Lost Child

Short story · Neon and Nebulas · Boundary Shock Quarterly #33 · Jan 2026 · Read excerpt & get your copy here.

Space Station Arlechin is bustling with Human and non-human sentients celebrating the station’s new expansion when a delegate’s child goes missing. The station’s Deputy Havener sends out her newest hire to search for the baby, a blindingly fast Engendu named Nkal. Nkal is eager. He’s quick. He’s searching the entire station. He’s positive he’ll find the child, but it would all go faster if his own parents would stop calling him to ask when he was coming home.

War Wrought

Short story · Zeros and Ones · Boundary Shock Quarterly #32 · Fall 2025 · Read more & buy links here

The war to end all wars has ended. Again. But it turns out that it’s one thing to destroy dumb weapons and another altogether to remove the General AI armaments, who might, after all, like being what they are.

On Kilter

Short story · Crafty Crimes · Cutter’s Final Cut: Issue Six · May 2025 · Read excerpt & get your copy here

Sanne really needs a birthday present for her best friend, Della, who is also impossible to shop for. Inspiration hits: Sanne will crochet Della something both magical and unique, a one-of-kind order-keeping kilter. Easy! It simply requires a few days, a bit of lovely yarn, some spells, and getting up way too early.

Portrait of a King

Short story · Sorcery & Starships · Boundary Shock Quarterly #31 · Summer 2025 · Read excerpt & get your copy here

Blurb: An imperious artist and a mad king travel together on a starship. What could go wrong?

“We should never have let them keep their knives,” muttered Piloquit Jemmison, captain of the spaceship Empyrean.

Songs of Roads and Other Real Things

Short story · Fading Empires · Boundary Shock Quarterly #30 · Spring 2025 · Read excerpt & get your copy here

Sean had just won the Grand Turvy, the most prestigious virtual race of the year. Winning meant credits. Candy! Real candy, not the stuff you sucked out of a bag.

As he exited his VR, the lights in his small podment flickered and went dim. Another brown-out. But it would come back. Happy the AI would take care of them. Happy would take care of everything. Happy always did.

The Wayward Ring

Novel · Book 2, Witches of Marigold · Knotted Road Press · April 2025 · Excerpt & buy links here

Sanne Pascrel, resident witch of Marigold, juggles the magical and the mundane. She also talks with ancient trees. When a fight at her student teenagers’ school leads to a lost ring, and the unexplained death of a local neurosurgeon, Sanne finds herself in the dark center of a brewing mystery.

A Thorn for Moonbeam

Short story · First Contact · Boundary Shock Quarterly #29 · Jan 2025 · Read excerpt & get your copy here

Esme is old enough to often wonder where she is. The road of memory is mostly potholes. So when she finds herself in a room with no idea how she got there, she is, frankly, not surprised. The alien who greets her — a little more surprising. But when he tells her what he wants, that’s when her surprise goes through the roof.

The Lindworm Lily

Short story · Halloween Issue—SF Horror · Boundary Shock Quarterly #28 · Oct 2024 · Read excerpt & get your copy here

Jo and her sister Maggie are in line to see the nearly extinct Lindworm Lily — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The line is long, the day is blisteringly hot, and Jo asks why they can’t just watch the thing bloom on vid. “Because it’s real,” her sister says. Jo is about to discover just how real.

The Zero Day Nine

Short story · Cold Steel and Hot Blasters · Boundary Shock Quarterly #27 · Jul 2024 · Read excerpt & get your copy here

The Final War. The war to end all wars. Final-final. For real. We mean it this time. Step one: get rid of all the weapons, dumb and smart. But what if some of the General AI armament weapons don’t want to?

Let the Good Times Roll

Short story · Tomorrow’s Crimes · Boundary Shock Quarterly #26 · Apr 2024 · Excerpt here

Humanity’s future is at stake! The little grey men, who have been here all along, are about to make themselves known. Save the humans! But have they broken galactic laws? That could mean the end of the uplift plan to save Humanity. And why are the grey men wearing Birkenstocks?

A Voyage to Pir Mahauw

Short story · Gulliver’s Other Travels · Boundary Shock Quarterly #25 · Feb 2024 · Excerpt here

When Captain Sally Rider finds herself on the wrong end of a mutiny — kicked off her fluxship to crash-land on a forgotten planet — her usual optimism is a touch strained. Hoping against hope for a long-shot rescue, Sally finds to her delight that there is indeed civilization on the planet. She will soon discover the secrets they harbor and the cost of her rescue.

