My next short story will appear in the forthcoming Dark Luminous Wings anthology - and I mean forthcoming soon! Dark Luminous Wings will be released on 10/21, this next Saturday.

Synopsis:

From Icarus to Da Vinci to tomorrow's astronauts, humans have dreamt of flight. Feathered wings. Mechanical wings. Leathery wings. Steel wings. Stories of winged creatures set in graveyards and churches, bustling cities, fantastical worlds, alternate histories, and outer spacet reveal the shifting nature of Dark Luminous Wings...Dark Luminous Wings will set your imagination soaring—but watch out for sharp beaks, piercing talons, and gravity.

Folks who pre-order this anthology of 17 speculative fiction short stories will get a discount on the price! The e-book is currently available for $2.99, which will go up to $4.99 on release day. Dark Luminous Wings will also be available in print for $14.99, which is a pretty good deal on its own for that much fiction. Get either one on Amazon by clicking right here:

My short story in the collection, "Treasure," in one of the first short stories I wrote when I began my career. Don't worry - I've revised it since then. 😆 I do think it's one of my best now, though it took a while to find a good home (9 personal rejections, 7 form rejections, 1 withdrawal, 1 acceptance). I think you'll agree once you read it that Dark Luminous Wings is a great fit.

"Treasure" features a female thief thrust into a culture very different from her own, so different she has a difficult time believing such a culture is real. Can someone raised to distrust everyone around her accept grace and love when freely given it? Is it truly given freely? You’ll have to read “Treasure” to find out what Enkid, the story’s protagonist, makes of these questions…under threat of a flying sea monster and the lure of a rock pillar that manifests jewels.

The first few lines:

Wind thundered past the slats of the storage cabin. Hidden within a barrel of fish guts, the stowaway braced herself for lurching. But when the ship pitched sharply sternside, Enkid knew it was no ordinary squall. A storm this bad would force the captain out of his quarters despite his usual drunken stupor, creating an opportunity to filch the beveled, green-glass vial he wore around his neck. It held hemlock tincture, a rare poison that would come in handy for someone in Enkid’s line of work.

May your dreams be free of dark wings, but your mind prepared to tangle with them.I hope you enjoy the fantasy fable of "Treasure"!

As those of you who've read my short story, "The Cold, Hard Facts of Life," already know, the One Word Story Project didn't quite come together this year. But that doesn't mean that its participants didn't write great fiction! So here are links to two more of the short stories written for the project, hosted on their authors' websites for free. Like I did, they wanted to release these one-word-inspired stories out into the world!

First, Anya Davis's "the Kindness of Kingfishers" uses halcyon as the inspiration for a love story, one perhaps doomed from the start but blessed with a beautiful use of language to tell it.

Second, Darci Cole gives us "Boys, Baseball, and Biology," all subjects that often appear obfuscated to me. There's plenty of adolescent miscommunication in this one...and plenty of cute, adolescent hormones as well. Yes, I just called hormones cute.

Finally, you can read four stories published on Team Hellions for the project, all in one place! Of them, Eve Jacob's "Akasha" stood out for her entertaining duo of space-faring sisters on the hunt for a book on an ancient Earth religion. Rob Kristoffersen's "Home is Where the Haunting Is" also painted a haunting portrait of the lingering effects of divorce.

Enjoy!

Hey, it's not a holiday season without an obligatory "Buy My Work!" post from an author. I swear it's in the contracts we sign in blood with our publishers...somewhere...I seem to have misplaced them.

Oh, I think I remember where...

In 2015, I added two new opportunities to purchase my work, which is one way of saying some very lovely people agreed to include me in their collections -- some even paid me for it! One is a short story in a magazine and one is a contribution to a cookbook...a cookbook with quite illustrious co-contributors from the Speculative Fiction galaxy. Being a member of a professional organization comes with some perks, just sayin'.

Consider this my purchasable compendium, reverse chronological order! Collect all five! And come this time next year, there will be a novel to add to this list, one way or another...

1. Ad Astra: The 50th Anniversary SFWA Cookbook

Fran Wilde and Cat Rambo edited this collection of 150+ recipes from speculative fiction authors of the past, present, and maybe even future. In it, you can find my Seared Peaches with Prosciutto and Basil; it comes with high acclaim from the NC Research Triangle area spec fic community. Purchase the cookbook from the SFWA website here or from Amazon.

2. "Thlush-A-Lum" in PULP Literature Issue #5

"Thlush-A-Lum" is pure horror that would qualify as flash fiction in most markets. The story came about when I challenged myself to write something more focused on the sense of sound than the other four I more commonly use in my writing. Many of those sounds are inspired by what I could hear from my own Southern bedroom window…and a few sounds that I swear I’ve been able to hear no matter where I’ve lived.

Purchase Issue #5 from the PULP Literature website or from Amazon.

3. "Blow 'Em Down" from Beneath Ceaseless Skies Double Anniversary Issue #131

"Blow 'Em Down" is the story I describe as a steampunk retelling of the Battle of Jericho with a jazzy feel circa Harlem Renaissance. It's been taught in a college class and brought me some of my highest compliments, so I certainly think it's worth the read. Beneath Ceaseless Skies is not available in print, but the e-magazine can be purchased through Weightless Books or on Amazon.

4. "Bother" in Bull Spec #5

"Bother" was the cover story for Bull Spec #5, and I'm honored to this day that the highly regarded Richard Case chose to illustrate it. It's urban fantasy about how a couple survives, or doesn't, when a dragon comes to roost on their city block. Luckily, there appears to still be back issues of Bull Spec available, although the magazine has shifted to a web-only presence. Order Issue #5 here or an e-version from Weightless Books here.

5. Maya's Vacation

The contemporary romance novella I never expected write, Maya's Vacation came to be in a dream about frying chicken, and I fleshed that dream out into the story of a woman in her fifties rediscovering herself after a divorce and relearning what she used to love through food, paint, and an old flame returned. Maya's Vacation, published by Clean Reads, is available on Amazon. Warning: No sex scenes in this romance! Just unrequited longing. Or is it requited? I'll never tell.

I may also mention that anything you buy that features my work is a gift to me as well -- word of tongue can only spread after eyes on the page have done their business. Of course, I also have plenty of fiction free to read online as well -- just click over to the Creative section to find it. Thank you for your support, and I hope to keep entertaining you in the future. I'm pretty sure I'll have some snippets to share by the end of next week as well...

Happy holidays, from me and Ben!