Lucky Girl, How I Became A Horror Writer is a story told across Christmases, rooted in loneliness, horror, and the ever-lurking presence of Krampus written by World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Award-winning author M. Rickert."Smooth and ruthless, Lucky Girl is M. Rickert at her ice-cold best."—Laird BarronRo, a struggling writer, knows all too well the pain and solitude that holiday festivities can awaken. When she meets four people at the local diner—all of them strangers and as lonely as Ro is—she invites them to an impromptu Christmas dinner. And when that party seems in danger of an early end, she suggests they each tell a ghost story. One that's seasonally appropriate. But Ro will come to learn that the horrors hidden in a Christmas tale—or one's past—can never be tamed once unleashed.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Every Halloween, an elderly woman hands out candy to a young trick-or-treater who's dressed as a witch each time, looking exactly the same age. With each passing year, the woman grows more attached to the little witch and her odd nature. But she is no ordinary child, and an uncanny relationship develops between the two of them that may prove dangerous and deadly.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Meet Quark, a giant of a man carrying scars literally and figuratively, on his return to Bellfairie, as he searches for his father and clues to his mother's mysterious death. But no one goes to Bellfairie on purpose, it's always a wrong turn in someone's life. As Quark will soon learn.Like Frankenstein's monster, "The Shipbuilder of Bellfairie" is a vibrant, emotional and humane amalgam.A fantastical crime mystery with a soupçon of magic that brings to mind not only Shelley's creation but A Confederacy of Dunces in its exploration of flawed and tragic characters."Awash in sea rain, ghosts and the stories they trail, the sound of submerged bells from offshore (or their echo, or their memory), Bellfairie and its denizens are M. Rickert creations through and through-meaning magical, mournful, mysterious, profoundly human."- Glen Hirshberg, Author of The Motherless Children Trilogy"The Shipbuilder of Bellfairie is a dark,...

Fantasy/Science Fiction. 11547 words long. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 2006 Nebula Award Preliminary Ballot Nominee