Coming Soon!

“The Aliens” has been accepted for by Starry Eyed Press

My book is the longest work I’ve had accepted so far. It’s either a really long novella or a very short novel. Read the announcement for more.

Not sure when this will see the light of day. Surely sometime this year but in summer or later. It’s a sort of retro piece, which is what Starry Eyed Press was asking for. Basically they wanted the optimism and adventure from old “Star Trek” without writing an actual Star Trek story. There was basically no word count limit, so I experienced the freedom of crafting a story as it flowed from my imagination PLUS I created what I hope is a unique method of faster-than-light travel and some unusual aliens complete with “challenging” environment. I’ll tell you more as info comes in.

Available Now!

“Our Legacy, The Stars – A Tom Corbett Adventure” Is Now Available on Amazon’s Kindle Vella

This is a 16-part adventure based on the 1950s “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet” television show. It’s serialized on the Kindle Vella platform, so is presented like to old-time movie serials from the 1930s-50s.

Follow the voyage of the spaceship Polaris commanded by Captain Steve Strong and his cadet crew, Tom Corbett, Roger Manning, Astro, and Dr. Joan Dale as they face interstellar danger and intrigue.

Read the full announcement HERE and then go to Kindle Vella and read Chapter One: Disaster At Venus for FREE!

My short story “I Don’t Want To Be Human” Is Published in “Spring Into SciFi 2024”

I have a long history with Cloaked Press and they announced that my robots/AI short story is the first one published for 2024.

Read the details in my announcement along with a short sample of my wee tale.

Go to Amazon to either download a digital copy onto your Kindle or buy a paperback copy now.

My SciFi Drabble “Hunter” Now Published

My science fiction drabble “Hunter” is now in Martian: The Magazine of Science Fiction Drabbles. Click the following link to read Hunter.

“Pocket SciFi: Drabble Contest One” is available in Kindle and Paperback

The “Starry Eyed Press” publication is unique in that everyone who submitted could not only have up to ten of their drabbles selected for publication, but could also win a prize.

Nine of my drabbles made it into the finals and the anthology. They include: Sins of the Past, Little (Synthetic) Girl Lost, Buy a Lady a Drink?, Butterfly, Nishimura, Programmable George, Counterclock, Eve, and Cold Heaven.

To find out is any of them were winners and about the other science fiction drabbles, see my full article and stop by Amazon to buy and review the book. Proceeds go to supporting new and published indie authors.

The “Shoot the Devil 2: Dark Matter” anthology is now available from Amazon

This is a sequel to an anthology published last year and which has garnered nearly 90 percent four and five star reviews on Amazon.

Order “Dark Matter” from Amazon now. Read eleven startling, Christian-based tales about defeating ultimate evil in the far reaches of deep space.

My cyberpunk short story “The Apprentice” is in the “Summer of Speculation 2023” Anthology

This is a Cloaked Press publication, the same fine folks who produce the “Spring into SciFi” and “Fall into Fantasy” series. The Summer of Speculation anthology became available on June 26, 2023. To find out more about my SciFi short story “The Apprentice,” read the official announcement.

My Short Story “The Simulated Woman” is Now Appearing In the Anthology “Existential Hologram”

Starry Eyed Press has published my cyberpunk SciFi short story “The Simulated Woman” into their anthology Existential Hologram.

Here’s the blurb from Amazon:

Reality is an inescapable prison to all within yet it leaves its inhabitants with nearly no notion of what it is, how big it is, what it means or even whether or not it exists objectively or subjectively.

And yet, despite all of the mystery surrounding this most fundamental construct of existence, we’ve assembled twelve tales that manage to further blur the lines of sense of self, space and time, causality, necessity and possibility.

The following collection of science fiction treats reality as little more than opportunity to entertain, explore, question and conquer.

From simulation to cybernetics, artificial intelligence to avatars, Existential Hologram reminds us all that while consciousness may be the only certainty, entertainment is fuel for thought.

Featuring work from:

Andrew Paul Grell * Andria Kennedy * David Wesley Hill * Glenn Dungan * James Pyles * Jason Russell * Joan d’Arc * Lukasz Laskowski * Mark L. Anderson * Sam M. Phillips * Steven Lord

Please buy it, read it, and don’t forget to leave a review.

My Fantasy Short Story “The Price” Is Featured in the “Fantastic Schools Volume 6” Mystic Anthology

The story bundle, where the anthology was formerly available at, has finished and the book is now on Amazon.

Here’s my story’s summary:

One morning, 13-year-old Christopher Greenleaf wakes up at the Istredwonia Magic Middle School to find it deserted, or almost. Tamika, another student, and Lisa who works in the school’s kitchen discover that they are the only ones left. All of the students and teachers are gone and they’re trapped inside the school. Together, they desperately search for an answer to this mystery. Yet they are unaware that one of them is in league with the forces that seek to steal all the life force that generates magic, leaving the world defenseless against a great evil.

The book is available now

My Short Story “Fall of the Tower” Is Featured in the Starry Eyed Press Anthology “One-Way-Ticket”

The anthology is now available at Amazon in paperback or Kindle format as per my announcement.

