* * Gimlet, a Shaken, Not Stirred, Short Story, and Other Stories * * Jada Ryker's collected short stories run the gamut from mystery to horror to science fiction. The stories include Gimlet, As the Crow Flies, Cross to Bear, An Alien Act of Honor, Winner Takes All, Dead Eye, The Hand of Karma, and Driving Miss Daisy's Cattle. Juneau Fate made her debut in A Pink Zombie, with a Mist, a Shaken, Not Stirred, horror/mystery book, in which brains are taxed. Not eaten. Juneau grew up in a strict religious community, with a megalomaniac at its head. Gimlet first appeared in the anthology May the Fourth, a play on "May the Force Be with You." In Gimlet, Juneau and Coldwell pose as patients in a mental hospital to solve a paranormal mystery. Fellow patient Iris, notorious for both her seances and her police record, claims she's in touch with the spirits who have the answers to the puzzle. Will her supernatural connections help Juneau and Coldwell solve the mystery, or lead to a one-way trip to the morgue? In As the Crow Flies, Fresna is a middle-aged nursing assistant toiling in a nursing home. She likes Mr. Corvis, an eccentric resident. When odd things happen to Fresna, Mr. Corvis is in the vicinity. Tina returns to her rural Kentucky home to attend her hard-living and hard-drinking brother's funeral in A Cross to Bear. She reconnects with Chris, her childhood friend's handsome brother. Tina has to contend with her troubled relationship with her father, her feelings for Chris... and a malevolent watcher. Mae Rue is on verge of being arrested for her husband's brutal murder. An extraterrestrial family invades her grief, seeking to right an old wrong. Mae Rue learns there are many facets to honor, including An Alien Act of Honor. In Winner Takes All, Marisa's father Billy Ray awakes from a coma with an extraordinary story. She explores her challenging relationship with her distant father. Alex, Marisa's friend from childhood and possibly more today, provides his unconventional support. Marisa and her father learn how a second chance impacts them both. In Dead Eye, Alex takes Marisa to an unusual Halloween party in an isolated Kentucky community... with a murderer ready with deadly tricks, rather than treats. In The Hand of Karma, Jessamine, mourning her mother's sudden death, is trapped in a funeral home's cellar when she recognizes a monster from her past. The story appeared in Celebrating Mothers: Fond Memories and Fictional Muses and as a reader appreciation gift at the end of A Pink Zombie, with a Mist, a Shaken, Not Stirred, mystery/horror book. In Driving Miss Daisy's Cattle, Lieutenant Camden finds viral recordings of a dead bull rider, with a rodeo clown bent over him, don't tell the whole story. With a brand-new officer dogging his footsteps, Cam has to solve the mystery. In Just in Time for Christmas, a time-travelling stalker targets a beautiful college student. Terrified for the girl, Macey Malloy tries to help her, only be trapped in the web of lies and deceit. Macey reluctantly joins forces with a handsome stranger who makes her heart race... with both attraction and the fear he may be following a secret, deadly agenda. Even with her grumpy black cat's help, will Macey be in time to save the girl?"