Five Fortunes

A fortune can be many things.

A fortune is wealth, which you earn through hard work, win by chance, steal by cunning, or lose through tragedy.

Good fortune smiles upon some and makes life easy, while ill fortune curses others to walk lonely, bitter roads.

A fortune can be your fate foretold with cards, predetermined by the stars, or read in tea leaves and portents.

Here you will find a mix of all such fortunes and the stories of five fates determined by chance or divined by purpose.

One man will remake himself into a rabbit to forge a new life. A lioness will pursue her desire to be a hunter at all costs. A wolf will struggle against her nature, only to find that even counting money can be dangerous. A cat will fall in love with a dog, and both will find that means more than anyone could imagine. And a Caitian will journey across the stars in the hope of escaping the misfortunes of his life.

Each tale explores how a fortune can change a life. How a person might change their destiny. How greed or simple bad luck can change everything. And above all, the lengths some will go to make themselves a new fortune.

Featuring novellas by Phil Geusz, Renee Carter Hall, Watts Martin, Mary E. Lowd, and Bernard Doove.