My summary:

Four interplanetary races with eons of war and enmity between them were brought into harmony by a collection of beings called the Eshana. A priesthood and religion grew up around those entities and the field they generate, called the Arabika, that promotes well-being and peace.

Then another interstellar race is encountered in deep space. Something goes horribly wrong and a devastating war erupts.

Tianna is an engineer who turned down the priesthood and although sworn to secrecy, knows the secrets between the Eshana and their priests. Now, aboard a crippled starship, she must use what she knows to save the survivors including her husband and her rival, the priest Balim. With the ship’s Eshana almost dead, will she be able to save the four races, plus their sworn enemy, and even if she does, will she become the dread she has feared all her life?

“One-Way Ticket” is at Amazon.

The Steampunk Horror Short Story “Wolf in the Wind” is in the Anthology “Shoot the Devil”

“Wolf in the Wind” is a steampunk, horror, western story set in Idaho City, Idaho in 1887, so as you can imagine, it’s a bit unusual. The anthology became available in September 2022 just in time to become a Halloween gift.

Emma Elizabeth Durbin is an Occult Consulting Detective in 1887. She receives a desperate message from small town Sheriff Bobby Bill Thornton. People are being slaughtered in the mountains near Idaho City but only by moonlight. After the latest victim, Bobby’s lover Sarah dies in his arms, he turns to a person he does not understand to solve this series of ghastly murders committed by an inhuman form not of this world. But who is the mysterious E.E. Durbin and will the secrets she keeps be enough to save both their lives when they encounter the wolf in the wind?

Find  Shoot the Devil: Ten Tales of Humans Defeating the Demonic at Amazon.

“Dollface” in Dragon Soul Press Anthology

My novelette “Dollface” is featured in the cyberpunk anthology Surge published by Dragon Soul Press. They describe the stories as:

These characters are trying to survive in a dystopia of advanced technologies. Living alongside Artificial Intelligence has its perks, but also many deadly downfalls.

My tale describes the tribulations of two “Dollfaces,” people who have been raised since childhood to service the sexual needs of any customer assigned to them. People in this world are either upper class, lower class or otherwise whatever the government, corporations and crime syndicates need to use, including Dollfaces. One of them has a chance to escape to a better life and the other…

“Surge is available now at Amazon.

“The Haunting of the Ginger’s Regret,” A 224-Verse Book

This is my second 224-Verse novella, and my fourth published novella overall.

Kamadiin Naji is the pilot and owner of a newly purchased jump freighter called “Ginger’s Regret.” The name is as mysterious as the person he bought it from. But with an assassin on his trail, he needs a ship to disappear into a different part of the Andromeda galaxy and start a new life. But the “Regret” has a history. Fifty years ago, something terrible happened on board. Hauling illegal cargo and trapped between pirates and a lethal bounty hunter, while the ghost haunting the “Regret” be Kam’s salvation or damnation?

Buy my book at Amazon today and don’t forget to leave a review.

“Tiamat Descending” Now in “Spring Into SciFi 2022”

My short space opera “Tiamat Descending” is featured in the Cloaked Press annual anthology Spring Into SciFi.

I’ve had stories published in this anthology back to 2019 and am very gratified that my tales are still receiving this sort of attention. This year’s story collection is described as:

Spring Into SciFi returns for its 5th year, bringing a fresh crop of tales to tickle the minds of science fiction lovers. Within these pages you can find love or explore a virtual prison. We have forgetful heroes, space mermaids, underground civilizations and ghost spaceships. Hive minds and Genie AIs, cute little aliens and deadly hybrid monsters. Space detectives and miracle cures. Trek across the stars and through the worlds created from the minds of these Cloaked Press authors.

Order it from Amazon now for immediate delivery to your kindle device. The book “went live” on March 21, 2022.

Now Available,  my third SciFi Novella “The Fallen Shall Rise”

My novella The Fallen Shall Rise is now available in a shared universe collective published by Starry Eyed Press.

The tale takes place in a shared universe called the 224-Verse. My story is set against a wider backdrop of galactic political intrigue and presents the mystery of why a civilization fell thousands of years ago.

An interview about my story conducted by the publishers will be forthcoming.

Please read and review my novella at Amazon and Goodreads.

Winter of Wonder anthology published my story “That Which Burns”

Winter of Wonder 2021, the first in this series. The theme is “superhuman” and for the occasion, I let my firestarter Tyler Melody Ross loose on unsuspecting readers. Fortunately, she’s fictional, but what would life be like if, as a child, you had the power of destruction? What would you be like with that ability as a teen? Incarcerated in an asylum in upstate New York in 1954, her new psychiatrist decides to build his fame on experimenting with Tyler’s unusual abilities. But on Christmas Eve, one year after the disaster that saw her captured and confined, things go one step too far.

Buy Winter of Wonder at Amazon now.

