Showing results by author "M. C. A. Hogarth" in All Categories

In a world where virtual reality gaming lets players shape their own stories, Nick desperately wants to join the beta test for Omen Galaxica's revolutionary AI update. There's just one catch - he needs a partner who's never played before. Enter his mother Amanda, currently on bedrest during a difficult pregnancy. Together, they must rebuild the destroyed village of Donner's Beck while defending it from a notorious griefer intent on wreaking havoc. But as virtual and real worlds blur, both Nick and Amanda discover that games aren't just about escape... they're about connection, growth, and ...

Seersana University is worlds-renowned for its xenopsychology program, producing the Alliance's finest therapists, psychiatric nurses and alien researchers. When Jahir, one of the rare and reclusive Eldritch espers, arrives on campus, he's unprepared for the challenges of a vast and multicultural society... but fortunately, second-year student Vasiht'h is willing to take him under his wing. Will the two win past their troubles and doubts and see the potential for a once-in-a-lifetime partnership? Book 1 of the Dreamhealers Duology.

Reese Eddings has enough to do just keeping her rattletrap merchant vessel, the TMS Earthrise, profitable enough to pay food for herself and her micro-crew. So when a mysterious benefactor from her past shows up demanding she rescue a man from slavers, her first reaction is to say "NO!" And then to remember that she sort of promised to repay the loan. But she doesn't remember signing up to tangle with pirates and slavers over a space elf prince…

Two Girls, One Kitchen, and a Ton of Self-Control After months of assigning them to other people, Haley finally lands an exciting quest for herself: to make her first potion! But her concentration is shattered when Billy Bernard's older sister shows up at the inn to apply for a job. Haley thinks of herself as a fairly forgiving person, but Jennifer is enough to test a saint's patience, much less one harried questgiver's. With the holidays approaching, can Haley juggle her questline, her Christmas preparations, and one grumpy teen baker without disaster? It might take a miracle! Join Haley, ...

A Girl, a Great-Grandma, and a Dungeon! Having found the town of Refuge a trainer, Haley is tasked with the system's newest quest: to set up a starter dungeon for her local adventurers in time for Hallowe’en! Haley’s not sure she’s the girl for this task, since she’s not into creepy things. Fortunately, she has some unexpected (and enthusiastic) help, and of course, guidance from Nana... and maybe by the end, she begins to see things in a different (and creepier!) light. Join Haley for this third installment in the adventures of a post-apocalyptic world with a game system imposed on...

The pirate lioness Mazalaen has survived by pretending to be a man, a murderer and a thief... and fears she has become those things in truth. Until she meets a fearless princess in battle. Could this woman be her salvation? Originally published in Anthrolations.

A girl, a town... and a final choice.Spring is just around the corner when the town of Refuge is at last asked to confront the Trial's true challenge, an event that kicks off a furor in its population. But for Haley Landry, level 9 Questgiver, the challenge is more personal. After nine months of working with the alien system and overseeing the growth of her tiny town, a questline brings her to a crossroads, not only for herself, but for Refuge as well. It's the hardest decision Haley has had to make, and no one can make it for her. But her choice will shape the future, inside her heart, and...

Loose ends don't tie themselves Sweeping cultural changes sound very good on paper. But in the lives of normal people, even the ones who stand to benefit, those changes can be a challenge... one they might not have even asked for. In the Court of Dragons collects eight stories of the period after the events of the Chatcaavan War, focusing on changes both personal and widespread: old favorites return and new characters make their debut as we follow the effects of the war on everything from the imperial harem to the nascent Eldritch newsroom. What are the Faulfenza up to in the capital? What ...

Haley Landry, Questgiver, has been enjoying the system Armageddon: she's become an enchantress, helped her friends and neighbors, even set up a cool haunted house. But when her grandmother's class evolution requires her to turn their home into an inn, she balks. She's been visiting Nana at this house every summer for years... it's a point of comfort and stability that she's reluctant to surrender. She's always risen to the challenges imposed by the Trials before, but this one's going to be hard.... Join Haley, Nana, and the people of Refuge for another quick, cozy read, just right for the ...

