Converted, re-formatted, proofed, first edition cover restoration and eBook creation by Jerry.

Someone is bound to get burned... Meg Buchanan is determined to prove she didn't get the trainer job in Redmond, Oregon's rookie smokejumper class because of her family's long history as firefighters—or out of pity. But if teaching one of her own brothers isn't challenge enough, she's shocked to Lance Roberts in the new class of recruits. Once her brother's best friend, and her first, unrequited crush, he's also the son of the man responsible for her dad's death. Lance is stunned to realize that this confident redhead is the stubborn girl he once dreamed about. There's no way he can fall for her now. He needs to focus all his attention on his training—and uncover the truth behind the long-ago fire that killed both their fathers. But as the undeniable heat between them threatens to ignite, someone attempts to put an end to Lance's amateur sleuthing—and his life...

As twin torpedoes from a renegade Iranian sub streak into the hull of their escort ship, the crew of the Yuduki Maru looks on in horror... Their cargo includes two tons of weapons-grade plutonium. And now, with enough nuke fuel to arm a superpower, an alliance of fanatics threatens to poison a continent. In a daring mission of high-seas heroism, Lt. Blake Murdock leads his seven-man unit from Team Seven's Red Squad into bulkhead-to-bulkhead battle — with high-tech buccaneers who've got nothing left to lose...

“A very many trickster moons ago,” said Tony’s grandfather, “and very, very far away... way past where our real world ends and your imagination begins, things were different than here. There was a proud kingdom that had fallen on darker days.” “The kingdom was known as Iisen, or the Iisendom as it was sometimes called. It was a prosperous and peaceful kingdom, but for years, a cloud had been forming over the land and was worrying the people that lived there.” “People were disappearing... not many, but when they did, it made the people afraid. There were rumors, of course. Rumors of gypsies and monsters in the woods, but no one seemed to know what was happening for sure. And the people of Iisen, the merchants and hostlers and iron mongers and farmers, couldn’t very well hide in their homes and farmhouses. They still had to earn a living. All they could do was hope they weren’t the next to vanish one day.” “But the tale doesn’t really start with that. The tale starts with a thief. A thief who had just been caught and was about to be in very deep trouble...”

Part of the million-selling My Story series that brings the past into the real world, giving it a truly human touch. Trenches is set in 1917 and is the story of Billy Stevens, a telegraph operator, stationed near Ypres. The Great War has been raging for three years when Billy finds himself taking part in the deadly Big Push. But he is shocked to discover that the bullets of his fellow soldiers aren't just aimed at the enemy. Vividly imagined and historically accurate, readers are taken on a first-hand journey of danger and peril.

DCI Paul Stark discovers that the bitter legacy of WWI casts a long shadow in the second of this intriguing historical mystery series. London, 1921. Lord Johnny Fairfax has been found dead in his study, along with a second victim, a mysterious American who arrived unannounced the previous evening. For DCI Paul Stark, the case is personal: he's in a relationship with Lord Fairfax's former wife, Lady Amelia. The dead man had no shortage of enemies. Winston Churchill, his former colleague at the War Office, is convinced the murder is revenge for the disaster at Gallipoli. Lady Amelia herself is accused of the crime. And who was the American visitor? What was his connection with Lord Fairfax – and could he have been the real target? As Stark digs deeper, he uncovers evidence of a shocking conspiracy that strikes at the heart of the British Establishment.

Matthew likes his life in Richmond. He has his friends and his softball and his volunteer work. And he has a very good-looking boyfriend, Brian, who he’s been happily dating for over a year now. So what if his friends tend to question just how good his boyfriend is, and so what if Brian tends to have inexplicable mood swings. And so what if Brian seems to invite Matt’s suspicions on occasion. If he just shows a little faith and trust, he’ll appreciate what he has with Brian the way he should. Right? But suddenly, Matt finds himself in a desperate life-or-death situation on a trip overseas, and he realizes just how much he misses home, and Brian. He’s luckily rescued by a team of US Special Forces, only to immediately find out they’re a bunch of bigoted jerks. Worse, a quirk of his situation forces him to spend time with them that he’d rather not. And that’s when he finds out that first impressions can be misleading. When called upon, he steps up when every fiber of his being tells him not to, and discovers something deep inside himself that he didn’t realize was even there. And his life will never be the same. He finds that he can, after all, make some very overdue changes in his own life. What Matt doesn’t realize is that the bond of brotherhood runs both ways. And he winds up changing the lives of several of the men on that Special Forces team as much as they changed his. All it takes is faith and trust.

This anthology includes 120 authors -- who contributed 230 works totaling approximately 1.1 MILLION words of fiction. These pieces all originally appeared in 2014, 2015, or 2016 from writers who are new professionals to the SFF field, and they represent a breathtaking range of work from the next generation of speculative storytelling.All of these authors are eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2016.  We hope you'll use this anthology as a guide in nominating for that award as well as a way of exploring many vibrant new voices in the genre.