“Ice” is Now Available

My small novella Ice is now available for download onto your kindle device from Amazon. Here’s more:

In eons past, the armies of Surtur the fire goddess and Ymir the frost giant waged an unceasing battle for dominance over the Earth. For all those ages, they maintained an uneasy but enduring balance. Then humanity rose from the mud, and with the passage of time, came to fear fire more than ice, devoting their own meager forces to the conflict. Not to be denied, Surtur beat back both mortals and giants, consigning the planet to unrelenting heat and the ice lords to seeming oblivion. Before leaving the material realm, in jest she gave humanity the gift of magic and the curse of the return of dragons.

For thousands of years thereafter, the race of people knew nothing but a world without ice. Spanning the globe in sailing ships, the humans continued to thrive and remembered not the distant past. Then Captain Ki-Moon Yong of the Oceanic Trading Company vessel the Star of Jindo is assigned the task of solving the most profound mystery ever encountered. Another ship has gone missing and her only remaining crewman suddenly commits suicide after visiting the sunken continent of Antarctica. All of the dinosaur species of the south have gone mad, invading the guarded towns and cities on their way north, as if to escape some monstrous terror.

The answers to these enigmas all lie on the continent at the bottom of the world, and Captain Moon must take the Star to a strange research facility to discover them. But once there, he is confronted with a truth so profound and so nightmarish that it will change the very nature of reality. Can the Star of Jindo escape the inevitable in time to warn an unbelieving world of that truth, or will they be consumed in frozen horror?

Buy it from Amazon today!

I Have Two Stories Published in “Meteor Fall: An Anthology of The Collective”

Read about the amazing universe created by the fine folks at Cloaked Press in Meteor Fall: An Anthology of The Collective. My two short stories “The Sins of the Father and of the Son” and “Eden and the Starcat” are featured therein.

“The Unreal Man” is Published in Dastaan World’s anthology Discordia!

I signed the contract for this short story in late April 2021 as I announced here and Dastaan World finally published the anthology Discordia the following November.

I’ve been looking forward to this one because I’ve been living with Jonathan Cyfer or something like him in the back of my imagination for over 40 years. Of course, the most important elements of his development have only occurred in the last few.

See my announcement on this blog including who the “Unreal Man” is and a story excerpt. You can buy this anthology on Amazon right now.

My first science fiction novella “Time’s Abyss” is now available

My very first science fiction novella “Time’s Abyss” is available now. Find the links at books2read.com

It starts in the present with eccentric billionaire Theodore Falkon commissioning and using what he thought was a timespace projector. The wanted to bring extinct life and ancient treasures from the distant past to his personal island for the amusement of his internationally famous guests. It starts with a 3000 year old alien starship being discovered by the Soviet military under the Siberian wastes in 1965. It starts with the projector’s inventor brilliant physicist Carson Everett leading a covert military and scientific team aboard a submarine to Falkon’s island chain to shut down the most dangerous experiment in the history of humanity. Where it ends will depend on which versions of reality take over the Earth, if it’s possible to end it at all.

My novella is number 10 in a series of 12 Underground themed tales published by Black Hare Press.

You can order my novella now at Amazon for delivery to your kindle device or get a hardcopy now. Don’t forget to leave a review

Find My Short Story “Theo Klaagorn, Private Eye” in Fall into Fantasy 2021

I’m proud to announce that my urban fantasy tale “Theo Klaaggorn, Private Eye” is appearing in the anthology Fall into Fantasy 2021.

Here’s a small excerpt:

I left the werewolf in my car, and with a fairy in my jacket pocket, shuffled short, stubby legs across the street. It was a rundown North Las Vegas neighborhood and I was at the front door of one of the trashier shacks. Just half an hour past sundown, and I was hoping I could get to the Lillian before the vampires did. If we were too late, Angie would probably be sent up for life and I’d have let down a five-year-old kid who deserved to have her Mom back.

“Theo, I can hardly breathe in here.”

Maddy was all of five inches tall and me being only four feet taller, she made a big lump in my sports coat.

“Shut up.”

My chunky fingers reached for the doorknob and turned. I pushed it open slowly and peeked inside. Not a creature was stirring, which I hoped was a good thing. Then I saw her.

My Short Story “The Last Astronaut” is Featured in “Exploring Infinity”

On the heels of Richard Paolinelli’s novel Escaping Infinity comes his anthology Exploring Infinity set in the same universe. A number of authors, including me, have created short stories set in or around the “Infinity Hotel,” a time travel device collecting humans from across history to repopulate a future Earth which has been destroyed. My short story “The Last Astronaut” features the last person from the 21st century, on a deep space mission aboard an experimental spaceship when our planet ends in a cataclysm, being drawn into the time vortex. His adventures with the alien he meets are unique and possibly never ending.

You can purchase Exploring Infinity at Amazon now.

The Three-Part Science Fiction Series “Woman Under Repair” is Available for Free at “The Green Shoe Sanctuary”

My short story “Woman Under Repair” was accepted as a three-part serial and can be read for free in the May edition of The Green Shoe Sanctuary (scroll down to see the links). Here’s the story synopsis:

The woman who is now Mikiko Jahn was a young nuclear engineer at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in March 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami caused the worst reactor accident since Chernobyl. The disaster reduced Mikiko into a barely alive torso and head covered with unspeakable burns.

