“Well-conceived goals, when acted upon, can prevent you from getting distracted and wasting time on other less vital tasks. In short, they give you direction, and get you there faster.” In this chapbook, Lee Murray—the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of the Taine McKenna series and editor of Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women—lays out a systematic approach to establishing a vision and setting goals that help aspiring authors build sustainable and long-term careers. Drawing on the experience and techniques that guided her own rise as an author, Goal Setting (Literally) features Murray’s best advice for scoping out your creative career, setting goals you’ll actually hit, and charting your development as a writer. Most importantly, she asks two fundamental questions many writers ignore: what does success really look like for you, and how are you going to get there? Whether you’re a new writer planning a pathway to take your career to the next level, or a fan of Murray’s fiction searching for a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the way Murray built an extraordinary career, this chapbook is a peek into the mindset and philosophy of one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed writers of fantasy and horror.

11 short stories from the imagination of New Zealand's multiple award-winning author and editor Lee Murray! Contains 4 original stories including a new adventure in the much-lauded and awarded Taine McKenna series! Contents:Foreword by USA Today bestselling author David WoodGrotesqueHawaikiSelfie The New Breed Cave Fever Dead End Town Edward's Journal Maui's HookHeart MusicLifebloodInto the Clouded Sky - A Taine McKenna AdventureAlso includes a glossary of Maori terms, as well as an afterword by the author.~The book has already received outstanding praise and reviews, including the following:- "With Grotesque: Monster Stories, Lee Murray proves she is a first-rate talent! These stories are fascinating, unexpected, and scary as hell!" -- Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Rage and V-Wars. "Action, thrills, monsters, awesome!" -- USA Today bestselling author, David Wood. "Keep calm and buckle up! From traveling to the dark side of exotic locales to visiting those familiar places you only thought you knew, author Lee Murray flexes her talent and range in this debut collection." -- Rena Mason, award winning author of The Evolutionist and East End Girls. "Murray's tales run the gamut of the horror spectrum, from horrifying to terrifying to heartbreaking. There is a story for everyone in this wonderful collection." -- Tom Deady, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Haven. "It has been said creating is a path of immortality; Murray's engaging tales bring us into the dream time of imagination, mixing her unique dark stories and the Māori culture to create a collection existing outside of time, taking us with it." -- Linda D. Addison, award-winning author and HWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. "Murray's formidable imagination is laid bare here, presenting a dizzying array of monsters from around the world - leaping effortlessly from ancient reanimated soldiers in the Loire Valley, to Māori demons, to horrors even closer to home: the monsters within our own families." -- Aaron Sterns, Wolf Creek 2, Wolf Creek: Origin

The cookie genius behind "Famous Amos" cookies shares inspiring stories from his life in a humorous and practical book about how to live fully.

Robert Murray, of Scottish ancestry, his wife, Margaret, and their oldest son, immigrated to America in 1797 and settled in Tennessee. They had ten children, 1797-1813. Robert purchased land in Knox County, Tennessee, in 1802 and received a land grant in 1814. He died in Knox County. Descendants listed lived in Tennessee and elsewhere.

Leave the lights on tonight. So you'll see them coming. 27 New Zealand and American authors delve into the strange, the unexpected, and the downright terrifying things that kids say in this collection of all new flash fiction. From the mouths of babes come 37 stories, from the haunting to the hilarious to the horrific.

On the verge of losing her laboratory, her savings, and all respect for herself, Pandora (Penny) Yee lands her first contract as scientific consult to the police department. And with seventeen murder cases on the go, the surly inspector is happy to leave her to it. Only she’s going to need to get around, and that means her slightly unhinged adopted brother, Matiu, will be doing the driving. But something about the case spooks Matiu, something other than the lack of a body in the congealing pool of blood in the locked room or that odd little bowl. Matiu doesn’t like anything about this case, from the voices that screamed at him when he touched that bowl, to the way his hateful imaginary friend Makere has come back to torment him, to the fact that the victim seems to be tied up with a man from Matiu’s past, a man who takes pleasure in watching dogs tear each other to pieces for profit and entertainment. Hounds of the Underworld blends mystery, near-future noir and horror. Set in New Zealand it’s the product of a collaboration by two Kiwi authors, one with Chinese heritage and the other Māori. This debut book in The Path of Ra series offers compelling new voices and an exotic perspective on the detective drama.

Scientific consultant Penny Yee has barely drawn breath before Detective Inspector Tanner assigns her another suspicious death, with Matiu tagging along for the ride. That's fine as long as he stays outside the crime scene tape, but when one of Matiu's former cronies turns up dead, Penny wonders if her brother might be more than just an innocent bystander. While she's figuring that out, the entire universe conspires against her, with a cadaver going AWOL, her DNA sequencer spitting the dummy, and the rent due any day. Even the weather has it in for her. But that's not the worst of it; Penny's parents have practically announced her nuptials to Craig Tong! Still spitting the taste of sand from his mouth, Matiu's back on the case with Penny, and wouldn't you know it, his big sister is in over her head again, not that she has a clue. There's a storm brewing dark through the heat-haze on the horizon, and Makere isn't the only one of Matiu's friends from another life dogging his steps. Is this all because of what Mārama was trying to tell him earlier? About his heritage? Meanwhile, Cerberus is only making things worse by losing his rag every time they cross paths with the elusive killer. Can the dog taste the hot sour reek of something trying to push through the veil and run its tongue and teeth across this world? What's calling them? What has changed? Matiu should probably check that out, if only his probation officer would quit calling...

Seeking to reclaim humanity's early secrets, the Umbra Arca Society was forged. Equipped with only a compass, a journal, and devotion to truth, these adventurers braved cursed landscapes. The Shadow Atlas collects their adventures.

In Giving the Devil His Due, the Pixel Project's first charity anthology, sixteen acclaimed fantasy, science fiction, and horror authors take readers on an unforgettable journey to alternative worlds where men who abuse and murder women and girls meet their comeuppance in uncanny ways. Featuring stories from Stephen Graham Jones, Christina Henry, Peter Tieryas, Kelley Armstrong, Linda D. Addison, Hillary Monahan, and more, Giving the Devil His Due presents sixteen stories that will make you think about the importance of justice for the victims of gender-based violence, how rare this justice is in our own world, and why we need to end violence against women once and for all.