Short Stories

Ministry Protocol

edited by Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine

Includes stories from Jared Axelrod, J R Blackwell, Karina Cooper, Delilah S Dawson, Glenn Freund, Lauren Harris, Leanna Renee Hieber, Jack Mangan, Tee Morris, Dan Rabarts, Tiffany Trent, Alex White, and Peter Woodworth.

From the Creators of the award-winning steampunk Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series comes a collection of new adventures from around the world.

The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences investigates the bizarre and unusual, and protects the citizens of the Empire from forces of darkness. Every agent knows that thrusting themselves into danger is part of the job, and may demand of them the ultimate sacrifice. They call on their own inner strength, wits, intellect, and innovations of science and technology. But is it enough to face the unknown and the unexplainable? Travel to the farthest corners of Queen Victoria’s mighty empire and back again to the shores of Old Blighty, unlocking the mysteries of legend, lore, and shadowy societies. Welcome to a world of steam, secrets, machinations and madness.

Tales from the Archives : Volume 1

This volume includes:

The Astonishing Amulet of Amenartas by Nathan Lowell
Agent Heathcliff Durham finds himself crisscrossing Africa, looking for an Amulet that could spell disaster for any who come near it. Battling blistering heat, starvation, wild animals, and despair, he is not comforted by the company of a rough and ready sort named Morrison. Soon Durham begins to suspect he may never return home—and to top it all off the tea has almost run out.

Ruby In Rain by Grant Stone
From the farthest edge of the Empire, New Zealand agents Lachlan King and Barry Ferguson are called to interview a recent arrival to Auckland’s prisons. An infamous gambler, according to the constable’s account, has turned himself into their custody, not for the safety of society but for his own. The Ministry steps in to uncover a man’s story of impressive luck, and more incredible vision.

The Shadows of Calcutta by Phil Rossi
Agent Robert Smith, on return from a mission in Nepal, is diverted to India where he is charged to find a missing agent. Alex Tanner had been investigating a series of thefts and murders holding the Ministry’s attention, and now it falls on Agent Smith to find his missing comrade.

From Paris, With Regret by Starla Hutchon
On assignment in the City of Light, Ministry agents Eliza D. Braun and Harrison Thorne chase down a murderer condemning descendants of a royal bloodline to a horrific death.

The Night Plutonian Shore by Jack Mangan
In 1849 when a poet is murdered in the streets of Baltimore. The man behind the seemingly random murder manages to elude the law until — in 1889 — Agents Bruce Campbell and Brandon Hill track him down. The assassin, Mikael Scharnusser, gives the slip to the agents on revealing his “talent” and the madman’s intentions to bring down the House of Usher.

The Seven by P C Haring
Agent Brandon Hill is on assignment in South America, enjoying the local culture and women, when a mystery that could lead to El Dorado falls into his lap. Before the intrepid agent knows it, he is the jungle uncovering a plot but the devilish Illuminati. He will need all his monkey knife fighting skills to survive this one.

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Tales from the Archives : Volume 2

This volume includes:

Hanuman’s Gift by Helen Madden
Deep in the Archives, Augustus Whitby toils through his duties in the Archives, dreaming up romantic stories far more plausible than the supposed “investigations” of the field agents. A story from Agent Harrison Thorne and an unassuming artifact from his recent case, however, proves much to Whitby’s chagrin that there are some truths that are far stranger than fiction.

The Sun Never Sets by Val Griswold-Ford
Agent Isaac Martin receives a note, imploring him to investigate the nearly completed clock tower at the Palace at Westminster. He and his partner, Agent Andrew Kensington, start looking into the construction and uncover unanswered questions concerning this new landmark’s creators.

Women of the Empire by J R Blackwell
Wellington Thornhill Books and Doctor Josepha Raven Blackwell share ‘an encounter’ after-hours at the Ministry, all part of Dr. Blackwell’s research into hysteria. Brief as the encounter, one of them will not come out quite the same from it.

The Emperor’s Fist by J R Murdock
Agent Reginald Coffey and Special Liaison Meiying Ling are deep within the jungles of China, setting technology against the oldest of dark Chinese magic. The two are set on a rendezvous with the most sinister of sorcerers and a plot to plunge the world into darkness.

A Trick of Strong Imagination by Alyson Grauer
Althea Galway, a gifted statistician for the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, follows her tedious pursuits for Doctor Sound to a Winter carnival and a strange mystery at its heart. With a dashing illusionist and the memories of her own secretive past with the Traveling Galloway Circus clouding her judgment, she dares to reach beyond her station and discover what is behind the tricks of a trade she knew better than any active field agent.