Do You See What I See?

Short story · Science Fiction Holidays · Blaze Ward Presents #24 · Dec 2023 · Get your copy here

When extraterrestrials land on Christmas Day, a cop named Melisandre is the first to greet them. As she strides up to the largest one, she’s pissed, because they’ve just put her kids in danger. She doesn’t care about their POV. But they care about hers. Because it’s about to change.

Button Button

Short story · Blaze Ward Presents: Every Tomorrow Worse? · Oct 2023 · Get your copy here

In a future where AI makes everything possible, what’s in the crack between what AI offer and what it is to be human? How big is that crack? Button sized, perhaps.

Bidden Fruit

Short story · Cutter’s Final Cut, Issue 5: Crones · Aug 2023 · Get your copy here

Arjorie Renkel doesn’t like shopping. She also doesn’t like people, teenagers, or the powerful entity with whom she has made an important magical deal. But needs must. An obnoxious teenager tries to get in front of her at the checkout lane. He’s about to learn why you don’t mess with people who haven’t lived this long by accident.

The Third Way

Short story · Tramp Freighter Captains · Boundary Shock Quarterly #23 · Jul 2023 · Get your copy here

Transporting a passenger and luggage is a simple job for the crew of the fluxship Big Top. They just have to get the ship through a collapsing fluxhole, make sure their temperamental passenger stays calm, and keep an eye on the mysterious, beeping luggage.

The Price of Art

Short story · Avast! The Pirate Issue · Boundary Shock Quarterly #21 · Jan 2023 · Get your copy here

The crew of Big Top has been hired to transport an art collection to the famous Jezier museum. But when a pirate ship comes alongside, the question of what is art becomes far more urgent.

The Unturned Stone

Novel · Knotted Road Press · Aug 2022 · Get your copy here

As a witch in the small town of Marigold, USA, Susanne “Sanne” Pascral keeps a low profile. She tutors computer nerds, teaches wild-crafting, and does her level best to stay out of trouble. But when her sister sends her a box containing demon eggs about to hatch, Sanne is going to have a hard time keeping anything hidden. Especially the demons.

Treasure Twice Over

Short story · Witches, Cutter’s Final Cut: Issue Four · Knotted Road Press · Oct 2022 · Get your copy here

Susanne “Sanne” Pascral has volunteered to sort donated books for the Marigold library. While she does, she uses her second sight — her witch’s eye — to search for rare, precious magical books that can be hidden inside ordinary books. In the library above, a child screams.

Tea and Cookies

Short story · After the Fall · A Blaze Ward Presents Special Edition · Oct 2022 · Get your copy here

For sister and brother Jessie and Collin, survival is all about staying under the radar of whatever force — AI, aliens, shadow governments — destroyed their home, town, family, country. The entire planet, maybe. They eat a lot of squirrel. But it’s humor that keeps them going.

Better Selves: a Collection of SF&F Stories

Collection · June 2022 · Get your copy here

What happens when we fail ourselves? When we look in the mirror and don’t like what we see? In these five tales are explorations of self — who are we when we’re not at our best and how we can — at least sometimes — find our way back to our better selves.

Not Go Quietly

Short story · Small Gods · Blaze Ward Presents: Issue #6 · May 2022 · Get your copy here

“Mama, the monster has come for me at last. You say they are gods, that it is good to go with the gods, but I am not so sure. So fast. How can anything move so fast?”

Big Top

Short story · Space Opera Digest 2022: Have Ship, Will Travel · January 2022

Flux is unpredictable. Ships can end up far, far from where they meant to go. Meet the crew of the fluxship Big Top, and find out where they’re off to.

When Strangers Meet

Short story · First published in New Legends, ed. Greg Bear, 1995 · Reprinted in Dispatches from Anarres: Portland Writers Pay Tribute to the Vision of Ursula K. Le Guin, edited by Susan DeFreitas

Alien-Human first contact. When strangers meet, all benefit. Or so they say. “When Strangers Meet” flowed out of my imagination in one piece, at one sitting. I wasn’t sure just what it was until a first reader told me not to change a word, and editor Greg Bear wanted it for this prestigious anthology with hardly a single edit. One of my Clarion West teachers, Howard Waldrop, told me that if a writer is lucky, she gets one good story that writes itself. This one.

