Listen to my new flash fiction piece "AdPerson" over at the 600 Second Saga podcast.
Roland wakes into a world that is an eager customer.
He savors his oatmeal with honey; he brushes his teeth; he puts on clothes and greets the neighbors on his way out the building. And he stands at the bus stop and stands in the bus and reads his instructions from Corton Vestee Inc. and occasionally checks his wristwatch, treating it all as a performance, every sidelong glance, shuffle of the feet, every sigh and breath.
(Listen to the whole story.)
Thursday, February 7, 2019
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Ghostflesh
Horror short story "Ghostflesh" out out now at Five on the Fifth.
Martina lights the candle, and shadows throw themselves up against the wall; black silhouettes flicker, dance, squirm as if before a firing squad, and Martina watches these shadows through squinting eyes, drinking in their performance.
“They'll be strongest on Sunday,” she tells me and snuffs out the candle.
Smoke wreathes her head; she gets up and the wreath goes through her, dissipates. She flips the switch. Light floods the room, making us both wince, and I sneak a glance but the shadows have melted back into the wall.
Read the whole story here.
Martina lights the candle, and shadows throw themselves up against the wall; black silhouettes flicker, dance, squirm as if before a firing squad, and Martina watches these shadows through squinting eyes, drinking in their performance.
“They'll be strongest on Sunday,” she tells me and snuffs out the candle.
Smoke wreathes her head; she gets up and the wreath goes through her, dissipates. She flips the switch. Light floods the room, making us both wince, and I sneak a glance but the shadows have melted back into the wall.
Read the whole story here.
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Borrowed
My flash fiction piece "Borrowed" is out now at Farther Stars Than These.
Emma was playing with Lev the Lion when the bell rang.
Rainbows gleamed in her father's eyes: the porch camera feed relaying to his optic nerve. Emma giggled as his cheeks and forehead wrinkled up in befuddlement; but his eyes dulled back to brown a moment later, and he went to open the door.
(...continue reading.)
Emma was playing with Lev the Lion when the bell rang.
Rainbows gleamed in her father's eyes: the porch camera feed relaying to his optic nerve. Emma giggled as his cheeks and forehead wrinkled up in befuddlement; but his eyes dulled back to brown a moment later, and he went to open the door.
(...continue reading.)
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Between the Cities
Saturday, November 3, 2018
When We Go
"When We Go" is out now at Fiction on the Web.
When I go, I want to go like a rocket.
Leaving the world at breakneck speed, upright, arms like fins, legs trailing a column of smoke; and the dusk sky, a postcard ripped in two by my passing.
And then, no explosion. But a winking out as space swallows me whole and the earliest star outshines me.
And then -
Wind blowing the smoke away; people scattering, going home to cry at photos that end up packed away into shoe boxes, shoved under beds to gather dust. People moving on.
People forgetting.
(...continue reading.)
When I go, I want to go like a rocket.
Leaving the world at breakneck speed, upright, arms like fins, legs trailing a column of smoke; and the dusk sky, a postcard ripped in two by my passing.
And then, no explosion. But a winking out as space swallows me whole and the earliest star outshines me.
And then -
Wind blowing the smoke away; people scattering, going home to cry at photos that end up packed away into shoe boxes, shoved under beds to gather dust. People moving on.
People forgetting.
(...continue reading.)
Monday, September 10, 2018
Crisis
"Crisis" is out now at Mithila Review (Issue #10).
The story is set in present-day Vasilegrad, the capital of my fictional Balkan federation, where a bubbling political crisis threatening to tear the country apart is seen as an opportunity for an adrenaline rush by a Western tourist.
Read the full story.
The story is set in present-day Vasilegrad, the capital of my fictional Balkan federation, where a bubbling political crisis threatening to tear the country apart is seen as an opportunity for an adrenaline rush by a Western tourist.
Read the full story.
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Free to read: The Scrimshander
My dark fantasy story "The Scrimshander" is now available for free reading (and listening!) at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
The story can be read here, or you can listen to the audio version narrated by Michael J. DeLuca.
The slender jawbone lies in the palm of his hand like a crown. Raising it, an offering to the night, stretched starlight gleams on milk teeth. Engravings appear, a scene playing out from incisor to canine to molar, a tale of disease and mourning, of angry tears and hissed warnings to those who’ve caused him harm.
The city sleeps beneath him, bristled, towers jutting skyward in defiance of Mallinos. He swings off the eaves, jawbone in hand, down a drainpipe, past square windows of indigo, feet dropping on pavement with barely a sound.
(Continue reading...)
The story can be read here, or you can listen to the audio version narrated by Michael J. DeLuca.
The slender jawbone lies in the palm of his hand like a crown. Raising it, an offering to the night, stretched starlight gleams on milk teeth. Engravings appear, a scene playing out from incisor to canine to molar, a tale of disease and mourning, of angry tears and hissed warnings to those who’ve caused him harm.
The city sleeps beneath him, bristled, towers jutting skyward in defiance of Mallinos. He swings off the eaves, jawbone in hand, down a drainpipe, past square windows of indigo, feet dropping on pavement with barely a sound.
(Continue reading...)
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