Hard Choices

by Dean Wesley Smith (Editor), Annie Reed, Ron Collins

In this latest volume of Fiction River, editor Dean Wesley Smith pulls together an eclectic but cohesive group of stories filled with difficult decisions. From a man who must question the line between justice and vengeance to a teenage fixer fighting hypocrisy to a post-apocalyptic survivor’s mission to deliver one last message, each of these stories demonstrates extremely hard choices—and some very real consequences.

 “The Fiction River series is a wonderful mind-expanding read…”

—Astro Guyz

Table of Contents

“Equal Justice” by Annie Reed

“Payback” by Tonya D. Price

“Eric the Monkey” by Dan C. Duval

“Prospecting” by Ron Collins

“Toots” by Michael Kowal

“The Devil’s Muse” by Laura Ware

“Clean and Godly in Denmark” by Diana Deverell

“Killshot” by Annie Reed

“Four Hundred Yards” by Dale Hartley Emery

“A Life with Meaning” by David Stier

“Nightmare Scenario” by Chuck Heintzelman

“Echo” by Leslie Clare Walker

“Haunted” by Jamie Ferguson

“Skinwalker” by Valerie Brook

“Missiles of October” by Dan C. Duval

“Girl with a Mission” by Dayle A. Dermatis

“A New Day” by Kendall Heintzelman

“They Taught Us Wrong” by M.L. Buchman

“Tendrils” by Leigh Saunders

“Little Byte and Big Pieces” by Valerie Brook

Fiction River is an original fiction anthology series. Modeled on successful anthology series of the past, from Orbit to Universe to Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, the goal of Fiction River is to provide a forum for “original ground-breaking fiction of all genres.” Each Fiction River volume comes in ebook and trade paperback format, published by WMG Publishing, and features some of the best new and established fiction writers in publishing. Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch are award-winning editors, as well as award-winning writers, and act as series editors for the anthologies. For more information about the authors or Fiction River, go to www.fictionriver.com.

330 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 27, 2018

About the author

Pen Names
Edward Taft
Dee W. Schofield
Sandy Schofield
Kathryn Wesley

Dean Wesley Smith is the bestselling author of over ninety novels under many names and well over 100 published short stories. He has over eight million copies of his books in print and has books published in nine different countries. He has written many original novels in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and romance as well as books for television, movies, games, and comics. He is also known for writing quality work very quickly and has written a large number of novels as a ghost writer or under house names.

With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. The following is a list of novels under the Dean Wesley Smith name, plus a number of pen names that are open knowledge. Many ghost and pen name books are not on this list because he is under contractual obligations not to disclose that he wrote them. Many of Dean’s original novels are also under hidden pen names for marketing reasons.

Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.

Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books.

Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.