Book Promo
If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH
FROM MEL DUNAY: Waking The Dreamlost (The Jaiya Series Book 2)
New, professionally edited edition! Journey to the country of Jaiya, in a world not quite like ours. Here, humans ride trains, drive cars, and use cell phones, but they share their world with insect people and trollfolk, and stranger things lurk in the shadows… In a place like Jaiya, a woman can’t just back out of an arranged marriage to a bigshot, even if her amnesia keeps her from remembering when and how she agreed to it. Her engagement to a politician makes Itana a target for terrorist attacks, but a former soldier named Marish comes to her rescue. She doesn’t remember hiring Marish to find out who is stealing her memories, but he is determined to finish the job…or die trying! Note: Itana and Marish are friends with or related to a few characters from Marrying a Monster, the first book in the Jaiya series, but Dreamlost is meant as a standalone.
FROM ALMA T. C. BOYKIN: Gulls, Ghosts, and Skeps: Familiar Generations Book Eight
A beekeeper with a secret discovers a hidden orchard, and a little more.
Out-of-tune pianos are the least of a craftsman’s problems when magic combines with frustration.
Ghosts haunt Tallin’s citadel. Or do they?
From quiet stories to wild adventures, these stories expand a Familiar world. Meet new characters and check in with old favorites in this short story collection.
EDITED BY CAROL HIGHTSHOE: Midnight Menagerie. Stories from the edge of reality.
Step right up, dear traveler—your ticket to the extraordinary awaits.
Beneath the striped canopies of the Midnight Menagerie, wonders stir and nightmares awaken. Strongmen flex their might, fortune tellers spin futures, and acrobats defy the stars. But if it is shadows you seek—if you are drawn to the hush of velvet-draped corners where the line between spectacle and sorcery blurs—then step closer.
Here, within these pages, beasts from beyond the veil prowl in cages not quite strong enough. Carnival performers barter in secrets instead of silver. Mystics weave illusions that refuse to fade, and every whispered promise carries a cost. From the neon glow of alien menageries to the flickering lantern light of haunted carnivals, Midnight Menagerie is a collection of the eerie, the wondrous, and the strange.
So take your seat, dear reader. The lights are dimming, the curtains are rising… and the show is about to begin.
Featuring stories by: Fin Patiliu, Annie Percik, Harriet Pheonix, Robert Miller, Chris Clemens, Caitlin Barbera, Petina Strohmer,
FROM DECLAN FINN: Blood Country (Honeymoon from Hell Book 2)
THE HONEYMOON FROM HELL CONTINUES!
Until death do they part.After surviving their first stop, Marco and Amanda have arrived in wine country.
Everything should go well.
Assuming the dragon constructs made from fire don’t derail their train. Or the local triads don’t hunt them down. Or if the local politician doesn’t turn into some sort of supernatural hell beast.
All in all, it should be a quiet trip.
FROM SARAH A. HOYT (WITH NEW PAPER EDITION*): Sword And Blood
*Yes, I promise I’ll finish the trilogy this year or next, if I can stop getting stupidly sick.
In a shadow-draped France, an ancient horror freed from its tomb has transformed the kingdom into a vampire’s playground.
Paris trembles under the Cardinal’s undead rule, the countryside lies abandoned, and the king offers no resistance.
Until now, three legendary Musketeers have held back the darkness with blessed silver and unwavering courage. But Athos has fallen, turned during a blood mass, while a fiery young man from Gascony arrives seeking vengeance—D’Artagnan, orphaned by the vampires that claimed his family.
With one Musketeer transformed and a vampire-hunter determined to join their ranks, an impossible alliance forms in France’s darkest hour. Some bonds transcend even blood —but will it be enough when the line between hero and monster blurs with each nightfall?
One for all and all for one— in a battle for the soul of France itself.
FROM HOLLY CHISM: The Schrödinger Paradox
To save the future, sometimes you have to reach to the past to change it. And in the face of extinction, you do what you must, regardless of who stands in the way.
