Gloria Oliver

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About Gloria Oliver
Gloria Oliver lives in Texas, making sure to stay away from rolling tumbleweeds, freak storms, and bowing to the wishes of her feline and canine masters.
She is the author of nine published novels in the genres of fantasy, YA fantasy, urban fantasy, science fiction, and cozy mysteries. Her first cozy mystery novel and first series book, "Black Jade - A Daiyu Wu Mystery" was released in June 2021.
She's also a member in good standing of EPIC and BroadUniverse but hasn't yet made it onto the list for Cat Slaves R Us.
For sample chapters, free shorts and more information, please visit her at www.gloriaoliver.com
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Titles By Gloria Oliver
Could a gorgeous old ballgown be used to commit murder?
Deep in the heart of Texas, Chinese immigrant Daiyu Wu discovers a mysterious ballgown in her family’s laundry business. It reeks of burned garlic and there is money pinned to it to pay for the cleaning. But no one knows who left it there.
Harnessing her instincts, knowledge, and determination, Dai sets out to learn everything she can about this strange green dress. Who wore it? Who left it at the laundry?
As she unravels the mystery behind the dress, Dai discovers a lot more than she bargained for. Someone has committed a murder using arsenic. Dai believes the dress is the key and that the murderer is trying to use the laundry to hide this crucial piece of evidence, the green ballgown.
Many factors conspire against Dai, but she remains undeterred. The police don’t even know about the murder. People think her blindness stops her from doing things. It’s Dallas in 1930, and Chinese people like Dai are not welcomed by the white residents of the city. Pushing these factors to one side, Dai turns detective. With Prince Razor, her canine best friend, and Jacques Haskins, her human one, she knows she must take on the challenges posed by a spoiled popinjay, his jealous self-appointed girlfriend, and Dai’s overprotective parents.
Time is ticking, but even though the killer is unaware that Dai is on their trail, they are destroying any evidence of their foul deed. Can she and her friends work out the mystery despite all the obstacles stacked against them?
For lovers of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Melanie Fletcher - ***** - An absolutely marvelous historical mystery. The last thing you'd expect in a mystery set in 1930's Dallas is a blind Chinese female detective, but Gloria Oliver deftly makes Miss Daiyu Wu the equal of Holmes, Poirot, and Dupin.
Kuzlin - ***** - Delightful new cozy mystery with a strong woman character. This story presented a unique plot twist - it starts with the discovery of the murder weapon, leading the main characters to discover the who and why.
ConiW - ***** - An incredible trip to the past. I was so surprised and very delighted to quickly see that this book was a mystery but also so very much more. The writing style is incredible and so detailed as to have me there in each scene with our characters; please let me say this before I embarrass myself, I truly fell head over heels for them.
Roxx Tarantini - ***** - Totally unexpected...but in the very BEST way!!! Daiyu Wu is a different sort of sleuth. Young, cerebral, unexpected, the blind Miss Wu uses her finely honed senses to help find the truth when others are content to look at the surface and call it done. In 1930s society this is hardly an acceptable pastime for a young lady; that Miss Wu is also of Chinese heritage muddies the waters further still. For "them".
Talia didn’t want to be apprenticed, not even to the prestigious Dragon Knight’s Guild.
She is taken to the school by a cross-eyed dragon and his partner, Kel. A dizzying, madcap ride which leaves her less than eager to be a knight, but soon she finds out the guild has need of many types of people.
Running into the dragon and squire again and again, she comes to realize the unlikely pair are outsiders in their own school-participants of the dragon-human pairing ritual, which in the end didn’t work quite as intended. They are stubborn loners who are determined to overcome the obstacles in their path and make a true pair. Or are they?
As Talia’s first year at the guild evolves, she must deal with the quirks of the Administrator, her lessons, the odd rules of the school, the students, the mystery of Clarence and Kel, and somewhere in there, possibly decide what it is she wants for her own future.