Revolutionary scientist Daniel Hunt has developed a special and highly experimental technique that, in concert with the Japanese and British governments, is used in a secret project, not just to rebuild Mikiko into her former self, but to make her more than human. But six years later in pursuit of a notorious human trafficker, is she human at all?

My SciFi story “Homeward” featured in the anthology “Deep Space Vol 2”

The nearly 10,000 word count science fiction tale “Homeward” was chosen for the Black Hare Press anthology Deep Space Volume 2.

Seventy years ago, a Soyuz spacecraft was secretly launched by the Soviet Union in an attempt to beat the United States to the Moon. It disappeared and wasn’t seen again for decades. Then NASA’s Voyager probe detected it in a close orbit around Uranus, but it wasn’t alone. It was attached to something enormous. Now, after seventy years, an interplanetary deep space craft with a crew of five is approaching the gas giant determined to solve the mystery. But will they discover aliens, humans, or both?

Order Deep Space Vol 2 now for delivery to your Kindle device. Was published on May 11, 2021.

Read “No Place Like Home” in the anthology “Magicks & Enchantments”

I originally wrote this tale for a different publisher who turned it down. Editor Jamie Ferguson at Blackbird Publishing did a fantastic job working with me to bring out the best in this missive. I’ve submitted other stories to Blackbird without success but “No Place” really clicked.

Ever wonder what would have happened if Dorothy never made it back to Kansas from Oz. Maybe Glinda the Good Witch wasn’t so good after all. Once Dorothy’s friends got everything they ever wanted in life, do you think they’d all still be pals?

And after all, somebody has to take care of those flying monkeys.

My saga is among fifteen tales of magic and mystery. Go to Amazon and buy Magicks & Enchantments” today.

“Wayback” can be found in “Spring Into SciFi 2021”

My short story “Wayback” is published in the Cloaked Press anthology Spring Into SciFi 2021 Edition.

I’ve been honored to have my stories “The Recall” and “The Colonists” published in the 2019 and 2020 editions respectively. It’s a tremendous joy to me that the editing team over at “Cloaked” think so well of my writing.

However “Wayback” has another special significance. It’s the very first story representing a “steampunk” universe that has already seen the light of day in other anthologies. You can find the continuation of “Wayback” featured in my short stories “The Mechanical Dragon” (which also explains how steam-cold fusion technology is possible) in the Zombie Pirate Publishing anthology Clockwork Dragons and “The Deseret War” which can be found in the Immortal Works anthology A Mighty Fortress. There’s even a small mention of Amanda Westcott in my novella, available for pre-order now, called Time’s Abyss.

But before all that, there is “Wayback.”

Spring Into SciFi 2021 Edition is available now at Amazon.

“Saving the Apostle” is featured in the “Saturn” Planetary Anthology

This one is pretty exciting because it combines my interest in writing science fiction and my fascination with very early Christianity when, in fact, it was a form of Judaism that could include both Jews and Gentiles.

One of my theological “pet peeves” is that if the Apostle Paul hadn’t agreed to go to Rome and ultimately been executed, if he had trained the next generation of Jewish emissaries to the nations to be pro-Gentile, Non-Jewish Christianity may never have broken off from its Jewish source. Think of what that could have meant for the last twenty centuries of Christianity and Judaism. There would have been no “Church” as such to persecute the Jews and possibly even Hitler’s Holocaust may not have happened.

You can read my original announcement and then go to Amazon to order the anthology which became available on February 16, 2021. Also go HERE to view the anthology’s promotional video.

TICK TOCK: A Time Travel Anthology (500 Fiction) Available Now

You can now purchase a copy of the science fiction anthology TICK TOCK: A Time Travel Anthology (500 Fiction) for your Kindle or as a paperback .

There’s quite a number of time travel tales contained within its pages, and each complete story is a mere 500 words long.

Mine is called “The Tenth Second.” In the late 1950s, a young scientist is part of a government experiment designed to project him forward in time ten seconds while only one second passes in the normal world. Something goes horribly wrong and when he emerges from his ruined temporal pod, he finds that everyone else in the lab complex frozen in time…almost.

The book became available December 10, 2020. No Amazon reviews yet, so yours could be the first.

“The Haunted Detective” now available in “Trench Coat Chronicles”

Yes, I wrote a “hard boiled” detective story set in late 1940s San Francisco. The differences are that Margie Potter is a tough, no nonsense private eye in a “man’s world” of cops, thugs, and killers…that, and her first client is a ghost. That’s what makes her haunted.

Her client is actually the reason Margie became an investigator in the first place. When Preta disappeared without a trace six years before, Margie couldn’t let it go. In this story, she finally succeeds in finding the murderer. Now a wounded Margie has to survive the encounter or become a corpse herself.

My short story can be found in “The Trench Coat Chronicles” now at Amazon.

Also, I’m interviewed about my story Here.

“The Pleiades Dilemma” appearing in the “Sol” Planetary Anthology

On the heels of my announcement about “Mars” came the news that my science fiction short story “The Pleiades Dilemma” was accepted for publication in the Tuscany Bay Books Planetary Anthology “Sol.” This one of my earliest stories, and while I was thrilled that it was accepted so long after I submitted it, I was also horrified at how “primitive” it seemed compared to my more recent works. Fortunately, a little judicious editing saved the day.

