Love Stinks, Inc., an Uncollected Anthology story (4 page)
After all, mint chocolate chip was his favorite ice cream flavor, too.
Truly great love affairs had started with far less.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award-winning author
Annie Reed
describes herself as a desert rat who longs to live by the ocean. Since she hasn’t yet convinced her family to relocate to a nice chunk of beachfront property, she’s done the next best thing—written a series of stories set in a contemporary Pacific Northwest city where magic and reality go hand in hand. Private investigators Diz and Dee populate Annie’s more lighthearted stories, while denizens of a much rougher neighborhood lurk in her
Tales From the Shadows
.
A talented and versatile writer whose fantasy, science fiction, and mystery stories have sold to a wide variety of publications, including five of the first seven volumes of
Fiction River’s
inaugural year, Annie is also the author of the Abby Maxon mystery novels
Pretty Little Horses
and
Paper
Bullets, as well as
A Death in Cumberland.
If you liked
Love Stinks, Inc.,
and want to read more about Dyte, check out Annie’s Diz & Dee story
Omens and Oracles and Eros, Oh My!
for Dyte’s first appearance.
For more information about Annie, go to
www.annie-reed.com
.
THE UNCOLLECTED ANTHOLOGY STORIES
Love Stinks, Inc.,
is part of the innovative
Uncollected Anthology
series.
Every three months, the talented group of UA authors picks a theme and writes a short story for that theme. But instead of bundling the stories together, each author sells their own. No muss, no fuss—you can buy one story or you can buy them all. (We’ll be honest; we hope you buy them all!)
This time around we’re thrilled to feature a story by
USA Today
bestselling guest author Kristine Kathryn Rusch!
If you’d like to keep reading more fine stories with this issue’s theme—Heartspells—click on the following links:
TRACK 61
(
featured guest author
)
Kessa possesses only small magic. But her skills allow her to help those who wield bigger magic.
Her latest job takes her deep into the bowels of New York City’s subway system, hunting for bits of history long since forgotten.
And what she finds deep down in the dark will both threaten her life and change it forever.
“Rusch is a great storyteller.”
—
RT Book Reviews
THE MIDNIGHT GARDENER
Joanie finally found her heart out in the backyard, hanging in an old fir like a Christmas ornament, covered in bees…
Now she must discover what it means to hold her heart open for another.
THIS IS THE WORLD CALLING
Tansy and Ki’s families are two of the most powerful witch dynasties—and the feud between them puts the Hatfield and McCoys to shame. So why, then, did their parents not care when the two would run off and play as children, lost in their own little world? When they meet again as adults, Tansy and Ki’s mutual attraction makes it vitally important that they find the answer to that question.
“…One of the best writers working today.”
—
USA Today
bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith
LOVEBIRDS
Nancy gave up on love a long time ago, and lives a well-researched, rational life in Buffalo, New York. But winter gives way to spring, and the voodoo love store downtown sells not just lovebirds, but the potential for a different kind of life. When she finds the courage to say yes, love swoops out of Nancy’s dreams on borrowed wings.
“Lang is a writer to watch.” – Booklist
HEARTFIRE
— Vengeance is mine. —
Someone kills a woman in the alley behind Snake Bite Tattoo—a clear declaration of war against its dangerous proprietor, Malek, the serpent from the Garden of Eden made an immortal man. If he can work a spell in time to bring the woman back to temporary life, she can tell him who murdered her and why. He’ll track them down and make they pay. End of story.
But he doesn’t count on remembering that he once knew her, or the feelings that rise in him along with the memories. Or that the reason for her death and the declaration of war are not what they seem.
“For more than a decade now, I have adored the work of Leslie Claire Walker.”
- Kristine Kathryn Rusch
SWITCH BACK
Skylar loves Erin. Erin loves Skylar, only as a friend. Because Erin loves men.
Frustrated with her feelings and the impossible situation she finds herself in, Skylar seeks out a local witch for advice. The witch gives her a spell, with a warning, that once the the spell is sealed with true love, there is no going back.
Table of Contents
