Jackie Kessler: The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2

“To Hell With Love” © Jacqueline H. Kessler. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“Princes of Dominion” © Ann Aguirre. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“Spirit of the Prairie” © Shirley Damsgaard. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“The Demon’s Secret” © Nathalie Gray. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“Marine Biology” © by Gail Carriger. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“Zola’s Pride” © Moira Rogers. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“In Dreams” © by Elissa Wilds. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“The Gauntlet” © Karen Chance. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“The Getaway” © Sonya Bateman. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“Mr Sandman” © Sherri Browning Erwin. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“The Sin-Eater’s Promise” © Michele Hauf. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“Fragile Magic” © Naomi Lester. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“NightDrake” © Lara Adrian, LLC. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“The Sons of Ra” © Helen Scott Taylor. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“Eve of Warfare” © Sylvia Day. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“The Majestic” © Seressia Glass. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

“Answer the Wicked” © Kim Lenox. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

Welcome to the most mammoth Mammoth ever!

Well, it was .

OK, OK, I got a little carried away. You see I am a huge fan of contracting great writers and letting them do whatever they want, write the story that their heart desires, that they haven’t had the chance to write yet, that’s always been in the back of their mind, looking for a home, a chance to be written. I feel that’s when you often get the greatest stories. I think that if you burden writers with too many rules and guidelines, you can end up with a story that is just a little. flat. OK, so those are my ideas. This freedom-loving, write-what-you-want, to-hell-with-rules attitude also extends to word count and sometimes (now, for instance) I forget to keep an eye on just how mammoth my Mammoth is getting. And, oh, they can really grow, and very quickly. And, suddenly, instead of having a brick-like doorstop of a book (like any other garden-variety Mammoth), you have a book that needs to be published in three (or four) separate volumes. And that’s what happened to me with this book.

It was 100,000 words over. Yes, you read that right. How did I allow that to happen? What kind of editor am I? Well, I think I just got a little excited and overwhelmed: so many wonderful writers, so many neat stories. You’d have trouble too (you really would). There were originally 25 stories in this collection, see, and to hit the word count I had to cut (wait, not cut , but move in a cunning fashion) eight fantastic stories by phenomenal writers. Here is a list of authors, along with their story titles, who were originally supposed to be in this book:

Sharon Shinn Can You Hear Me Now?

Robin D. Owens Heart Story

Laura Ann Gilman The Rat King

Dru Pagliassotti Ghost in the Machine

Maria Lima The Song Remains the Same

Catherine Asaro The Pyre of New Day

Toni Andrews Nativitas

Elle Jasper Curse Me Wicked

See my dilemma?

Now, obviously, these stories are not disappearing. I just had to do a little creative shuffling (talking to authors, begging for their consent, trying to find new books to put them in) and they will all be appearing in upcoming Mammoths (so watch for them!). The Shinn and Pagliassotti stories will be in the upcoming The Mammoth Book of Ghost Romance because they are fabulous and romantic ghost stories and are just the perfect fit. The Andrews story is set in a future world so it is just right for the new anthology of futuristic romance (can’t wait to do this one!) that I’m putting together soon. The Lima story is a wonderful paranormal romance set in a hospital emergency room — lots of those bleeping cardio-respiratory machines, creepy life support systems, kick-ass nurses from hell and gorgeous paranormal males in those hospital gowns that just don’t tie up properly at the back. Anyhow, all the stories have a home, you will be pleased to know. Whew!

So, I thought it might be fun in this introduction to confess my sins and reveal to you how much trouble you can actually get into when putting together a Mammoth if you don’t keep your eye on the ball. In my exuberance, I took my eye off it for a moment, and look what happened. Chaos! Mayhem! I must admit that I am susceptible, as are most chronic readers, to getting carried away by a good story and losing hours, days, weeks in a great tale. That’s just the way it goes. It’s a book-lover’s curse, I’m afraid.

But the seventeen stories that are in this book are going to knock your socks off. As well as a novella prequel from the amazing Karen Chance (with a word count that almost killed me — but how in tarnation could I say no? Oh, I am weak. so weak.), you’ll get to grips with some great, gritty, sexy urban fantasy, some fast-and-furious paranormals, some hilariously fun magic and, of course, endless other-worldly beautiful men stretching as far as the eye can see!

Trisha Telep

People have the oddest ideas about witches. They should be green-skinned. They should fly on broomsticks. They should have black cats as constant companions. Caitlin Harris blamed Hollywood for all the misconceptions. When it came to Caitlin, the truth was that her skin was pale, she flew only in airplanes and she was allergic to cats.

She could also throw magic like snowballs, reshape specific portions of universal memory, and brew a potion to transform demons into humans. But just because she could nudge probability on its backside and magic up her favourite movie on television whenever she wanted didn’t mean she should . Magic had a price. And DVDs had been invented for a reason. Caitlin used to hear that all the time from a man who had once meant everything to her: magic was too important to be used for frivolous things.

Of course, without the remote control, the DVD was just a big dust collector. She used to tell that to the man in return — even as he’d pluck the remote out of whatever crevice it had fallen into. But his lesson still stuck, even two years after she’d told the man goodbye. So there Caitlin was, in the middle of tossing her sofa cushions around for the umpteenth time to find the wayward remote, when her phone rang.

Growling, she stomped into the kitchen to pick up the receiver. After the call, she’d give into the inevitable and use magic to locate the clicker. What she really needed, she thought as she answered the phone, was a GPS for her remote control. Maybe she could magic one up.