2023 – the year as it was.

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The new year is rapidly approaching and it’s time for me to take you back through my accomplishments of 2023. They are better than last year but not as good as the year before. Oh well.

Let’s start off with my SciFi short story “Fall of the Tower” my first tale of 2023 published in One-Way Ticket: A Science Fiction Anthology by Starry Eyed Press. I’d been trying to get some version of this story published for years and finally hit upon the right presentation.

I took the story’s title from the Biblical tale of the “Tower of Babel” found in Genesis 11:1-9. The story began with that Biblical quote, but the publisher replaced it because they do not want to represent any particular religious viewpoint. So it goes.

This was followed by my short story “The Price” featured in Fantastic Schools, Volume Six and is my second magical schools tale published for Wisecraft Publishing. I’m not a big fantasy or magic school writer, but I’m proud of the magical system and story I crafted here. There’s always a price for using magic and it’s typically blood. Sometimes it is life and even many lives.

After that, “Starry Eyed Press” published my short story “The Simulated Woman” in their anthology Existential Hologram. I had a lot of fun playing with the “what-is-real-and-what-is-not” cards in this one and hopefully kept up the suspense right to the last moment. Plus who can resist a story about a woman and her dog…and a bunch of other animals…and military conflict…and video games?

I have a long relationship with Cloaked Press although they haven’t loved everything I’ve written. However, for their anthology Summer of Speculation with the theme “Sidekicks,” they did accept my short story “The Apprentice.” It’s set in a futuristic cyberpunk world and functions, more or less, as a sequel to my short story “Dollface” which you can find in the “Dragon Soul Press” anthology Surge. Within a vast totalitarian empire exists a secret society dedicated to raising up apprentices to become Paladins, Teachers, and Librarians, preserving the ancient ways of individuality, rights, compassion, and justice.

Shoot the Devil 2: Dark Matter is my second outing in this series from Crucifixion Press. My short story “The Heavens Declare His Glory” explores the idea that, if God created intelligent life on other planets besides Earth, wouldn’t He have also presented the Gospel of Salvation tailored to species that are not human? That question was answered by my young Christian officer on his first space assignment where he confronts not only a monster, but the depths of his own faith.

Pocket SciFi: Drabble Contest One really was a contest where any participating author could submit up to ten science fiction stories, each being exactly 100 words long. Writing to such specific requirements isn’t as hard as you might think, and every Wednesday, I contribute to a writing challenge of that type. Here, nine of my ten drabbles were accepted for publication, but alas, none of them won the top three prizes. It was still fun.

At Martian Magazine I submitted my science fiction drabble Hunter which you can read by clicking on that link.

That brings me to the return of The Planetary Series published by “Tuscany Bay Books.” This “superversive” series of anthologies had gone out of print and three of my short stories along with it.

Fortunately, all eleven volumes came back including Sol and my short story “The Pleiades Dilemma,” Saturn and my topical short story “Saving the Apostle,” and Mars which features my award-winning short story “The Three Billion Year Love.”

Not strictly new, but resurrected for 2023.

I must say that many, many more stories were rejected this year than accepted, but there’s always the future.

Happy New Year to all of my readers, fellow writers, and whoever happens to embrace what is to come.