Author Archives: Tara Maya
Dindi is kidnapped to be the bride of a shark... To escape she must untangle a terrible curse caused by a love and magic gone wrong.
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This stand-alone novella is set in Faearth, the world of The Unfinished Song. Available here ONLY.
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The Unfinished Song - This Young Adult Epic Fantasy series has sold over 70,000 copies and has 1,072 Five Star Ratings on Goodreads.
Author Archives: Tara Maya
“Single beam” by Paulo Cammeli |
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A Fairy Tale, Coming of Age Fantasy
Leah Vindral is suffocating—trapped in her own skin.
In a land where magic is feared, magic saved her from death … but it came with a terrible price. Marked forever, she is shunned and isolated by those she loves most.
Brimming with bitter rage at those who abandoned her, Leah flees from her childhood home only to be swept into an impending war: Mora, a wicked witch, has been imprisoned for years, waiting like a spider in the folds of her web for the chance to regain the powers once stripped from her. It is there, while she waits, that she learns of a strange young girl … a girl who can speak to unicorns.
Now Leah must save the country that shuns her, for if Mora returns to power, all will be lost. But can Leah, who is so frightened and confused herself, find the strength to save them all?
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Ten minutes later Ian opened the door to his room, on the second floor of a decrepit looking inn, and I sank onto a squeaky bed with a slight shiver.
“So,” Ian persisted. “Why were some bloody knights chasin’ you?”
I stared at my feet in response.
“Oh no,” said Ian, as he shut the door with a snap. “We’re not playin’ that game again.” He walked over to a chair, dragged it in front of me and turned it around backwards. He leaned on it for a minute and said abruptly, “I’ll make tea.”
I sat numbly on the bed and watched him boil water. My mind was horribly blank.
“There,” he pushed a mug of tea into my hands and sat down, wrapping his arms around the back of the chair and staring at me expectantly. “So?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I got time.”
I glared at him. I could lie, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I had been running for so long, and suddenly, I couldn’t take another step. Before I had even tried to consider what might happen if I told him the truth, words spilled from my mouth.
He sat in silence, nodding occasionally as I told him everything. Flashes of the ball, Lavena, Father, King Rowan’s plan, the sickness, the recovery, the elves, the monsters with red eyes, and Mora all sped through my brain and out of my mouth. His eyes darkened at the mention of Mora and his mouth tightened, but he didn’t stop my narrative.
“And I just saw Sir William Shanklin tell King Rowan what he learned from Mora and now he’s looking for me. He’ll use me to find them, I’m sure of it—that is if Mora doesn’t get to me first. But I don’t know where the unicorns are and I’m tired of running!”
Ian rose from his chair and walked to a grimy window with his back to me.
“We’ll just have to find them then, won’t we,” he said finally.
“What?”
He turned to me, his face set.
“The unicorns. We’ve got to find them. You’re the only one who can talk to them, so you’re the only one who can warn them. We’ll have to leave now though. I’m sure King Rowan will have the whole city searched by mornin’.”
“Yes, but what’s with all this we business?”
“What? Didn’t you know? I’m coming with you.” Ian grabbed a sack, walked to the door, opened it and headed down the hall as I followed him.
“No you’re not.”
“Yes I am.”
I glared at him.
“My dear Leah, I don’t believe you’ve had the pleasure of meeting my stubborn side,” he said with a smile as he started down the stairs.
“But—but what about your future and all that?” I asked desperately as I hurried to catch up with him.
We were outside once again and mounting our horses.
“Yes, and you might also need to know that I always do the exact opposite of what my mother wants,” Ian said, and with that he started off at a gallop, with Iris and I following in his wake.
Find more from M.L. LeGette on her blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and Pinterest.
If you can’t take the heat… stay away from the flame.
Katie Parks has been on her own since the age of fifteen. All she’s ever wanted is a place to call her own—a life that is wholly hers that no one can take away. She thought she finally had it, but with the strike of a single match, everything she worked so hard for is reduced to a pile of smoking ash. And she almost is too.
Now she’s being stalked by someone who’s decided it’s her time to die. The only thing standing in the path of her blazing death is sexy firefighter Holt Arkain.
Katie’s body might be safe with Holt… but her heart is another story.
As the danger heats up, sparks fly and the only thing Katie knows for sure is that her whole life is about to go up in flames.
