First Chapters: Clea Simon, Kim Baccellia, T.M. Hunter

For your reading enjoyment...


Cries and Whiskers by Clea Simon

She felt sick. Sick as a dog. Hot and feverish despite the icy rain, the thought made her laugh. She was here for the cats, after all. But the laugh had her doubling over in pain, her head bowed so that the whipping wind chilled the sweat on the back of her neck. She had to get home, get back to bed. This was no night to be out, and the cramps were getting worse. No more laughing, she told herself. No more distractions. Tonight, it was all about the cats.

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Earrings of Ixtumea by Kim Baccellia

“How often do you hear a girl saves the world?” The melodic hush of Abuela’s voice, downstairs in the kitchen, woke Lupe. Darkness filled her room. She peered over at her alarm clock. Six o’clock in the morning.
She pulled her pink blanket over her head and moaned. Oh, here we go again, she thought. Couldn’t Abuela let her sleep in, just once? The blanket might cover her, but she couldn’t escape the sounds of her grandmother reciting yet another fable about the girl who saves a world.

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Heroes Die Young by T.M. Hunter

I awoke to a seductive female voice. “Aston...”
Too bad for me, it belonged to Jeanie, my ship’s computer. A cruel joke, designed for mostly male pilots spending long periods of time alone. It was even worse when I ignored the fact she was simply a machine, programmed to think.

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