Obsidian Tales is a compilation of short mystery stories with mystery, thriller, folklore tales, and diverse characters of color written by African American and Latinx authors. "Issue" is a story about thriller writer Morris White, taking the reader on the inspiration to his successful writing career becoming too...REAL. Tales like "A Week in the Life of Valerie Andrews" show what happens when a young woman takes the expression "curiosity killed the cat" a bit too far. Authors Sadie Abdullah, Geraldine Hunter, Raphael Jackson, Rae James, Nann Mahon, and Kimberley Wiley have brought their stories to our "house of mystery." Pat Canterbury (The Armoire), Valjeanne Jeffers (Mona Livelong, Paranormal Detective), and L. Marie Wood (The Ever After; The Realm) come over from writing horror. Canterbury, Jeffers, and Wood were part of the Bram Stoker Award Finalist anthology Sycorax's Daughters.
About the Author: Sadie Abdullah's life has crisscrossed the United States. She is a teacher, speaker, prayer warrior, and life survivor. A minister with a degree in Theology, Sadie is the mother of four adult children and still by the grace of God in her right mind. Taking pieces of life's journey, forming them into teaching, encouraging, inspirational, healing moments that can be digested in the form of a mystery is what her writing is all about. Sadie lived most of her adult life in the San Francisco /Oakland Bay Area that gave her an eyewitness account of human nature at its highs and lows. She now resides in Sacramento, California, reading and working on her future novels.

Patricia E. (Pat) Canterbury is a native Sacramentan, political scientist, world traveler, collector of Northern California artists' art, award-winning poet, and award-winning mystery author of children, pre-teen, and adult novels. She is the recipient of the Sisters-in-Crime Sacramento chapter's Capitol Crimes' Shining Star Award 2020 for her support of the chapter's readers, would-be writers, and authors. Pat's short stories have appeared in over 28 anthologies. She lives in Sacramento with her husband and an elderly cat who listens patiently to her drafting manuscripts. Pat can be reached at her website: www: patmyst.com or email: patmyst@aol.com

Geri Spencer Hunter (geraldinehunter2018@yahoo.com) is a native Iowan and a graduate of The University of Iowa College of Nursing. She started writing in the late eighties, writes in all genres, and her writings have been published in numerous anthologies. Her debut novel "Polkadots" (ReGeJe Press) was published in 1998. Her short story "Deja Vu" was included in Shades of Black, Crime and Mystery Stories by African-American Writers (2004), edited by Eleanor Taylor Bland. Her latest novel, "The Summer of my Fifteenth Year" (Blue Nile Press, 2015), was a finalist for the Harlem Book Fair's 2016 Phyllis Wheatley Awards and has been on The African American Literature Book Club's (the most extensive online Black Book site in the country), Ten Bestsellers List six times. She is amongst its 100 Bestselling Authors. She's a ZICA Arts and Literary Guild member, a retired Public Health Nurse, and lives in Sacramento, CA.

Raphael C Jackson is a retired history professor. He is the creator and Executive Producer of the IRT Express: The International Rhythm Train radio program. His previous works include Jesus Was Born in Brooklyn, Jackson Temple, and My Soul Has Grown Deep Like the Rivers. He is a contributing editor to Ground Truth Magazine and a member of ZICA Literary Guild of Sacramento, California. His works appear in Speak Write Dream, Therefore We Write, Color Him Father, Black Fathers Bold and Beautiful. Editor of Jesus Was Born in Brooklyn, Jackson, My Soul Has Grown Deep Like the Rivers, Trane Blew and From Brooklyn to Bahia. A Photographer and ceramist, his works have been exhibited in the Museum of Natural History in New York and other museums and galleries.

R. Franklin James is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. She followed a career of political and legislative advocacy with writing mysteries. In 2013 her debut novel in the Hollis Morgan Mystery series, The Fallen Angels Book Club, was published by Camel Press. The final book in the six-book series, The Identity Thief, was published in 2018.
She launched two new series, the Remy Loh Bishop Mysteries, with the release of The Appraiser in 2019, and the Johanna Hudson Mysteries, with book one, The Inheritance, to be released in Spring 2021.
James sits on the board of Bouchercon, an international, non-profit organization that has produced mystery fan conventions for over fifty years. She also serves on the board of Capitol Crimes, the Sacramento Chapter of Sisters in Crime. In addition, she is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Northern California Publishers and Authors.

Valjeanne Jeffers is a graduate of Spelman College, a member of the Carolina African American Writers' Association (CAAWC), a member of the Horror Writers Association, and the author of nine books, including her Immortal series and Mona Livelong: Paranormal Detective I & II. Her series The Switch II: Clockwork (Books I & II combined) was nominated as the best ebook Novella of 2013. She was also chosen as a Seer (2016) by the Horror Writers Association (HWA). Her writing has been published in numerous anthologies, including 60 Black Women in Horror Fiction; Steamfunk!; Volumes I and II; Genesis Science Fiction Magazine; The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (as Valjeanne Jeffers-Thompson); Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology; Liberated Muse I: How I Freed My Soul; PurpleMag; Drumvoices Revue; Griots II: Sisters of the Spear, Possibilities; Black Gold; The City; Fitting In; Sycorax's Daughters; Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia Butler, Blerdrotica, and Slay.

Nan Mahon is a journalist, freelance writer, and novelist. From her years of writing profiles of ordinary people, their accomplishments, and their dreams, she drew a clear sense of character. Then, as an agent for a blues band, as a playwright, and as a stage producer, Mahon learned an understanding of the artist's struggle. These are her friends and the people she brings to her stories. Often gritty, her work gives voice to the disenfranchised, those living on society's fringe, and the outcast.
Nan's novels include Blind Buddy and Mojo's Blues Band, Junkyard Blues, Pink Pearls, and Irish Whiskey. Hard Times and Honeysuckle is her family's story. In addition, her short stories appear in numerous anthologies.
She is the chairperson of the City of Elk Grove Arts Commission and received the very first Mayor's Award for Commitment to the Arts.
Nan describes herself as the little girl who wanted to sit and read while the other children played games outside. Yet, she knew even then that all she wanted to be was a writer.

Kimberly Wiley is originally from San Francisco, California. She attended the University of San Francisco, graduating with a BA in Economics but Wiley also did pre-med courses. She received my medical degree from the University of California, San Diego and went on to complete a family medicine internship and residency at the University of California, Davis. For the last 27 years, Wiley has lived and practiced primary care medicine in Northern California.

L. Marie Wood is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and playwright. She is the recipient of the following awards: Winner, Golden Stake Award for The Promise Keeper, International Vampire Film and Arts Festival 2019; Winner, Harold L. Brown Award of Excellence for Home Party, The Nova Fest, 2019; Winner, Best Horror Screenplay for Missy, The Nova Fest 2020; Winner, Best Screenplay Short, Indo Global International Film Festival 2020; Winner, Best Afrofuturism/Horror/Sci-Fi Screenplay, Urban Mediamakers Festival (UMF) 2020; Winner, Best Horror Screenplay, Crescendo, The Nova Fest, 2021.Her short story, The Ever After, is part of the 2018 Bram Stoker Award Finalist Anthology Sycorax's Daughters. She has been recognized in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Vol. 15, and is one of the 100+ Black Women in Horror Fiction. In the Horror community, Wood is an officer in Diverse Writers and Artists of Speculative Fiction and Director of Horror Fiction Programming for MultiverseCon. For more information, visit her website at www.lmariewood.com