Ratatoskr Press

Ingrid Torfa finds herself on the road with two of her closest friends, Kara and Nilda Mikkelsen. Not a hiking and camping trip for pleasure, but a mission of the utmost importance. The Thors disappeared months ago along with their mentor Frór. On a mission to protect Villmark, the village on the North Shore of Lake Superior where they still live like Vikings, hidden from the modern world, the Thors traveled far into the north of this magical realm. Dangers lurk there, things not seen in the modern world in centuries, if ever.Now Ingrid and her friends are desperate to find out what happened to the Thors. Strange folk haunt the northern roads. The three seek an old ally, but find instead another murder, one with ties to Villmark itself.And if Ingrid doesn’t find the killer first, all of Villmark stands in jeopardy.

Amanda Clarke knows she's a witch. She unleashed unstoppable magic to save her friends and catch a murderer. But she only did it the one time. And now? Back to powerlessness. Her friends insist that all she needs is proper training. Sophie wakes her before dawn for meditation and workouts designed to channel magic. Brianna buries her under books, so many books. Amanda longs for a distraction. But when the woman who lives next door to Miss Zenobia Weekes' Charm School for Exceptional Young Ladies turns up dead, and the murder weapon dates back to Prohibition, she gets more of a distraction than she bargained for. But who in 1927 would want her neighbor dead in 2018? "Work Like a Charm", Book 2 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. If you're a fan of Amanda M. Lee, N.M. Howell, or Amy Boyles, this mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.

The Witches Three agreed to split up to better investigate their mother’s pasts. Brianna lurks deep in the witchiest parts of Boston, researching in secret libraries and questioning covens that date back further than the English colonies. Sophie stalks mysterious wielders of magic through parts of the French Quarter of New Orleans that tourists never see. And Amanda, alone in Miss Zenobia Weekes’ Charm School for Exceptional Young Ladies, breaks all the rules. She juggles her time between 2019, coordinating the investigation with the other two, and 1928, where Edward awaits her. She knows she can’t go on living two lives forever. Always she expects the 1928 coven to ambush her. To her surprise, the attack comes in 2019, when her good friend Nick disappears. Not like a missing person, but like he never existed. His own grandfather doesn’t recognize his name or photo. Investigating murders? Old hat for the Witches Three. But investigating a person who never existed? Could be tricky. "Charm Offensive", Book 6 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. If you're a fan of Amanda M. Lee, N.M. Howell, or Amy Boyles, this mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.

Amanda Clarke possesses the rarest, most powerful form of magic: the ability to see and manipulate time itself.If only she knew how to use it. All she gets are vague impressions, little intuitions that compel her to act.When she pays a visit to her friend Nick's apartment, one of her witchy feelings is warning her about the apartment across the hall. The empty apartment. The apartment no one has gone in or out of in years. She promises Nick to follow the rules this time. But the feeling won't be ignored. She gathers the Witches Three and they magic their way inside.And find a body dressed for 1928 but still warm and only recently dead in 2018. Yet another case beyond the local police department, but perfect for the Witches Three."Third Time is a Charm", Book 3 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. If you're a fan of Amanda M. Lee, N.M. Howell, or Amy Boyles, this mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.

When nothing and no one holds you to the present, why not celebrate the new year 91 years ago? So think Amanda Clarke and the rest of the Witches Three. They head back in time to ring in 1928, drinking bootleg champagne with the wealthiest members of St. Paul society, honest businessmen and gangsters and those who dwell where those categories overlap. But when a surprise wedding engagement announcement becomes an even more surprising murder of the bride-to-be, the Witches Three find themselves wrapped up in yet another mystery. Because even if it's not your time era, when the chief suspect is your close friend, you don't opt out. Or so says Amanda Clarke. "Old World Charm", Book 4 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. If you're a fan of Amanda M. Lee, N.M. Howell, or Amy Boyles, this mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.

A surprise ring at the doorbell on Valentine's Day confirms Amanda Clarke's suspicions. Her friend Sophie DuBois left someone behind when she came to Miss Zenobia Weekes' Charm School for Exceptional Young Ladies. But the happy reunion grinds to a confusing halt when he asks about Sophie's quest to find her mother. And Amanda remembers she too came in search of answers about her own mother. Brianna Collins as well. All of them forgetting their mothers the moment they showed up at the charm school? Someone, somehow, put a spell on them. But why? Unless they find the witch who stole their memories, they may never know. "Charm His Pants Off", Book 5 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. If you're a fan of Amanda M. Lee, N.M. Howell, or Amy Boyles, this mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.

Galactic Central, a collection of floating cities in a vast, manmade, planetless cloud. Scout Shannon longed to see it since she first heard of it. This place long represented her shining future. But in her less shiny present, she reaches it by smuggling herself aboard a cargo ship and hides in the lower sewer-like levels of the most opulent of the floating cities. Teams of girl assassins still hunt her. Worse, her friends are in danger and don't even know. Scout has to save her friends, because saving her friends means saving her entire planet from enslavement to the Tajaki trade dynasty. Caught between two sides of that dynasty, with a mysterious third party desperate to remove her from the galaxy, Scout is in way over her head. But with her friends, she just might see a path to victory for all of them. "At Galactic Central" the sixth and final book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of plucky heroines, girl assassins, political intrigue, and loyal dog sidekicks.

"Tales from Ancient and Future Times" collects five stories from fantasy and science fiction writer Kate MacLeod: the science fiction story "Taren and Keui", tale of two alien beings finding a way out of a zero sum game; the dark fantasy tale "The Story for the Letters", about a little girl and an ancient evil; the science fiction story "AI: Aesir Intelligence", where the sole survivor of a shuttle crash stays alive on a hostile world with the guidance of some unconventional babysitters; the science fiction story "Upon the Lonesome Wild" about a woman meant to be the matriarch of a far reaching clan on a newly discovered world who instead finds herself alone on a dying one; and the science fiction novelette "The Inscrutable Visages of the Sowmyatha" where a young officer finds it easier to communicate with a rocklike alien race than her human teammates.

