As in a gateway to strange and troubling worlds, not that thing Bill Gates uses to enslave the human race
As stated last time, it wasn’t going to be long before my next update. So here it is: hot on the heels of Eros, Inc., I am releasing another book, this one a compilation of fourteen novellas/short stories. Eight of them have been previously published as e-books, six of them have not, but all of them are now seeing the light of day in physical format (my preferred format by no short measure) for the first time.
As one would expect from my earlier releases, genre lines blur easily, but all are at least tangentially related to sci-fi, fantasy, and/or horror. As such, I did not include anything that stood apart from this wide berth (such as the purely comedic Vengeance Most Vengeful), and left off all of the Hopeless Harry tales–I may one day pen a couple more of those to compile them into a separate collection, not sure yet.
Titled Windows, brief synopses for each tale are below to give you an idea of what these stories, old and new, entail–asterisks indicate the ones that weren’t previously published in digital formats. But if you’ve sampled past “shorties,” you probably already have a good idea.
[image error]
Hail, Stavros!
A man washes up on the shore of an enigmatic island nation ruled by a bloodthirsty overseer that no one on the island has ever even seen before.
Meet Me at Street Level
When an instant romantic connection is abruptly severed, a young man goes to great lengths to forge a reunion, lengths that gets him inadvertently mixed up in some rather sinister business.
Down Ravensclaw Hill
When the youngest member of the family seemingly goes missing, three brothers ignore the grim folklore and warnings from the locals and go up to the cabin at the top of Ravensclaw Hill to look for him.
Relax, Ronnie, You’re Just Stoned*
Why won’t anyone believe a shiftless pothead’s ravings about how his small town has been infiltrated by aliens? He should probably just relax.
Prophets of Condemnation*
A wayward space pilot needs help getting off a desolate planet, but first she needs to convince two callous clairvoyants that refuse to help her without a fatal favor first.
Story for the Sackman*
A desperate peasant girl tells an illicit marketeer the story of how she came into possession of the kingdom’s royal crown.
Prayers for Miriam*
A little girl wishes that her imaginary friends in the woods would become real, little counting on the consequences such a miracle could lead to.
Scare Me
When the most popular girls in school suddenly want to make nice with the class outcast, the shunned “scab” decides it would be good fun to play a game with them during a sleepover.
Seth & P.H.I.L.
A nervous government man is tasked with interviewing an amazing discovery–an alien being that has come to Earth. But it seems that the inscrutable guest has plenty of questions of its own for the interviewer.
Nuestro delicioso salvador de gatos*
Nasty rat fiends discover cheesy contraband in the bunkhouse of worker mice and demand to know where it came from.
Of Buzzscrews, for Honeydoos, We Strive for Metaaras!
The steward of a generation ship begins to question the nature of their journey across space, and the reason why humankind even abandoned Earth at all so long ago.
No More Teacher’s Dirty Looks*
An oversexed high school teacher loves the attention she gets from students and faculty, until she comes across a message left for her that takes matters far beyond harmless fantasies.
Do You Believe in Monsters
Young Donny lives at constant unease, haunted by the fears of his belief in monsters. Do you believe in them, too?
Silver Storm Is on at Eight
A regular Joe learns an astounding secret about his existence, and he only becomes more puzzled when he begins to think his life is somehow connected to the most popular broadcast program in the country.
Note: This compilation is being released only as a paperback. Sometime down the line, I will publish some of the new stories individually as e-books (mainly for those who prefer reading from a screen over paper, or for anyone who has already read some or all of the other stories and don’t want to “re-buy” them; perfectly understandable). Any that I may choose to never publish will eventually be placed on this blog for download.
I don’t have much else to report, especially about what’s next. Having been quite busy most of the year getting all of these short stories and the last two novels together has been a lot of work, so I’ll probably take at least a few weeks to decompress before tackling the next project. I have a few ideas in the pipeline already–not counting one that I had to abruptly cancel (I’ll explain that one another day)–but I haven’t settled on one quite yet. Until next time, adieu!
