Books by Jessie Kwak

The eighteenth Tarot card is the Moon, and those who raise their arms to her know she offers Mercy and Severity in equal measure. This is the great river at night, where wolves howl and all doors are open. All futures are possible, and every truth is elusive. This is the source and passion of Eighteen: Stories of Mischief & Mayhem. These twenty-four stories from voices—old and new—celebrate the inevitability of fate, the horror of prophecy, and the shivering delight of not knowing what comes next.Cross over the threshold with us, and explore the strange, the weird, and the fantastic. Do not fear what lies ahead. It is the same as what came before. The only difference is you. This is Eighteen, and nothing will be the same.Eighteen contains stories from Forrest Aguirre, Darin Bradley, Christopher East, Scott Edelman, Nicole Feldringer, Ben Gamblin, Ingrid Garcia, A. P. Howell, Emma Johnson-Rivard, E. E. King, Jessie Kwak, Shannon Lawrence, Gerri Leen, Mark Mills, Christi Nogle, Tammie Painter, Josh Rountree, Erica Sage, Lorraine Schein, J. Dee Stanley, Richard Thomas, John Waterfall, Wendy N. Wagner, and Todd Zack. It is edited by Mark Teppo

Peace demands its price in blood.Jaantzen may have brought stability to the city of Bulari, but not everyone's grateful. Allegiances are shifting sand, and he's made a miscalculation that earned him a deadly new enemy - one who plays a viciously different game than the one Jaantzen is used to winning. Jaantzen and his crew fight to gain the upper hand, but secrets buried in shallow graves are coming back to haunt them. And as Starla and Toshiyo edge closer to understanding the growing mystery that's been dropped in their laps, their search is awakening darker things than any of them can imagine.Peace comes at a price, and this Pax Bulari could cost Jaantzen everyone he loves. The Bulari Saga series is part of Jessie Kwak's Durga System universe, a fast-paced series of gangster sci-fi stories set in a far-future world where humans may have left their home planet to populate the stars, but they haven't managed to leave behind their vices. And that's very good for business.

Peace demands its price in blood.Jaantzen may have brought stability to the city of Bulari, but not everyone's grateful. Allegiances are shifting sand, and he's made a miscalculation that earned him a deadly new enemy - one who plays a viciously different game than the one Jaantzen is used to winning. Jaantzen and his crew fight to gain the upper hand, but secrets buried in shallow graves are coming back to haunt them. And as Starla and Toshiyo edge closer to understanding the growing mystery that's been dropped in their laps, their search is awakening darker things than any of them can imagine.Peace comes at a price, and this Pax Bulari could cost Jaantzen everyone he loves. The Bulari Saga series is part of Jessie Kwak's Durga System universe, a fast-paced series of gangster sci-fi stories set in a far-future world where humans may have left their home planet to populate the stars, but they haven't managed to leave behind their vices. And that's very good for business.

When a resurrection goes awry in a cold Seattle cemetery, mother-of-three Patricia Ramos-Waites finds herself possessed by the ghost of her sister's dead lover.God forbid her only problem be sharing her body with Dead Marco. Yesterday Patricia was worried about her teenage son's new deadbeat friends and putting her kids through college; today she's become the target of a Central American drug-smuggling gang who desperately want to get their hands on the ghost she's hosting.On top of all this, Patricia is beginning to suspect that either Marco is an exceptionally powerful spirit, or she has ghost-handling abilities that haven't been seen in centuries.Will Patricia be able to stay out of the crosshairs long enough to fix this botched resurrection?

Three novellas in Jessie Kwak's Durga System series, a fast-paced series of gangster sci-fi stories set in a far-future world where humans may have left their home planet to populate the stars, but they haven’t managed to leave behind their vices. And that’s very good for business.

Trouble is dead. Long live trouble.Killing the leader of a violent cult was supposed to make the city a safer place, but instead it created a power imbalance that's left a deadly war raging in the streets of Bulari. When Willem Jaantzen is approached for help by local casino magnate Phaera D, he has the sinking feeling the only way to end this war is to betray the people he loves the most. And he's starting to suspect that Phaera wants more from him than just his help. Whatever decision he makes feels like the wrong one. And as his goddaughter chips away at the mystery surrounding their latest discovery, bringing peace back to the Bulari underground is quickly becoming the least of his worries. The Bulari Saga series is part of Jessie Kwak's Durga System universe, a fast-paced series of gangster sci-fi stories set in a far-future world where humans may have left their home planet to populate the stars, but they haven't managed to leave behind their vices. And that's very good for business.

Thala Coeur—Blackheart—is dead.Willem Jaantzen has been waiting to hear those words for almost twenty years. But he was also hoping they’d hold more satisfaction. Because it turns out his arch enemy has died as she lived—sowing chaos and destruction—and when a mysterious package arrives on his doorstep, he realizes she’s sent him one last puzzle from beyond the grave. As Jaantzen and his crew are plunged back into a game he thought they’d left far behind, one thing becomes painfully clear: Solving Coeur’s puzzle could be key to preventing the city from crumbling back into another civil war—or it could be the thing that destroys them all. Because this secret isn’t just worth killing for. It’s worth coming back from the dead for.The Bulari Saga series is part of Jessie Kwak’s Durga System universe, a fast-paced series of gangster sci-fi stories set in a far-future world where humans may have left their home planet to populate the stars, but they haven’t managed to leave behind their vices. And that’s very good for business. 

