Showing results by narrator "Stephanie Einstein" in All Categories

Louise Kirk learns about love and loss at an early age. When she is nine years old, her former beauty queen mother disappears, leaving a note that reads only - and incorrectly - "Louise knows how to work the washing machine." Soon after, the Richters and their adopted son, Abel, move in across the street. Louise's immediate devotion to the exotic, motherly Mrs. Richter is quickly transferred to her nature-loving, precociously intelligent son.

Digger, an 85-kilo wrestler, and Sadie, a 26-year-old speed swimmer, stand on the verge of realizing every athlete's dream - winning a gold medal at the Olympics. Both athletes are nearing the end of their careers, and are forced to confront the question: what happens to athletes when their bodies are too worn to compete? The blossoming relationship between Digger and Sadie is tested in the intense months leading up to the Olympics, which, as both of them are painfully aware, will be the realization or the end of a life's dream.

Le Grand’s Carnival Fantastic isn’t like other traveling circuses. It’s bound by a charm, held together by a centuries-old curse that protects its members from ever growing older or getting hurt. Emmaline King is drawn to the circus like a moth to a flame...and is unwittingly recruited into its folds by a mysterious teen boy whose kiss is as cold as ice. Forced to travel through Texas as the new Girl in the Box, Emmaline is completely trapped.

There is more than one way for animals to prepare for winter. Some, such as mice, foxes, and moose, simply tolerate the cold. Of course, black bears hibernate, but chipmunks, wood frogs, and garter snakes do, too. And then there are the creatures that migrate, including hummingbirds, blue whales, and even earthworms!

Grace Luther grew up believing in the Revelations: the moment when Great Spirit "saved" humanity and transformed the world into a place where pious behavior is rewarded with beauty, and wrongdoing results in ugliness and even death. But at 18, she learned the truth: The Revelations were a lie meant to manipulate and suppress her society. Joining the resistance, Grace heroically struck a major blow against the government of the prophets. Now, many in the rebellion believe that "Prophet Grace" is the champion who will lead them to final victory. Grace isn’t so sure.

In a near-future society in which morality is manifested through beauty and ugliness, a young woman will imperil her future and her world to expose the global shadow network that uses its power to play God and control humanity.

Fairy Godmothers aren’t just for the young! A solitary, middle-aged woman’s self-appointed Fairy Godmother leaves her a strange and sulfurous inheritance. In this mysterious and off-beat speculative fiction short story, KJ Zimring shows why she is a master of the super-short listen. Her work has delighted fans of Asimov’s, Analog, Hitchcock, and Daily Science Fiction.

Finn Hemingway knows for a fact that she's been born at the wrong time into the wrong family with the wrong talents, making her three dreams for the future almost impossible to attain. She burns to be a trial lawyer in an era when Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being told to type and when a man who is 500th in his law school class is hired over a woman who is first in hers. She yearns to find true love when the family curse dictates that love always ends for the Hemingways, and usually, it ends badly. And finally, she'd give up the first two dreams if she were able to triumph on the third.