A.R. Morlan's work is quirky, often hard to categorize, and non-stop inventive and imaginative. She has gathered a cult following for her science fiction, fantasy, horror, suspense, and erotic fiction of the last four decades. (And sometimes she writes in all those genres at once...) This volume, a "best of" selected from her short fiction by Mary Wickizer Burgess, presents 22 mind-bending tales of the fantastic. Included are: INTRODUCTION, by Mary Wickizer Burgess GARBAGE DAY AT EWERTON THE GERMAN LADY HUNGER DUET ON THIN ICE “...AND THE HORSES HISS AT MIDNIGHT” THE UPPYROAKE KAMIKAZE AND THE VIRGIN SHREDDER THE HEMINGWAY KITTENS THE CAT-TRACKER LADY OF ASAD ALLEY NO HEAVEN WILL NOT EVER HEAVEN BE...v IN THE GREAT MILK-WHITE EYE OF GOD ABOVE THE CAPITANS, SOUTH OF CORONA, NEAR ARROYO DEL MACHO THE SECOND MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLDv DORA’S TRUNK THE TIME OF THE BLEEDING PUMPKINS AT FUNLAND BY THE SWINGS, WITH BIG CHUCK DECORATING DEAD PEOPLE, UNDER THE LAWNS BETWEEN LONG. 150 W. AND 90 W., ONE DEGREE ABOVE HELL THE CUTTLEFISH “’RILLAS” “CONTINGENCIES AND PENTI-LOPE-LOPE” THE FOLD-O-RAMA WARS AT THE BLUE MOON ROACH HOTEL SHOWDOWN BETWEEN THE UNNATURAL-BORN CHIMERA AND THE SHADOWFOX GRIEFER STREET COFFINS If you enjoy this book, search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see the more than 170 other entries in the series, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, mysteries, westerns, classics, adventure stories, and much, much more--always at a terrific price!

The cursed village of Ewerton, Wisconsin is one of the great "bad places" in weird literature: a town that's just thoroughly bad to the bone--evil and dark and full of human suffering. And now A. R. Morlan returns to the scene of her classic horror novels, The Amulet and Dark Journey, with 25 horrific tales of men and women pushed beyond the limits of endurance. As Ardath Mayhar says: "The horror she evokes is not so much occult as uniquely human. The worst of human traits are her stock in trade. The hints of otherworldly elements are used in just the right proportions to make one shiver." And Robert Reginald states: "She drives the stake of horror right through the center of your quivering heart!"

When David Farley came to New York City, he was a hungry man. In all ways. The job he landed proof-reading junk mail quelled one form of hunger; David was a small man, anyway, and rice, beans and pasta dishes were his forté since college. And being a careful man, conservative in his tastes and habits, he thrived in his poverty, living cheaply, but proudly. One room, hot plate, bath down the hall. With autumn came the chance to apply for a job at a real magazine; sf fiction, major news stand distribution, subscription base, and paid lunch hours. Proof-reader, and part-part-time assistant to a senior editor. David applied, and another pang of hunger was silenced. But old hunger was stirred: David’s scant income was cut by a third. He was demoted from hunger to near-­starvation. YMCA, roach motels extra. Months later, come September, on an afternoon when fall still seemed months, years away, David was hurrying back to work, crossing West 49th at Ninth Avenue, his mind on the miserable toothache throbbing along his left lower jaw, and the fact that he had had to leave the dentist’s office with only an appointment he could never afford to keep, when he almost ran into…her.

"Think of this collection as a literary grab-bag...chances are there's at least one story you'll like/love/enjoy, others which will amuse you, still others which might disturb, and perhaps one or so which you probably won't like. While the bulk of my fictional output over the years has been roughly divided between horror/dark fantasy, science fiction and erotica (of various types), a few pieces have either slipped through the genre cracks, or simply didn't make it into my other collections, either due to content, length, or availability at the time I was assembling those other collections. I've done a couple of western stories, and some undefined things which cover multiple genres, and some poetry which didn't fit in my other collections either -- there's even a short non-fiction piece about my beloved, late cat Bruiser (the same cat featured in my novel The Amulet), as well as a chapter from an outlined but never written Ewerton novel." -- A.R. Morlan, from the Introduction

NO ONE writes science fiction, fantasy, or horror like A. R. Morlan. Her unique characters--her unusual perspective--her enormous imagination--all of these traits combine to produce absolutely "different" views of the past, present, and future. The eight novellas and short stories in this new collection highlight some of the best of her recent explorations of the near-future: "The Best Years of Our Lives," "Contingencies and Penti-Lope-Lope" (with John S. Postovit), "Ciné Rimettato," "Boog'/4 and the Endicaran Kluge," "Robin Williams, Speaking Spanish," "What Falls from the Life" (with John S. Postovit), "Etamin at East 47th," and "'Rillas."

