recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Summer of the Apocalypse (Book)

*Summer of the Apocalypse* is Van Pelt's first novel.

## Back of the Book

When a plague wipes out most of humanity, fifteen-year-old Eric sets out to find his father. Sixty years later, Eric starts another long journey in an America that has long since quit resembling our own, but there are shadows everywhere. Shadows of what the world once was, and shadows from Eric’s past. Blood bandits, wolves, fire, feral children, and an insane militia are only a few of the problems Eric faces. Set in Denver, Colorado and the western foothills, Van Pelt’s first novel is both a coming-of-age tale, and a story of an old man’s search for hope in the midst of disaster. Eric’s two adventures lead him through a slice of modern America and into the depths of one man’s heart.

## Links

* *Summer of the Apocalypse* at Fairwood Press
Miss Hathaway’s Spider (Short Story)

*Miss Hathaway’s Spider* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *Talebones* (1998), *Strangers and Beggars* (2002), *Curious Fictions* (Oct. 11, 2018), and *The Best of James Van Pelt* (2020). It received a Nebula recommendation and an honorable mentioned in the *Best of the Rest II* anthology of small press fiction.

### Author's Note

From *Curious Fictions*:

*This is the second of my Halloween-themed stories for October. I've done readings with this story before. The teachers in the room chuckle in places that other audience members don't. I have taught high school English for thirty-seven years.  It's inevitable that I would occasionally write about the classroom.*

*I'm also a bit of an arachnophobe.*

## Characters

* Miss Hathaway - a meticulous teacher of fifteen years with a spider in her room
* Jim Bag - a mediocre student with a tendency to dangle modifiers
* Mr. Book - a vice principal who speaks in platitudes and doesn't know Helen Keller from Anne Sullivan
* Mr. Clean - a janitor who isn’t an exterminator
* Guidance Counselor Mitty - who is committed to communicating with parents
* Melba Toast - a student caught in a spider web

## Summary

Miss Hathaway has a spider in her room. When she first notices, she asks the janitor, Mr. Clean, to take care of it, but he refuses on the grounds that it’s not his job. Two weeks later, the spider has grown and she goes to Mr. Book, the vice principal. Mr. Book manages to convince Miss Hathaway that the spider isn’t a problem and she can teach despite it.

The week after Homecoming, Melba Toast, a student of Miss Hathaway's, complains of a web on her desk. The web has grown to obscure a corner of the room and the spider is big enough to distract Miss Hathaway and her students. Ms. Hathaway assigns an essay about the spider.

The day after Thanksgiving break, Mr. Book comes into her room, furious she wrote a memo to the principal about the spider. He declares that as far as she and her students are concerned, there is no spider. Melba accidentally touches the web, and the spider descends upon her, wrapping her in its web, while Miss Hathaway does nothing.

The next day, Miss Hathaway speaks to Mr. Mitty, a counselor. He tells her they save more students then they lose.

Miss Hathaway realizes she's no longer afraid of the spider. it approaches and she embraces it. When she comes to, she's hanging from the ceiling, wrapped in the web, watching a substitute teacher looking for lesson plans.
Teaching (Short Story)

*Teaching* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *Star Anthology* (#1, 1998), and *Curious Fictions* (Apr 12, 2019).

## Author's Note

From Curious Fictions:

*People often say that teaching is a noble profession, and it is. It also has a huge dropout rate as teachers walk away from their jobs. Whatever positive pressures that keep teachers working and the negative ones that push them out, the future is unlikely to change. Chaucer once said of a character in his stories, "Gladly would he learn and gladly teach." Maybe that's the quality that keeps teachers going, that sense of gladness in the giving and taking.*

## Epigraph

*When I heard the learn'd astronomer,*

*When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,*

*When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,*

*When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in his lecture room,*

*How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,*

*Till rising and gliding out I wandr'd off by myself,*

*In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,*

*Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.*

-Walt Whitman

## Connections

This story and *Nor a Lender Be* both feature a device called a DeskTop and a teacher named William.
Pandora's Gun (Book)

*Pandora's Gun* is Van Pelt's second novel.

## Back of the Book

What would you do if you controlled powers once attributed to the gods? What if what you had heard was right: sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic?

High school student Peter Van Meer finds an impossible treasure that seems too good to be true. Now, he must work with his two best friends to unlock its secrets before it threatens to spill out its unknown dangers into the world. Chased by the police, the FBI, and men in blue suits, they soon realize Peter's discovery is much, much more than they bargained for.
Death Dwarves, The (Short Story)

*The Death Dwarves* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *Title* (year), and *Strangers and Beggars* (2002).

### Epigraph

In the midst of life, we are in death.

*The Book of Common Prayer*

## Characters

* John Minor - sees and hears things others don't after the ball peen hammer accident that left a dent in his forehead
* Ann - John's wife, who died of cancer
* Christina - John's daughter who moved to Seattle with her new husband
* Doctor Ferguson - who's working up a paper on John's case

#### Death Dwarves

* Naggle - hates the bus; hasn't been in the field long
* Wisnet - who's been in the field sixteen months

#### Others

* Richard - a bus driver; dies of a brain aneurysm at a red light
* A mother and six-year old child
* A secretary at L&R Ordnance
* A maintenance man at L&R Ordnance
* Teenagers in the back of the bus

## Summary

A one-pound tin of black powder blows up in John Minor's face, sending a ball peen hammer off his forehead, leaving him with a dent an inch above his nose. The accident grants him a small disability pension and a large insurance settlement. In the wake of the accident, John has a hard time focusing and keeping his balance.

