My Story “Kevin Was Bees” in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine!

Very happy to say that my SFF story “Kevin Was Bees” is in the current issue of Andromeda Spaceways Magazine (ASM #78)!

This story starts from the POV of someone who has been turned into a swarm of bees. The first two sentences:

This was a first. No one had ever been bees before.

The premise: on an advanced starship, they need someone to investigate a problem in a bio-preservation sector where humans aren’t allowed, so the computer makes Kevin into bees; Kevin finds out that, during the procedure, the problem was resolved, so his mission is complete. But he’s bees now.

Kevin’s consciousness gradually fractures into competing subgroups of bees, who develop their own hierarchy, mythology, and competing kingdoms, and whose control over the environmental regulators constitutes a kind of magic.

This story makes a lot of use of Arthur C. Clarke’s third law–that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. One POV is science fiction, and takes place on a futuristic starship, where a person made out of genetically engineered bees is in dialogue with an advanced AI; the other POV is fantasy, and takes place in a fantasy world with magic, myth, and warring kingdoms–that is, the world formed from the fractured pieces of Kevin’s consciousness.

I hope you check out the story, and I would love to hear what you think about it!

Imps & Minions is currently a free download on Kindle!

Imps & Minions, published by tdotSpec Inc, is currently a free download on Kindle!

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From the Amazon description:

Imps & Minions explores the lives of the little guys of villainry, with 34 tales dedicated to servile underlings, mooks, henchmen, pawns, scamps and rapscallions. Whether it’s Riznax, the little imp who falls in love with his master’s library of ancient tomes, or the poor troll suffering the aftermath of a fairy tale, or the machine programmed to defend her overlord with every microchip in her chassis—in Imps & Minions, they all take center stage. The stories range in tone from whimsical and lighthearted to dark and tragic, and span the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and “superhero”, with a few that are harder to classify. Collectively, they provide diverse looks at the complex and multi-faceted lives of imps, minions, and villainous underdogs of all stripes. Above all, they are compelling tales that show us the trials and tribulations of a colourful cast of characters normally relegated to the background—this is Imps & Minions, and these are their stories.

Download it free here (USA): https://www.amazon.com/Imps-Minions-Odds-Ends-Interesting-ebook/dp/B07W1H961W

Or here (Canada): https://www.amazon.ca/Imps-Minions-Odds-Ends-Interesting-ebook/dp/B07W1H961W/

Please download a copy and share the link! I really appreciate the support!

Free SFF book! Strange Economics eBook is FREE this week!

“Strange Economics: Economic Speculative Fiction”, 23 SFF stories on the theme of economics, is free this week!

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From the Amazon description:

What if souls were a form of currency? What if our potential could be bought and sold? What is the value of a memory?

These economic questions and more are explored through twenty-three science fiction and fantasy stories, appearing for the first time in this collection.

This anthology also includes economics discussion questions accompanying each of the stories, written by professional economist Elisabeth Perlman, and an afterword/essay exploring the relationship between speculative fiction and economics, written by guest editor Jo Lindsay Walton.

Link for USA: https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Economics-Economic-Speculative-Fiction-ebook/dp/B07GZ89QH2

Link for Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07GZ89QH2

Please download a copy and share on social media–I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

FREE: My story “Ars Poetica” is free for next 3 days on Kindle–currently ranked #4 in 45-min SFF reads!

My science fiction story “Ars Poetica” is currently ranked #4 in Amazon’s 45-minute Science Fiction and Fantasy Reads! It’s a free download for the next three days. If you get a chance, please download a free copy and leave a review. I would really appreciate it! It would be awesome if the story hit #1! Thanks!

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My story “Ars Poetica” now available on Kindle

My story “Ars Poetica“, which received a Writers of the Future silver honorable mention, and was published by Abyss & Apex, is available now on Kindle. From the Amazon description:

Rook is a military poet tasked with ferreting out human-like “bug” impostors. When her poetry notebook falls into enemy hands, Rook has to track an escaping bug through the ruins of an old city, or risk annihilation of the surviving human colonies.

You can find it here. Also, I need reviews, so if you are a reviewer and want a copy, let me know!

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I hope you get a chance to read it, and if you do, please let me know what you thought!

“Nourishment” one-shot anthology now available!

Our one-shot anthology “Nourishment” is now available from Amazon! You can find it here.

The beautiful cover art is from Ukrainian artist Schastlivaya Alexandra. You can find more of her work here.

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Nourishment is the third of the “one-shot anthology” series. The completed collection has 25 stories and over 70,000 total words on the theme of “Nourishment”, all of them written and edited in their entirety within a rigidly constrained 24-hour period. This anthology is more than a collection of imaginative and entertaining stories—it is also a feat in creative writing.

Imps & Minions – Open Call for Subs and Kickstarter

The Imps & Minions anthology is now open for submissions from authors, and the Kickstarter page is live!

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From the open call page:

We are seeking high-quality speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, and speculative horror) on the theme of “imps & minions”. Stories should feature an imp or a minion.

Submission information and the submission form can be found on our kickstarter page.

If you like this project and want to support us, I would really appreciate if you would take a look at our kickstarter reward options and help us out by becoming a backer. (I recommend going for the paperback reward option.)

Thanks a lot! I’m really looking forward to reading all the submissions and putting together this awesome project with the team, with the support of our kickstarter backers!

True North – free eBook download

In True North, first published in the Aurora-nominated “49th Parallels anthology” (2017) by Bundoran Press, two rangers hunt down a damaged climate control drone through the frozen, post-apocalyptic tundra of Northern Canada

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The eBook can be downloaded for free from tdotSpec (scroll to the bottom of page for download location).

 

Publication in Polar Borealis

My creepy short story ‘The Santas’ is going to be published in Polar Borealis! And just in time for Christmas, too!

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I was very happy to find a good publisher for this story, and also to find that it’ll be published in time for the season.

Without too many spoilers, the premise of the story is that “Santa Claus” is just one of many “Santas”, magical beings who are summoned by using different rituals. Cookies and milk and stockings by the fireplace summon Santa Claus. But in ‘The Santas’, we meet some of the lesser known -and far creepier- Santas.

That story is coming in issue #5 of Polar Borealis, which will be free to download!