Writing

“Ghostwitch”: two thousand words of terror

This an update I actually should have shared over a month ago, but time got away from me. By which I mean, I misremembered “Ghostwitch’s” publication date in the online Two Thousand Word Terrors anthology as August instead of July, and I also have spent the summer in a fugue of work — editing, of course, and some writing, but also preparing for the 2023 Sustainability Fair in Waukesha County. If you’re in Southeast Wisconsin and looking for a fun and informative, mostly outdoors, all-ages event, check it out!

I’ll be honest, I can’t think of an elegant segue from environmental sustainability to “Ghostwitch,” which is a short tale of ghosts, the collecting of stories, and lingering, dangerous desires. But here’s an excerpt:

“Are those the ghosts you speak to?” I ask.

“The only kind you can. The other isn’t capable of that.”

“…And what is that sort like?” I ask, ending a minute when the only sound is the scratch of my lead pencil over paper.

“A remembering.” She sounds uncertain, though. “An impression—the shape of something past. It lingers where they died, or around the means that killed them. A sort of feeling, usually. People have told me of that, sometimes, when they come seeking advice, but I’ve never experienced one personally.”

An urge, the opposite page calls to me. To walk…

“I think they’re the most dangerous.”

Into the waves…

“Why do you say that?”

The ghostwitch sighs. “A feeling that can’t be resisted—isn’t that the most dangerous thing in the world?”

And could not be called back…

My pencil scratches furiously, leaving scars across the paper.

The full story, with a gorgeously eerie illustration, can be read for free on Rooster Republic Press’s website:

New Story Collections: Heroes, Apocalypse, Loyalty and Betrayal

Embarrassment is a poor motivation for writing, so I won’t be ashamed about how little readers have seen of me over the past few years. I haven’t been wasting my time – I’ve edited dozens of amazing novels, helped to plan two Waukesha County Sustainability Fairs, and found out this online dating thing might be all it’s cracked up to be (even if it means off-line interactions require an hour-long drive. I’m taking audiobook recommendations, by the way!).

All that said, I agree that it’s high time I published some fiction.

And now I am!

This December, I’m putting together three ebooks of re-released short fiction – a great opportunity to revisit old stories (some of which I’ve revised) and to discover new ones. They’re currently available from Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and more, and I’m so excited to share their cover art:

Six stories explore the ways and the price of survival when everything seems lost:

An astrologer loses her stars but not her faith in them. A woman watches as her lover and her planet transform with new life—or die with it. A young man seeks revenge for unwelcome mercy granted in a world where every breath is agony. A group of artists discovers the strange loveliness which is all that remains of all the other worlds.

At the end of things, people display selfishness, exhaustion, but also connection. Friendships are betrayed and nurtured. If hope is gone, there is still determination, curiosity, and beauty.

Available on Amazon (including Kindle Unlimited)

Four stories of courage, compassion, and endurance celebrate:

The young man chosen to die in the place of a hero who can never lose
The secret at the core of a marriage society approves
The woman who built a forbidden flying machine, and the woman who loved her
Resilience under terrible odds

These are the things no regime can entirely repress—and they can make anyone a hero.

Available on Amazon and wider distributors through Draft2Digital 

An epic, tragic, bewitching tale of strange spells and unexpected loyalties.

To Hethan A’Manth, it seemed like a routine enough mission: one more message to deliver. Certainly, this time it was to a rebel queen, but he knew to keep his head down as he passed through the affairs of monarchs, armies, and sorcerers.
Yet he becomes beguiled, entangled in the last stand of southern kingdom against the most puissant Empress—and in the friendship he forms with Asmadene the Halcyon, which might yet change the shape of history.

Available on Amazon and wider distributors through Draft2Digital 

Aqua Vitae

Jenes Inarya wants to live to experience everything, and it just might be possible. Her quest for immortality leads her through myth and legend to the farthest reaches of the galaxy (well, so the Jericho magazine article said, although it’s prone to exaggeration). And it’s only the beginning. The rest of a very long life is about to start–but Jenes doesn’t yet know how to live it.