John first sees the dwarves on the bus home from physical therapy. Each is dressed in a parody of a police uniform and carries a shotgun. As he listens, one of them describes his shotgun shell as “…instant, massive coronary thrombosis.” He watches one of them fire at the bus driver, but rather than physical trauma, he was hit with “A brain aneurysm next Thursday at 2:05 p.m.” When one of dwarves decides to take a shot at a child on the bus, John reacts by swinging his cane at the dwarf, reducing him to milky white liquid. The bus driver pulls over, knocking the second dwarf off balance, allowing John to dispatch it as well.

No one else sees or hears anything.

Late that night, John thinks about his wife, Ann, who died of cancer. A week later he reads of the bus drier who died at a red light. John begins studying the dwarves, then stalking them, swinging his cane to dispatch them.
Resurrection (Short Story)

*Resurrection* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *Analog: Science Fiction and Fact* (2001), and *Strangers and Beggars* (2002). It placed 3rd in the Anlab, *Analog’s* readers’ poll for best short stories in the magazine in 2001 and received honorable mention for best stories in 2001 in Gardner Dozois’s *The Year’s Best Science Fiction*, 19th annual collection.
Best of James Van Pelt, The (Book)

The Best of James Van Pelt is Van Pelt's sixth short story collection.

## On the Dust Jacket

From a giant spider that can't be ignored in a high school classroom, to humanity facing a mutagen plague, to the last two robots witnessing the end of the universe, this comprehensive collection includes sixty-two of the best stories from James Van Pelt's fertile and wide-ranging imagination that have appeared over the last thirty years in *Asimov's, Analog, Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, Talebones,* and numerous other science fiction and fantasy publications.

Included in this collection is a Nebula finalist, a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award Finalist, numerous stories that were recognized by *Analog* or *Asimov's* reader as among the best of the year, along with titles that were reprinted in Gardner Doxios's *Year's Best Science Fiction*, and other year's best anthologies.

Frightening or thrilling or uplifting, each of these stories is an exploration into the unknown. Take up a journey now into *The Best of James Van Pelt*.

## Stories

* Parallel Highways
* Miss Hathaway's Spider
* Happy Ending
* Plant Life
* O Tannenbaum
* Nor a Lender Be
* Shark Attack: a Love Story
* The Diorama
* The Comeback
* Friday, After the Game
* Safety of the Herd
* Savannah is Six
* Saturn Ring Blues
* Once They Were Monarchs
* Origin of the Species
* Night Sweats
* What Weena Knew
* The Infodict
* The Last Age Should KNow Your Heart
* Perceptual Set
* The Stars Underfoot
* The Yard God
* The Last of the O-Forms
* Its Hour Come Round
* The Sound of One Foot Dancing
* The Boy Behind the Gate
* Do Good
* A Flock of Birds
* Notes From the Field
* The Long Way Home
* The Ice Cream Man
* Echoing
* The Miracle at Ramah
* One Day, in the Middle of the Night
* Where and When
* A Wow Finish
* The Inn at Mount Either
* The Small Astral Object Genius
* How Music Begins
* Rock House
* Of Late I've Dreamt of Venus
* Just Before Recess
* The Radio Magician
* Where Did You Come From, Where Did You Go?
* Solace
* Late Homework
* Classroom of the Living Dead
* Mrs. Hatcher's Evaluation
* The Hareton K-12 County School and Adult Extension
* My Father and the Moon Maids from Mars
* Aubrey Comes to Yellow High
* Everything's Unlikely
* On the Road with the American Dead
* The Lies
* The Continuing Saga of Tom Corbett: Space Cadet
* The Lawn Fairy War
* The Silk Silvered Skulls of Millen Mir
* Mars, Aphids and Your Cheating Heart
* Orphaned
* Mother Azalea's Sad Home for Forgotten Adults
* Pirate Readers
* Graduation in the Time of Yog Sothoth

## Links

*The Best of James Van Pelt* at Fairwood Press
No Small Change (Short Story)

*No Small Change* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *After Hours* (1991) and *Curious Fictions* (Sep 5, 2019).

### Author's Note

From *Curious Fictions*

*Everyone has a superpower. It might not be something amazing like flying or x-ray vision, but the powers are there just the same. Some people spend their entire lives trying to find their power, while the two friends in this story find theirs in a Dairy Queen.*

## Characters

* Maureen - used to be able to kill flies
* Leslie - Maureen's friend
* Jeff and Mark - boys on the football team at the junior high

### Mentioned

* Mrs. Fennimore - of Mrs. Fennimore's Finishing School
* Mr. Haverson - who constantly wanders the hallways

## Summary

In the girl's restroom at school, Maureen explains to her friend Leslie that she used to be able to kill flies. That she could stand on the back porch, say "bang" and all the flies for a mile would burn to ash in a moment. Leslie is skeptical, so Maureen gives a demonstration, pointing her finger at a fly in the restroom. With a "bang", the fly drops to the floor and burns to ash. Leslie is impressed, but Maureen is upset because the power is diminishing.

Leslie suggests they ditch class to go to the local Dairy Queen. There, Leslie points out that Maureen's life is pretty good: she's got a good family with wealthy parents and will go a good high school. Leslie suggests that perhaps this power of hers is going away to make room for something else, something better.

