Short Stories

Fantasy, mystery, romance, history—mixed and matched, straight and blended. Just think in terms of a box of chocolates, white, dark, with nuts or caramel or plain, but each a tasty morsel in its own right—and all of them good for what ails you.

Many of Lillian's short stories are available at Fictionwise.com

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Click on the leaf to learn more about The Muse and Other Stories.

In The Muse and Other Stories of History, Mystery, and Myth, Lillian Stewart Carl sweeps you through a magical mystery tour of history.

Thirteen stories take you from the British Colonies in America and India to medieval England and revolutionary Scotland.  Vividly realized worlds include Shakespeare's timeless Illyria and the very real twenty-first century.

People on-screen and -off include Thomas Beckett and Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Bonnie Prince Charlie, Queen Elizabeth I at her height, and Ann Boleyn, her mother, at her depth.  Carl's salves and soldiers, sorcerers and sinners--and even a striped cat or two--are often sleuths and always good company.

Humankind's great passions--greed, love and hate, the rights of man (and woman)--provide motives for murder and more.  And lives are touched by fantasy, because along that shore between the present and the past, nothing is certain.

The Muse and Other Stories includes twelve stories especially commissioned for theme anthologies (three of which were reprinted in "Best Of" anthologies) and a story from a magazine, plus new Author's Comments and a ne assy on writing short historical mystery.

"The Muse and Other Stories of History, Mystery and Myth allows the author to explore a range of historical periods, and literary classics.  Carl has intriguing plots in which she challenges the reader to look at culture with a different eye.  Lillian Stewart Carl invites the interested reader into a collection of stories filled with the magic of the past." -- Lesa Holstine, Lesa's Book Critique

Cross Plains Universe has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award!!

In "The Diamonds of Golkonda," a Scottish soldier based in India in 1800 pursues his dreams of wealth, only to discover that his dreams, like reality, are not as they appear.  The story is based on the genuine history of Hyderabad, India.  Lillian has visited the ancient fort of Goldonda, but the only diamonds she saw there were those adorning her Indian in-laws.

From traditional mystery stories with devious doings and a plot full of clues to terse thrillers with edge-of-the-seat climaxes to the nail-biting tale of psychological suspense, no field of popular fiction can match contemporary crime writing in diversity, excitement, cunning, or satisfaction. In this stunning collection of the year's best offerings in the genre, armchair detectives, suspense addicts, and crime solvers alike can thrill to new stories by Edward D. Hoch, Carolyn Wheat, Jeffrey Deaver, Stuart Kaminsky, Val McDermid, Laura Lippman, Joyce Carol Oates, and Max Allen Collins, in the unique way only mystery fiction can provide.

A Scottish visitor to a Virginia plantation in 1820 finds himself bemused by the peculiar institution of slavery.  But it has nothing to do with him.  Or so he thinks, until a murder brings him squarely up against a moral dilemma that is very personal indeed.

History shows that leadership is crucial in war, but there are other factors at work. What if history were given a twist or two, and great commanders on land and sea fought their greatest battles under different circumstances? Turtledove and his colleagues turn the past upside down and inside out, and the possibilities are endless...

The historical Flora MacDonald helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape Scotland after his failed rebellion in 1745. Captured by the English, said she would have helped his enemy, the Duke of Cumberland, if he had needed her assistance. So, in "Over the Sea from Skye", Bonnie Prince Charlie wins his battle and Cumberland arrives destitute on Flora's doorstep, testing Flora's intelligence and resolve. Because Cumberland's personality is far from "bonnie", and Flora has to think as fast in dealing with him as she does in dealing with his pursuers.

In the pages of his novels, Charles Dickens railed against injustice in all its forms—the miserliness of Ebenezer Scrooge, the indifference of the aristocracy, the cruelty of Fagin. He captured the bitter unfairness of the class system and the violence that erupted between rich and poor. Now, today's masters of mystery "decrease the surplus population" with these new stories inspired by Dickens and his immortal classics...