The Wrong Camera by Catherine Ford
Blythe is very excited to receive a camera for her birthday, but finds that gifts can have their price. What she sees through the lens offers a chilling insight into the future that people will kill for.

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Tales from the Archives : Volume 3

This volume includes:

All That Glitters by Dan Rabarts
Agents Lachlan King and Barry Ferguson are called to an isolated mining town to investigate the disappearance of a young Chinese girl. They found the town all but abandoned, and as they descend into the realm of Ruaumoko, the Maori god of earthquakes they find an explosive situation that will test both agents and their equipment sorely.

Under Oak Island by K T Bryski

Agent Brandon Hill is called in to investigate strange happenings in Nova Scotia. The location is an isolated stretch of land called Oak Island, a truly peculiar place with mystery and peril surrounding it. At the Money Pit, a man-made excavation site at the island’s heart, Hill meets up with Agent Anouk Tremblay, le Ministère Officiel d’Occurrences Sans Explication, the Québec counterpart to the Ministry.
Struggling against the dark claustrophobia lingering around them in their descent of the Money Pit, Hill and Tremblay navigate hydrological systems and digging technology to discover what has taken refuge under Oak Island.

Those Dark Satanic Mills by Suna Dasi
Agent Imogen Feaveryear finds herself investigating a mysterious panic overcoming a mill in the countryside of Manchester, England. The unassuming mystery, dismissed by other agents of the Ministry, leads her to India, the approval of Doctor Sound on granting the young agent the latest in R&D technology. This case only twists and turns harder as Imogen confronts an enigmatic intruder, obviously aware of her clandestine work.

Blessings of Baalsheim by Nobilis Reed
In the Spring of 1869 Mrs Isabel Burton begins a correspondence with the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Director, Woodruff Spring, on a strange device she has run across in her travels. Ministry agents are dispatched and a soon enough the Burtons, both Isabel and her husband Sir Richard, are deep in a very peculiar occurrence and dashing through the wilderness to prevent untold horror occurring.

The Black Empress by Katharina Bordet
When two agents from the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences are called to Vienna to investigate disturbances at the palace, what they discover could threaten the Austro-Hungarian Empire and shatter the fragile peace in Europe. Who is the mysterious man who has pulled diplomatic strings to enlist the help of a foreign agency and how is the Empress Elisabeth herself involved?

To Hide in Plain Sight by K T Bryski
Elizabeth Sinclair, working on the fringes of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, is called in to find a thief. Her unusual set of skills means she is particularly suited to this task, but she is not the only one able to hide in plain sight, and the museum of the University of Toronto has many secrets and dangers within its walls.

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Tales from the Archives : Volume 4

This volume includes:

Bitter Pill by Bill Blume
Miss Sharpe is not used to working for the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. She is used to being a killer for hire, the Jade Dagger, an artisan of death. Yet when called on to find an immortal in the city of her birth, she finds herself unprepared for what she discovers, as she is plunged into her own terrifying past and future.

Spiritus Sanctus by Alyson Grauer
Emily Cassidy Tuttle, on word from Doctor Sound, arrived in the shadow of the Vatican to receive a mysterious parcel from a local contact. What should be a simple pass between agent and mule spirals deeper and deeper into a wild madness that Emily is not prepared to face.

The Mummy of Barnsley by Michael Ventrella
Agent Ernest Throckmorton is called to Barnesley to investigate reports of a Mummy terrifying the town. Throckmorton soon finds himself thrown together with an all too eager assistant desperate to be part of the Ministry, as they hunt down the meaning of the Mummy’s ominous threat. All shall pay for the desecration of the tomb!

Down by the River by Tim Dodge
Agent Brandon Hill of the Ministry meets Agent Bill Wheatley of the Office of the Supernatural and the Metaphysical meet up in Afton, New York. The House of Usher is moving a large and dangerous weapon through this small town, and it is up to the agents to track it down. However, not all the residents are quite the same as they seem.

Beneath Northumberland by K T Bryski and P C Haring
Taking pity on the plucky intern in the Archives of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences might not have been the best choice for Agent Brandon Hill. What seemed like a simple kindness has brought him to the bottom of the Northumberland Straight, and into a very peculiar kind of Canadian danger. Tales from the Archives are short stories set in the world of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. They explore events mentioned in the novels, characters seen and unseen and may include novel teasers of things to come.

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