Excerpt
"What is going on?" Narilla's eyes were wide with barely controlled fear.
"That's the armorer?" Mari asked. "He looks more like something from a nightmare." She hugged herself as if spooked by her own words.
Talia shuddered, agreeing with her only too well. "Surely he's not as bad as he looks, don't you think? This is a school after all." She hoped her words sounded more confident than they felt.
They all jumped as a loud yelp echoed from the other side of the small door. A high, cackled laugh, belonging to who knew what, followed after.
Everyone in the room froze, not sure what to make of what they'd heard. A number of them looked even paler than before.
Talia kept her gaze on the door. None of this made any sense. Still, she couldn't stop her heart from hammering in her chest.
A squeal came through the door trailed by more cackling. This was soon followed by another yelp, which was abruptly cut off. The creepy cackling came again, this time from multiple voices. Talia felt the hair rising up on the back of her neck.
Less than a minute later, they all jumped in their seats as the door through which Tull was taken through started to inch open. Talia heard someone in their group gasp and scurry to the back, but didn't see who it was. Her gaze was riveted to the opening door.
Standing only about the height of her own shoulder was the oldest person she'd ever seen. The woman was hunched over as if carrying a great weight, and she leaned on a thick cane. Her face was puckered as if it was fruit left out in the sun too long. The old woman smiled a secret smile at them, revealing a gap filled mouth. "Who's next?" Her voice sounded like loose gravel.
When none of them volunteered, the old woman shuffled a few steps closer and eyed each one of them. "You," she said, pointing at Narilla with a crooked, aged finger. "You'll be next. You look good and healthy." Something about the way she said it Talia didn't take pleasure in at all.
Narilla let out a small squeak of fear. The old woman laughed. They all now knew where the cackling came from.
"Ma'am, where is our teacher?" Talia didn't realize she was going to speak until the words left her mouth.
The old woman turned yellowed eyes in her direction. "Don't you worry yourself about her, sweetness. Your turn will come soon enough." She cackled with glee, her laugh echoing harshly in the small room. She shuffled forward again and yanked Narilla by the wrist. Fear pouring off her in waves, the young girl hesitantly followed the old woman through the door.
It slammed shut with resounding finality.
How many times can a boy lose his home?
When Jacques is transferred to the Buckners Orphans' Home in 1916 at the age of six, he hopes that he's finally found a place to belong. Unfortunately, he couldn't be more wrong.
Jacques' only choice is to run away to Dallas and live on the streets. He has no future, no guarantee he will even survive.
Then he stumbles on a once-in-a-lifetime chance to change everything—if he dares to take it.
Origin/Prequel short story for Black Jade - A Daiyu Wu Mystery. Stand-alone fiction.
Excerpt:
"Jacques, this is big-ass trouble," Em whispered into my ear. "Whatever you hear or see, you stay hidden." His eyes were wide and round. "You see a chance to run, you take it. Never, ever go back to the Richards, or they'll nab you for sure, and then you'll never be free. Understand?"
I nodded like crazy, though I actually understood nothing. The one thing I knew was that if it frightened Em, there was no way I could handle whatever it was on my own.
We slinked to the end of the house. Em shoved me into the bushes and put a finger to his lips before moving on without me. Using a hedge of shrubs and trees as cover, he made it to the alley. I stayed where he put me, though I wanted nothing more than to be by his side.
Two quick, shrill whistles rang out when Em hit the path. Suddenly, light came at him from several directions as those waiting for us turned on flashlights, momentarily blinding Em. They quickly surrounded him. Powerless, I tried to think of a way to help my friend as tears pricked my eyes.
"Well, well, well. Fancy meeting you here, Emmett." The man who'd been leaning on the streetlight making smoke rings came out of the wall of light. All but two flashlights were turned off when he spoke. Those with the unlit lights held them like cudgels, as if prepared to beat Em with them if he made a wrong move.
