“End of Days” — My most disturbing, prescient SF short story free during March 2015

“End of Days”�� is for me both the most disturbing and perhaps the most interesting short story from my Mindscapes�� short story collection for two reasons: first, it poses what I believe to be a novel theory of cosmology that expresses my actual belief about the relationship of black holes to the creation and extinction of an endless number of universes, including our own; and second, it poses a terrifying scenario that is all too plausible given today’s headlines and could well form the basis of the most tragic of headlines in every newspaper on Earth in a month, in a week or tomorrow morning. It is the only dark fiction I’ve ever written that actually scares me precisely because it rings true. For someone whose fiction almost always probes reality�� from a different perspective that is always grounded in what is plausible, it is also the only thing I’ve written that worries me at a visceral level, and the only thing I am ever likely to write that is ultimately devoid of even the possibility of hope from someone who is always at worst a disappointed optimist.The short story is one of ten from my Mindscapes collection which is now also available as an audiobook from Audible, iTunes and Amazon. You can check the Audible version of the audiobook here and download it free of charge with a new, no risk free one month trial membership to Audible. Paperback, eBook and audiobook versions are also available from other leading retailers, including Amazon.

To download the complete short story free of charge through the end of March, please visit my Smashwords page here then scroll down to the short story’s link.