Cataclysm
Unlucky jerk Tom Beadle was on watch at NASA when the collision alert sounded: a new asteroid, bigger than the dino-killer, headed for Earth. Big problem, but that’s why we have NASA, right? Except, after decades of budget cuts, NASA has no way to shove it off course. That job has to be contracted out. Will the private sector company his best friend from college works at succeed where the government option failed? Might be best to have a backup plan, just in case…
Heisenberg’s Point of Observation
Thomas Sutton was not your average fourteen year old, not even in an Ark City. Born in one of the three refuges of the last remnants of life on earth, deep underground, he knows his history. A century after an asteroid shattered and struck the earth, they have been trapped below by volcanic eruptions, toxic gasses, and radioactive dust. But what if he could…change things? What if he could reach the past, to prevent the asteroid’s impact?
Entanglement
Tom Beadle only volunteered for NASA’s neighborhood watch program when his department said it would maybe help him get tenure.None of them counted on the Neighborhood Watch becoming a mortifying political liability when a malfunctioning probe accidently reveals an asteroid hiding behind the larger outer planets, setting off impact alarms– and politicians looking for blame. When their answer is to defund the Watch program and fire all involved, Tom’s only chance to save the earth is to lie through his teeth and try to deflect the asteroid under cover of harvesting rare not-of-this-earth elements. And even that may not work.
FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: The Margins of Mundania
A tween boy’s Christmas gift opens a world of wonder and brings joy to a whole town fallen on hard times. A young New Englander in the early Twentieth Century discovers that some parts of human history don’t bear too close examination. A literary critic in the old Soviet Union must confront his own moral cowardice.
These stories, along with a multitude of bite-sized works of flash fiction, carry you from the most prosaic of events to the moments of awe that offer glimpses of matters larger than ourselves.
FROM KAREN MYERS: The Visitor, And More: A Science Fiction Short Story Bundle from There’s a Sword for That
A Science Fiction Story Bundle from the collection There’s a Sword for That
THE VISITOR – Felockati is anchored to his permanent location underwater and misses the days of roaming his ocean world freely.
But something new drops out of the sky and widens his horizons — all the way to the stars.
YOUR EVERY WISH – Stealing the alien ambassador’s dagger is a sure thing for Pete — just what he needs to pay off his debts.
Until he starts talking to it. There has to be a way to get something for himself out of the deal. Has to be.
Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.
So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.
We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.
If you have questions, feel free to ask.
Your writing prompt this week is: DEFECTIVE
According To Hoyt 
“Boy! Did you call General Fury a Defective?”
“Sir, I just meant that the General wasn’t an Ultra!”
“Yes, General Fury isn’t an Ultra but You Will Give Her The Respect She Deserves!”
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Minor note, General Fury’s first name is Nicole. I had named her for Nick Fury of SHIELD.
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The ones who sold bad spells were the worst. The love potions poisoned the merchant’s sons, and it was only through the diligent nursing of a healing knight that they could survive, if they did. (And then you’d be lucky if the lad didn’t fall in love with the knight.)
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Always buy your luv potions from a reputable source. Sure, they cost money. They cost money ‘coz they save money!
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“I don’t understand,” said the client. “You ran over my lost cat, slept with my wife to make her leave her lover and got her pregnant, and got me arrested at work for insider trading! What kind of a detective agency are you running here?”
“Well,” said Franklin while trying to get his cigarette lit, “we’ve been meaning to get that misspelling on the door corrected for a while.”
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Did they hire the ‘Effective Sign Company’ not realizing that they had made a mistake in their own advertising? :-P
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For reasons known to God and WP, it thinks I’ve just subscribed again. The software is clearly defective (and yes, I’m serious and don’t call me Shirley ).
Update -it wants me to sign in again. Grrrrr.
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Always annoying. Try refreshing and closing the tab before you decide logging in is necessary. (Sometimes it is.)
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People say I’m feckless, but it’s not my fault! I had lots of feck, until that hoo-rah with the defective.
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You have lots of feck, but do NOT just give it?
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No, I’d have to be reinfeckted for that.
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Although, on further refecktion, there may be alternate means to regain feck. There may even be refeckses I might improve to that end.