Three spirits visit a modern-day Scrooge to save his soul—and solve a murder—in Carole Nelson Douglas' "The Holly and the Ivy"...Dickens himself teams up with fellow novelist Wilkie Collins to investigate a grisly death in Peter Tremayne's "The Passing Shadow"...Samuel Pickwick poses as a sentry over a grave in "Mr. Pickwick and the Body Snatchers" by Bill Crider...Agatha Award-winner Marcia Talley offers an alternate ending to Great Expectations in "Miss Havisham Regrets"...Brendan DuBois unleashes "Fagin's Revenge" by revealing the secrets within the pages of the original manuscript of Oliver Twist...New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry presents "A Tale of One City" in which our hero Sydney Carton must save an innocent woman from the guillotine...and Lillian Stewart Carl, P.N. Elrod, Martin Edwards, Carolyn Wheat, and Gillian Linscott all pay homage to the author who spoke to the masses about the human quest for justice—with an imaginative collection of tales that ask, "Who the Dickens done it?"

Tales of mystery and the supernatural have long stirred the human imagination. Here are twenty original stories of diabolical crimes and magical solutions featuring some of today's top science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writers. From the Elizabethan era to the far-flung future, from the interstellar realm of the Eraasian Hegemony to the Las Vegas Strip, these ingenious whodunits (or whatdunits) are sure to baffle and delight every lover of mystery and the fantastic.

Here then are eighteen, tales of vampires down through history, from the eras of ancient Greece and Rome up to the modern day, some traditionally horrifying, some poignant, some with a humorous touch. From a vampire blessed by Christ to the truth about the notorious Oscar Wilde to a rollicking tale of vampirism and the Bow Street Runners, these memorable stories by such top tale-weavers as Tanya Huff, P.N. Elrod, and Lois Tilton are sure to appeal to anyone who's ever been bitten by an interest in those mysterious, seductive, and deadly rulers of the night.

After starting out in science fiction and fantasy, Lillian is now writing contemporary romantic suspense and mystery novels along with short mystery and fantasy stories. Her work often features paranormal themes. It always features plots based on history and archaeology. She enjoys exploring the way the past lingers on in the present, especially in the British Isles, where she's visited many times. While she doesn't write comedy, she believes in characters with a sense of humor. Her romantic suspense novels have been compared those of Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters.

Volume 1 of Lillian Stewart Carl: Short Stories contains Sturgeon Award Nominee "Pleasure Palace" and more excellent short works, spanning the cience Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery/Crime, and Romance genres.

The world's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories

Each year, editors Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg cast their net far and wide, across the seas, throughout the world to catch the best-the most suspenseful, most original, intriguing, confounding, downright entertaining stories of crime and mystery. Edgar winners from the U.S., Silver Dagger winners from the U.K., and stories from elsewhere as well come together here in a bountiful crop of great stories by the best in the business, including Lawrence Block - Jon L. Breen - Stanley Cohen - Bill Crider - Jeffery Deaver - Jeremiah Healy - Clark Howard - Susan Isaacs - John Lutz - Sharyn McCrumb - Ralph McInerny - Anne Perry - Bill Pronzini - Donald E. Westlake and many others.

This book's a killer!

Murderous portents lie in the astral plane, and deadly reckonings wreak havoc in the human heart in this collection of sixteen original stories by such masterly mystery writers as Lawrence Block, Peter Lovesey, Lillian Stewart Carl, Peter Tremayne, Jon L. Breen, Edward Marston, Bill Crider, Simon Brett, and the internationally acclaimed Anne Perry.

After starting out in science fiction and fantasy, Lillian is now writing contemporary romantic suspense and mystery novels along with short mystery and fantasy stories. Her work often features paranormal themes. It always features plots based on history and archaeology. She enjoys exploring the way the past lingers on in the present, especially in the British Isles, where she's visited many times. While she doesn't write comedy, she believes in characters with a sense of humor. Her romantic suspense novels have been compared those of Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters. Volume 2 of Lillian Stewart Carl: Short Stories contains Best Sellers on Fictionwise.com "A Rose with all its Thorns" and "The Rim of the Wheel" and more excellent short works, spanning the science fiction, fantasy, mystery/crime, and romance genres.

An old-fashioned 1920's English country house mystery featuring two cats playing P.G.Wodehouse's Bertie and Jeeves.

A stellar cast of today's finest mystery authors have come up with rapier-sharp mystery stories--inspired by Shakespeare's life, times, and works. Each story in this collection offers murderous intrigue worthy of the Bard himself, assuring us that Shakespeare lives on...and that the rest of us are quite mortal indeed.
 