ONE MOMENT QUEEN... THE NEXT, OUTCAST Surela Silin Asaniefa was convinced she could rule the Eldritch people better than her enemy, Liolesa Galare, and for ten whole days following her coup, she made the attempt—and failed. Resigned to her death as a traitor, she was given a choice by the Queen’s newest protege, Reese Eddings: to be executed, or to accept a commuted sentence and attempt to rebuild her life and make amends for her crimes. To die would have been the act of a dramatic maiden, and as a woman of more sense and years, Surela chooses instead to see what she can make of herself...

Haley and Nana return in a second heartwarming adventure! Having embraced her new meta class, Haley is ready for anything... except, possibly, a plague of seafood! It turns out it's harder than she thought to sit back and let other people handle the problems she really, really wants solved.... This second installment in the adventures of a post-apocalyptic world with a game system imposed on it by magical aliens contains yet another recipe, because (once again), that's the kind of story this is. Curl up with some cornbread and watch Haley craft her way through another quick read!

A PELTEDVERSE NOVEL The Eldritch live hundreds of years, which means Sediryl Nuera Galare isn't going to inherit the management of her family's noble house--and all its rich farmland--anytime soon. So when she discovers that her world is only one among many, she doesn't hesitate to kick off the dust of her provincial estate. That it gets her away from her oppressive mother and a smothering society is only a bonus. But wonder isn't the only thing waiting for a young woman trying her wings for the first time. When Sediryl finds love among the aliens, she's faced with a difficult choice ...

THREE HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE When his favorite student invites him to immigrate to the world of the fabled Eldritch, Armin Palland brings his wife and mother-in-law and all the unresolved issues he's been avoiding. That he arrives to a planet without a university to employ him leaves him stranded with nothing to do but what he does best: turn his psychology degree and analytical powers on the plight of the natives... and one native in particular. But it was never his intention to get involved with an Eldritch father, much less an Eldritch father AND a middle-aged intransigent Glaseah, ...

Reese is only just getting used to running the Earthrise in the black-and with an Eldritch in her crew-when a trip to a colony world gives rise to a whole new problem: Hirianthial is showing powers that even the Eldritch rarely have, and that only in legend. He badly needs training, support and advice, and the only place he can find them is... at home. To see the world of the Eldritch is a once in a lifetime opportunity, a thing of fantasies and rumor. And to finally meet the Eldritch Queen, the author of so many of Reese's windfalls!

The Queen of the Eldritch has offered Reese Eddings a life out of a fairy tale, one beyond the imagination of a poor girl from Mars. Unfortunately, the day Reese reached out to accept Liolesa's offer, Hirianthial's enemies betrayed him - and his entire planet - to a race of sociopathic shapeshifters with dreams of conquest. To beat them, Reese will have to own the power she's always denied herself, and Hirianthial must make peace with his bloody past.

With the Eldritch civil war over, a castle to renovate, and a wedding to prepare for, the last thing Reese is thinking about is taking a break. But the New Year is coming and the Eldritch take their holidays very seriously, so Reese decides it can't hurt to observe the local proprieties. Who knows? Maybe it'll make good practice for what Felith is calling the wedding of the century. Of course, that was before Reese realized it was going to involve gifts. And decorating. And a town full of recalcitrant Eldritch tenants.

Ten years after she graduated from the Fleet Academe at Terracentrus, Alysha Forrest was captain of the battlecruiser UAV Stardancer with more honor to her name than any other officer her age. But before that dawn there was a night, and it is in the darkness that souls are made...or broken.

In this sequel to Reader's Choice Award Unspeakable Tanel, Nashada and Ekkuli return in a new city, having made themselves a comfortable home... a comfortable home, until an invader arrives and threatens once again to rearrange all Tanel's notions of love.

Evicted from vigil and faced with the impending descent of demons, Morgan Locke and his companions must unravel all the mysteries that are barring them from the salvation of their country and their world. Can they unbind the curse and free the magic to the hands of their allies before the dead rise again? And in the aftermath of that epic battle, what will become of the world they've always known? The adventure doesn't end when the last sword is swung. There is a great deal to be done.

Restored to a working body, Morgan Locke has returned to Troth to seek the legendary athenaeum at Vigil in the hopes it will produce a solution to the enchantment binding the elves. But elves are not the only creatures now stepping out of folklore: the demons are coming, and they bring with them the armies of the dead. If they do not want to see their world consumed, Morgan and his companions will have to find the answers, whether they come from books...or bloodshed. Time is running out....