A man sent to stop the world’s first zero-G birth. A deep space pilot who runs headlong into Einstein’s theory of relativity. A synthetic human fighting for survival in a world that sees her as disposable. All these stories and more can be found in A LONE STAR IN THE SKY, the second anthology from the Future Classics speculative fiction writers' group of North Dallas. Featuring eighteen stunning stories of science fiction and fantasy, including works by Nebula winner William Ledbetter ("The Long Fall Up"), and Nebula nominees Jake Kerr (“Biographical Fragments of the Life of Julian Prince”) and Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam ("The Orangery”), A LONE STAR IN THE SKY covers the gamut of speculative fiction and proves once again that everything is bigger in Texas.
“The Rings of Mars” by William Ledbetter
“Afterimage” by J. Kathleen Cheney
“Biographical Fragments of the Life of Julian Prince” by Jake Kerr
“The Damaged” by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
“The Lotus Eaters” by Michelle Muenzler
“Surfing USA” by Gloria Oliver
“The River of Lost Souls” by C.A. Rose
“Ghosts To My Fingertips” by Rachelle Harp
“Kosher Beef” by Rook Riley
“The Lark Ascending” by Melanie Fletcher
“The Life Expectancy of Cockroaches” by Michelle Muenzler
“The Wanderers” by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
“The Long Fall Up” by William Ledbetter
“The Queen Lorellai” by Gloria Oliver
“On Trial” by Rachelle Harp
“Lost in Whitby” by Melanie Fletcher
“Taking a Mile” by J. Kathleen Cheney
“The Old Equations” by Jake Kerr
It took everything from me, except revenge!
One moment I am sitting down to a cup of tea; the next, I'm on a dark street with a set of headlights coming right at me.
Not only am I not where I'm supposed to be, but I have three months of missing time. In that period, I ruined my best friend's wedding, blackmailed my boss, turned my back on my family and heritage, and worse.
I'm sure I've lost my mind until I meet Jensen White, an ex-priest who proves to me I am not insane. He shows me I was possessed by a demon—one who used and discarded me like so much garbage. Plus, it appears it did so with a purpose. So I'm tracking the thing to find out how and why it did this to me. Then I'll make the ones responsible pay!
Excerpt
He pointed to the other end of the bench. “Sit, please.”
Though the suggestion wasn’t unreasonable, I found myself abruptly very nervous. We were outside, in a public place, there wasn’t much he could do to me here someone wouldn’t see or that I couldn’t call for help for. My rusty self-defense classes from college would come into play as well.
Even with all that, I still had to make myself walk forward and sit down, my insides churning, wanting me to turn away and run instead. It was similar to the dread I got when confronted by my apartment door. But these feelings weren’t about Jensen, they were more about what I was about to do instead. “What now?”
“Now, I’m going to show you something.” He reached inside one of the many pockets of his vest.
I felt a drop of sweat roll down the back of my neck.
A moment later, he brought out a thin vial filled with what looked like green-yellow mucus. “What is—” I bit my tongue to stop the question, not sure I truly wanted to know just yet.
White took the stopper from the end of the vial and held it out toward me.
The longer I stared at it, the wider my eyes got. There was something queerly familiar about the off greenish-yellow color. I quivered inside though I had no idea why. My fingers dug into the fabric of my jeans.
Jensen held the vial directly between us, a neutral look on his face. “Take it. Smell what’s inside. Then we’ll see what we shall see.”
The muscles in my right arm jerked from tension as I tried to make it move and it resisted. A shrill scream inside my head insisted I didn’t want to do this. That if I did, there’d be no way to take it back. “I…I’m afraid.”
That I would admit such a thing to total stranger shocked me, but made it no less true.
“Unfortunately, you should be.” He jerked forward, putting the vial directly beneath my nose.
The smell smacked me like a hammer, knocking my head back as if hit. The scent resembled that of burning matches, acrid and intruding like rotten eggs. It was sulfur.
And it was the key.
