Rhymer brings to life Thomas the Rhymer, legendary 12th Century figure of traditional Scottish balladry, as a champion who must battle the diabolical Yvag—an alien race thought to be elves and faeries—hellbent on conquering our world. This saga pits Thoma

Lying is essential to good story-telling. Daily, we writers sit at their computers--or Underwoods or legal pads--and write down a bunch of untruths, piling one on top of another, page after page. We compound them, massage them, edit them, spin them, until we're satisfied that, despite how outlandish or other-worldly these lies are, you the reader will swallow them. (From Sandra Brown's introduction to LIAR LIAR) This gripping new anthology offers a baker's dozen tales of deceit by some of the finest liars in the business. The stories vary in setting, genre, style and tone, but they share a common theme: Each is based on a lie. Even better: Part of the proceeds from sales of this anthology will go to literacy organizations. And that's no lie.

The tale of Bluebeard, reenvisioned as a dark fable of faith and truth

1843 is the “last year of the world,” according the Elias Fitcher, a charismatic preacher in the Finger Lakes district of New York State. He's established a utopian community on an estate outside the town of Jeckyll's Glen, where the faithful wait, work, and pray for the world to end.

Vernelia, Amy, and Catherine Charter are the three young townswomen whose father falls under the Reverend Fitcher’s hypnotic sway. In their old house, where ghostly voices whisper from the walls, the girls are ruled by their stepmother, who is ruled in turn by the fiery preacher. Determined to spend Eternity as a married man, Fitcher casts his eye on Vernelia, and before much longer the two are wed. But living on the man's estate, separated from her family, Vern soon learns the extent of her husband’s dark side. It's rumored that he's been married before, though what became of those wives she does not know. Perhaps the secret lies in the locked room at the very top of the house—the sin-gle room that the Reverend Fitcher has forbidden to her.

Inspired by the classic fairy tales "Bluebeard" and "The Fitcher Bird," this dark fantasy is set in New York State’s “Burned-Over District,” at its time of historic religious ferment. All three Charter sisters will play their part in the story of Fitcher's Utopia: a story of faith gone wrong, and evil coun-tered by one brave, true soul.