***This is a new adult contemporary novel and contains sexual content and graphic language. It is not intended for young adult readers.***
“Hunk” by Carnivora88 |
“Chief” by Chris Rosewarne |
The man pounded his rain stick on the platform. He had a voice of gravel and stone.
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“My Secret Garden” by AlleyCatz |
“Without you” by brandrificus
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“Fine tunes of magic” by Maria van Bruggen |
Dindi
… giggled. “She just can can’t express herself because she’s so overwhelmed with joy that with her chores out of the way she is now free to dance with us.”
“Hurrah! She will dance with us!” squealed the purple pixie.
What harm would it do to share one more teensy weensy dance with her friends? After all, who knew when Initiation might come? She might never have another chance. She would sip one last taste of wild faerie magic. She shrugged away the basket and let Puddlepaws down in the grass. Dindi let the fae lead her into their circle.
“Dancing in the circle” by Maria van Bruggen |
The pixies began to fly in circles over the ruined crops. The cob- sized corn sprites whose stalks she’d knocked over joined in next. Willawisps were drawn to all the activity. They all began to twirl and shuffle and skip and jump in a ring around and around, Dindi dancing right along with them. As the corn stalks began to right themselves, the dancers changed the pattern and started to weave in and out of the stalks. Wild swirls of color trailed in the wake of all the fae dancers, strange and marvelous.
Author’s Notes
The artwork — isn’t it adorable? — was kindly provided by Maria van Bruggen. Do visit her deviant-Art site and say hello!
“Autumn cat-tackle” by Maria van Bruggen |
In the future, we will need to travel. We will need to fight. We will need to deliver food to the famished. We will need to go to other planets in tacky tourist shirts and take pictures with our embedded borg eyes. We will need to do all these important things in spaceships. And those spaceships will need pilots. Not just any pilots, either, but the best of the best.
Space jockeys!
Or maybe not. In which case, the alternative might be just as interesting.
These tales aren’t really about spaceships, but about people: The starship pilots, space navy aces, and explorers of the future. Where they go, how they get there, and what price they pay.
As you can see, we have some AWESOME contributors. About half the stories have been printed before (including two classics that I bet you haven’t read, but totally should). Half the stories are brand new.
I’m thrilled, to say the least, to have been honored by some top-selling authors with their stories. I’m equally proud to say this will be the first publication for a couple of these authors… but I doubt it will be the last.
I wanted to feature a mix of established and up-and-coming authors, because I think the short story format is still hugely important in the field of science fiction.
In the upcoming weeks, look for some interviews with the contributing authors, excerpts from their other published works, and teasers from the anthology.
Also, if you want to review this anthology (free copy!) or buy it for just $0.99 as soon as it comes out (that price will go up the next day!) drop me a note … tara @ taramayastales (dot) com … or sign up Tara’s Tribe to receive the monthly newsletter, where it will be announced first.
Marisa MacCallum always believed that the man of her dreams was out there somewhere. The problem is—he’s in another dimension.
After the death of her father, eighteen-year-old Marisa’s life is on the verge of imploding. She seeks comfort on her daily ride through the woods of Gold Hill, but when a mysterious lightning storm strikes, she is hurled into the ancient, alternate dimension of Carnelia where she is discovered by the arrogant but attractive nobleman, Ambassador Darian Fiore.
Stranded in a world teeming with monsters, maniacs and medieval knights, Marisa is forced to join Darian on a dangerous mission to negotiate peace with his archenemy, Savino da Roca. Along the way, she sees his softer side and quickly falls in love. But when she learns that Darian is locked into an arranged marriage, her heart shatters.
When Darian’s cousin Savino falls for her charms and demands her hand in exchange for peace, Marisa is faced with an impossible choice: marry the enemy of the man she loves or betray them both and become the catalyst for a bloody war.
For more from Cheryl Koevoet, visit her website, Twitter and Facebook.
“Purple Faery” by Arwen Robertson |
… the laces to his legwals. While Dindi tried to guess what the fae was up to, the pixie untied two pairs of laces on either of Hadi’s legs, then retied the wrong strings together. Meanwhile, another pixie buzzed around his ear to distract him. Though Hadi couldn’t see the fae, and couldn’t make out the words, he could hear the hum of pixie voices.
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