These are some of the short stories that I have written.
The World As It Could Be
The following stories are all fantasy, with a real world setting. They may or may not take place in the same world. They are thematically grouped together in my mind, but the connections may not resonate with other people.
The Spots of al Fahad: This is the first short story I wrote after I got serious about writing, which means that it was written shortly after the first, rushed draft of Becoming Phoebe.
Living After Noon: This was my second story, and the first that I submitted for a contest or award. It won the contest, though I no longer have any memory of the contest’s name. It turned out that it was basically a scam, and I never received the prize nor did the story get published anywhere. “Living After Noon” also has the distinction of being the first story to which I have ever written a sequel, which will be published soon.
Hunger: This is the first story where I worked with Kellie Hultgren as an editor. I think the quality she adds is pretty evident. She went on to be the primary editor for Becoming Phoebe.
Peaceful, Colorado: This is the first story of mine that was ever published, in the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers Group anthology By Polaris Bright. Thank you, Michael Merriam; the timing of your acceptance letter was better than you could possibly know.
The Love of His Life: Uncle Harry is possibly my personal favorite of all of the characters I have created for fiction.
The Sacrifices of Company B: The character of Archibald G.S. Kelsie literally did not exist until I started writing the paragraph in which he is first mentioned. Until then, the story really had no focal point. Let this be a lesson that often the solution to having no idea where a story is going to go is to just start writing the damned thing.
Make Perfect the Present: If you look at the copyright dates on these stories, you’ll notice a huge gap prior to this one. And when I did start writing, I produced some total crap. Henry Wingate was a minor character in a story that was embarrassing both for the quality and the basic idea. However, he turned out to be a very nice protagonist in his own right.
The Touch: This story had two very specific inspirations. The first is Peter Gabriel’s song “I Have the Touch.” The second comes from the RPG In Nomine. Raheem’s ability is very close to the choir resonance for the Menunim, a minor choir attached to Blandine, the Archangel of Dream, and described in Superiors 3: Hope and Prophecy.
Science Fiction
Life, or Something Like It: This is the only story I managed to sell to a professional level publication before realizing that I hated the process of selling and marketing them so much that it was keeping me from writing. I also didn’t really like the edits they made, so this is in its original form.