Acclaimed author Annie Reed has been called "one of the best writers of her generation" and for good reason. She writes in multiple genres, including urban and contemporary fantasy, mystery and suspense, science fiction, thrillers, and romance, along with the occasional story that doesn't fall into any one specific category.

Annie Reed has won awards in categories as diverse as her writing. She's been honored with appearances in six year's best mystery, suspense, and thriller volumes, including an amazing three years in a row in the BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR (2022, 2023, and 2024) edited by Otto Penzler. She received a Silver Honorable Mention from Writers of the Future and won a Literary Fellowship from the Nevada Arts Council for her speculative fiction story "One Sun, No Waiting." She's been a multiple Derringer finalist, and one of her holiday romance stories was chosen to appear in English language study materials in Japan for students preparing for college entrance exams.

She's a founding member and frequent contributor to the innovative UNCOLLECTED ANTHOLOGY, now beginning its twelfth year of publishing themed urban and contemporary anthologies three times a year. Her short fiction appears regularly in MYSTERY, CRIME & MAYHEM, THRILL RIDE MAGAZINE, and ROMANCE FOR ALL SEASONS, which she co-edits with bestselling writer David H. Hendrickson. She currently writes and edits fulltime.

The Great Big Uncollected Bundle by Annie Reed

Innovative and award-winning writer Annie Reed has been contributing her own unique brand of urban and contemporary fantasy stories to the themed issues published by the Uncollected Anthology (uncollectedanthology.com) for the last eleven years. Now, for the first time ever, all of Annie's Uncollected Anthology stories are available in one place: THE GREAT BIG UNCOLLECTED BUNDLE, a three-volume Storybundle exclusive!

Volume 1, BEASTIES, GHOSTS, AND BAD GIRLS, contains twelve stories that range from a retelling of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf to a unique farewell concert in a music hall about to be torn down to a hotel room that's definitely not a place to stay for the faint of heart. Volume 2 contains ten stories of MAGICAL JUSTICE, including the complete novella "The Woman Who Wasn't." Volume 3 deals with THE LIGHTER SIDE OF MAGIC, including a stories about spells gone wrong plus two stories in Annie's popular Diz & Dee mystery series.

CURATOR'S NOTE

Annie Reed's exclusive for this StoryBundle features fantasy short stories that venture all over the uncharted fantasy map. She's one of the masterminds behind a project that has continued for over ten years now—The Uncollected Anthology—which is something like a StoryBundle. Several writers write an original story that fits into the issue's theme, and then the writers cross-promote. Only you can't download the stories in one place, like you can here. You have to go to the website. Annie makes it easy for you by compiling all of her stories from the early years into an exclusive for this StoryBundle. Because the topics were very different from each other, the stories don't fit into any neat kind of package. Which makes them fun to read. That, and the fact that they were all written by Annie Reed. – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

 

REVIEWS

  • "Annie Reed is considered by many to be one of the best new writers appearing in fiction."

    – Dean Wesley Smith, Editor, PULPHOUSE FICTION MAGAZINE

  • "One of the best writers I've come across in years. Annie excels at whatever genre of fiction she chooses to write."

    – Kristine Kathryn Rusch, award-winning editor and writer of The Fey series

  • "The appearance of a new Annie Reed story is a treat. Try one and you'll be hooked."

    – David H. Hendrickson, award-winning author of “Death in the Serengeti”
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Excerpt from "The Woman Who Wasn't" from Volume 2, MAGICAL JUSTICE:

Christian had a certain reputation to maintain, and his current quarry wasn't helping one damn bit.

The slimy little twit had created a portal in the side of a weatherbeaten brick building bordering a garbage-strewn alley. It had created the portal as a last chance effort to avoid falling into Christian's clutches when it realized simply hiding inside a dumpster in the dead of night wasn't going to cut it.

Why did slimy monsters always pick garbage-strewn alleys clogged with overflowing dumpsters to hide in?

Christian wrinkled his nose at the stench. The problem with garbage-strewn alleys in coastal cities was that half the rotting garbage in overflowing dumpsters was made up of fish guts. Spoiled fish guts ranked right up there with the worst smelling monsters from beyond this realm.

"C'mon, mate," Christian said. "Give it up like a good little maggot."

He had a grip on the monster's one tentacle still remaining on this side of the portal and was hanging on for dear life.

Not his life, mind you. Christian was so old that he'd long ago forgotten his real name, much less how he came into this world or this line of work. One little multi-tentacled monster wasn't going to kill him, no matter how many of its hundreds of tiny eyes glared daggers at him.

But it could kill any humans who happened to run into it on this side of the portal. Christian would have just let it escape into its own realm, but this monster happened to have developed a taste for human—and goblin and elf—flesh. If he let it go, it would just create another portal back into this world and proceed to feast on whatever hapless being crossed its path.

The tentacle in his grip writhed and wriggled as the end tried to wrap around Christian's wrist. Apparently it thought if Christian wasn't going to let go, it would pull him to the monster's side of the portal and have a tasty feast.

Or maybe it was just trying to cut off his hand. The suction cups on the very end of the tentacle were sharp as tiny razorblades.

Enough was enough.

Christian braced his feet against the wall, murmured a few words, and purple energy like static charges started to spark around his fingers. He hadn't intended to invoke his magic this early—better to save it to imprison the monster when he pulled it back to this side of the portal—but a little early demonstration of power never hurt in his line of work.

The monster squealed. It stopped trying to capture Christian and put all of its effort into using the tentacles on its side of the portal to brace itself just like Christian was doing with his feet and legs on his.

"A battle of wills, is it then," Christian said. "You should know I can do this all night."

Okay, that was exaggerating it a bit. But putting a little swagger into a battle never hurt, especially not when it was a battle of wills they were talking about.

After twenty minutes of this, Christian decided a different tactic was called for.

He let the monster win.