My eyes half rolled back into my head as a flood of hidden memories washed out over me. Being in the apartment, getting a weird feeling in the back of the neck as if I was being watched. Goosebumps rushing up my arms as I became aware of a foreign presence. Spotting the flickering shadow just at the edge of my vision. A sense of pressure suddenly engulfing me, entering me, ripping at my mind, raping my soul.
My mouth opened in a silent scream, my back arching, almost pitching me from the bench.
Her last hope is her unborn child, a source of unrequited love to fill the void inside her. But that too is taken from her. How? Why?
Her doctor avoids her. Her husband berates her. And there are whispers--whispers telling of things that cannot be.
Yet the more Elizabeth ignores the rumors, the more they press on her to seek the truth, so she concocts a plan to find it. To find it and hopefully exonerate both Robert and herself. To discover the reason she's lost all that's dear to her. And she will, even if she must venture into Whitechapel to do it.
All Claudia wanted to do was escape the mistakes of the past and start over. But when she answers an ad for a medical officer on a merchant ship in the Fringes, the captain recognizes her and blackmails her into taking the job.
She finds out that not only can Captain Bennet not pass up a bargain, neither will he allow morals to hold him back from climbing the power ladder at the borders of the Dominion. Can Claudia stop the impending exploitation of a newly discovered sentient species all on her own?
Dragged from his home and into the company of the undead, Toshi must use his skills to help the creatures holding him hostage. Failure, however, will only end in his becoming one of them.
But those who don't wish his new master's quest to succeed may make Toshi one of the truly dead rather than allow him to help them.
When fate sends Red and his crewmates to the coveted port of Syrras, it is an opportunity he plans to take full advantage of. Unfortunately, his search for a little adventure hands him a lot more than he ever bargained for.
Changed by unknown magics into something other than himself, he's told a terrible secret. One he must now help protect, even as he is tasked to find those responsible. Failure will cost him his body, his way of life, everything that makes him who he is.
A socialite accused of murder, planted evidence, and mysterious enemies challenge blind detective Daiyu Wu in her new sleuthing adventure.
When a highly respected member of the 'Little Mexico' community is killed in 1930 Dallas, all the evidence points towards Grace Pierce, wife of a local businessman and a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Grace’s son Truman turns to Daiyu Wu and her unique detective skills for help, but Dai quickly discovers that nothing about this case is what it seems.
With her companion Jacques and canine bodyguard Prince Razor, Dai must navigate a family in turmoil, racial tensions, and shady business deals to find the actual killer before Truman's mother is sentenced to death.
Book 2 of the Daiyu Wu Mysteries
Things grow more complicated as it seems that not only is the evil from the past to be repeated, but it's somehow connected to the impending war of two countries, the impact of which would be felt through the world. Torren's duality might be the only thing able to make the difference between peace and genocide.
And now, they're all in one book.
TALES FROM A LONE STAR is the first anthology from the Future Classics speculative fiction writers group of North Dallas. Featuring fourteen stories from members such as Nebula nominee Jake Kerr ("The Old Equations") and 2012 Writers of the Future winner William Ledbetter ("The Rings of Mars"), TALES FROM A LONE STAR ranges from near future SF to a post-apocalyptic world run by zombies.
“Requiem in the Key of Prose” by Jake Kerr
“Teddy Bears and Tea Parties” by S. Boyd Taylor
“The Fowler’s Daughter” by Michelle Muenzler
“Last House, Lost House” by William Ledbetter
“The Ballad of Smokin’ Dad Harlan” by C.A. Rose
“Domalon-a-Ding-Dong” by Paul Lamarre
“Windows” by Gloria Oliver
“Le Gardien” by Melanie Fletcher
“A Distant Sound of Hammers” by S. Boyd Taylor
“The Tower” by Gloria Oliver
“They Gather in the Green” by Michelle Muenzler
“Worthy” by C.A. Rose
“A Touch of Ginger” by Melanie Fletcher
“Medic!” by William Ledbetter
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