Princess Holy Aura
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This edition contains the bonus story, "On-Site for the Apocalypse."
What Would You Give to be a Hero?
Stephen Russ never expected to have to answer that question; he went to work, he stayed in his apartment, sometimes had friends over, and the worst thing he'd had to face was looking for a new job after losing his old one.
That was before a child's desperate scream led him into an alley filled with faceless winged things that almost killed him. Before the strange white rat spoke to him, calling itself Silvertail Heartseeker and telling him that this was but the beginning, that the Stars were almost Right and the forces of Azathoth Nine-Armed would soon be unleashed against the world.
Most importantly, before Silvertail said that his courage and willingness to risk himself made him the perfect choice to be one of the defenders of the world against this evil.
A defender named Princess Holy Aura, the first of the five Apocalypse Maidens.
Now Steve understands the choice: not whether he is willing to die, but whether he is willing to live... by giving up "Stephen Russ" to become the one chance that the world has against the monstrous forces that wait on the other side of forever.
Ryk E Spoor
Ryk E. Spoor was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and has lived in South Dakota, Georgia, New York, and Pennsylvania. Severe asthma forced him to spend most of his childhood reading and, by the time he was six, writing. While he began reading fantasy such as Oz and science fiction starting with Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, it was his 5th grade teacher that sent him on the course that would make him a science-fiction author, by lending Ryk a battered copy of E.E. "Doc" Smith's Second-Stage Lensmen; this sent him on a reading spree that devoured every science-fiction book he encountered for the next ten years, and instilled in him the conviction that being a science-fiction author was the greatest possible profession anyone could aspire to. At the turn of the 21st century, Ryk succeeded in achieving this ambition by first launching a clever plan to be published through the diabolical strategem of insulting Eric Flint in public. (Note that neither Eric nor Ryk recommend anyone else attempt his strategy.) Subsequently, Eric brought Ryk's work to the attention of Baen Books, culminating in the publication of Digital Knight, and subsequently two stories with Eric Flint ("Diamonds Are Forever" and Boundary). His next solo novel Grand Central Arena was released in April 2010, followed in June by the sequel to Boundary, titled Threshold. More recently he has completed release on the Balanced Sword trilogy (Phoenix Rising, Phoenix in Shadow, and Phoenix Ascendant) and released his first self-published novel, Polychrome. His most recent works as of 2018 are the magical girl-based novel Princess Holy Aura, the first volume in a space opera trilogy Demons of the Past, titled Revelation, and the first novel in the Fall of Veils series, titled French Roast Apocalypse. Ryk Spoor is also Research and Development Coordinator for International Electronic Machines (IEM), where he has obtained funding for and directed/assisted in research into wireless MEMS sensor systems, power harvesting, smart video security systems, and other related fields; he holds several patents in these areas. He lives in Troy, New York, with his wife Kathleen and their four children Christopher, Gabriel, Victoria, and Domenica.
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