At a nearby table, a group of boys on the football team from the junior high are goofing around. A couple of them introduce themselves as Jeff and Mark to the girls. They explain there's going to be a dance and invite them. Maureen and Leslie say they'll think about it.

As the boys are leaving, the girls realize they have the power in this situation. They could go to the dance, "...or we could say no and break their hearts." Together, they look at the boys and whisper "Bang".
HarperCollins

Harper Collins is a publishing company. They are Sophie Cleverly's current publishers.

## Description

In terms of consumer book publishing, HarperCollins Publishers is ranked second globally.

With its headquarters in New York, HarperCollins runs publishing businesses in 17 different nations. With a 200-year history, more than 120 branded labels globally, and the publication of almost 10,000 new books annually in 16 languages, HarperCollins has a print and digital portfolio with more than 200,000 titles. Winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, and the Man Booker Prize are among the authors published by HarperCollins, who write in a variety of genres.

The publishing home of Mark Twain, the Bront sisters, Thackeray, Dickens, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, and Margaret Wise Brown, HarperCollins has a lengthy and illustrious history that dates back to the early nineteenth century and provides the publishing team with a breadth of experience that few others can match—from the modest print shop that James and John Harper founded in 1817 to the multifaceted

A central focus of all we do at HarperCollins is authors and their work. We take pride in offering our authors unmatched editorial expertise, marketing clout, enduring relationships with bookstores, and the best industry-leading understanding of reader and consumer behaviour. Being constantly at the forefront of innovation and technical development, HarperCollins makes use of digital technologies to produce distinctive reading experiences and broaden the audience for our writers.

## Books published by Sophie Cleverly

### *Scarlet and Ivy*

* *The Lost Twin* (2015)
* *The Whispers in the Walls* (2015)
* *The Dance in the Dark* (2016)
* *The Lights Under the Lake* (2017)
* *The Curse in the Candlelight* (2017)
* *The Last Secret* (2019)

### *The Violet Veil Mysteries*

* *A Case of Grave Danger* (2021)
* *A Case of Misfortune* (2022)
* *A Case of High Stakes* (upcoming, 2024)
Parallel Highways (Short Story)

*Parallel Highways* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *After Shocks* (2000), *Strangers and Beggars* (2002), and *The Best of James Van Pelt* (2020). It received honorable mention in Datlow and Windling’s *Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror*.

## Characters

* Debbie - who thinks "We're more like Vanderdecken."
* Jack - who'll be "Damned if I'll let someone cut me off this morning."

### Others

* Civilians - get on the highway, go somewhere, and get off
* Damned - who die, and live, and keep on driving
* Demons - sunglasses wearing drivers
* Newbies - the damned before they die the first time

## Summary

That morning started with a commute. Jack saw the mini-van from the on-ramp, measured it's speed, and knew it was going to merge in front of him. He sped up, and the mini-van crashed into a broken-down car on the side of the road.

Now, Jack and Debbie speed down a highway in bumper to bumper traffic as a featureless city scrolls by. They don't know where they are. The don't know how long they've been driving. They get tired, but never hungry. Occasionally they argue. Occasionally they speculate about the never-ending highway past non-descript cityscapes and endless deserts and narrow coastal roads. They take turns switching off driving. There are no off ramps, and no matter what they do they always crash, die, and are reset.

Eventually they notice a yellow sedan with two little boys in the back seat, the driver wide-eyed and weeping. A newbie. Jack sees a semitruck closing fast with the sedan. Debbie sees it too. Jack hits the breaks in front of the semi, allowing the sedan to get escape the semi.
Flying in the Heart of the Lafayette Escadrille (Book)

*Flying in the Heart of the Lafayette Escadrille* is Van Pelt's fourth short story collection. It is introduced by Brenda Cooper.

## Back of the Book

*Flying in the Heart of the Lafayette Escadrille*, James Van Pelt's fourth story collection, offers a carnival of science fiction, fantasy, and horror tales. Hang on as you fly a WWI fighter plane displayed in a singles bar, ride a dragon from a troubled man's past, run genetically engineered world record marathons, see Tokyo Rose and the ghost of a romance past, read books before they turn to stone, roam with wolves who will not let you go, conduct alien abductions, and swim in a lake of childhood regrets. Van Pelt's wide-ranging imagination promises a surprise at every turn, taking you into the very heart of your dreams and fears.

## Stories

* Flying in the Heart of the Lafayette Escadrille
* Father's Dragon
* Just Before Recess
* O Tannebaum
* Night Sweats
* Teaching
* Working the Moon Circuit
* Plant Life
* That He Might Yet Find the Unknown
* Floaters
* The Road's End
* One in a Thousand
* Rock House
* Mrs. Hatcher's Evaluation
* Far From the Emerald Isle
* Howl Above the Din
* No Small Change
* The Saint From Abdijan
* Ark Ascension
* Working Pushout
* Notes from the Field
* Classroom of the Living Dead
* Savannah is Six

## Links

*Flying in the Heart of the Lafayette Escadrille* at Fairwood Press
Experience Arcade and Other Stories, The (Book)

*The Experience Arcade and Other Stories* is Van Pelt's fifth short story collection. It is introduced by Patrick Swenson.

## Back of the Book

Jim Van Pelt is one of science fiction's most accomplished and prolific story writers, with over 150 published stories to his credit. This new collection, his fifth, consists of twenty-four of the thirty-five short stories Van Pelt sold from his write-a-story-a-week-for-a-year challenge he started in 2015. Every story has a brief teaser for readers, and every story story has a postscript for writers and teachers that talks about the thinking that went into the writing of the stories.

