This Merry Summertime is an inspirational collection of funny, family-friendly short stories that explore the theme of being insecure about yourself. Through seven brief humorous skits that exhibit gentle sarcasm in genres ranging from silent film to paranormal romance, Shakespearean drama, and fairy tale courts, teens and adults try to figure out what to do as kids grow up and relationships between grownups change. With a lack of perfection in the journey, of course! Through intrigue (Sarcophagus; The Destiny of Princes); comedy (In the End the Story Ended; A Matter of Life and Hair) and personal growth (Ella Substituted; Movies at the Beach; Everwood), people become wiser about themselves. Beneath three cases of mistaken identity; some long Rapunzel-type hair that has become a fire hazard; a war between mummies, vampires, and teenagers; and a royal argument over fashion--there is an underlying tone of wistfulness and an acknowledgment that growing up and growing older are both pretty tricky challenges.
Facets of Fantasy is a set of three novellas in the epic fantasy (Halogen Crossing); space fantasy (Jurant), and medieval fantasy (The Amulet of Renari) subgenres. They use the rich, broad-reaching elements of fantasy to explore three kingdoms, a different one for each story, that are grand, opulent, and majestic. But they are also dark places with very old secrets buried from the past—secrets that should have been remembered and weren’t. Now each locale—the regal palace of Niferna, the decaying gardens of Vailsgabel, and the cold, dignified halls of Jurant Military School—is haunted by realities that will seize the unsuspecting people who stray into them. Which, in the case of over-curious Karl, rebel Don, and renegade Juranai means people who cannot seem to sit still. Always restless, they stir things up, ask questions, and generate rebellions. And considering the places they live, it won’t be long before they are grappling with poisonous death and unexpected resurrection.
The Birthday Present (with Millhaven Castle) is a pair of novelettes about a future gone wrong for a millennium. It is set 1000 years after the dystopian era that appears in the Palladia Series books. GMF mutants, once created as improved versions of humans who could aid the world, have nearly annihilated human beings while their leader Emperor Aure, rules over a gray and autocratic society called Aure’s Dominion—in short, the Earth if humans had zero say in how it should look. But in a world in which almost everyone has many memories of anger and injustice, the lines between the two sides can get really blurry. Lucy, a self-centered human who strays wherever she shouldn’t (The Birthday Present), and Alyce, an unselfish mutant who is always responsible (Millhaven Castle) both oppose the rulers of the future in their own way. Both own items that could resolve centuries-old disputes as it turns out even the glum, corrupt Dominion isn’t invincible after all. It has gone stale with repression and hatred and there's an absolute guarantee the unexpected will catch it off guard.