All signs point to murder in "The Eye of the Beholder." A wounded American pilot in WWII England discovers that a horoscope can be a deadly weapon, and that the battle he sees before him is not the only one he has to fight.

The tradition of pets in the White House goes all the way back to the Founding Fathers. From the parrot and foxhounds of George Washington to Spot and Barney, the current canines of the Bushes, the First Family’s animal companions have always had a special place in America’s heart. These various (and often exotic) animals have enjoyed the special privileges of living in the nation’s capital, giving them access to the scenes of power. So when something goes awry in the White House, who better to solve it than these pet detectives? Did Rex, Ronald Reagan’s King Charles spaniel, play a role in uncovering Irangate? What mystery did Franklin Roosevelt’s Scottish terrier, Fala, uncover when left on the Aleutian Islands? How would some of the more unusual pets, such as John Quincy Adams’s pet alligator or Calvin Coolidge hippopotamus, search for clues in the halls of the Executive Mansion? The authors and stories are:

"Martha’s Parrot" by Edward D. Hoch • "A Mimicry of Mockingbirds" by Lillian Stewart Carl • "Alligator Tears" by Bill Crider • "The Greatest Sacrifice" by Brendan DuBois • "Tabby Won’t Tell" by Jan Grape • "Under Hoof" by Jeffrey Marks • "The Princess and the Pickle" by Carolyn Wheat • "Remember the Maine?" by Jeanne Dams • "The Secret Staff" by Janet Pack • "Trouble A-Bruin" by Esther Friesner • "Izzy’s Shoe-In" by P. N. Elrod • "Fala and The Ghost of Bulows Minde" by Kate Grilley • "Dr. Couch Saves a President" by Nancy Pickard • "Sax and the Single Cat" by Carole Nelson Douglas

The murder mysteries that make up this unusual anthology all have one thing in common: the hero or heroine who solves the crime is a Catholic cleric. Perhaps that should not be surprising, for since the time of G. K. Chesterton those who have explored stories with a religious belief or background have tended to place them in the Middle Ages. And during that time most Christians were in one way or another connected to the Catholic church. From Chesterton’s classic priest-turned-detective Father Brown to Peter Tremayne’s historical Celtic nun and lawyer, Sister Fidelma, religious men and women put aside their professional duties for a moment to take up an altogether different vocation for a short time—that of detective and solver of crimes unspeakable. The stories in this collection of Catholic clerical sleuthing includes:

"Whispers of the Dead" by Peter Tremayne • "Bless Me Father, For I Have Sinned" by Ed Gorman • "Death by Fire" by Anne Perry and Malachi Saxon • "The Arrow of Ice" by Edward D. Hoch • "The Rag and Bone Man" by Lillian Stewart Carl • "Divine Justice" by Charles Meyer • "Cemetery of the Innocents" by Stephen Dentinger • "Veronica’s Veil" by Monica Quill • "Lowly Death" by Margaret Frazer • "Ex Libris" by Kate Gallison • "A Clerical Error" by Michael Jecks • "Through a Glass, Darkly" by Kate Charles • "The Knight’s Confession" by P. C. Doherty • "The Shorn Lamb" by Ralph McInerny

"From the Labyrinth of the Night"

With From the Labyrinth of Night, Carl explores the notion that we carry some myths with us wherever we go, as well as other, more personal issues.

A frustrated writer runs away from her mundane life, only to find she's carried her inhibitions with her. Then, on the island of Skye, she meets a young musician who shows her what freedom of both body and soul really means.

Just imagine: For a price, you can download the dead.

Pick a famous historical figure and experience your own life as that person.  What would you do?  Excel in science under the extraordinary influence of Leonardo da Vinci?  Spice up your daily grind with a dash of Mata Hari?  Unnverve your neighbors as Edgar Allan Poe?  Or, for those who like to live dangerously, there are whispers of a black market--where no one is forbidden.

A word of caution:  Previous performance does not guarantee future predictability.  And in the hands of these masters of science fiction and fantasy, your experience of past lives reborn may not be at all what you expect...

Here are thirteen deadly tales, all set within the dramatic turmoil of medieval Europe. Murder mystery fans and history buffs alike will be riveted by the selections offered by master anthologist Martin H. Greenberg and Nebula Award-winner John Helfers. You'll meet Peter Tremayne's seventh-century Celtic detective, Sister Fidelma, in "Like a Dog Returning;" discover Clayton Emery's take on Robin Hood in "Plucking a Mandrake;" learn about Brother Cadfael, soldier-turned-sleuthing-monk, from the wicked pen of Ellis Peters; and many others--all in the service of investigating crime in the Middle Ages, from the misdeeds of commoners to the felonies of kings.
 