Courage: Zenectia’s Library

Short story · “Crime And…” · Blaze Ward Presents: Issue #5 · Get your copy here

Every day Joah comes to the huge stone structure that blots out the sky, that is Zenectia’s Library. No one in living memory has seen the mage Zenectia, and no one can cross the magical boundary. Then, one day, Joah does.

If You Ready

Short story · Cloak and Dagger, Blaze Ward Presents: Issue #4 · Get your copy here

Dirk’s great-grandmother’s nearly a hundred years old. She’s got scars all over her hands. Someday Dirk will find out why.

Landfall: Book Three, The Stranger Trilogy

Novel · Sequel to Unmoored and The Seer · Get your copy here

In the third and final book of The Stranger Trilogy, Amarta unwraps secrets within secrets, coming to understand the cost of getting what she wants. Innel gains a chance at redemption, but can he pay the price? The Seer and The Lord Commander’s paths come together again, but they are changed. They meet as strangers.

Maelstrom: Book Two, The Stranger Trilogy

Novel · Sequel to Unmoored and The Seer · Get your copy here

In this sequel to Unmoored, the hunted becomes the hunter. Amarta travels the world, seeking the truth about herself and learning to wield power in ways that she did not foresee, at a cost that she could not imagine. Though they walk separate paths, Amarta and Innel’s questions are one and the same: Who am I now?

Unmoored: Book One, The Stranger Trilogy

Novel · The sequel to The Seer · Get your copy here

Unmoored — the first book of The Stranger Trilogy — begins new adventures for Amarta, The Seer. Come explore this rich world, follow the court intrigue, and learn the truth about power.

Touchstone

Novelette · Baen Books, 2016 · Get your copy here

Prequel to The Seer. Two children, the brothers Innel and Pohut, are thrust into palace life and royal intrigue. All they need to do to survive is find the right bell. The silver bell. Quickly.

The Seer

Novel · Baen Books, 2016 · Available in ebook, paperback, and audio

Everyone wants answers. No one wants the truth. In a remote mountain village, a young girl named Amarta sells prophecies to keep her family from starving. A dangerous game, this, when her predictions gain Amarta and her family too much notoriety than is good for them. In a tapestry of loyalty, intrigue, magic, and gold, Amarta becomes the key to everyone’s ambitions. To survive, she must do more than predict the future. She must create it.

Shelter from the Storm

Short story · Anthology Leather Tomes and Spiderwebs, edited by Blaze Ward and Leah Cutter · Get your copy here

Susan Langley is not entirely sane. Nor is she quite crazy enough to be stripped of her grandmother’s fortune. Differently-sane, perhaps.

Happy Birthday

Short story · Anthology Imps and Minions, edited by David F. Shultz · Aug 2019 · Available in paperback and kindle

The best thing about birthdays is the surprise presents. Right? Maybe not this time.

The Angels’ Share

Short story · Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine · Dec 1996 · Re-released July 2020 · Get your copy here

If you’re rich enough, you can pay someone else to rehab for you, while you vacation in their young, healthy, beautiful body at Paradise, an exclusive resort that only a few can afford. This is Phantom’s last time at the resort — his real body can’t take any more chemo. Unless he can pull some more strings. “The unsparing integrity of Angel’s Share does not give an inch. Remarkable.” — Barry N. Malzberg

Done

Short story · LORE vol. 2, no. 5 · April 2014 · Out of print, occasionally available on Amazon

A rich man wants his wife gone, and hires someone to do the wretched deed. These things are rarely simple, and this one gets strange, fast.

Jay and Me — A Story in Three Short Acts

Tribute short story · The Jay Wake Book: A Celebration of Jay Lake, edited by Sandra Tayler · July 2013

This collection of pictures, remembrances, and fiction was created for JayWake, Jay’s pre-mortem celebration. The hardcopy of the book is the best, with full-color pictures, but there are also PDFs you can have for free. Low Res (7MB) and High Res (72MB)

Biggest Fan! Ever!

Short story · Flush Fiction: 88 Short-Short Stories You Can Read in a Single Sitting · Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader · 2012

A letter from a fan to the greatest scientist of the age, about his dog, time travel, and saving the world.

Descent

Novella · Anthology Dark Descents · Hazardous Press · Dec 2012 · Out of print

This three-story collection begins with my dark and bloody urban fantasy novella about love, power, and the apocalypse. Also in the collection are reprints of “The Green” and “Motherhood”. (Alas — no longer in print. If enough people want it reprinted, it could happen. Contact the author.)