## Stories

* In Memoriam
* The Continuing Saga of Tom Corbett: Space Cadet
* The Lawn Fairy War
* Experience Arcade
* Death of a Starship Poet
* Ghost Ship
* Mars, Aphids and Your Cheating Heart
* Three Paintings
* We Have Always Lived in the Hamlet
* proLong
* Orphaned
* The Lies
* Falling Out of Downey
* Apprentice
* Titan Descansos
* The Children's Collection
* Writing Advice
* The Golden Daffodils
* The Silk Silvered Skulls of Millen Mir
* Weaponized Ghosts of the 96th Infantry
* Maybe If One Person Less
* Housekeeping
* No One is So Fierce
* The Sword Imperial

## Links

* *The Experience Arcade and Other Stories* at Fairwood Press
Infodict, The (Short Story)

*The Infodict* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *Asimov's* (2001), *Strangers and Beggars* (2002), *Curious Fictions* (Apr 5, 2019), and *The Best of James Van Pelt* (2020)

It won second place in *The Best of Soft SF, 2000*, fifth place in the *Asimov’s* reader poll for 2001, and was nominated for a Theodore Sturgeon Award. *Locus* included it in their Recommended Reading List in 2001, and it received an honorable mention for Gardner Dozois' *The Year’s Best Science Fiction*, 19th annual collection and the 2002 Hugo Award for short stories.

### Author's Note

From *Curious Fictions*:

*They say that you can't know the mysteries of the heart, but that's only because you don't have enough data. If you had enough information, surely you could tell what someone else felt about you. If only you had access to all the information.*

## Characters

* Sanji - an infodict obsessing over Marlyss
* Raymond - who'd rather not know what's on the menu until he gets there
* Marlyss - is considering Sanji's proposal
* A waiter at Reefer's

## Summary

Sanji has proposed to Marlyss and she wants to think it over.

At work, Sanji tracks Marlyss with a program called a spider, looking at publicly available information like her heart rate, what intersections she's driven through, and whether or not she's made any purchases. Tracking Marlyss doesn't interfere with his work which he manages through specs, earbud, and a personal device called a Concierge. Raymond, a friend a coworker, invited Sanji to lunch but refuses to order ahead and insists on paying in cash. Sanji and Raymond disagree on the convenience of always wearing their specs, always being plugged into the information gathered and disseminated.

Throughout, the day, Sanji continues to monitor Marlyss, hoping something in the information he's gathering will let him know how she'll answer his proposal.

At the end of the day, Sanji and Marlyss meet at the marina. Sanji realizes Marlyss isn't wearing her specs, that he's never seen her without them. The realization prompts him to take his own specs off and he enjoys himself at the marina even without the constant stream of data. At the end of the evening, Marlyss accepts Sanji's marriage proposal.

While Marlyss goes to the restroom, Sanji puts his specs back on, speculating that it will take a lot of data to know if she really loves him.
Ariadne's Camera

**Ariadne's Camera** is a camera that was given to Ariadne as a present by her father during the Easter holidays, just before the summer term. The camera only appears in *The Lights Under the Lake*, where it plays a big part in helping the girls figure out that they are being followed. When Ariadne returns to school after the summer holidays, she leaves her camera at home.

## Appearance

The camera is described as small, black and silver, with knobs and levers that whirred.

## History

### Story

Ariadne posts the photos she takes on her camera to her father while at school, so he can hang them around their home, Flitworth Manor.

### *The Lights Under the Lake*

The first known photo taken on her camera is of Scarlet and Ivy, doing arabesques on the diving boards in the outdoor pool. Just before the girls go on their trip, Mrs Knight asks Ariadne to take photos while they are at Lake Seren, seeing it as a good publication opportunity, and a way to change Rookwood's image, after the damage that the former Headmaster and Headmistress caused.
Happy Ending (Short Story)

*Happy Ending* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *Realms of Fantasy* (1998), *Strangers and Beggars (2002)*, *Curious Fictions*, and *The Best of James Van Pelt* (2020). It is a metafiction story about metafiction told in reverse.

### Author's Note

From *Curious Fictions*:

*A creative writing teacher, a gifted but rebellious student, and an examination of which way the arrow of time points.*

## Characters

* Karl Downs - who insists "the real direction of a story should be disorder and mystery, not order and understanding" and jumps off a cliff
* Bob Wells - an unpublished novelist and creative writing teacher who shoots himself in the head

#### Others

* Marcia Binder - a student in Mr. Wells' class, she has a crush on him
* Mrs. Downs - tells Bob he's no hero
* The Principal

## Summary

Bob dies by suicide. The bullet travels back into the gun and Bob puts the gun away. He looks at his rejection letter, the school board's formal request, and Karl's note. He speaks with Mrs. Downs, asking for understanding.

Bob reads Karl's note about how stories should tend toward disorder, citing Stephen Hawking's *A Brief History of Time*, and how he'll jump off a cliff to prove it. In her office, the principal tells Bob the school board wants him to resign, that other students said he ridiculed Karl, that the note was found in his jacket pocket. Bob talks to his creative writing class about Karl's death in the context of story writing. He tries to lecture about fiction theory.

Karl hands in his semester project early, certain Bob won't understand it; they've just had an argument in front of the whole class about how a story should be told. Karl's story reads: "He died. He struggled. He was born." Karl laughs upon seeing his F. Bob thinks he's too comfortable and needs to be taken down a peg. At lunch, Bob opens a letter from HarperPrisim rejecting his novel.