From ancient Roman Britain to the moons of Jupiter, from Scotland to Tibet to your own back yard, from this world to ones that never existed, eleven stories take you for a ride along the rim of time and myth. Includes one previously unpublished story, as well as new author comments.

The following stories are available in Along the Rim of Time:

"The Borders of Sabazel", "The Rim of the Wheel," "From the Labyrinth of Night," "Upon This Shoal of Time", "The King Under the Water", "Where is Thy Victory?", "Out of Darkness", "The Blood of the Lamb", "The Test of Gold", plus a brand new story, "Wild Honey"

Military history--with a new cast of characters! Authors include multiple-Nebula-Award-winning Esther Friesner, Hugo-winner Harry Turtledove, Elizabeth Moon, David Weber, S.M. Stirling, and many more.

At Guagemela the Macedonians had Alexander and the Persians had—Darius. Result: world conquest. But what if the Persians had—Erwin Rommel. Or what if George S. Patton had commanded the Southern forces at Bull Run, and Lincoln had become a Confederate prisoner?

The possibilities are endless...

reprint Isaac Asimov’s Fantasy!
December 1989
Ace Books
ISBN 0-441-05499-4

A woman going through a life crisis visits the foothills of the Himalayas, where she meets a Tibetan teacher who is having a crisis of his own. Their world-lines cross in the center of the wheel of reincarnation, and for a short time they remember their earlier lives. But their present lives are the ones they have to deal with.

Sea Serpents!
December 1989
Ace Books
ISBN 0-441-75682-4

Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine V11 # 4
April 1987

An artist who is a reluctant member of an expedition to Loch Ness finds not only the creature, but answers to her own questions--ones that are less than scientific. But then, if truth is beauty, perhaps science is art.

Amazing Stories V63 #5
January 1989
TSR

Amazing Stories V61 #4
November 1986
TSR

The Company decrees that an engineer working on Jupiter's moon, Io, needs some rest and recreation. But during her stay at the Recreation Station, aka the Pleasure Palace, artificial pleasure becomes real tragedy.

Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
November 1985

When an old man dies before he can finish building a model of Admiral Nelson's ship, The Victory, his widow discovers that simply living can be the greatest victory. And death itself is not necessarily the end.

Isaac Asimov’s Fantasy
April 1985
Dial
ISBN 0-385-23017-6

A woman going through a life crisis visits the foothills of the Himalayas, where she meets a Tibetan teacher who is having a crisis of his own. Their world-lines cross in the center of the wheel of reincarnation, and for a short time they remember their earlier lives. But their present lives are the ones they have to deal with.

Amazing Science Fiction Stories Combined with Fantastic
March 1985
Dragon Publishing

On a dig in Scotland, archaeologist James Henderson unearths the skull of an ancient Celt. All the mysteries of the Celt's life--and how it ceased--are about to be revealed, for Henderson has perfected a way to resurrect the thoughts of the long dead. But the archaeologist learns the hard way that siphoning the mind of another "Isn't like sitting in the cinema. The brain's impulses are emotions."

Border Land V1 #3
1985
Artimus Publications

A young Scot survives the disastrous defeat at Culloden only to fall into Faerie, the Otherworld. There he's helped by three beautiful sisters who offer him a second chance, a battle with the monster that lurks beneath the peat-dark waters of Loch Ness.

Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine V 8 # 8
April 1984

A scientist searching for life on Mars finds it in a most unexpected place, leading him to re-evaluate not only his own life but what it means to be human. Like beauty, thought is its own excuse for being.

Amazons II
June 1982
DAW Books
ISBN 0-879-97736-1

Goddess' daughter Danica marches her Amazon army to the pavilion of her land's invader, Bellasteros. Danica offers to join forces with him against their mutual foe, Kallidar, a warlord ensconced in a seemingly impregnable castle. In an alliance of convenience, Danica and Bellasteros assault their enemy's mountaintop keep. Bellasteros blunders into Danica's trap, unaware that Kallidar is not Danica's only quarry.