“Aqua Vitae is only 70-pages long, but manages to pack a lot…part science-fiction drama, part cautionary fable…by the end, Aqua Vitae offers an interesting discussion on mortality and what it means to live, through the lens of a character who wants more from her life…Overall, this was a quick and thought-provoking read, set against an universe made interesting by its reaches into various mythologies, and I would recommend it to anyone with a little free time on their hands and an appetite for the speculative.” -James N. (Amazon reviewer, 4 stars)

“Bottom line: an engaging and challenging read, with some food for thought if you have the patience to ferret it out. “-Joan Leib, The Future Fire Reviews

•  Find it at:
  Amazon  Barnes & Noble  iTunes  Kobo  Powell’s  Diesel eBooks  BetterWorldBooks

Short Stories: A Dark and Wonderful History

Dark fantasy stories based in the same secondary world, centered around women.

• “The Gallows Wife,” Semaphore Magazine & 2009 anthology, reprinted in Shadows Within Shadows.
  • Find it at: Amazon  Alibris  Barnes and Noble  Better World Books
• “The Loving and Keeping of Wolves,” WolfSongs 2  EPPIE Winner Best Anthology of 2011
  • Find it at: Amazon  Powell’s  Kobo  Barnes and Noble  Better World Books
• “How the Woman Brought Death,” All About Eve
  • Find it at: Amazon  Powell’s  Kobo Barnes and Noble Better World Books
• “The Godslayer’s Wife,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #71 (available on Kindle)
• “Invitation of the Queen,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #52 (available on Kindle)
• “Goldenseed,” Thoughtcrime Experiments anthology
  • Find it at:  Amazon   Better World Books
• “Silver Chests and Plain Sight,” Bards and Sages Quarterly, reprinted online at Voluted Tales
• “So Cold My Blood Freezes,” Champagne Shivers magazine
• “The Forest Gods,” Fantastique Unfettered #5

Short Stories: Across the Curse-Strewn World

Stories featuring Aniver, a wizard of the city Nurathaipolis-that-was, now lost to rogue time, and Semira, the sailor who joins his quest to save it.

• “The Storms in Arisbat,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #110 (available on Kindle) Recommended review from Lois Tilton, Locus Online
• “For Lost Time,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #165 (available on Kindle)
• “The Grace of Turning Back,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #179 (available on Kindle)
  

Other stories in this setting:

• “After Zandar” at Sorcerous Signals

Short Stories: Heart’s Kindred

The adventures of Rathin and Anweth, a wandering couple equipped with sword and sorcery.

• “Every Mother’s Child” in Fantastique Unfettered Issue #2
  • Find it at: Barnes and Noble  Amazon.com  Alibris
• “An Honorable Aunt” in Silver Blade #18
• “Through the Father Range” in Outposts of Beyond #4 
• “Eisiden’s Sister” in Fictionvale Episode 4

Other stories in this setting:

• “Of the Generation” in Roar and Thunder magazine; reprinted in Different Dragons II from WolfSinger Publications;  also reprinted in the Heroic Fantasy anthology from Flame Tree Publishing

Short Stories: Xeocin Empire

• “The Halcyon in Flight,” Crossed Genres
• “The Twilight People,” originally in Tower of Light magazine
• “Goddess of Ashes,” originally in Tower of Light magazine, reprinted in the Tough as Nails anthology
  • Find it at: Amazon  Barnes & Noble   Alibris
• “The Sorceress of Avalo,” originally in Byzarium magazine, reprinted in Sorcerous Signals
• “In the Mirror,” originally in Silver Blade, reprinted in the Lorelei Signal.
• “Ameran Theater” in Every Day Fiction

