Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Awakened by the password "humbug," Ebenezer Scrooge is back—this time as a ghost in the computer of workaholic Monica Banks, in this wry and heartwarming modern take on the Dickens classic.

Determined to become an author of western penny dreadful novels like her idol, Ned Buntline, a young San Francisco newspaper editor christens herself Valentine Lovelace (after a floozie acquaintance of her father’s) and heads east for the Wild West. She finds it in spades in the Texas Big Bend when she is kidnapped from a mule train by Comanches and ends up the guest of a ruthless comanchero, a sort of wild west warlord, after the Comanches are distracted by a. . .dragon? Fort Draco, as the comanchero fort is known, is as full of intrigue and nighttime carryings-on as a modern day romantic novel, but Frank Drake, the owner, is no hero. If Valentine wants to save herself and the less-guilty if not entirely innocent folks who live there, she must defeat heat stroke, gunslingers, a couple of fake rainmakers and their camel, hostile Indians, the voice haunting her dreams (not in a good way) and a dragon who not only is gobbling all the livestock and transportation in the area but is guarding the only water hole in fifty miles of drought-ridden desert. And she must do it all while taking good notes, of course. This is a western but not as we know it and a fantasy set where we’re not used to it.

The Witchmaid's Quest - Maggie Brown was a hearthwitch, good at whipping up banquets and starting up fires. But her magic was not much good for tracking down her faery step-sister who'd run away with a gypsy. So she set out with Ching, the talking cat, and Colin Songsmith, a travelling minstrel, to bring back the beautiful Amberwine. Meeting a unicorn, a lovesick dragon and an enchanted bear. Braving ambush, flood and capture by gypsies in a rescue mission fraught with excitement and danger. - from the cover

A anthology of short stories about female warriors. Friesner has edited several "Chicks" collections in the same vein, including Chicks in Chainmail, The Chick is in the Mail, Chicks and Chained Males. No Pain, No Gain | Elizabeth Moon Slue-Foot Sue and the Witch in the Woods | Laura Frankos A Young Swordswoman's Garden Primer | Sarah Zettel The Old Fire | Jody Lynn Nye Like No Business I Know | Mark Bourne A Bone to Pick | Marina Frants & Keith R.A. DeCandido The Attack of the Avenging Virgins | Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Oh, Sweet Goodnight! | Christina Briley & Walter Vance Awsten A Bitch in Time | Doranna Durgin Don't You Want to Be Beautiful? | Laura Anne Gilman A Night with the Girls | Barbara Hambly A Quiet Knight's Reading | Steven Piziks Armor Propre | Jan Stirling & S.M. Stirling A Big Hand for the Little Lady | Esther M. Friesner Blade Runner | K.D. Wentworth Keeping Up Appearances | Lawrence Watt-Evans La Différence | Harry Turtledove Tales from the Slushpile | Margaret Ball Yes, We Did Say Chicks! | Adam-Troy Castro

"Human competition is eternal. We thrill to victory, we suffer the agony of defeat. No matter what the future brings, sports will be a part of it. But what forms will these games take? Who will be the spectator, who will play? Will aliens be our opponents or machines? Will physical competition even exist? What rules will we play by? What will be at stake? What rewards will be reaped by the victors? What fates await the defeated? Will the entire universe be our arena or will our world be smaller than today? Visionary authors speculate on what swifter, higher, stronger, and winning will mean in the near and distant future."--

Acorna's people, the Linyaari, have begun reclaiming their homeworld from the ravages of the brutal Khleevi. But the first wave of explorers has unlocked a larger mystery about the origins of the Linyaari -- one that has led Aari, Acorna's beloved lifemate, on a dangerous journey from which he may never return. Setting off on a quest to find Aari, Acorna and her friends -- Captain Becker, Mac, Nadhari, and RK -- are forced to crash land on the beautiful and barbaric exotic jungle world of Makahomia, home of the mysterious Temple Cats. But an evil scheme threatens to destroy the sacred felines. To save the cats, Acorna will lead a band of rebels on a journey into Makahomia's temples and hidden sanctuaries. And there, within one sacred shrine, she will discover shocking information that could lead to Aari . . .or to disaster.