Laura J Underwood

Ginny Ni Cooley never desired more than the simple life she had, living in Tamhasg Wood and using her magic to occasionally assist the folk of Conorscroft while putting up with the machinations of the ghost of her former mentor Manus MacGreeley. But her peace is shattered one night with the arrival of a lad who is fleeing a pack of red-gold hounds led by a hound-shaped demon known as Nidubh. So much for peace and solitude. By rescuing Fafne MacArdagh, Ginny becomes wrapped in the fabric of an intrigue involving a family feud, a traitorous son, and a blood mage named Edain who is determined to keep her soul. It is she who cast a spell on Fafne's family and household and transformed the MacArdaghs into hounds. Ginny gives Fafne her word to take him to Caer Keltora so they can report the matter to the Council of Mageborn. But Edain is determined to keep her secret and her soul intact and moves to thwart Ginny at every turn. For Ginny Ni Cooley who has faced many bogies, dealing with a demon, a bloodmage and the Dark Lord of Annwn will be no easy task. But she will do what she must to undo Edain's spells. If not, Manus' soul will become part of Arawn's Cauldron of Doom. Ginny will become a demon's feast, and poor Fafne will join the Hounds of Ardagh.

Rhoyd Smytheson is mageborn, so when a dream of a wolf-like demon plagues his sleep night after night, it isn't just a nightmare... it's a warning. The journey on which he and his adopted parents Conor and Eithne travel will lead to familiar and unfamiliar trails across Keltora. They will find new allies and enemies. As always, they will fight the darkness that threatens their world, stepping ever closer to Rhoyd's fate as the Ard Magister.

About... Marking the Signs and Other Tales of Mischief "These edgy and sometimes disturbing tales evoke the southern Appalachian folkways and mythology with a deftness that only a native can manage. Whether it's black magic against white, in "Marking the Signs", or a country boy's passion for his truck, in "Nice Truck", Laura J. Underwood has the right combination of believable characters, authentic mountain settings, a twist of humor, and cold-down-the-backbone touch of horror." - Elizabeth Moon, author of The Speed of Dark "Can you feel the delicious shiver down your spine? The beginnings of a rich, deep-down-in-the-belly chuckle? The prickle of hoary Tennessee backwoods magic? That'll be Laura J. Underwood's wonderful Marking the Signs, beckoning you. Like a cauldron of thick, home-cooked, magic stew, it'll fill you up, spook away your willies, nurture your imagination, and tweak your funny bone. Don't wait another moment - dig in " - Vera Nazarian, author of Dreams of the Compass Rose "Curling up with Laura Underwood's newest collection is like sitting on a darkened porch up an Appalachian hollow, listening to a master storyteller turn the sounds of the night into nightmare. She mixes humor and horror in deft proportion, and the resulting stories, especially 'Blood Kin', send delicious shivers up the spine. A first-rate read." - Lee Martindale, author of To Stand As Witness, Hell Hath No Fury..., & The Folly of Assumption "If Lord Dunsany or Edgar Allen Poe had lived in East Tennessee they'd have written stories like Laura Underwood's, where the fantastic and the ordinary mingle to create strange and wonderful tales in places you could swear you can almost see out of the corners of your eyes." - John G. Hemry, author of Rule of Evidence.

Murder in the Back Yard Well maybe not the back yard exactly, but damn close. The streets of Maggie and Vivian's Home Town are running red with the blood of the victims of the city's first real serial killer. Since their appearance on the runaway hit season of CHICKEN OUT, they've made lots of money, had many different offers, and have been solving a lot of crimes. Unfortunately this psycho is just beyond Vivian's extra sensory powers, and Maggie's incomparable forensic skills seem to be no match for this methodical mad man. Of course if they could ever stop worrying about their personal problems long enough to get their heads in the game they might just have a shot at stopping a killing spree.

From the day his family joins the caravan, Rhoyd Smytheson knows something is amiss. It isn't the caravan they were supposed to be on, but his adopted father, the mercenary Conor Manahan and his healer wife Eithne thought it was better than nothing. The Caravan Master smells like a rotting turnip all the time. The Captain is an enigma, and even the cook Noreen is hiding some secret. Then there is the dark wagon that rolls along in their midst. It reeks of magic and...something else, and Rhoyd is determined to find out what the wagon is hiding. There are too many mishaps on the road for it to be coincidence; someone among the crew of the caravan has a darker purpose. It is up to the young Ard Magister to discover who and what that purpose is even if it means sacrificing the life he has come to love with his adopted parents, for the powers of darkness will stop at nothing to keep him from attaining his full potential.

Alaric Braidwine, young mageborn bard in training, has no idea that he's about to become part of a legend. Traveling to Dun Gealach to learn magecraft under the Council of Mageborn, he finds himself drawn into a fiendish plot by a blood mage who wants to be a god. Alaric gets into more trouble than he ever dreamed possible for when he is accused of smuggling a demon into Dun Gealach, he becomes the target of the High Mage's wrath. His only friends are the audacious and roguish Fenelon Greenfyn, the mystical Etienne Savala, and her apprentice Shona. Yet even these powerful friends are not enough when Alaric is kidnapped and taken hostage by Tane Doran and his musically-inclined demon, Vagner. It seems that Alaric has something Tane wants...a key song learned from the famous bard Ronan Tey that tells where the legendary Dragon's Tongue lies, and Tane will stop at nothing to have it. Suddenly Alaric finds himself playing reluctant hero, for within him is more than the secret of a single song and he wears the mark of the demon. Now he is hunted by mageborn all over the known world, and unless he can stop Tane Doran and figure a way to free himself from the "gift" he carries, Alaric may not live long enough to write his own ballad....