50 years after the mysterious Oumuamua object entered our Solar System and then vanished forever back into interstellar space, another supposed asteroid makes a similar visit, but this one is slowing down as it heads toward the Sun. A small group of astronauts are launched on a mission to rendezvous with the intruder, and to discover if it means to contact humanity or destroy it.

The “The Pleiades Dilemma” is available now at Amazon.

Click HERE to watch the promotional video.

Look for “The Apollo Containment” in the Black Hare Press anthology “Anthology “Lockdown Sci-Fi #3”

Black Hare Press has been good to me, publishing both one of my SciFi and Fantasy tales. During the COVID-19 lockdown, they’ve been producing free (yes, no money involved) anthologies of all sorts. I only submitted one story to one of them, and I’m pleased they accepted it. It became available on October 31, 2020 at. Amazon.

“Sorcery’s Preschool” featured in the “Fantastic Schools” anthology

I didn’t expect this one to be well received, since “Harry Potter” stories aren’t exactly my strong suit. Then my son Michael suggested a tale of a “magical preschool” based on the idea of the character “Jack Jack” in “The Incredibles” movie series. Here’s a small sample:

Agatha Pye rushed into the schoolroom just as the auxiliary doorways to her left sparkled into existence, preparing to disgorge students and teachers back inside. What she found was the head teacher pressing Emily against her with both hands.

“Grandma!” The little girl grinned and tried to run to Agatha, only to be stopped by Siegel’s firm grip.

“No, child. Remember, she doesn’t love you like I do.” Seeing Scott and Angelique sprinting into the room, she added, “None of them do.”

“Miss Siegel,” the child wailed.

Scott tried to run to Emily, but Aggie motioned with her hand, sending him sailing backward to the open entrance.

“Don’t. You’d never survive.”

The response to the submissions call yielded so many good stories, Jagi says she’ll have to publish three anthologies. Mine is in the second book, available now at Amazon.

My Helicon Award Winning SciFi short story “The Three Billion Year Love” is featured in the “Mars” Planetary Anthology

Cover art for the Mars Planetary Anthology by Tuscany Bay Books

This is one of the more exciting announcements I’ve made in recent months, both because this story was one of my favorites when I first posted a version of it on this blog, and because I’ve always wanted to contribute to the Tuscany Bay Books Planetary Anthology series.

Imagine a grieving physicist/entrepreneur who, after tragically losing his wife, wants nothing more than to retreat into his work and oblivion. Then, an accidental discovery gives him a chance to get back everything he’s lost. The only catch is that he finds it on the planet Mars three billion years in the past.

I’m especially excited that my short story is the 2021 Helicon Award Winner for Best Short Story in an Anthology!

The “Mars” anthology is available now at Amazon. Click HERE to watch the promotional video.

“7 Deadly Sins” includes my dystopian science fiction/horror story “The Babel Project”

A world wide pandemic is slaughtering billions and only a brilliant and eccentric scientist/businessman can save humanity by building an orbiting ark. But with pride and hubris his real motivation, what sort of world does he plan to build?

Read more about the book at Amazon.

I’m very happy to announce that my fellow author Brian – James, otherwise known as “Damaged Skull Writer” has reviewed this book and found my story to be his favorite. Click the link to find out more.

“Dark Solstice Holiday Horror Collection” features my short story “Betrayal”

Once again, Eleanor Merry has accepted one of my small tales, this one based on a pagan celebration of the summer solstice called “Betrayal.” It’s only around 500 words long, and hopefully, I successfully communicated the intent of the title in those few words.

Read more about the book at Amazon and Goodreads.

“Buried in the Sands of Time,” my SciFi short story, is featured in the “Raygun Retro” Anthology

My retro science fiction short story “Buried in the Sands of Time” is now available in the Zombie Pirate Publishing anthology Raygun Retro: A Science Fiction Anthology.
Here’s an excerpt. Remember, this is “old school” SciFi:

“Lisa!” Artie spotted one of the aliens emerging from a side chamber armed with a dart gun. It had Horn in its sights when Fleming fired his laser, melting it’s chest. The arrow flew wild, slicing the reporter’s shoulder, as another Mars man came from behind.

“You bastard.” A bright ruby beam shot out at the speed of light from Lisa’s pistol, incinerating the creature’s face.

“Come on.” Lisa helped Artie down the tunnel, clumsily wielding her laser at threats.

The alien swarm had been significantly thinned by the robot, but the machine was slowing. Smoke from his power assembly was filling the cave, making it hard to breathe.

“Robot’s not going to make it. Let’s go.”

Lisa and Artie obeyed Kip as they caught up with Terry and Roland.

The Captain, scientist, and reporter dashed past them, while Chang and Sparks kept shooting.

“Move your ass, Sparks. We’ve got to get back to the Rover.”

“Robot’s out. Just a few more…” Terry was only two steps behind Roland when several bolts hit his friend’s chest.