Bob asks his students about their semester projects. Marcia wants to write a May-September relationship. Karl wants to write a new kind of time travel story with Mr. Wells as the protagonist. Bob starts class by talking about metafiction.
Eight Words (Short Story)

*Eight Words* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *Pulphouse* #19 (1995), *Cemetery Sonata* (1999), and *Strangers and Beggars* (2002). It received honorable mention in Datlow and Windling’s *Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror*, *9th Edition*.

## Characters

* Katherine
* Theodore
* A girl who doesn't believe in ghosts

## Summary

Theodore is beautiful, brilliant, and adored. Katherine falls for him, but doesn't get his attention until she notices him doodling spaceships in the margins of his notes during class. They have a relationship until Theodore notices all the attention he'd received has gone. He blames Katherine and breaks up with her. Katherine dies by suicide.

Sometime later, Theodore takes a girl who doesn't believe in ghosts to the house where he and Katherine lived. He tells her the story, but she can't see Katherine's ghost and leaves. Theodore thinks about the eight word note: It's not my fault I fell in love.
Yard God, The (Short Story)

*The Yard God* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *Talebones* (2001), *Strangers and Beggars* (2002), and *Curious Fictions* (May 3, 2019). In 2001, it was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and got honorable mentions in the *Best of Soft SF Contest,* Gardner Dozois’s *The Year’s Best Science Fiction*, and Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s *The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror*.

Word Count: 4,616

## Author's Note

From *Curious Fictions*:

*The creatures in Demi's backyard love her, and she loves her mom. Life should be good with the love that surrounds her, but Demi has challenges too: Mom is sick, the neighborhood is rough, and what's a good daughter to do?*
Home (Short Story)

*Home* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *Realms of Fantasy* (1998), *Strangers and Beggars* (2002), and *Curious Fictions* (Jan 19, 2019).

### Author's Note

From *Curious Fictions*:

*Just about every teenager feels out of place, like they don't belong, even the really confident, successful looking ones. For some of them, this feeling is worse than others. If you would like a soundtrack to this story, try Peter Gabriel's "*Solsbury Hill*."*

## Characters

* K - an unhappy foster kid who has hallucinations
* A side-by-side kid who only turns right
* A giant silvery monster with a pipe organ voice who tells K to "Pack [his] bags"
* Mrs. Coder - K's current foster mother
* Amelia Nurenberg - A name on a gravestone in the Odd-Fellow's cemetery

## Summary

K is a boy who feels like his body doesn't fit him, that sounds are too sharp, that rhythms are always off. He walks through the school halls, trying not to touch anyone, pretending he's antimatter and everything else is matter.

He sees a side-by-side kid with a walker who's stuck against the wall and helps get him turned around. At the same time, he sees a ten-foot-tall silver monster no one else can see, coming for him. K helps get the side-by-side kid to class, and when the kid thanks him, K is so stunned he forgets to run from the monster. The monster puts a hand on K's shoulder and says "Pack your things". It feels like a threat and reminds K of every school and foster home he's been kicked out of. K sprints from the school, cutting the last class of the day.

That evening, his foster mother tells him the school called to inform her he'd skipped class. She tells him to straighten up or get out. Just then, the silver monster looks in through the window. It says "Pack your things. I'm here to take you home." K runs from the house to the edge of town, eventually stopping at the Odd-Fellow's cemetery. The monster finds him, so he runs back to the foster home and hides under the blankets.

When he wakes, his foster mother is sitting on the edge of his bed and tells him she and her husband have decided he can't stay. He goes to school and is expelled for too many unexcused absences. He sits outside the school, watching the side-by-side bus unloading. He sees the kid with the walker. And past them, on the football field, a small group of the silver monsters. He decides he'll go with them.
A Case of High Stakes

This is an article for an unreleased book and information is subject to change. Please add credible sources to the unpublished media to avoid misinformation. Any information that cannot be verified by sources may be deleted.

## Publication Order

***A Case of High Stakes*** is the third upcoming book in *The Violet Veil Mysteries* series, written by Sophie Cleverly. It is expected to release on the 20th of June, 2024 by the publishing company HarperCollins.

## Synopsis

*When a large diamond goes missing from Silvershell Manor, who better to get to the bottom of the mystery than detective Violet Veil and her dog Bones*?

*But nothing is quite as it seems when it comes to the missing heirloom, and when a trail of origami birds leads them to the mysterious Crane, a young casino owner and debt collector, Violet realises that it’s all just turned into a game of high stakes...*

## Characters

* Violet Veil
* Bones
* Oliver Oats

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-case-of-high-stakes-sophie-cleverly/7224474?ean=9780008308049
Luck Labs Wiki

**Welcome to the Luck Labs Wiki!**
**There may not be much here yet, but if you want more information about the Luck Labs universe, this is the place to be. You can read about Mid, the Lab, or Mid's race.**

## Important articles

Middleditch Okla-NerrisDr. Walden FerisDr. HessDr. Katherine FujiwaraDr. Solomon HarveyThe Locklear Institute

*Need help building out this community?*

* Getting Started
* How to Contribute
* Managing your new community
* Guides
* All Help articles

You can also be part of the larger Fandom family of communities. Visit Fandom's Community Central!
Finding Orson (Short Story)

*Finding Orson* is a short story by James Van Pelt. it appears in *Strangers and Beggars* (2002), and *Curious Fictions* (Mar 25, 2020).

