**A Blue Beard retelling** Based on Charles Perrault's fairytale, this YA Historical Fantasy short story set in Victorian England mixes romance, magic and mystery. After agreeing to an arranged marriage to escape her greedy relatives, 18-year-old heiress Amelia moves into her husband's manor determined to start a new life. But the gothic mansion's forbidding surroundings, the servants' strange demeanour and her husband's mysterious past soon awaken her suspicions. If Amelia truly wants to become the lady of the house, she'll have to discover what secrets lie beyond closed doors and unravel the mystery of the old house's forbidden room. But sometimes secrets are kept for a good reason... HIGHEST RANKING IN HISTORICAL FICTION # 44 Copyright © 2017. All works posted here are the property of EM Castellan. Please do not use without permission. Any duplication or reproduction of all or part of the work without explicit permission by the author is illegal. Cover artist: @seventhstar

X97A2 is an orbital on a century-long research mission in around Jupiter. He hears music coming deep from within the planet, and enters its atmosphere on a one way trip to investigate. What he learns on his five minute journey will not only change the world, but it will challenge his place in it. I wrote this story sitting in my hotel room in Grosvenor Square, London, the night before my trip to Oxford University to speak on complex networks. I stumbled on a YouTube video (with nine million views) playing what is called "The Music of Jupiter". I was inspired by the hypnotic and spooky sound. I even embedded the video in the story, and you can listen while reading. What started as a first contact story, morphed into a story on sentience. And about finding life and awareness in unexpected places. THE MUSIC OF JUPITER is also about mothers, like Miranda, and their importance in our lives. I dedicate this to my own mother Anna Maria, and my sister Lisa (also a mother). I am brave enough to call this Young Adult fiction, aimed as 12-18-year-olds. But the story transcends age. Hopefully, the 1980 pop culture references are not too obscure, but we live in the age of easy access to information from the web and social media. And Stevie Nicks continues to rock on, twirling away in the present day. Thanks to my beta readers and editors. And a special thanks to my husband Doug who for his vegan pancakes and critique. By the way, my covers are by Carl at Extended Imagery. He is super talented; check out his work http://extendedimagery.com/

(The Deal was optioned by TNT!) The mysterious Lee Cutter and his Carnival of Wonders hold a secret darker than any of the citizens of 1930's Junction City, Kansas can imagine. When Mr. Cutter shows up to town early one morning promising an end to the dust storms that have decimated the town's crops and stricken many of the children with the brown plague, young Matthew Porter is spellbound. His little brother Luke is deathly ill from breathing the dust-laden air. Plus, it would be amazing to hear the sound of the rain on his tin roof again. But at what cost? In this chilling short story about sacrifice and the cost of happiness, Matthew will come face to face with the terrifying secret Mr. Cutter's Carnival holds and learn the heart-wrenching truth about what it means to make a deal with the Devil. Excerpt: The man leaned down and fetched a matchbook out of the black boot that rested on the bench. There was no dust there, either - not even on the bottom. He stood up and brought one of the matches to the tip of the cigar. I never saw him strike it, but it fired just the same. He held it to the cigar and puffed on it several times until the end looked like the inside of a coal stove. "Lot of 'em 'round here?" he asked again, shaking the match and exhaling the thick smoke into the air above my head. "Yes, sir. All over. They eat what's left of the crops, even the roots. My pa says that's the real plague." "Does he now?" The man looked amused. "He says we won't ne'er grow a crop again until God sees fit. No rain either." He turned his head and scanned the street like he was looking for someone. "You ever see God here in Junction City?" I looked up at him, squinting, but didn't know how to answer. I'd never seen God anywhere. "My name's Lee," he said, holding out his hand. "Lee Cutter. What's yours?"

In Raleigh, NC, the children have a legend about a dangerous kidnapper known as The Radar Man. They don't know it yet, but Raleigh isn't his first stop...or his last.

A singing automaton performs each night in Atlantic City. Like every work of art, the toy has a fascinating story behind her creation. An old barfly recounts the tale to a young server, teaching him the power of technology in helping man cope with life's trials of love, loss and regret. This is one of my earlier works, which was published in the Spring 2015 issue of Mad Scientist Journal.