Margo Lanagan

Dachshund droids, mad crones, shapeshifting children, a plethora of witches, dragon stalkers, familiars, slithering eels and, of course, bats, flit and fly through these pages, aided and abetted by Kathleen Jennings's deft and inspired pencil drawings. Stray Bats is a glorious miscellany of vignettes based on poems by Australian women. While some of the pieces are close to the originals in form and theme, some stray far, far from them even as Lanagan...

Featuring Margo Lanagan's award-winning 'Sea-Hearts', the multi-award winning 'Wives' by Paul Haines and original works by Terry Dowling, Trent Jamieson, Cat Sparks and Louise Katz, journey beyond the borders of the real with six novellas, from the most exciting speculative fiction authors working in Australia today

As they celebrate the opening of their underground nightclub, the Zeroes, six teenagers with unique abilities, learn about the sinister power of Swarm, who uses a crowd's rage to kill--and who loves killing Zeroes.

In wild times and in wartime, in times of fear and illness, I goto Tintinnabula, where soft rains fall. Tintinnabula is a story about moving from discomfort to peace, from violence and uncertainty to a still, sure place. It reminds us that our best friend in hard times can often be ourselves.

"On remote Rollrock Island, men go to sea to make their livings--and to catch their wives. The witch Misskaella knows the way of drawing a girl from the heart of a seal, of luring the beauty out of the beast. And for a price a man may buy himself a lovely sea-wife. He may have and hold and keep her. And he will tell himself that he is her master. But from his first look into those wide, questioning, liquid eyes, he will be just as transformed as she....

Ten stories that take place in worlds not quite our own and yet each one illuminates what it is to be human. They are stories of yearning for more, and learning to live with what you have.

"All the better to read you with... It's a prick of blood, the bite of an apple, the evil eye, a wedding ring or a pair of red shoes. Curses come in all shapes and sizes, and they can happen to anyone, not just those of us with unpopular stepparents... Here you'll find unique twists on curses, from fairy tale classics to brand-new hexes of the modern world -- expect new monsters and mythologies as well as twists on well-loved fables. Stories to shock...