“No! Screw you.” Screaming, he took the other laser from Roland’s lifeless fingers and used both to cut down four of their pursuers. He was trembling, vision blurred by tears, scampering backward.

“Get out of there. That’s an order.” The lump in Amanda’s throat almost choked her.

“Coming, Commander.” He tripped but managed to keep upright. Then he passed Nichols and Moore.

“We’re right behind you,” she called.

“Just one more shot to bring down the house.” Henry fired his rifle, scorching the rocky overhang a few meters inside. Stony debris rained down, burying the remaining synthetic men.

“Let’s go, Commander. You’ve got some explaining to do.”

“I have…?”

They started to run toward the light, neither seeing the torso of one synthetic man emerging, gravely wounded, from the rocks. With its dying effort, it aimed and shot.

Click the link to find out more.

My Short Story “The Colonists” Available in Spring Into SciFi 2020

My short story “The Colonists” was accepted in the Cloaked Press anthology Spring Into SciFi 2020, which is the third story this publisher has printed. Here’s a sample:

Genaro woke up in a panic, or was he still having the nightmare, the one where they had turned him into a monster? He’d been sleeping a lot lately. Had he been drugged? They were keeping him sedated in a dark place. They had done something to him, something horrible, but he couldn’t remember what. Why was it so hard to think? “Why can’t I breathe?”

He tried to stand but then found he was floating. “Some kind of liquid, but not water.” His voice sounded strange. Genaro found the floor with something that wasn’t a foot at the end of an impossibly long leg. What had happened? When he tried to move his fingers, at first, they weren’t there, and then they seemed to extend out from his hand like tentacles. “Is someone there?” He couldn’t hear anyone, but felt like there should be others.

He inhaled something that didn’t smell like air, and tried to breathlessly scream. Finally, he detected a dim light. Yes, his head was clearing, but it felt like there was a sharp metal spike jammed into the base of his skull. “Where am I?” This time, when he muttered the question, it came out as squeals and moans. The light made everything look orange and yellow. The walls, ceiling, they were all too close, wrapping in around his body. He couldn’t look down to see himself. “Oh God, I’m dead.”

The anthology is available for now available on Amazon. Also, read a terrific review of my short story Here!

“From Deep Within the Skin” is featured in the anthology Infestation

My Horror/SciFi tale From Deep Within the Skin is currently available in Terror Tract Publishing’s collection Infestation: A Horror Anthology. Here’s a sample:

“It won’t take long. I promise.” His voice was preternaturally calm. He might as well have been reading a poem by Frost, or singing a lullaby. “You weren’t the first I took after I was brought into the fold. A flight attendant, three local climate scientists I stayed with in Lima, a police officer, a dozen others, they’re all joining us.”

She started screaming but his hand smothered her face.

“Now you’ll be next.”

She felt it on his back first. The holes. Hundreds, thousands of lumps the size of marbles were squirming and writhing under his skin. Then the flaps opened up in his back, his face. He was a mask of bursting pustules. No blood, no ooze, just them, the bugs, the spiders. They crawled on wire thin legs, all over him, out of him by the disgusting score, and then all over her, biting, boring, infesting every orifice, her ears, she clenched her eyelids shut.

Click the link above to order the anthology right now!

A Mighty Fortress: Mormon Steampunk

My short story “The Deseret War” is featured in Immortal Works publishing for their anthology “A Mighty Fortress: Mormon Steampunk”. This is the fourth volume in this annually released series of tales merging the themes of the LDS church and steampunk. Here’s a short summary of my tale:

Once Stephen Isaac Eddington converted to Mormonism in his native London and realized the severe persecution the Church was enduring in the United States, he knew he had to use his unique skills to help defend the faith. But to do that, he would have to steal an incredible invention devised by his scientist mentor who had recently perished, and the greedy and corrupt tycoon who had financed the venture. Eddington and his ill-gotten technology arrived in Utah well ahead of the U.S. Army troops who the President commissioned to remove Brigham Young from power and establish a new Governor over the Utah territory. Now, instead of the Church being a mere pawn at the hands of the government, he provided them with mighty weapons that would not only protect the Church, but establish a brand new nation. However, even Eddington couldn’t anticipate the heavy consequences of his actions.

The anthology, which contains 17 stories, including mine, is available NOW at Amazon.

Eleanor Merry Presents: Dark Valentine

Three of my short stories, each between 100 and 500 words long, have been accepted into this holiday horror anthology. These are not your typical tales of romance, but rather of darkest bonding. They are “Reaper,” “Playtime,” and “New Heart.” Not for the timid. It’s here in time to be a Valentine’s Day 2020 gift. Available for Order from Amazon now.

Treasure Chest: Selected Short Stories features my wee missive “Joey”

Treasure Chest is Zombie Pirate Publishing‘s first “best of” anthology, a collection of short stories they’ve previously published in other works.

Founded in 2017, Adam Bennett and Sam Phillips have produced a plethora of anthologies, giving indie authors like me, the opportunity to have our tales see the light of day and become available to readers.

My short story Joey, originally published in the SciFi anthology World War Four (please readers, post more reviews), is featured in the “Treasure Chest.” It’s one of my strongest missives emotionally, and I’m glad it was selected.

