Showing results by author "Peter Swanson" in All Categories

December, 1989, and Ashley Smith - a bright-eyed American studying in London - has unexpectedly been invited by her classmate Emma Chapman to spend Christmas at her family's Cotswolds manor house, Starvewood Hall. The holiday is a true English fantasy: woodland walks, charming pubs and elaborate dinners at the manor, with the added romantic potential of Emma's twin brother, Adam, who feels like Ashley's wildest dreams come true. But is there something strange about the old house, both stately and rundown.

Birds, Strangers and Psychos is a thrilling anthology that brings together the biggest names in mystery and crime fiction to pay homage to Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary filmmaker whose name is synonymous with suspense. Acclaimed editor Maxim Jakubowski curates 24 original short stories, each inspired by the mood, tension, and style that defined Hitchcock’s groundbreaking work.

This sleeping beauty is more than she seems. And just because everybody in the kingdom has their own magic mirror on their wall shouldn’t replace the importance of everybody still thinking for themselves. A fun fairy tale mash-up with 25 colorful illustrations (also by the author). Includes the bonus story, Snow White and the Frankenstein Monster.

Enter the strange and fantastic world of the fairy tale. Read about what happens when two daughters of the king are rewarded or punished by the fairy heads in the well. Three Heads in the Well (or The King of Colchester’s Daughters) is a tale hundreds of years old, now retold by Peter Joseph Swanson, adding a bit of this and that, including the classic Diamonds & Toads. The author also did the illustrations.

Is food mostly just what we think it is? In this silly version of Hansel and Gretel, a serious story is still suggested about children wanting candy. The adventure goes beyond the candy house, even to a mountaintop castle, with 16 colorful illustrations (also by the author).

In this fairy tale, Dorothy and friends must save Oz from a witch made of sand.

War Death Isis Angels, Witches Monsters Ghosts Skeletons Cats, Gardens Goth Tombstone Suicide Gay, Movie Stars Lemonade Vegan Punk Mall. A collection of poems by novelist Peter Joseph Swanson.

After global disaster, a dysfunctional family rules inside an underground mountain city that is crumbling. When it blows up, the daughter takes the survivors to her new outpost away from the mountain…right in the path of the attacking Vagabond army and her double-crossing brother.

Thorn thinks he’s a cop keeping thoughts legal in his city. But when he messes up his elevator ride to heaven, which is actually supposed to kill him and recycle him as food, he finds out he’s just one clone out of millions in research labs in a prison in the asteroid belt. For revenge, he helps the elderly lab workers who want eternal life, as they think their scientist bosses have cloned it and their labor union has negotiated it for them. Thorn falls in love with a young hippie woman who is too often only a hologram when he wishes she was flesh, and adopts a son whose psycho killer ...

Return to Arthurian romance, magic, secrets, surprises and danger. In this bawdy sequel to Merlin’s Charge, in Camelot (a land where they say lovers can turn into swans) new horrors befall as shapeshifting chaos unleashes a violent werewolf monster into the wintry land. Will order be restored and the curse lifted in time for King Arthur to stop the invading Saxons? Or is the real danger entirely a family affair.

This is a colorful children's book that adults can enjoy, too. A magic glass castle sits on a mermaid ocean. Why is it there? It could be a shelter or a prison. A teddy bear gets tired of winter and wants a summer picnic so takes an odd trip. There is a dinosaur circus at the center of the earth! The fun begins, and ends! Grandma saves the day! Enjoy three stories, just for fantasy fun. And there’s two poems too, just because.

In the mid-70s, Jill, a sex-change in denial, buses west with the hope of becoming a star. She meets an aspiring gay photographer, Andernach, who instigates her discovery at a pool party. She pratfalls into a frenzy of tacky guerrilla film making, leaves her bonehead nudist boyfriend (who thought he was her manager) to live with a grand sex-change—not in denial—but dying of liver cancer. Jilly's cult fame finally allows her to save an elderly reclusive silent-movie glamour-queen from her hallucinations. A drag queen sewing circle gets her to a big gay bar, and her ensuing stand-up ...

Alice the ghost follows the Easter Bunny down his rabbit hole to the center of the earth. She must find out what happened to Halloween. She enters a wonderland of holidays, while searching for Father Time.

In medieval England a traveling witch and her dwarf brother help a small village fight a primitive vampire that lives in a nearby pond. And magic is used for malice. The two travelers find they have to battle a prosperous member of the village, a comely bad witch who makes the town’s coffins and shoes, as she seduces as many of the menfolk as she can. All the while the cursed abbey and milldam threaten to collapse; a green man ghost chases a green martyr monk into town from Ireland; druid visions begin to instruct the traveling witch so old legends reenact pre-Celtic history; and the true...

In this epic dark fantasy novella, in a whirlwind around the ancient Mediterranean Sea, Egypt fights Rome for world power. Cleopatra and her brother fight for the throne of Egypt. Mark Antony and Octavian fight for Caesar. Witches are their secret weapons. Love and war play out in a ruthless magical and material world above and below the shifting desert sands.

Karin Panotchitch, raised on a sheep farm and married off to a drunken loser, finds her way to 1939 Hollywood at the tender age of sixteen. Along the way to stardom, she meets up with Ramon Classic, who with his many brothers is ready for a hostile takeover of MGM, Mama Gravy, the colorful and opinionated proprietor of the run-down Gold Rush brothel, and Sister Agatha, the mysterious nun who seems to turn up every time Karin rides the trolley. Hollywood history, flying bullets, and big dreams make for a lively story about what happens when a sheep farmer’s daughter tries to make her ...

Michael is a 20-something theatrical gay man living in a river town in 1984. He worries that life is passing him by even though he’s a busy witty beautiful drag queen. Snake Girl is his pet name since he’d once played one in a carnival sideshow after running away from home. When he returns to the family farm, when his parents are killed, he uncovers more secrets than just the KKK, who have already killed a friend. Michael and his small band of friends become Druid warriors to conquer the legendary horror that is after them… as they also just work to get ahead in life, dreaming of ...

Eine Flughafenbar in London. Es ist Abend, und Ted Severson wartet auf seinen Rückflug nach Boston, als sich eine attraktive Frau neben ihn setzt. Kurz darauf vertraut er der geheimnisvollen Fremden an, dass seine Frau ihn betrogen hat. Mit ihrer Reaktion jedoch hat er nicht gerechnet: Sie bietet ihm Hilfe an - beim Mord an seiner Ehefrau. Ein Trick? Ein morbider Scherz? Oder ein finsteres Rachespiel, das nur ein böses Ende nehmen kann?