Stranded on the far side of the moon with her friends, Scout Shannon waits for rescue from galactic central. Hunted by two sets of enemies, surrounded by an impenetrable barrier maintained by an almost alien class of humans, time runs short. Caught between two factions of a powerful trade dynasty, Scout fights to remain free and to protect her friends. But the people trying to make her their pawn barely seem human to her eyes. Fight them? She can barely understand them. With friends on both sides of the planetary blockade, Scout just needs to find a way to get her friends stuck on the inside to those waiting for them on the outside. But foes also lurk on both sides. And they hide among her friends. How to tell friend from foe? Scout better learn before the enemies close in around her. "Against Impassable Barriers" the fourth book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of resourceful heroines, political intrigue, and loyal dog sidekicks.

Having escaped yet another closing trap, Scout Shannon finds herself on a snowbound mountaintop far from civilization. With assassins eager to kill her, laying low on an alien world is the smartest play. But wherever Scout goes, trouble follows. And a hamlet in the mountains gets far more remote when girl assassins destroy the only means back to civilization. Now Scout and her dogs face a long, cold climb back to the frozen star port city, her only guide, a girl whose sister Scout killed when fighting for her life. Can she get to safety before the girl learns the truth about Scout? And what secrets of her own is this strange girl keeping? "Over Freezing Altitudes" the fifth book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of resourceful heroines, survival in extreme environments, girl assassins and loyal dog sidekicks.

"Tales of Old Gods and New" collects ten stories from fantasy and science fiction writer Kate MacLeod: the high fantasy murder mystery "Impostor Apparition", the western weird tale "Unsafe, Unsound", the pseudo-Egyptian fantasy "Tear of a Sphinx", the early Bronze Age fantasy "Changing Tides", "In the Waste Places", the sequel to "Oil Fire"; the science fiction story "Taren and Keui", tale of two alien beings finding a way out of a zero sum game; the dark fantasy tale "The Story for the Letters", about a little girl and an ancient evil; the science fiction story "AI: Aesir Intelligence", where the sole survivor of a shuttle crash stays alive on a hostile world with the guidance of some unconventional babysitters; the science fiction story "Upon the Lonesome Wild" about a woman meant to be the matriarch of a far reaching clan on a newly discovered world who instead finds herself alone on a dying one; and the science fiction novelette "The Inscrutable Visages of the Sowmyatha" where a young officer finds it easier to communicate with a rocklike alien race than her human teammates.

Scout Shannon wants nothing more than to leave her home world and its petty squabbling factions behind. Galactic central with all of its excitement and opportunities awaits her. She makes it as far as her own planet's orbit before the snares of bureaucracy close around her, trapping her on a space station populated by her people's oldest foe. Then her rescuer, her only friend in the galaxy, disappears, abducted by a group of strangers the moment he steps off his ship. Alone in a strange place, surrounded by the old enemies she knows and new enemies just making themselves known, Scout faces a challenge like none before. But with her dogs at her side, Scout stands prepared for anything. "Among Treacherous Stars" the third book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of plucky heroines, girl spies conspiring in political intrigues, and loyal dog sidekicks.

After spending the last four days of her life hiding out from a deadly solar particle storm in an underground bunker, trapped with six treacherous women and a trio of girl assassins, Scout Shannon just wants to find the man who conned her mentor and leave her home world for good. Alas, the long-threatened war draws nearer and Scout finds herself caught in the middle, surrounded by rebels and bandits. Worse, she carries a pocketful of dangerous secrets with no one to entrust them to. And the hills keep shaking. Something lurks deep underground. Something massive. Something world-destroying. Scout leaves in three days. If she lives that long. "In Quaking Hills", the sequel to "Under Falling Skies" and the second book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of plucky heroines, complicated boys, and loyal dog sidekicks.

When a deadly plague ravaged the Earth refugees fled into space, crowding into any space station or lunar colony that would take them. Decades passed and the descendants of the survivors struggle to live in anything remotely spaceworthy. Omesh, banished from his Earthly home, finds himself in Barnacle Town. A collection of salvage clinging to the hull of a space station in lunar orbit. Thousands of lives cling precariously to the hull, at the whim of the corporation that owns the station. The station manager welcomes everyone. But then the CEO arrives, intent on scraping the hull of his craft clean. Omesh and his family, friends and neighbors? Not the corporation’s problem. With nowhere else to go, Omesh vows to fight for his new home. But physics? More merciless than any CEO.

After humankind fled Earth for space they discovered one inescapable truth. People die in space. And lots of dead people means lots of ghosts. April Nguyen earns a nice living getting rid of those ghosts. People all over the Solar System clamor for her aid. April's only problem? Never actually seeing a ghost. She pretends, she feigns, she completely convinces her clients, but she fears her inevitable exposure as a fraud. And then comes Hakim, the ultimate suspicious sceptic watching her every move. And yet April feels herself drawn to him. He knows a whole other world.  "The Whole World for Each", a story about belief and disbelief and how we jump between the two. Humankind escaped Earth, but not death and what comes after.

"Tales from Forgotten Days" collects five never-before-seen stories from fantasy and science fiction writer Kate MacLeod: the high fantasy murder mystery "Impostor Apparition", the western weird tale "Unsafe, Unsound", the pseudo-Egyptian fantasy "Tear of a Sphinx", the early Bronze Age fantasy "Changing Tides" and "In the Waste Places", the sequel to "Oil Fire".