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When Molly shows up on Castle Hangnail's doorstep to fill the vacancy for a wicked witch, the castle's minions are understandably dubious. After all, she is twelve years old, barely five feet tall, and quite polite. (The minions are used to tall, demanding evil sorceresses with razor-sharp cheekbones.)

But the castle desperately needs a master or else the Board of Magic will decommission it, leaving all the minions without the home they love. So when Molly assures them she is quite wicked indeed (So wicked! REALLY wicked!) and begins completing the tasks required by the Board of Magic for approval, everyone feels hopeful.

Unfortunately, it turns out that Molly has quite a few secrets, including the biggest one of all: that she isn't who she says she is.

This short story was originally published on the author's website in 2014. It has been collected in Jackalope Wives and Other Stories.

Read this story for free at the author's website.

Nebula Award-winning and World Fantasy Award-nominated short story

They were shy creatures, the jackalope wives, though there was nothing shy about the way they danced. You could go your whole life and see no more of them than the flash of a tail vanishing around the backside of a boulder. If you were lucky, you might catch a whole line of them outlined against the sky, on the top of a bluff, the shadow of horns rising off their brows.

This story is included in the anthologies The New Voices of Fantasy (2017), edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman, Nebula Awards Showcase 2016, edited by Mercedes Lackey, and Best of Apex Magazine: Volume 1; and was collected in Jackalope Wives and Other Stories.

Read this story online for free at Apex Magazine, or listen to an audio version at Drabblecast.

This short story was originally published by Apex Magazine in January 2015. It has been anthologized in The Best of Apex Magazine: Volume 1, and The Long List Anthology Volume 2: More Stories from the Hugo Award Nomination List, edited by David Steffen, and collected in Jackalope Wives and Other Stories.

Read the full story for free at Apex Magazine.

This short story was originally published in Apex Magazine in January 2016. It has been collected in Jackalope Wives and Other Stories.

Read this story for free at Apex Magazine.

This story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 16, May-June 2017.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny Magazine.

This novelette was originally published in Apex Magazine in January 2017.

Read this story for free at Apex Magazine.

Hugo Award-winning Novelette

This story originally appeared in Apex Magazine, January 2016. It has been collected in Jackalope Wives and Other Stories.

Read the full story for free at Apex Magazine.

This story was originally published on the author's website in June 2014. It was anthologized in The Long List Anthology: More Stories from the Hugo Awards Nomination List, edited by David Steffen, and collected in Toad Words and Other Stories and The Halcyon Fairy Book.

Read the full story for free at the author's website.

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue Seven, November-December 2015. It has been anthologized in The Long List Anthology Volume 2: More Stories from the Hugo Award Nomination List, edited by David Steffen, and collected in Jackalope Wives and Other Stories.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny Magazine.

Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

Digger is a story about a wombat.

More specifically, it is a story by author and artist Ursula Vernon about a particularly no-nonsense wombat who finds herself stuck on the wrong end of a one-way tunnel in a strange land where nonsense seems to be the specialty. Now with the help of a talking statue of a god, an outcast hyena, a shadow-being of indeterminate origin, and an oracular slug she seeks to find out where she is and how to go about getting back to her Warren.

Digger is a story about a wombat. More specifically, it is a story about a particularly no-nonsense wombat who finds herself stuck on the wrong end of a one-way tunnel in a strange land where nonsense seems to be the specialty. Now with the help of a talking statue of a god, an outcast hyena, a shadow-being of indeterminate origin, and an oracular slug she seeks to find out where she is and how to go about getting back to her Warren.

With an irreverent sense of humor and a fantasy protagonist with a healthy dose of skepticism, Digger rapidly gained a huge following of devoted fans eager for the twice a week updates of the webcomic. This volume collects the first two chapters of the story, along with an all-new six page comic revealing the origin of the talking statue of Ganesh. Digger has long received acclaim from fellow artists and webcomic critics.