This anthology is available now at Amazon.

My Short Story “The Mechanical Dragon” is now available in “Clockwork Dragons: A Fantasypunk Anthology”

After struggling to come up with anything I thought was worthy of this Zombie Pirate Publishing anthology, I finally hit on an idea when I crafted a 150 word tale based on this prompt from What Pegman Saw. After that, the rest just fell into place.

I’m doubly excited because this story is the second one to be published that takes place in the same steampunk universe I’ve created. The other is The Deseret War which will be out in the anthology “A Mighty Fortress: Mormon Steampunk Vol IV” to be published sometime in February 2020.

Buy “Clockwork Dragons: A Fantasypunk Anthology” now on Amazon!

Stop Me From Falling Published in “The Devil’s Doorbell”

Jonny was young, successful, and engaged to a wonderful woman. He thought he had everything a man could want. Then he met the mysterious Dolengen in a club called “Delirium,” a place that had never existed. They spent one glorious, horrible night together. He thought it was a one-night stand, a last fling before marrying Lucy. But now Jonny is being inexorably drawn into Dolengen’s world, a world of nightmares and blood. Will he fall in forever or can there be an impossible salvation?

Read “Stop Me From Falling” in the Hellbound Book’s anthology The Devil’s Doorbell: An Anthology of Darkest Romance.

Two of My Tales Published in “Dark X-Mas Drabbles Anthology”

Not one but two of my drabbles are available in the Eleanor Merry Presents Christmas Horror anthology “Dark X-Mas”. Here’s a blurb for each one to be featured in Dark X-Mas Drabbles Anthology:

Christmas Feast

For centuries, the innocent belief of children breathed life into Santa Claus, bringing him into the homes of millions every December 24th, laden with gifts for precious cherubs. But the world changed and children changed, and finally there was too little faith left to keep the old elf going and he expired.

But this year, Santa’s chief servant Alabaster found ten wee ones he could spirit away from their cozy beds at the stroke of midnight in order to supplicate themselves at the grave of St. Nicholas. These children desperately want Santa back, but what horrible sacrifice will they be expected to make to resurrect a very different Santa from what the world has ever known?

The Ghost of Christmas Past

A year ago this Christmas, Bill’s six-year-old daughter Emily died under tragic but mysterious circumstances. Bill’s wife suspected the worst and left him, taking everything. This Christmas Eve, he sits in grief and remorse in front of a Christmas tree bereft of gifts. He is alone, with colored, twinkling lights his only illumination. A terrible secret weighs heavily upon him, and in a moment of supreme sadness, he wishes everything he had done could be made undone.

The first moment he sees Emily’s specter next to the tree, he thinks his dearest wish as come true. But in the next, he horrifically realizes that it is not reunion his daughter seeks, but macabre vengeance. What is Bill’s hidden crime and how will Emily make him pay for it?

Dark X-Mas Drabbles Anthology is available at Amazon.

UNRAVEL: A Crime Microfiction Anthology (Dark Drabbles Book 5)

My “drabble” or exactly 100 word short tale “Death Visits Mexico” was just published by Black Hare Press and is available in Unravel: A Crime Microfiction Anthology on Amazon. The theme for the “Unravel” anthology was dark, criminal mysteries, and so I took a tale I’d crafted a few years back and re-edited it to meet the publishing requirements. It’s historical fiction set in 1947 where Jewish private detective Moshe Katz is about to deliver justice to a war criminal in a particularly dramatic way. Find out more including the daunting list of authors right here.

Fall into Fantasy 2019 Anthology

I’m thrilled to announce that this fantasy love and horror story is available on Amazon now!

“Fall into Fantasy 2019” published by Cloaked Press also published my short missive “The Recall” which is featured in the Cloaked Press science fiction anthology Spring into SciFi 2019. “The Demon In The Mask” makes its debut in their latest fantasy anthology.

I crafted a much different version of this story in response to a “Song Lyric Sunday” writing challenge almost two years ago for Marquessa Matthews. She has long since moved on to other endeavors, but I do have to thank her for making “Demon” go from my imagination, to a very simple concept, to finally a complex and published story.

This tale also has the distinction of having been rejected twice before, which means that for many stories, it’s more a matter of finding the right home for them, than whether you must receive rejection as meaning what you wrote is universally unacceptable.

Tales of the Southwest

My short story “The Strangers” for the anthology Tales of the Southwest is pretty unusual. I wrote it for a completely different submissions call that wanted an “aliens vs. cowboys” encounter in the old west. They rejected it, but a chance encounter on Facebook led me to John Green and a completely different call for a book he was publishing at this indie outlet. If you want to read both classic and otherworldly western tales, the anthology can be found at Lulu.com.

In 1887, the small mining town of Cedar City, Utah experienced an extraordinary event, a strange object from space crashing in the nearby foothills. What happened next would not only change the lives of every single inhabitant, but would send ripples forward in time for half a century and beyond.

The Toilet Zone

My short story “Retired” can be found in the Hellbound Books horror anthology The Toilet Zone. In this case, the title refers to the average amount of time a person sits on the “facility” while reading something. The 32 stories for the anthology had to be just that long.

