Bøger af Gary Jonas

This is the third of the Hitman stories, now available in paperback for those who want it as a single. Remember, you can get this short story in the collection Quick Shots, or in The Hitman Stories, should you want only the Hitman yarns.

This is the second story in the Hitman series. It was originally published in Noirotica 2: Pulp Friction back in 1997. This short story has sex and violence, so you might give it an R rating depending on how you're holding the Hitman's camcorder. In addition to this chapbook version, you can get this story in the collections Quick Shots and in The Hitman Stories. Some folks just like to have the extra stand-alone version, but Quick Shots is the best bang for your buck. Just saying.

Four quick shots of short story fun... A haunted movie theater. Assassins get more than they bargained for when they stalk a target in a bar. Two men talking in a diner leads to a second chance at life. And a psychic spy story based on MK Ultra. What more could you want? Enjoy the ride!

A SAVAGE MURDER A husband armed with a sword hacks apart his wife in a Denver grocery store. There are dozens of witnesses, and the crime is captured on the security cameras. To the police, it's an open-and-shut case. To Naomi, the daughter of the couple, it's evidence of dark magic. She hires her ex-lover, a private investigator named Jonathan Shade to prove her father is innocent. Shade specializes in paranormal cases, but he isn't buying it. Still, he takes the case, hoping to rekindle their relationship. Instead, Shade finds himself mixed up in supernatural intrigue with wizards, magically engineered assassins, and an ancient sorcerer returned to life who's willing to kill anyone who stands in his way. Too bad Shade doesn't have any magic. The Jonathan Shade series so far: Modern Sorcery Acheron Highway Dragon Gate Anubis Nights Sunset Specters Wizard's Nocturne Razor Dreams

These stories are cursed! Contained in this mini-collection are five stories that killed the magazines that bought them. Some writers kill more magazines than others. To kill a magazine is to sell them a story that never sees print because the magazine goes out of business first. The stories in this collection are from one writer who managed to kill multiple magazines in a short period of time. In an effort to break the curse, this collection was published as a chapbook back in 1998. Did it work? Maybe. The author hasn't killed any magazines lately, but then again, he's been focused on writing novels. Take a trip into realms of horror and fantasy! Maternal Instinct - killer of Sequitur. A young mother hears a voice whispering to her baby over the nursery monitor! In League - Killer of Skull Magazine. A rock band discovers their music opens a gateway to a hellish dimension! Broken Spirits - Killer of Infinity Ltd. SF Magazine. Two damaged people hunt down the man who stole their souls! She Ain't Ready for My Lovin' - Killer of Pulphouse. A killer finds victims in a bar, but isn't prepared for a hunter! Images - Killer of Eldritch Tales. An artist finds that his paintings have far more power than he realized! Five stories for one low price! Note that if you own Quick Shots by Gary Jonas, you already have all of these stories. Do you dare to read these cursed tales? Are you brave enough to risk your sanity? WARNING! These stories have been known to cause shortness of breath, thundering heart, and extreme entertainment. Proceed at your own risk!

My old man sics a nuisance demon named Kevin on me to force me to grow up and stop being a slacker. The only way I can expel the jerk is to develop magic I create and control. Until then, Kevin plans to push me, prod me, and annoy me into action. It's one thing to miss a few naps, but Kevin shoves me into a dispute between a Greek god who wants to be a rock star and some hot women I thought were just myths, but make wonderful music together. Now I have to learn magic or the only nap I'll be taking is a dirt nap.

A paranormal investigator tries to help a boy deal with the ghost of his dead, but still abusive father. Of course, the investigator has a secret of his own. This short story originally appeared as a signed/limited chapbook from Roadkill Press back in 1990. It received an honorable mention in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror edited by Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling. "By Death Abused" is also available in the collection QUICK SHOTS by Gary Jonas, so if you own that, you already have this tale. You can still buy it, of course, because you'll earn triple cool points.

A couple of jerks wake me up at the crack of noon. Seems my klepto uncle stole an ancient deck of Tarot cards from a high-powered wizard, and too many losers want to ruin my day to get them back. The cards are cool, so I check them out, but my magic-happy cousin, Sabrina, tells me I'm not supposed to touch them. Oops. Too late. Now the damn cards are tuned to me, and if someone else wants to use them, I have to die. Why couldn't she have led with that information? Magic was never my scene, but my dad is one of the most powerful wizards in the world, so I've got unrealized potential if I ever bother to apply myself. I'd rather power nap, but with wizards, gunslingers, and cannibalistic shark dudes coming at me, that's not gonna happen. They say I'm a half-assed wizard, but if I don't play my cards right, I'm gonna get my whole ass killed.

Life sucks. My old man makes me work for a big-ass witch named Lakesha so I can learn magic and help people. My first gig turns out to be an abduction, which sounds like a job for law enforcement, not a half-assed wizard like yours truly. Just my luck though - it's a ghost that's been snatched, which is right in my wheelhouse. Why would anyone want to kidnap a ghost? And why should I care one way or the other? I prefer power napping to kidnapping. But when the abductors use the ghost to kill a man in a robbery gone wrong, it's up to me to save the day. As long as I don't have to get up before noon...

What do you do when you've been replaced? I come home from a vacation to find that another version of me has taken my place. He's living my life. He has my friends. He has my career. And what really sucks is that he's doing it all so much better than I ever could. Everyone loves him! I'm the real me, but he insists that he's the real me. Not cool. One of us has to go! Oh, and one more pesky little problem. Someone's trying to kill me.

Dream your way to horror, crime, and fantasy in this gathering of stories by the author of the Jonathan Shade series.Six stories await you."Taking the Dare" - A teenager who can touch someone and see the terrible things they've done is dared to find out if the man living on the corner is really murdering kids."Night Marshal" - A novella about a Doc Holliday-style gunfighter who finds his moral center only after becoming a vampire in the old west."An Officer and a Hitman" - The sociopath hitman returns, this time accepting a cop as his client, and the target? The police officer's family."Dying to Live" - A ghost with a broken heart finds a reason to exist."Spirited Christmas" - A Jonathan Shade holiday novelette. Shade accepts a case to save a little girl from a ghost that haunts her every Christmas."Living on Dream Time" - An assassin who kills people in their dreams as part of a secret government project finds danger and love in the dream realm. A brand-new story original to this collection.Come along for the ride.

This short story, first published in 1997 in the anthology Robert Bloch's Psychos, introduced the world to a blue collar hitman with attitude out to here. This is the origin story. You can get the other stories as individual chapbooks, collected as The Hitman Stories, or simply read them in the author's collection, Quick Shots.