A delightful memoir of the fantasy, science fiction, mystery, western, and young adult writer, Ardath Mayhar, whose seventy books and hundreds of short stories have charmed readers throughout the world.

Gripping tales of fantasy, mystery, and horror set in the piney woods of East Texas.

Twenty-seven scintillating stories of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, all but two of which are published here for the first time. Robert Reginald says: "Ardath Mayhar is able to evoke eerie, otherworldy settings and creatures with just a few strokes of her subtle pen. Great stuff "

A new collection of 29 scintillating tales of horror and fantasy, many of them never before published.

In the tradition of the old "Ace Doubles," two-in-one books (flip one over to read the second title), here is the seventh Wildside Double. SLAUGHTERHOUSE WORLD: A Tale of the Human-Knacker War, by Ardath Mayhar The Knackers looked like a cross between a spider and a crab, except bigger--much bigger, and meaner--much meaner--and they never stopped coming! Joel Karsh is just a grunt slugging it out on Plant 3G 789, a bug factory world, where fresh protein (i.e., human flesh) is being processed for reshipment to enemy depots throughout the cluster. All he wants to do is make it back to the SpaceForce pick-up point. But as his buddies are killed, one by one, and the Knackers swarm ever closer, he's beginning to wonder if he'll even live through the next day! A rousing SF military adventure by a master storyteller. KNACK' ATTACK: A Tale of the Human-Knacker War, by Robert Reginald On the farming planet of Terr'ferme, Rabbs din Chorest has been sent to the hills to tend a herd of clorses (cloned horses) and beefers. Not far distant is the ruin of Spiretown, a long-abandoned place of the Old-uns, a race that had once inhabited this world. Then the Knack's invade, destroying settlements, devastating ranches, and harvesting human and animal flesh. Rabbs is cut off from all contact with the civilized world. When a group of refugees appears, they become Rabbs's responsibility as well. Trapped by a bug troop in a cave near the ruined city, the humans have nowhere to go and no one to ask for help. Will anyone survive the Knack' attack?

When the Stonor family joins the last wagon train to Oregon in the 1840s, little do they realize that disaster awaits. Suddenly 17-year-old Maryla Stonor is left to fend for herself in the mountains of Wyoming, just before the onset of winter. And even if she does survive the endless blizzards and numbing cold, when spring finally arrives, how will she find her way back to civilization? A gripping tale of survival.

When two bodies are spit out by the local swamp, Police Chief Washington Shipp knows he has a drug problem--and the druglords will do ANYTHING to retrieve their missing stash. Only Wash, together with an unlikely crew of swamp denizens and misfits, stand in their way. They don't stand a chance--do they?

The upper-class inhabitants of the locked-gate community called Holroyd Square in Templeton, Texas, are used to their sedate, private lives-and the equally private secrets that each of them keeps hidden from the others. But when a vicious blackmailer rudely interrupts their existence, and then is found murdered in the Square, the police must be called, and only Assistant Chief Wash Shipp can uncover the killer and save their tattered reputations. A psychodrama in the best Agatha Christie tradition!

When their parents, the owners and performers of the Gannelli Family Circus, are murdered by a Yankee Captain in rural Arkansas during the Civil War, young Gian-Carlo and his cousin Magda barely escape with their lives into the surrounding woods. From then on, they have only one purpose in life: a VENDETTA against the Union officer. Their cat-and-mouse game finally reaches its climax in East Texas. Will this be their final performance?

Solomon Peat, the wry narrator of Slewfoot Sally and the Flying Mule, returns with 17 more tall tales of Cotton County, Texas, including "The Day of the Boomers," "Fierce as a Banty Hen," "The Ring-Tailed Sidewinder," "The Skunk Works," "The Crooked-Tail Cow," and "The Loquat Eyes." Also featured are two original children's fantasies, "The Jeweled Mouse" and "The Kingdom of Yip."