But defecktion is traditionally a voluntary act, and mine was imposed upon me. Oh, to return to the Rodina of effecktiveness! I sing the national hymn to effeckacy!
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https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2025/04/13/yikes-pa-gov-josh-shapiross-home-set-on-fire-by-arsonist-while-he-and-family-slept-n2187810
There are at least seven possibilities to explain this.
Some of them are not encouraging political signs.
Iterating permutations of my analysis will not help my chill, which has otherwise been improving.
Let us hope that the problem was defective equipment, and also that if human malice is involved, that the persons involved are brought to justice, and obtain the help managing themselves that they need.
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PA State police have already confirmed it was arson.
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Wonderful. On one hand, he’s a Democrat (offering an opportunity to demonize MAGA). On the other, he’s Jewish.My bet is on the pro-Palestinian side of thr ledger, but who knows.
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false flag is my first choice. Second would be the Palis. Third… Shapiro is a likely presidential candidate in four years. Hate to think that way, but it would actually be minor compared to the rolling reichstag that’s been underway.
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Most likely: nut
May identify as Leftroid. May also identify as “off meds”. Possibly identifies as “Johnny Storm”.
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Alleged perp has been identified, and if idenfitication is correct, “nut” appears to be the correct bet.
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What happened to the building’s smoke detectors? Why did the firemen have to wake the family up?
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You’d probably get fewer occurrences if the penalty for arson was death.
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Should at least be an option. Especially if somebody dies in the fire. Same with drunk driving.
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…or even if they don’t die. “Attempted” murder would be actual murder if the perp were competent. SWATting, blocking freeways or bridges, even “porch pirates”* who, no doubt, now and then steal somebody’s albuterol or insulin–death is likely enough from any of those acts that they should be considered “attempted” stochastic murder.
* Of all the cutesy alliterative euphemisms the Progressive propagandists propagate, “Porch Pirate” is my pet peeve. “F[honk]ing Thief” is acceptably alliterative. I propose presenting Social Sanitation Citations to those who use their 12-ga Swiper Stoppers to turn Porch Pirates into Fertilizer Fountains.
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‘Pirates’ hell, they’re looters. And we all know what to do about looters. Or should, if the law wasn’t being twisted to coddle criminals.
——————————
“Now two innocent people are dead and a dozen more are held hostage because coddling a violent psychopath made you feel better about yourself.”
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Nah, the term “porch pirates” is perfectly fine. It reminds everyone that they’re hostis humani generis and should be dealt with accordingly. If, as you said, the law were sensible.
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….
Defective Fiction!
….
I’ll just see myself out.
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I’ve read some of that. Well, not the entire book(s).
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Likewise. The one that started with a Catholic priest un-baptizing a Roman officer because the demon attacking the officer only bothers Christians … and then the book went downhill. I quit half-way through the second chapter.
The book might have entered the library book return with more force than was strictly necessary.
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You can’t UNbaptize someone!
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It slithered toward them as confidently as if they could not see it. As if magic protected it, and only a flaw in the spell let her see it.
She pointed.
The man started, and she felt something. She thrust out her hand, trying to block its way toward them.
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And you’ve left us hanging. Then what?!?
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No one gets bitten. The snake is killed.
I think. Revision is not planned, but then, it seldom is.
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Julian was defective. He knew it. His mother knew too, for his teacher, Mrs. Plightly, had told her. And the school counselor, after consulting a thick book and pecking around on his computer, told Mrs. Plightly. There was a term for his defect as well, though Julian couldn’t remember it.
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Of course, nobody ever said Julian was defective. Nobody phrased it like that. Julian noted that whatever anyone said about him sounded like doctor talk. He didn’t know what the terms meant, but he was pretty sure they didn’t mean “Julian’s teacher’s an evil witch and his mother’s too gullible.”
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Eventually, Julian found himself assigned to a class of “exceptional” students, defectives all. Some of them, like Julian, were declared “antisocial and disruptive of classmates’ educational potential.” Others were indeed exceptional: just plain mean, or in some cases, evil. Not that the teachers would use such judgmental terms, of course.
