Showing results by author "Rob Shelsky" in All Categories

The timing is odd, the Implosion is coming at about the same time as the end of the Mayan Calendar. As a result, there are wars and riots. Another odd thing is nobody really knows what the Implosion will bring, aren't even sure exactly what it is, or entails. But it is coming! Beyond that...nobody knows anything for sure. Even so, Kevin can hardly wait! Or can he? A science fiction short story.

Creature of the Night? Macabre monster that can prophesize disasters? The Mothman, is it fact or fiction, and if fact, just what is the mysterious Mothman? Mysteries of Mothman is not only an in-depth look at currently known facts about the Mothman, but this book tries to answer such questions as: -- How did the Whole Mothman Mystery Begin? -- What is the True Origin of the Mothman? -- Just What is the Mothman? -- What is the Mothman Curse? -- Is the Mothman Dangerous? -- What is the Connection to Mothman and Demons? -- Can the Mothman Really Predict the Future? -- Is the Mothman an Alien ...

A love story that transcends time itself, a romance that battles with destiny. Peter Vincent journeys into the past to Elizabethan England. He searches for the beautiful and tempestuous Aurea. Finding her, he falls hopelessly in love, but is this to be an ill-fated romance? History says Aurea is soon to disappear, probably to be murdered. Can she survive or will their love down through the centuries become just mere Lost Echoes?

A Super State, a bureaucratic monster that has swallowed its citizens' individual rights, and become a totalitarian society, a dystopia. When Stephen inadvertently says the wrong thing to a friend in private, he is marked out as a traitor. He and his family will undoubtedly end up in a concentration camp, unless they do something! Escape is their only alternative, but how? And where can one go? A suspenseful short story!

Maggie and Hanna discover a strange city in a cavern beneath the sea. There, they unearth an ancient and deadly mystery involving a sunken, 18th Century French ship. Earth is in jeopardy and so are their lives, for although the lost City of Ys is ancient, alien hybrids may yet live and dwell in its dark depths. And if they do, then here, indeed, "there be monsters." A Novella. The noise was horrendous. The clamor of officers’ cries to keep fighting, the anguished screams of the bleeding dismembered, the shouted pleas of those drowning, the endless cacophony of the British cannons, and the...

A strange plague has caused the downfall of civilization. For Paul, this means a meager existence hunting, helping to feed a few survivors. One woman, Marilyn, he'd love to know better. But she's already taken by Greg. Paul, a loner, a man without hope, must watch from afar at night, as she and Greg make love, until one night when their eyes finally meet, and everything changes, but for the worse! This short story is adult-themed, and may not be suitable for minors.

For the English postgraduate, Ian, it all seemed so simple. All he had to do was create a working quantum computer. But Mama Doc, a voodoo shop owner in the New Orleans French Quarter, knew Ian was crossing the line. When does science stop being science and starts becoming magic? When quantum computers get involved, it seems. And for Mama Doc and Ian, her unwitting new Shiva, things were now getting very dangerous, indeed. A science fiction/fantasy short story.

A luxury space yacht owned by a trillionaire. A strange journey to an uninhabited solar system with an alien artifact, the Lost Beacon Of The Vanished. And a murder! Dame Naje Elpram must solve a baffling case. Someone was murdered, but the circumstances seem impossible. Dame Elpram must figure it out in this cozy murder mystery set in an alien asteroid belt, near the Lost Beacon Of The Vanished! A cozy, science fiction, murder mystery short story.

Earth is in a desperate battle against the alien Sinaquan and losing! The only hope is to send colonists to places the enemy isn't likely to look, marginal worlds, such as Viejo, with its migrant seas, and gas-giant neighbor, Prometheus. But when those colonists explore for a new base location, disaster strikes! The Sinaquan have found them. And their Serpent Caravan may have nowhere left to go...

Grieving, wanting to die, an elderly Jenny escapes New York for a home in Florida. But nothing's changed. She's still desperately alone and in utter despair. Can she save herself? Why should she even try? That April Sunrise is a moving tale of one older woman's struggle to make sense of life, death, and an inconsolable grief. Can she do it? The answers lie in That April Sunrise. An inspirational short story of someone "coming alive" again.