Short Stories: Science Fiction Stories

• “John Kosichev” in Storyteller Magazine, Vol 1, No 2
• “http://amzn.to/2ra5H4mArnheim’s World” in Analog Magazine, May 2015
• “Drown or Die” in The Future Fire and TFF-X: Ten Years of The Future Fire
• “To the Altar” in Warrior Wisewoman 3
  • Find it at: Amazon  Barnes and Noble  Powell’s  Alibris  Better World Books
  • Reprinted in Andromeda’s Children
• “Reila’s Machine” in M-BRANE Science Fiction’s anthology Things We Are Not
  • Find it at: Amazon Barnes and Noble  Alibris   Better World Books
• “The Astrologer’s Telling” in Daily Science Fiction
• “Charismatic” originally at Crossed Genres, reprinted in Ares Magazine issue #3.
• “The Equation in the Mirror,” originally in Perihelion, reprinted in Comets & Criminals
• “The Fosterling” on Daily Science Fiction (available on Kindle)
• “Ayema’s Fleet” in the Battlespace charity anthology. Reprinted in Veterans of Future Wars (BN.com)
• “Outlive” in M-Brane SF #21
• “The Last Veteran” at Every Day Fiction
• “Following the Mercy Man,” in Comets and Criminals
• “Farther Than That” in Queer Fish 2
  • Find it at: Amazon  Barnes & Noble  Alibris  Better World Books
• “Two Rivers” in Daughters of Icarus
  • Find it at: Amazon  Barnes & Noble  Alibris
• “A Marriage, Pure and Good” in Scigentasy’s Debut issue
• “The Witch Hunter’s Account” in Nameless Magazine 
• “Fortune Cookie” in Kaleidotrope #5
• “Mother,” originally in M-Brane SF #4
• “Harmony” in Kaleidotrope #8

Short Stories: Fantasy Stories, Secondary World

• “Of the Generation” in Roar and Thunder magazine; reprinted in Different Dragons II from WolfSinger Publications; also reprinted in the Heroic Fantasy anthology from Flame Tree Publishing
• “Lord Shashensa” in Sword and Sorceress XXIV (with a shorter version reprinted by Nevermet Press in Stories in the Ether)
  • Find it at: Amazon  Barnes and Noble  Alibris  Powell’s  Better World Books
• “The Void Test,” originally in MindFlights magazine, reprinted with audio at Cast of Wonders
• “The Beacon and the Keeper,” winner of AnthologyBuilder’s Match That Artwork Contest, youth division.
• “The Wall” in Labyrinth Inhabitant
• “Bequeathment” in A Fly in Amber
• “The Opening,” Raven Electrick
• “Playing the Cloud Flute” in Strange, Weird, and Wonderful Magazine
• “The Wayab’s Tower,” originally in MindFlights
• “Murderer, Confessor, Executioner” in Outposts of Beyond Issue #2 (also available at Smashwords)

Short Fiction: Unsettling Stories That are Almost in This World

• “Hans and Gretta,” originally published in Everyday Weirdness, reprinted in Bete Noire Issue #8
• “The Family,” a charity story published on this very blog.
• “A Wizard of the Roads” in Daily Science Fiction
• “Sibial’ In Exile” in Neo-Opsis Magazine Issue #24 
• “Ms Brellin,” originally in Semaphore Magazine, reprinted in the debut issue of Grim Corps
  • Find it at: Amazon   iTunes
• “The Sorcerer Next Door” in Semaphore Magazine, reprinted in Voluted Tales
• “Underground,” originally published in The Harrow
• “Welcome,” originally published in Everyday Weirdness, reprinted at Dark Futures Fiction

Short Stories: Myth & Humor

• “What’s a Demon For” won Second Prize, Youth division in OddCon’s 2008 OddContest for flash fiction.
• “Dragon Snot and Chosen Ones” at Untied Shoelaces of the Mind (and in its first anthology)
  • Find it at: Amazon   Barnes & Noble
• “Few Are Called” at Every Day Fiction
• “Firebringer” at Every Day Fiction
• “The Queen’s Arrival,” originally in The Lorelei Signal and Mystic Signals #1, reprinted at Liquid Imagination.