Word Count: 6,301

### Author's Note

From *Curious Fictions*:

*Patty is a gifted teacher, literally. She sees the emotional aura around her students. All would be well until Orson, a quiet, sullen boy's aura turns startlingly, distressingly black.*

## Epigraph

*O she doth teach the torches to burn bright. -* Romeo and Juliet

## Characters

### Faculty

* Patty Epson - a new teacher whose talent reads emotions in auras
* Elaine - a veteran teacher whose talent reads books to her
* Mr. Drabbe - a vice-principal who is evaluating Patty this week; his talent alphabetizes objects
* Mrs. Reed - the freshman counselor and building's union rep

### Students

* Orson - a student with no talent who wants to rewrite *Romeo and Juliet*
* Bobby Beddows - a boy whose talent creates odors
* Inga - a girl whose talent causes intestinal cramps
* Natalie - a girl whose talent causes plants to hum
* Thomas - a boy whose talent can stack sheets of paper on their edge

## Summary

Patty Epson, a first-year teacher, commiserates with friend and coworker, Elaine, a long-time veteran. Patty is worried about first quarter grades, report card comments, and a student named Orson. Orson's talent hasn't developed yet. Kids can be cruel about it.

Elaine reminds Patty she's got a formal evaluation today and suggests she focus on that.

Mr. Drabbe, a vice-principal, is already set up in Patty's classroom to conduct the evaluation when she arrives. At the start of class, Patty collects the *Romeo and Juliet* project proposals. She notes Orson has not turned in a proposal. After asking the class to write in their journals about Act II, she walks around the room, reading over their shoulders and sensing their auras. Orson's aura is black and he's writing "Consider the Romeo solution." Orson doesn't like tragedy and is upset he didn't turn in a proposal.

The next day, Orson tells Patty his proposal is to rewrite the ending *Romeo and Juliet*, so it's not so sad.

When it's Orson's turn to get in front of class and present his proposal, Patty is nervous but hopeful. He begins with a question: "Does the play's ending bother any of you?" After a long silence, a few students respond and within minutes Orson has them engaged in constructive conversation. Eventually, the class notices that the notes Orson has written upon the board are glowing, and everyone realizes he has found his talent.
Last of the O-Forms and Other Stories, The (Book)

*The Last of the O-Forms and Other Stories* is Van Pelt's second short story collection. It is introduced by James Patrick Kelly. Cover art by Alan M. Clark.

## Back of the Book

Jim Van Pelt's first collection, *Strangers and Beggars*, was voted one of the Best Books of 2003 by the American Library Association. Now, in this new collection, Van Pelt continues to explore the every-changing boundaries of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

The Last of the O-Forms is an important collection filled with stories that transport us to far-flung worlds and to the harder-to-find inner worlds that define the human condition.

## Stories

* The Last of the O-Forms
* Perceptual Set
* Once They Were Monarchs
* A Wow Finish
* Friday, After the Game
* The Invisible Empire
* It's Hour Come Round
* The Pair-a-Deuce Comet Casino All-Sol Poker Championship
* The Stars Underfoot
* The Long Way Home
* Nothing is Normal
* Do Good
* The Safety of the Herd
* The Sound of One Foot Dancing
* A Flock of Birds

## Links

* *The Last of the O-Forms and Other Stories* at Fairwood Press
Saturn Ring Blues, The (Short Story)

*The Saturn Ring Blues* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *On Spec* (2001), *The Radio Magician and Other Stories* (2009), and *The Best of James Van Pelt* (2020). It earned honorable mention in the Best of the Soft SF Association’s 1999 short story contest, was reprinted in the anthology, *Best of the Rest 3: The Best Unknown SF and Fantasy of 2001,* and earned honorable mention for best stories in ’01 in Gardner Dozois’s *The Year’s Best Science Fiction*, 19th annual collection.

## Notes

The title of the story includes the definite article in *The Radio Magician and Other Stories*, but not in *The Best of James Van Pelt*.
Publications

A list of publications in which Van Pelt's stories have appeared.

## Analog: Science Fiction and Fact

*Analog Science Fiction and Fact* is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930.

* Ark Ascension (1999)
* Nor a Lender Be (1999)
* The Comeback (2000)
* Resurrection (2001)
* What Weena Knew (2001)

## Asimov's Science Fiction

*Asimov's Science Fiction* is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov.

* The Infodict (2001)
* The Last of the O-Forms (2002)

## On Spec

*On Spec* is a digest-sized, perfect-bound, Canadian quarterly magazine publishing stories and poetry in science fiction, fantasy, and allied genres broadly grouped under the "speculative fiction" umbrella.

* The Saturn Ring Blues (2001)
* Amos Adams Stops a Lynching (#106, 2017)
* After the War (year)

## Realms of Fantasy

*Realms of Fantasy* is a fantasy speculative fiction magazine. It was discontinued in 2011.

* Happy Ending (1998)
* Home (1998)

## Talebones

*Talebones* is a short story magazine featuring science fiction and dark fantasy. It was published by Fairwood Press and discontinued in 2009.

* Miss Hathaway's Spider (#11, 1998)
* The Death Dwarves (#13, 1998)
* The Yard God (2001)

## Weird Tales

*Weird Tales* is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922.

* Shark Attack: A Love Story (1999)
Shark Attack: A Love Story (Short Story)

*Shark Attack: A Love Story* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *Weird Tales* (1999) and *Strangers and Beggars* (2002), *Curious Fictions* (Nov 16, 2018), and *The Best of James Van Pelt* (2020). It received a recommendation for the 1999 Stoker Award and recommendations for Nebula consideration. It was included as an honorable mention in Datlow and Windling’s *Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, 13th Edition*.