Trouble is dead. Long live trouble.Killing the leader of a violent cult was supposed to make the city a safer place, but instead it created a power imbalance that's left a deadly war raging in the streets of Bulari. When Willem Jaantzen is approached for help by local casino magnate Phaera D, he has the sinking feeling the only way to end this war is to betray the people he loves the most. And he's starting to suspect that Phaera wants more from him than just his help. Whatever decision he makes feels like the wrong one. And as his goddaughter chips away at the mystery surrounding their latest discovery, bringing peace back to the Bulari underground is quickly becoming the least of his worries. The Bulari Saga series is part of Jessie Kwak's Durga System universe, a fast-paced series of gangster sci-fi stories set in a far-future world where humans may have left their home planet to populate the stars, but they haven't managed to leave behind their vices. And that's very good for business.

This is an anthology. It is not literary, as much as the cover might suggest otherwise. It's not even a themed anthology. However, it definitely staggers across all sorts of interstitial slipstreamed speculative fringes. It's got-well, look. There are space pirates. There's space cocaine. There might be a dragon (but probably not). And stuff definitely blows up. You're welcome. Space Cocaine contains fiction by Jessie Kwak, Grá Linnaea, Andrew McCollough, and Mark Teppo. They're the responsible ones.

He's in over his head. And the one man he needs to trust the most is the one he’s been contracted to kill.Manu Juric's quick wit and knack for creating unexpected explosions has taken him a long way in the hit man business. At least, until he signs on to a job that might just be out of his league: taking out one of Bulari’s most notorious crime lords, Willem Jaantzen.After the attempt is horribly botched, Jaantzen spares Manu’s life in exchange for joining up with his motley crew for one small heist. There’s a reason Manu avoids teamwork: it’s the worst. And as the increasingly unpredictable job plunges Manu into an ever-tangling web of uneasy dangers and bristly egos, he realizes he’s going to need to find some allies — fast.But who do you trust, when everyone's a criminal?NEGATIVE RETURN is part of Jessie Kwak’s Durga System series, a fast-paced series of standalone gangster sci-fi novellas set in a far-future world where humans may have left their home planet to populate the stars, but they haven’t managed to leave behind their vices. And that’s very good for business.

An Alliance prison is no place for a deaf teen girl. Fortunately, Starla doesn't intend to stay for long.Starla Dusai is fifteen, deaf — and being held as an enemy combatant by the Indiran Alliance. Willem Jaantzen is a notorious crime lord about to end a fearsome vendetta — and most probably his life.When he learns his goddaughter has been captured by the Alliance, he understands he's her only hope. But saving a girl he barely knows means letting his wife's murderer walk free. Will Jaantzen be able to put aside his anger before Starla's time runs out?STARFALL is the first book in Jessie Kwak’s Durga System series, a fast-paced series of gangster sci-fi stories set in a far-future world where humans may have left their home planet to populate the stars, but they haven’t managed to leave behind their vices. And that’s very good for business.

She thought nothing could come between herself and her new family. She was wrong.It’s been five years since Starla Dusai’s home station was destroyed by the Alliance, and she’s spent every minute searching for evidence that she wasn’t the only survivor.When she receives a tip that her beloved cousin Mona is alive and well on an astroid station out in Durga’s Belt, she drops everything to find her. Thrust into an unfamiliar world of crime cartels and union politics, Starla soon realizes Mona is caught up in a dangerous plot — and that saving her might just mean giving up the new family she’s come to love.If it doesn’t get them both killed first.

Thala Coeur-Blackheart-is dead.Willem Jaantzen has been waiting to hear those words for almost twenty years. But he was also hoping they'd hold more satisfaction. Because it turns out his arch enemy has died as she lived-sowing chaos and destruction-and when a mysterious package arrives on his doorstep, he realizes she's sent him one last puzzle from beyond the grave. As Jaantzen and his crew are plunged back into a game he thought they'd left far behind, one thing becomes painfully clear: Solving Coeur's puzzle could be key to preventing the city from crumbling back into another civil war-or it could be the thing that destroys them all. Because this secret isn't just worth killing for. It's worth coming back from the dead for.The Bulari Saga series is part of Jessie Kwak's Durga System universe, a fast-paced series of gangster sci-fi stories set in a far-future world where humans may have left their home planet to populate the stars, but they haven't managed to leave behind their vices. And that's very good for business.

Worried about the state of business during the zombie apocalypse? You're not alone. In my quest to document our new reality, I've spent the past year collecting stellar examples of how everyday businesspeople like you and me are keeping their chins up during the apocalypse: In a transcript titled "Don't Miss Today's Webinar on ExitZ, the World's Only Zombie Employee Offboarding Software Solution," Chief Training Officer Margot Sanchez provides a very real-life demonstration of her company's early-warning system for employee zombieism.In an email chain titled "Notes to Creative on the Fall 1 Catalog: Zombie Apocalypse Special Edition," Creative Director Joanna Ecco fights to meet the print deadline for her company's Fall 1 catalog, even while the world disintegrates around her.And in a memo titled "Despite the Tragic Events of Day 2, I Think We Can All Agree Days 1 & 3 of GeoMundo's National Sales Meeting Were Transformational," National Sales Manager Gerry Eltayeb gives us a glimpse into the insights-and chaos-of his company's annual national sales meeting. I've also managed to collect other fragments of business as usual: conference brochures, leadership-training advertisements, and an all-staff company birthday email that proves festivity can still coexist alongside weapons trainings during hard times.Taken all together, this collection is a testament to future generations that business does indeed go on.May it inspire you to persevere yourself.