Our 95th issue has a lot of fun stuff—starting off with an original mystery by Robert Lopresti (thanks to Acquiring Editor Michael Bracken). Also on the mystery side, “Haitian Divorce,” by Simon Wood, courtesy of Acquiring Editor Barb Goffman, as well as a pair of classic novels by Hulbert Footner and R. Austin Freeman...plus a solve-it-yourself puzzler from Hal Charles. On the fantastic side of things, A.R. Morlan has a modern tale of clones, Alfred Coppel has a scientific monster, Seabury Quinn has a weird horror, and Fritz Leiber has a comic mermaid tale. And there a classic science fiction novel by John Taine. Good stuff! Here’s the complete lineup: Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “Memorial,” by Robert Lopresti [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “The Case of the Petty Porch Pirate,” Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery] “Worth the Wait,” by Mindy Quigley [Barb Goffman Presents short story] Putting Crime Over, by Hulbert Footner [novel, Madame Storey series] The D’Arblay Mystery, by R. Austin Freeman [novel, Dr. Thorndyke series] Science Fiction & Fantasy: “Boog’/4 and the Endicaran Kluge,” by A. R. Morlan [short story] “The Terror,” by Alfred Coppel [short story] “Pipe Dream,” by Fritz Leiber [short story] “Out of the Long Ago,” by Seabury Quinn [short story] Seeds of Life, by John Taine [novel]

Thirty feet away, the woman began craning her hooded head first in one direction, then in another, before saying softly, “There you are,” and after she spoke, the cats began to ooze from the alley, a wiggling ocean of low-slung bodies, their fur rippling wave-like as they moved in a huge phalanx of long, lean backs, lowered tails, and flattened-eared heads, coming closer and closer to the woman as she went from pan to pan, not leaving food, but merely indicating that the pans were, indeed, there.

Here are eight wonderful stories and two evocative poems for cat-people of all ages, including "The Hemingway Kittens," "Cat in the Box," "...And Mongo Was His Name-O," "The Cat Tracker Lady of Asad Alley," "The Cat with the Tulip Face," "A Little Pinch Is All You Need," "Hunger," "White Comma," "No Heaven Will Not Ever Heaven Be...," and "Universes." As Robert Reginald says in his Introduction: "This is a woman of enormous talent, whose fiction is utterly without compare among modern American masters. She sees things that no one else sees, she finds connections that no one else has ever imagined, and she makes her prose sing and vibrate with a barely constrained but firmly disciplined power, with immense feeling, with great sympathy for the all-too-human characters who people her literary worlds." And, we should add, she has an understanding for cats that will be recognized by every reader who's ever taken in a stray, starving kitten scratching at his or her door. Great feline fancies and fantasies!

In the small town of Ewerton, Wisconsin, the murders just keep piling up, and Anna suspects that her warped grandmother is somehow to blame. Only she can find a solution--if the horror doesn't get her first! "In the tradition of Stephen King's Castle Rock, Ewerton has become another classic locus of evil, a place that you never want to visit. First-rate characterization drives the stake of horror right through the center of your quivering heart!"--Robert Reginald.

The author says: "The stories in this collection are an outgrowth of my lamentable childhood, as well as a reflection of those things in life which I found fascinating--in that they could mentally take me away from the horror of my daily life, and at least on the level of imagination offer me something worth waking up each morning for. Thus, the universes in this collection center around outsiders, artists, and freaks (be they natural-born or self-made); some of the stories are interconnected, but also designed to stand alone. I’ve included afterwords for each to shine additional light on both the works and their cultural personal inspirations. But more than a collection, to me this volume is a glimpse into my creative soul--and as such, it may not be perfect, it might not even be logical, but it is what I am, love it or hate it." Six cutting-edge stories of a bizarre, near-future America, a mix of strange cultures and curious characters, featuring tattoo artists, origami masters, Irezumi, the De Novo Shinkansen, Qatmandude...and the Blue Moon Roach Hotel!"