### Author's Note

From *Curious Fictions*:

*When I wrote this piece, many of my friends were academic/literary. They were interested in the metaphorical meanings in the story. They didn't believe me when I told them it was just a childhood fantasy of mine transplanted into the adult world. Sometimes a shark is just a shark.*

## Characters

* Willard - an employee at a title company, he likes to build ships in bottles
* Elsa - a prim title clerk
* Benford - the new mail boy; eaten by a shark
* Humphrey - the chief accountant
* Quinton or Quigley - a man Willard doesn't know well
* Mr. Trusty - the office manager

## Summary

Willard is startled from his work when Benford is attacked by a shark from under the surface of the aquamarine shag carpet. Willard climbs upon his desk and reaches out a hand to help. They lock hands for a moment, but the shark drags Benford under.

Willard has seen shark fins cutting through the carpet for days, but no one else seems to see them. He's tried to tell Elsa, the woman who works at the desk next to his, but can't work up the courage to tell her.

Mr. Trusty shouts at Willard for being on his desk. Willard gets down but makes sure his feet don't touch the carpet. Mr. Trusty tells Willard to stay late working on the Hinson deal, and when he leaves, Willard notices bulge between the man's shoulder blades.

When the office is mostly empty, Willard hears Elsa crying at the death of Benford. She confirms that she can see the sharks. Soon a large group of sharks begins circling the pair. They climb onto their desks in an attempt to wait out the sharks. When they realize they can't wait them out, Elsa cuts her hand on her nail file, smears the blood on her blouse, and tosses it away. With the sharks distracted by the blood, the two of them hop desk to desk for the exit.

Once in the tiled hallway, Willard finds the courage to invite Elsa to his place.
Diorama, The (Short Story)

*The Diorama* is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in *Transversions* (1999), *Strangers and Beggars* (2002), *Curious Fictions* (Feb 15, 2019), and *The Best of James Van Pelt* (2020). It was included as an honorable mention in Gardner Dozois' *The Year’s Best Science Fiction*, 17th edition.

Word Count: 6,932

### Author's Note

From *Curious Fictions*:

*Restrictive neighborhood covenants protect property values and maintain a sense of propriety in a subdivision, but they also allow the most controlling people power that they can't resist. Maybe not everyone wants to be like everyone else. Maybe that's a good thing.*

## Characters

* Owen Burrows - the former president of the Homeowners' Association
* Emma Burrows - thinks Owen should pay more attention to their house
* Gary Guy - paints a diorama so the light will hit it just right

### Others

* Roger Bing - Owen's next door neighbor and oft time ally
* Carol Craft - condemns Owen for suing Gary and using association funds to do it
* Vonda Heaton - the Homeowners' Association treasurer
* Elston Newkirk - the elementary school principal
* Phuong Kim Nguyen - the new president of the Homeowners' Association
* Lisa Younger - the long-suffering City Manager

## Summary

Owen is furious that Gary, the neighbor across the street, is painting his house (side, trim, windows, door) a flat black.

Emma, Owen's wife, suggests he talk to Gary. Owen already dislikes Gary because Gary parked a houseboat on the street and the ensuing legal battle got Owen ousted as president of the Homeowners' Association. When Owen tells Gary he can't paint his house black, Gary brushes him off. Gary calls the city and speaks to Lisa Younger to complain. Ms. Younger tells Gary they can't do anything about it.

A week later, at the Homeowners' Association meeting, not only do they decline to support Owen's complaint, Carol Craft gives a speech condemning Owen for suing Gary over the houseboat. Carol further says Owen should have to repay the association. The gathering agrees with Carol and Owen leaves in a huff.

At home, Emma explains she's been talking to Gary. Gary's wife passed recently and his children prevented him from buying a houseboat and getting away from it all. So now he's creating a diorama. The trees he's planted in his yard will be echoed in the trees he's painting on the house. She explains Gary would like to walk into that painting and get away. "What if the sun was just right? and my attitude was right, and I only had a few seconds where I could slip in?"

Owen thinks Gary is crazy.

A few days later, Emma goes to Gary's for a picnic. She invites Owen, but he refuses to go. Instead, he goes to the basement and looks at old photographs of Emma and him on vacation. In the morning, it's quiet and Emma isn't there. Owen rushes outside and, for a moment, sees the painted trees rustle. When he tries to run into the diorama, the house is solid.

Lisa Younger, calls Owen and tells him she's got a solution for repainting Gary's house. Owen tells her the diorama has to stay.
James Van Pelt Wiki

**Welcome to the James Van Pelt Wiki**
James Van Pelt is an award winning author of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. He has published over 150 short stories and two novels. This wiki aims to catalog his books and short stories.

**Warning:** Summaries will have spoilers.

## Books

In publication order:

* Strangers and Beggars
* The Last of the O-Forms and Other Stories
* Summer of the Apocalypse
* The Radio Magician and Other Stories
* Flying in the Heart of the Lafayette Escadrille
* Pandora's Gun
* The Experience Arcade and Other Stories
* The Best of James Van Pelt

### Not Published

* Plot is a Metaphor - listed as forthcoming in *The Radio Magician and Other Stories*

## And Other Stories

Stories not collected in one of the above, in alphabetical order:

* After the War
* Amos Adams Stops a Lynching
* Anthroentomology
* Cat Death
* The Love of Falmoth
* No Small Change
* Teaching
* Waiting for the Nightingale

## About the Author

From Curious Fictions:

James Van Pelt (born 1954 in Akron, Ohio) is an American science fiction author who began publishing in the mid-90s. He taught in the language arts department at Fruita Monument High School in Fruita, Colorado and then Grand Junction High School in Grand Junction, Colorado, until retiring after thirty-seven years.

