The 2014 AuthorsFirst writing contests brought submissions from a wide range of profound and wildly entertaining talent. From this group of nearly a thousand entrants, we have chosen seventeen works of short fiction that will dazzle the imagination and thrill the heart. What happens when the most remarkable woman you've ever met disappears for ......
Larry Ingber fell deeply in love once . . . and it cost him forty years of his life. Branded "The Ivy League Killer" by the media that followed his sensational story of obsession and its consequences, Larry has at last been freed from prison and tossed into a world he barely understands. At one point, his life was brimming with promise. Now, he ......
For the first time in more than 20 years, Mike Ianelli returns to his childhood home, stirring memories of a turf war that altered his view on his neighborhood, his relationships, and, most importantly, his hometown. Back then, he was eleven and ready to start his summer vacation in the Glen, his twin cul-de-sac neighborhood. But two things were ......
Once every generation comes a story of the world on the brink that has such scope, such imagination, such humanity that readers can only gasp at the vision. Only Some Can Hear My Voice is this generation's. Set just a few years in the future, it imagines a world where tensions have risen to the point where any number of events could lead to ......
The winter holiday means a hundred things in a hundred different lands. But no matter where you travel, winter is a time for storytelling. Raven Wakes the World presents a very different winter holiday tale sure to touch the heart, bringing together an ancient Inuit legend and a haunting romance. Katie Mason is an artist wounded in the soul, a ......
Jessie Malone, still contending with the loss of her husband, hopes to be one of the first folklorists to trace an urban legend back to its original source. She encounters one about a WWII veteran who never made it home to his wife. And as she tries to solve the mystery, she finds a Christmas miracle like no other.
"It's like . . . like a miracle. Like some kind of weird, freaky miracle." Christmas is a time when anything can happen . . . even if you think the entire idea of a holiday miracle is laughable. Janie Mason just wants to get through the season. She's under enormous pressure at work, her boss is brilliant but self-centered, and the holidays bring ......
Christmas is a season of secrets and miracles. It's also a season of mystery. Throughout their married lives, baseball star Gaspar Bethlen's wife gave him a lovingly crafted mystery every year for Christmas. Solving the clues led him to his present, but the mysteries themselves were the true gift. Now, Beth has died, leaving Gasper a wreck of a ......
A chemical engineer sets in motion a horrendous explosion killing hundreds of commuters and himself.Hollywood's hottest sex symbol assassinates a sitting senator.A grandmother stages a sophisticated attack on a train causing massive damage.An airplane full of Silicon Valley's brightest is blown up while refueling.A series of deadly, unrelated ......