The second collection of Digger features the third and fourth chapters of the highly acclaimed webcomic. Digger is still lost in the strange land she discovered at the end of a one-way tunnel, which now seems more intentional than accidental. A seemingly innocuous fossil she picked up on the way is suspected of having more to it than meets the eye, and the beneficient talking statue of Ganesh has a need that sends Digger and a decidedly unhinged acolyte deep underground in search of answers.

Compared to all that, vampire squash, hungry hyenas, and over-zealous religious police are trifles, really...

In this third volume of Digger, covering chapters five and six of Ursula Vernon's webcomic, our wombat Heroine is driven from the protective care of the Hag by the persistent efforts of Captain Jhalm. Back in the strange world outside the temple of Ganesh, Digger encounters friends new and old, while often confronting the age-old question of the nature of good and evil. Seemingly simple answers lead to complicated consequences, foes turn into allies, and Digger must continue to sort out who she can trust in her quest to find her way back home.

Digger puts her trust into trolls, vampire squash, and hyenas who wanted to eat her. Regular readers will probably not be surprised to learn that Digger's instincts serve her well.

In this fourth volume of Digger, covering chapters seven and eight of Ursula Vernon's webcomic, our wombat Heroine finds herself under the scrutiny of the universally feared matriarch of the Cerulean Hills hyena tribe, Boneclaw Mother. Should she survive, there is only the small matter of a ceremonial feast for the late hyena hunter Skull Ridges, which Digger unwittingly helped avenge much to the consternation of all. (It's complicated...) A hyena long feast is no place for a vegetarian wanting to avoid offense and a one-way-trip to the dessert course.

And there is still the matter of getting home without getting any deeper into the matter of nearly-dead Gods, insane acolytes, talking statues, or amoral shadow critters with a penchant for existential crises. When Surka (the ex-pirate captain shrew turned professional bridge troll) and Ed (the outcast hynena artist and master of the warrior-tea ceremony) are among the saner beings in your social circle, you KNOW things are just not turning out like you hoped.

In this fifth volume of Digger, covering chapters nine and ten of Ursula Vernon's webcomic, our wombat heroine embarks on the journey into which she had been cajoled by the statue of Ganesh in the previous volume, accompanying Murai and her destiny towards a monastery in the Morrakgon Mountains that once had connections to the god shackled underground. Along the way, they meet up with Grim Eyes, who had been sent to join them by Boneclaw Mother, hire a guide with an interesting history (and morphology) all his own, and are surprised to find that Shadowchild has been trailing them all along. One of the oracular slug's prophesies comes true, with disastrous consequences that threaten to end their quest rather abruptly, but with a good dose of teamwork, wombat-style glow-sticks, and Grim Eyes' first-aid skills, they manage to resume their trek.

Unfortunately, when they arrive at the monastery, they find it to be rather less inhabited than they had hoped, though not completely empty. Murai's destiny is interrupted by the arrival of one of Digger's relatives, from whom they learn the history behind the god who is chained underground. Their path forward becomes clear, but before they can return to the temple, Shadowchild gets a visit from a relative of his own, and for him the phrase "confronting your demons" takes on a whole new meaning.

In this sixth and final volume of Digger, covering chapters eleven and twelve of Ursula Vernon's webcomic, our wombat heroine makes her way back from the Morrakgon Mountain monastery along with Grim Eyes and Murai. They make a beeline for the temple, but get intercepted by Surka with grave news. The Veiled have corralled the hyenas on their lands and are coming to surround the temple, leaving Murai the only one equipped to defend the temple (even with a broken arm). Meanwhile Digger and Ed (now dishomed by The Veiled as well as his former tribe) take a decidedly un-mystical crowbar to see about killing a God or what is left of one, anyway.

Who will come out of this with their liver intact? Will Boneclaw Mother do "The Thing" to Captain Jhalm? Will there be bug-on-a-stick?