Van Pelt fell in love with Zenna Henderson, Ray Bradbury, Ursula le Guin, Robert Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey and a host of others when he started reading. In elementary school, he told his mom he wanted to grow up to be a Ray Bradbury, like Bradbury was a job instead of a person. His work has appeared in *Asimov's*, *Analog*, *Clarkesworld* and many other venues. Stories have been reprinted in Year's Best anthologies and gathered in five collections. He has been a finalist for the Nebula, the Sturgeon Award, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

## Links

* Writing Worlds Fantastical and Otherwise
* James Van Pelt on Wikipedia
* James Van Pelt on Curious Fictions
* James Van Pelt on ISFDB

*Need help building out this community?*

* Getting Started
* How to Contribute
* Managing your new community
* Guides
* All Help articles

You can also be part of the larger Fandom family of communities. Visit Fandom's Community Central!
Scarlet's Diary

> "*Ivy, I pray that it's you reading this. And if you are, well, I suppose you're the new me...*"
>
>
> ― Scarlet's message to Ivy in her diary
> The Lost Twin
>
>
>
>

## Production Information

### Series

Scarlet and Ivy

**Scarlet's Diary** was a diary owned by Scarlet Grey. It was torn apart and its pages were spread around Rookwood School. It was a crucial part in solving Scarlet's disappearance in *The Lost Twin*.

## Appearance

Scarlet's Diary is described as hard, worn and *maybe* made of leather when Ivy pulls it out from the mattress. When she has fully caught grasp of the small book, it is shown to be brown and shiny, with the letters 'SG' carefully engraved on the cover. Its pages have been torn out, bearing only one page for Ivy. It is lockable with a leather strap.

## History

### Story

Ever since Scarlet was little, she would have a new diary every year. She used to let Ivy look through and even write in it. She also filled it with drawings of them - identical stick figures of them in a gingerbread cottage with an evil stepmother. Over the years, Scarlet became more secretive and stopped sharing her diary with Ivy.

### *The Lost Twin*

When Ivy first enters Dorm 13, she searches the room to try and find any of Scarlet's possessions. She nearly gives up when she notices a lump in the mattress of her bed. Being careful, she tears apart the bed and discovers a small hole in the mattress, a perfect size for a diary. Ivy digs her hand into the hole and manages to pull out Scarlet's diary. The diary has a single page left, which is a letter to Ivy, saying she needs to find out the truth about her disappearance.

Throughout the book, Ivy looks for the missing diary pages. At some point, Penny discovers the diary and threatens to tell Miss Fox about it.
Before confronting Miss Fox, Ivy knocks at Penny and Nadia's dorm and tells her to come to their dorm room after lights out and that Penny knows what to find. When Ivy and Ariadne return to their dorm room, they discovered Penny and Nadia reading the diary. At the end of the book, they put their differences aside for a midnight feast.
Jdogg

Jdogg is a member of the Xplodin Crew and is currently the youngest out of the crew. He is known to select and target specified foes (which in some situations has ended up being someone from the Xplodin Crew) with little to no resistance in his actions in preforming this.

## Early Life

Jdogg was born on the 22nd of February 2005 in the USA. As a child, Jdogg was mostly shy and kept to himself when at school though reasons for this are either unknown or kept to self for privacy reasons. As he grew up around the time of elementary school he began to develop a love for soccer around first grade and played it continuously until 6th grade, scoring several trophies in the process. Whilst his love for soccer has gone down over the years, he still enjoys having a game every now and then.

## General Information

Whilst not much has changed since his youth, he is now starting to interact more in social conversations and is showing more confidence. He plays with his friends on xbox and does occasionally draw in his free time through the use of a sketch book and led pencils. When drawing, he will often use stick figures as a base for his characters position/pose before drawing them in its place.

### Targeting tendencies

When playing shooter games, he had developed a tendency to target specific players (usually his friends) throughout the majority of the match, why he does this is unknown, though it has not occurred at all in recent times.

## Hobbies

Jdogg currently plays video games and draws, though before quarantine he did play soccer. When drawing, he often starts with a simple stick figure sketch of what he plans on drawing before he gets to drawing his characters. He says that he hopes to improve his art skills in the near future.

### Games

Jdogg plays a number of different games, ranging from Mario Party, Cuphead, PvZ, Fortnite, Overwatch as well as many other games.

## Famous quotes

”The contraption jingles his dick!” - Said randomly in team party imp vs brothers gnomus

## Trivia

* Despite being rather young in contrast to most of the crew members, he is not one to shy away from making off statement such as “The contraption jingles his dick!”.
* He is the youngest member out of all of the crew members.
* He has an oc girlfriend known as Karina
* When chatting in discord, he will often use reaction images to express how he feels about the current situation.
* He once got Urti to dress up as 2B and Vaggie just to look at her chest, as well as an entire chicken costume at a Halloween party. The friendship between them has since been somewhat rocky after that.

## Social Media

Twitter - Jdogg5150

Xbox gt - JDOGG5150

**Crew members**