Book Feature: Datafall by Rich Larson

In Datafall: Collected Speculative Fiction, seven shorts by Rich Larson range from far-flung space opera to near-future noir, sinister steampunk to mind-bending time travel, and darkly humorous to subtly thought-provoking.

"The Garden" pits a weary technician against a starship AI with delusions of divinity while the fate of a colony planet hangs in the balance. In "Every So Often," Victor has been living in the past for a long time—his job is to murder anyone who might try to alter it. In "Memory Cathedrals," a star footballer whose career has been cut short by injury decides to sell his memories...but that's not all he's doing with them. "Loopholes" takes us to the 22nd century, where a wealthy murderer has found a new way to dodge the law. But Klaus Barbier, part-time reamer addict and full-time homicide detective, has never been above bending the rules himself. In "Back So Soon," a bored businesswoman is determined to add someone interesting to her life—and she seems to have hit the jackpot when a shell-shocked colonist returns to Seattle, Washington, Earth. "Factory Man" visits the steampunk city of Colgrid, where a young soldier returns home to find that corpses are no longer wasted on caskets. In "Datafall," the titular tale, Solomon and his father take their technology out of hiding and await the Cloud.

Datafall: Collected Speculative Fiction contains over 10,000 words of hard-hitting sci-fi by an up-and-coming young author and contains six original cover illustrations by artist Christopher Ruz.

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Rich Larson was born in West Africa, has studied in Rhode Island, and currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta, where he recently received the 2012 James Patrick Folinsbee Prize for Creative Writing. His novel Devolution was a finalist for the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, while his shorter work appears in AE: The Canadian Science Fiction Review, Word Riot, Monkeybicycle, >kill author, Prick of the Spindle, The Molotov Cocktail, Underwater New York, YARN, and many others. You can connect with Rich at his website or via Facebook.

Book Feature: The Wrong Sword by Ted Mendelssohn

For a thousand years, Excalibur has been the sword of heroes. Unfortunately, its new owner isn't one.

Henry of Sanbruc, medieval smartass, makes a pretty good living selling "magic" swords to gullible knights. When he's forced to steal the real thing from the Chapel Perilous, his troubles are only beginning. For Excalibur is not just the sword of heroes...it’s also the sword that won’t SHUT UP. It communicates with its owner, it knows what kind of owner it deserves, and Henry doesn't even come close.

To keep Excalibur and the world safe from the appalling Geoffrey Plantagenet, Henry will have to masquerade as a knight, crash a royal wedding, rescue a princess, break a siege, penetrate the secrets of the Perilous Brotherhood, and find Excalibur’s rightful bearer, all while trying to reach an accommodation with a snotty, aristocratic hunk of steel that mocks him, takes over his body, and keeps trying to turn him into the one thing he hates most...a hero.

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Please visit the author's website for more information.

After studying history at Columbia, fantasy at the USC School of Cinema-Television, and juvenile behavior in film industry, Ted Mendelssohn (or the man who calls himself Ted Mendelssohn) was ideally suited to write The Wrong Sword. He is a resident of New York and not cynical at all.

You can connect with Ted at Facebook or Twitter.

Book Feature: The Story in the Stars by Yvonne Anderson

Though heirs to an ancient, cosmic feud, he must save her life—and she must save his soul.

Ancient Gannah was well on the way to taking over the whole galaxy, until the people of Karkar engineered a virus that stopped them in their tracks. Now, eight centuries later, the plague has struck again. When the League of Planets receives the distress signal, Karkar-born doctor Pik is ordered to find a cure, despite his hatred of the whole Gannahan race. By the time he arrives on Gannah, it’s almost too late; Dassa is the only survivor. And she has a mission of her own.

Dassa and Pik survive a pirate attack, unsafe starcraft, food poisoning, vicious beasts, and a plane crash. But the hardest part is enduring one another’s company. The Creator who wrote the story of redemption in the stars has commanded her to share it with her reluctant savior. That’s not all He expects of her, but the rest is unthinkable.

" If you love fantasy, sci fi, adventure, romance or all of the above, don't hesitate to buy this book. It's the best I've read in a long, long time." - Amazon Review

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Formerly a legal secretary, Yvonne works part time as a Virtual Assistant but spends most of her time on the planet Gannah researching her books. She serves as contest administrator for Novel Rocket, named four times to Writer’s Digest list of the 101 Best Websites for Writers. She also shares a few wise words on her personal site at www.YsWords.com. You can connect with Yvonne at Facebook and Twitter.

Book Feature: Contract of Defiance by Tammy Salyer

In a few hundred years, the Algol system becomes humanity’s new home. The question is: is it a better one? When a crew of arms smugglers botches their latest job, Corp-deserter and crewmember Aly Erikson is separated from her brother—the only person in the system she trusts—and left behind to fight for her life. In the aftermath, as she tries to piece together what happened, a crew of desperate settlers pressgang her into a dangerous mission in the heart of Corp territory. With her enemies closing in, time is running out to get back everything she’s lost: her crew, her brother, her options. But no one is taking her gun.

Winner of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold contest for best action/thriller in 2010, and Finalist in the Kindle Book Review Best Indie Books of 2012 contest for science fiction.

“Meet the toughest gal in the galaxy and arm yourself for a riveting quest on the galactic fringe in Contract of Defiance by Tammy Salyer; an Amazon average rating of 4.8 stars.” - The Motley Chronicles

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Tammy Salyer won her first writing contest in the second grade and has been word-nerding ever since. As an ex-paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, her writing is often as gritty as a grunt’s pile of three-week-old field gear. Contract of Defiance is a hit with scifi fans worldwide, and its followup, Contract of Betrayal, will be out in Spring 2013. Several of Tammy’s short stories also appear in horror and literary magazines. When not hunched like a Morlock over her writing desk, she works in behavioral-science research and runs and bikes the foothills of Colorado.

You can connect with Tammy at her website or Twitter.

Book Feature: House and Garden by Deb Victoroff

Elise, a socially awkward professional single woman finally buys a piece of real estate – a house with a garden – which she feels she can shape to her own desires. Her need to control her surroundings, her fatal flaw, will never be directed to a human partner. Instead she turns her energy toward taming nature.

An odd-looking real estate agent has sold her the parcel after the previous owners have abruptly abandoned the house, a bungalow with a creepily over-grown garden. As Elise attempts to weed and groom her property, it seems to fight against her. Bugs bite her, thorns pierce her, gardening tools are ripped from her hands and mysteriously disappear.

She feels the dislike of the townsfolk toward the city people who keep buying up the countryside only to domesticate it to city tastes. Are they behind the creeping dangers that assault her at every turn? Or is there some larger malevolent force in play?

“…The tension and fear crawl right under your skin...along with all the other creepy crawly creatures. Terrific fun and terror.” - Amazon Review

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Please visit Musa Publishing for more information.

Debra Victoroff is a writer with eclectic interests. She has written several short plays that have appeared in regional theatres around the country. In 2009, her play “Letter From A Soldier” took second place in the New Works of Merit Play Competition in NYC, and was performed at the Vancouver, British Columbia Fringe Festival.

Debra also writes a monthly Horoscope parody for the women’s online humor magazine Happy Woman Magazine.

You can connect with Debra via Facebook.