both locked up at the animal shelter and Mu Mao has just started a new incarnation as a tiny kitten.
8. Don't Go Out in Holy Underwear or Victoria's Secret or Space Panties!: I wrote this totally ridiculous story for Jody Lynn Nye's anthology, Don't Forget Your Spacesuit, Dear. Each story was based on something one's mother told one to do before going out into the cold cruel worlds and the space in between. The one that came to mind for me immediately was "Don't go out in holey underwear. What if you have an accident and have to go to the emergency room?" Starting with the premise that Our Heroine, Victoria Fredericks, Space Cadet, had a very special set of personal panties with days of week printed on them, it got sillier from there. However, an audio book company produced the story in their audio anthology, Science Fiction Shorts, and it was great fun.
9.The Invisible Woman's Clever Disguise: Set in Mardi Gras. A woman finds one day that she has become old enough and heavy enough to be invisible to her coworkers and everyone else. At Mardi Gras, she finds that her curse has become a sort of super power that leads her to a place in the parade, a ticket to the ball, and a new set of very interesting, if highly unusual, friends. Thanks to Marilyn Alm for helping with the research for this one.
10. A Rare Breed: A unicorn and an old romance give a woman living on the edge of the Olympic National Park a very interesting week.
11.Scarborough Fair: This was published in a wonderful but little noticed anthology Anne McCaffrey and I edited together called Space Opera. The theme was to use songs or vocal music as a springboard for a science fiction or fantasy story. I chose the old folksong that has my family's name in it and set it again in Scarborough, thus opening and closing the book in that little seaside town that used to host a famous hiring fair in medieval times. The story is sort of Agatha Christie meets the Child Ballads but I think it's one of my best.
While these last, I will sell signed copies for $15.00 each plus postage.
A COLLECTION OF MY OWN SHORT STORIES, AN AWFULLY LOT OF THEM ABOUT CATS.
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND I EDITED SPACE OPERA TOGETHER. IT WAS A REALLY WONDERFUL ANTHOLOGY WITH GREAT STORIES I STILL REMEMBER BY GENE WOLFE AND SPIDER ROBINSON AMONG OTHERS. UNFORTUNATELY, IT DIDN'T GET MARKETED VERY WELL AND MOST PEOPLE SEEM TO HAVE MISSED IT, WHICH IS A REAL SHAME.
WARRIOR PRINCESSES WAS ALSO A REALLY GOOD ANTHO I HAD THE PLEASURE OF EDITING AND WAS EVEN MADE INTO AN AUDIO BOOK.
I AM ALSO VERY PROUD OF THE STORY I WROTE FOR PETER BEAGLE AND JANET GLUCK'S ANTHO, THE IMMORTAL UNICORN. MINE WAS A CONTEMPORARY STORY SET IN A TOWN MUCH LIKE THE ONE I LIVE IN NOW.
I WAS REALLY TICKLED TO WRITE ONE FOR WONDER WOMAN TOO SINCE I'VE BEEN READING THE COMICS SINCE I WAS A SMALL GIRL. IT WAS KIND OF CONFUSING THOUGH BECAUSE THEY ONLY WANTED YOU TO USE THE BIO OF THE NEWEST VERSION OF WONDER WOMAN AND YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO DRAW ON THE WW II MATERIAL WITH THE ROBOT PLANE OR ANY OF THAT, SO I PUT THAT PART INTO AN ALTERNATE TIMELINE.