Dean Wesley Smith

Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, New York Times and USA Today bestselling writer, Dean Wesley Smith published over two hundred novels and over seven hundred books, and hundreds and hundreds of short stories. He has over thirty million copies of his books in print.

At the moment he produces novels in four major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the Old West, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the cold case mystery series, Cold Poker Gang series, and the superhero series starring Poker Boy.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Kristine Kathryn Rusch sold more than 35 million books worldwide. She publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance.

Her novels made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction appeared in more than twenty best-of-the-year collections. She won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov's Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.

Light Fantasy by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith

Every January, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith participate in Kickstarter's Make 100 program. They publish 5 books on a loose theme that contain 20 stories each—10 from Dean and 10 from Kris. They've made the books themselves into a series, called The Collides Series.

Just in time for Fall, StoryBundle gets a bundle of Collides. Volume 1 of Fantasies Collide and Volume 4 of Hearts Collide. Exclusive to StoryBundle, these volumes contain 40 marvelous fantasy stories.

Fantasies Collide—the Weird:

Rusch and Smith create new fantasy worlds like no one else. Find twenty stunning otherworldly stories in this volume.

For more than four decades, New York Times and USA Today bestselling writers Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith wrote professional fantasy short stories that won awards and sold millions of copies.

If you love weird fantasy stories, make sure you read this volume right from the start. Twenty fantastic stories that will make you smile and shake your head.

Hearts Collide—Strange Romance

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch can find romance in almost anything and this collection proves it!

Robots and mythical creatures run romantically amok, couples with (sex) timing issues, and post-romantic interlude recovery headline the unexpected romance stories in this "too strange for traditional" collection.

With romantic elements in every story and a romance happily ever after in most, this great collection of romance stories will continue to surprise even after you've turned the last page.

CURATOR'S NOTE

Every January, Dean Wesley Smith and I combine our short stories so that we can participate in Kickstarter's Make 100 series. This has led us to put out books in the Collides series. Those books feature 20 stories—10 from me and 10 from Dean— on a particular topic. Now, we're colliding the Collides into what I call Mini-Collides, exclusive to StoryBundle. This mini features a book from the Fantasies Collide series and a book from Hearts Collide. Forty stories, half romantic, all strange and fantastical. This big book will give you a lot of reading in and of itself. – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

 

REVIEWS

  • "Whether Rusch writes high fantasy, horror, sf, or contemporary fantasy, I've always been fascinated by her ability to tell a story with that enviable gift of invisible prose. She's one of those very few writers whose style takes me right into the story—the words and pages disappear as the characters and their story swallows me whole….Rusch has style."

    – Charles de Lint

  • "[The Poker Boy] series is unlike anything else out there. It's quirky and a lot of fun."

    – Amazing Stories
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Introduction to Fantasies Collide:

Weird

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Every January, Kickstarter does something fun. They challenge people to "make 100" of something. Well, Dean Wesley Smith and I already have one hundred short stories. Really, honestly, truthfully, we have several hundred short stories.

That's what happens when you have two prolific writers living in the same household, writers who have decades-long careers.

We did some Make-100 volumes before, including Colliding Worlds, Crimes Collide, and now these, the five volumes of fantasy which we call Fantasies Collide.

In each volume, you'll find ten stories from Dean and ten from me. They're loosely gathered under various topics, which I suggest, because I kinda sorta have a feel for where our fiction ends up.

This volume, the first in the Fantasies Collides quintet, I titled "light or weird," figuring we'd probably end up with "light." Most of my weird stories are light, so that's probably redundant, but still...

Dean's the one who changed the title to weird. And, looking over his stories here, he was probably right to do so. Dean is very good at weird, as you can tell just from the titles of his stories.

I tend to hide my weird under a pen name, which is why you find two Kristine Grayson stories here. Before I ever thought of compiling this volume, I called the Grayson stories weird—because they are truly off-center. But so are my other stories.

I only have one series represented in this volume, but Dean has six series represented. Six out of his ten stories. Because his mind veers to the weird naturally. Mine does so only occasionally.

Still, I think weird is a good way to start these fantasy collections. Although I must admit, it never really gets normal from here.

I hope you enjoy the read, because I guarantee you, we both had fun writing these twenty tales.