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Julian’s got a tough row to hoe.
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Somewhere in cyberspace, a quavering pre-adolescent voice says, “Please, sir, I want some more.”
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The way back was more crowded than the way in had been. Her father put his hands to her shoulders more than once to protect her from the crush.
They still had to stop once for minutes, by a bridge.
A woman before them took out a coin and spoke to her daughter in a low voice. The girl ran to give the coin to a beggar holding a small child.
Violetta swallowed. She remembered her mother’s giving her such a coin when she was seven. Except that she remembered it twice, with two different mothers, two different coins, and two different beggars, in two different cities with two different bridges.
“Come along, Violetta,” said her father. She scrambled after. “We must paid attention to when the crowd yields in order to follow it.”
Violetta nodded. Better to think about returning home than her flawed memories.
Her heart still hammered.
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Everything that could reach escape velocity had already been conscripted by the ruling class for their own exodus, and were thus vigorously guarded by the military. Those poor bastards were probably too dumb to realize they were going to be left behind. For that matter, many of them weren’t even positioned outside of the blast radius of the heavy lift rockets. Those were probably the lucky ones. Their deaths would be quick. The rest of them would be stuck here when the aliens arrived and started dropping nukes.
The plan was a simple one. We would hit the bone yard. The few soldiers guarding it were gone, already moved to guard the station. There never were all that many anyway, after all, who bothers guarding ships that are broken and unable to fly? We would get parts by breaking into the reclamation building. Sure, those would be older, used parts. But things were built better in the past. Many of those parts had a lot of life left in them. Then all we needed to do was find some hulls that were still space-worthy and we might be able to save ourselves and a few hundred – maybe a few thousand – colonists.
Herra’s people had been forced to work in the factories building the new second-gen Alcubierre devices that the ruling class would rely upon to outsmart the enemy. The process for making the second-gen devices was new and not perfected yet, so only a dozen or so made it to completion and then through testing. I almost lost it when Herra showed them to me.
If these were the good ones, what did the ruling class have installed on their ships?
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(I saw Sarah’s prompt word and my mind immediately went to a song from 1995. Obviously, I need help. Can anyone recommend a good online therapist to treat Stuck In The Last Century Syndrome?)
“Excuse me, waitress?”
“Yes, sir, how my I help you?”
“This food is awful.”
“I’m terribly sorry you’re not enjoying the Golden Corral experience today. Let me take that plate and you can select something else from our buffet.”
“No. This meatloaf is defective, and I want my money back.”
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Actual lyrics are ‘Life is a lemon and I want my money back’
Followed by a long list of what he’s found to be defective.
“What about your school?” “It’s defective! It’s a pack of useless lies.”
“What about your job?” “It’s defective! It’s a crock and then you die.”
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One of my favorites.
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The last time I saw him in concert (Melbourne, 2004/5), he opened with this song, doing a drum-solo intro on a pair tom-toms. It was awesome!
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Yeah, I know. I’ve been a diehard Meatloaf fan since his first album. I even was lucky enough to reprise his role of Eddie in a stage production of Rocky Horror Picture Show. I couldn’t match his energy, belting out the lyrics while running around the stage (the movie was no doubt lip-synched), but it was fun and the audience seemed to enjoy it. Even late in his career, he gave it all he had and put on a great concert.
For the vignette, I was trying to tie together the prompt word (defective) which is used in the song repeatedly, the artist’s name (Meatloaf), and the desire to get a refund (I want my money back), also repeated in the song several times as you correctly noted.
Jokes just aren’t the same when you have explain or justify them, and puns in the mirror may seem closer than they are.
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Steffi usually didn’t do bench work. Although she had all the hardware coursework, her professional experience was almost entirely software, all the way back to her JPL days.
However, she wasn’t going to bring this mess up with Ken Redmond down in Engineering until she did some thorough checking. There was no way that every last one of these boards could just happen to be defective. Either some of her hardware people were getting careless or someone had sent them a shipment of deliberately sabotaged equipment.
In which case she needed to find out what else might have been given similar treatment.
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