What would happen if you woke up one morning with two sets of memories, one belonging to you, and the other from the brain of a serial killer? That’s the premise of my tale.

Go to Amazon to purchase the book, and please write a review.

Impossible Hope Anthology

The Superversive Press anthology “Impossible Hope” is now available, but not at Amazon or any other well-known retailer.

28-year-old Bonnie Oliver was diagnosed with Complex Chiari Malformation, Craniocervical and Atlanto-axial Instability and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome type three in 2018. It has been a long and wearisome road to these answers, and her family has watched her health decline for over a decade, with a marked downturn over the past six years. She can’t leave her home without help from a walker and preferably one or two helping hands, and even with that level of support she cannot be out for long.

In order to help Bonnie and raise funds for research into these terrible disorder, A.M. Freeman organized the “Impossible Hope” project. She asked any author who was willing to donate a short story to the anthology which would be sold to raise such funds. That’s why you can’t find this book on Amazon or Barnes and Nobel. You can only get it by donating on Bonnie’s GoFundMe. Donate to help us reach the goal of $110,000 for her surgery, and then download a digital copy of the book. Couldn’t be simpler.

I’m actually pretty honored. My first introduction to the idea that it might actually be possible to be published was through Superversive Press (though this is the first of their books in which a story of mine is featured). Now I finally get to share a table of contents with my teacher L. Jagi Lamplighter and her husband John C. Wright. Others with whom I’m acquainted who have donated of their talents are Dave Higgins, Frank B. Luke, Ben Wheeler, Denton Salle, and particularly Sam M. Phillips from Zombie Pirate Publishing (one of the two indie publishers which first published one of my works).

Click the link, donate, download the book, read it, including my short story “The Switchman’s Lantern,” and don’t forget to write a review on your blog or social media. It’s for a worthy and human cause.

Spring Into SciFi 2019

The Cloaked Press science fiction anthology Spring Into SciFi 2019 is now available on Amazon. It features my short story “The Recall” and the foreword to the book is by SciFi author Ian Hugh McAllister. Be the first on your block to get a copy, and don’t forget to write an Amazon review.

In 1977 a strange radio signal from space gives the strongest indication humanity has ever had that there is intelligent life beyond the Earth, but it lasted only 72 seconds and has never been repeated…until now.

Flash Fiction Addiction

My flash fiction piece “Growing Flowers” is the “Flash Fiction Addiction” anthology from Zombie Pirate Publishing. They received nearly 300 submissions and accepted exactly 101, including mine.

Unlike my two previous stories, this one was inspired by a “writing challenge” on Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie. As I recall, the fine folks there posted a collage and I used the images and the quote as the inspiration to craft an earlier version of “Flowers.” When I submit a story for publication that has appeared on my blog, I revise it, sometimes drastically, and remove the blog post with the original story. The latter is because publishers typically ask for six months exclusive use of the story before it appears elsewhere. So what you’ll read when FFA comes out won’t be quite what I had first crafted lo those many months ago.

It is available on Amazon now.

1929: A Zimbell House Anthology

My short story “The Devil’s Regret” is featured in the Zimbell House Publishing anthology 1929, which includes a number of tales in multiple genres, all set in the year 1929.

Sixteen-year-old Timothy Quinn grew up in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, working as a “printer’s devil,” an apprentice in a newspaper print shop since age twelve. One day, the teen and would-be boxer starts hearing strange news announcements on the radio that seem to come from the future. Then he learns that in the next seven weeks, a ten-year-old girl will be kidnapped and murdered by a notorious serial killer. No one believes his wild tale, so he sets out to confront the killer himself, but will he succeed in saving the life of an innocent child only to sacrifice his own?

“1929: A Zimbell House Anthology” is now available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Magical Reality

A modern fantasy anthology from Pixie Forest Publishing featuring thirteen fantasy-related tales set in the modern world includes my short story “The Dragon’s Family.”

Aging retiree James Monroe finds a small, injured dragon in a vacant field behind his house, and taking the creature home, discovers that the grief and loss he, his son, and grandchildren are suffering from is mirrored in the existence of the mythical being. Together they learn how to demonstrate great sacrifice, healing, and love, but only after confronting a monstrous evil.

Magical Reality, edited by Jensen Reed and Donise Sheppard, is available now on Amazon.

World War Four

This anthology is available for purchase now on Amazon in paperback format as well as digital in the US and the UK.

This science fiction anthology from Zombie Pirate Publishing features twenty post-apocalyptic tales set in a world that has survived World War Three but that now faces the unimaginable; a fourth world war, has accepted my short story “Joey.”

Ten years after the end of the third world war, on an Earth recovering from nuclear winter, an alien species invades and wipes out all but a handful of the human race. A man and his young grandson make a hazardous journey though the Northwest wilderness, running from hunter machines and hoping to join the remaining resistance fighters, but sixty-year-old Andy Hanson has a terrible secret.

“World War Four,” edited by Adam Bennett and Sam M. Phillips, and features the exclusive novelette “Monitor Logan” written by internationally bestselling SciFi writer Neal Asher.