Classic Space Opera! When Danny and Jennifer have a rooftop picnic, they've no idea the uninvited guests aren't ants, but rather a bug-eyed monster from outer space. The creature kidnaps and takes them far from Earth. Facing dissection, the two attempt escape, but this is no easy task. There are even more aliens. And not only Danny and Jennifer's lives hang in the balance, but all of Earth's! Set in the late 1940's, Author, Rob Shelsky, has created a new space opera classic, compared more than favorably to even Ed Hamilton's work by some.

A practical joke and nothing more--until Richard accidentally raises a Red Flag. Dark forces, previously unaware of their existence, now are, and worse, nobody realizes it. What terrible thing has Richard's joke set in motion? Worse, who are the Gray Men, those shadowy figures whose anger Richard has inadvertently triggered. For Rachel, the answers are literally of life and death importance. A science fiction short story.

The first star ship from Earth with hopes of making momentous discoveries during its deep-space explorations. But what the three lonely voyagers aboard the vessel find is of far greater importance than even they could have conceived of, or possibly imagined, for it may just answer the question of the "Great Silence" of the universe itself, but not in a way that anyone would have wished... A dark science fiction short story.

For Jerrod, British ex-marine, a camping trip by the sea is interrupted one night by a strange event--the kidnapping of a woman. Now Jerrod must find out who she is, why this has happened. He must also figure some way to rescue her without getting them both killed in the process. When Jerrod discovers there is treasure hidden on barren and wind-swept Lundy Island, things get much more complicated! An adventure short story.

A love story that transcends time itself, a romance that battles with destiny. Peter Vincent, a young stockbroker, journeys into the past to Elizabethan England. He searches for the beautiful and tempestuous Aurea. Finding her, he falls hopelessly in love, but is this to be an ill-fated romance? History says that Aurea is soon to disappear, probably to be murdered. Can she survive? Aurea and Peter have only days to answer that question. They must struggle amidst court intrigue and dark conspiracies, both caught up in a web of danger, deceit, and terrible lies. They must discover why Aurea ...

Ernie Saylor, Editor of Aberrant Dreams Magazine, states of Blue Flickers that: "...I just read "Blue Flickers" and thoroughly enjoyed it! It reminded me of a story I read long ago that I could not think of for the longest and then I realized the reason. It wasn’t a single story but two it brought to mind. The first was published in 1939 in Weird Tales and it is entitled “The Drifting Snow” uunder Derleth’s pseudonym Stephen Grendon. The second is "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Conrad Aiken which was brilliantly adapted by Serling for his Night Gallery ...

Love the hilarious E.F. Benson "Lucia" series of old? Are you one of the many "Luciaphiles?" Did you hate that the books had to come to an end? Then you'll love "Lucia's Crusade," a novella by R.R. Shelsky, which picks up right where the last book of E.F. Benson ends. Lucia, of quaint 1930's Tilling-On-Sea, along with her loyal sidekick, Georgie, has just topped Elizabeth Mapp for control of the social life of Tilling. Mapp is beaten and "Queen Lucia" reigns unruffled and supreme. But such triumphs are fleeting. The battle for Tilling goes on. Lucia may now own Mapp's home, Mallard's House,...

A Ghost Story of a different sort--where even ghosts want--no, demand company in their awesome exile and evil loneliness. A River Darkly, a ghost short story. Excerpt: Rain, like a deluge of wet regrets, poured without pause from the murky skies. The huddled woman, a dreary figure, head hidden by a large black scarf, leaned over the stone railing of the little bridge. She sobbed into her cupped hands. There was an insubstantial quality to the weeping woman, a monochromatic vagueness around the edges, as if somehow, she partially merged with her bleak surroundings. She was a gray thing ...

In a growing panic, Ambrose ran pell-mell down the length of the observation deck. He practically dove down the steep stairs at the end. Pausing at the bottom only long enough to take one, much-needed breath, he then dashed down the hallway to his stateroom. Fumbling with the key in his haste, he finally managed to unlock and fling wide the door. The satchel lay open on the floor and there were his documents strewn about the stateroom. Someone, and Ambrose strongly suspected the midshipman, had rifled through the papers, perhaps taking pictures with one of those new-fangled, tiny cameras. ...

Demons? Spirit Elementals? All stuff of Native American legends and fantasies, right? But not near Sedona, Arizona, when two teenagers discover a hidden cave and a strange mummy. One of them decides to use ancient practices to try and revive the hideous thing. However, the results are far more than these guys ever anticipated when something very strange and dangerous occurs! A dark fantasy short story.