Romance, with Mice

Short story · Dadaoism Anthology · Chomu Press · 2012 · Still in print

From the submission guidelines: “…an anthology that will be the literary and psychic equivalent of a tour around the edges of a dying galaxy in a spectacularly malfunctioning space vehicle.” I found this call irresistible and wrote Romance, with Mice. It would have been unpublishable almost anywhere else, so I was really pleased when they said yes. Pick up the anthology here or here.

Mirror Test

Short story · Tomorrow Project: Seattle · Intel Corp · 2011 · Get your copy here, free

In 2011, Intel put out the call for science fiction describing the future of some of their key R&D technologies for this anthology. I combined virtual reality, machine learning, and facial recognition to explore what happens when software can tell intimate things about what meatware (that’s us) are thinking.

The Rejection Saga

Short story · Journal of Universal Rejection · 2011

Meta-fiction, meaning fiction within layers. Yes, like an onion. This work led me to an editorial position. It’s all wrapped up in a nice little package here.

Payback

Short story · Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine · June 1997 · Out of print

Payback has to do with an ancient theme, the granting of wishes, which so often goes not at all as we expect.

And Peace Shall Sleep

Novel · HarperPrism · 1996 · No longer in print, but available used, for example at Abe Books

Exploring the classic fantasy themes of heroism, non-traditional families, and explosives. This book stands on its own — you don’t need to be a Magic the Gathering player to enjoy the story. I wrote it that way deliberately. MTG Wiki plot summary here

Multiply and Conquer

Short story · Information Technology and Libraries (Vol. 14, No. 4) · Library Information and Technology Association · December 1995

A story exploring the theme of where we are going, and how we might get there. In the same universe as “A Hand in the Mirror” and “The Jesus Construct”.

Chef’s Surprise

Short story · Anthology Distant Planes · Wizards of the Coast · 1995 · Out of print

“Chef’s Surprise” is the origin story of The Underworld Cookbook and its author, Asmor(…), first referred to in the flavor text of the card Granite Gargoyle. To best appreciate this tale of the Cookbook, you might want to know a bit about The Throat Wolf card and this description of Asmor(…), which is also a summary of the tale. And Vincent? I named the Lord of the Pit Vincent as a tribute to Mr. Price, of course. Scroll to the end of this page to see some delicious fan artwork for the story.

The Going Price

Short story · Wizards of the Coast · Anthology Tapestries

The seed story for And Peace Shall Sleep. It’s about exploding dragon eggs and obnoxious heroes. And seduction, of course.

The Jesus Construct

Short story · Pulphouse, issue #18 · 1995

Religion, consciousness, and virtual reality in university politics.

A Hand in the Mirror

Short story · Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine · Aug 1993 · Cover story · Also in Cyberdreams anthology

An early look into collaborative virtual reality and academia. I have brought the story current and extended it into a novel-length work with the working title MirrorMind, as yet unpublished.

The Green

Short story · Expanse Number 3 · May 1994 · Also in Dark Descents, Hazardous Press, 2013 · Both out of print

What’s worse than growing up in a big-city apartment with roaches?

There is a Season

Short story · Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine · Dec 1993

When a beloved relative is bed-bound in the hospital, when he doesn’t have a lot of choices, what does he want?

It Might be Sunlight

Short story · Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine · Nov 1993 · In print and available here

Eleven light-years from Earth, in a place beyond time, Kelly struggles with an alien captor for her freedom. Or at least the truth. Hardcopy only because I want you to hold it in your hands.

Motherhood

Short story · Pulphouse, issue #16 · Sep 1993 · Reprinted in Dark Descents, Hazardous Press, 2013

It’s about motherhood. Also, sanity. Go figure.

The Animal Game

Short story · Anthology Infinite Loop: Stories About the Future by the People Creating It, ed. Larry Constantine · Miller Freeman · 1993

I wondered if I could write a story with six characters and no dialogue, about virtual reality gaming. Yes, it turned out, I could. And it turned out to be humor. FTW!

Carnival

Short story · Willamette Writers Kay Snow First Place Winner · 1993 · Available here on Smashwords

In “Carnival,” I touch on the theme of how fleeting are transcendent experiences. It’s all so obvious, so clear, so easy, when you’re there. Then it’s gone. This story won the Kay Snow award in 1993.

Eyes of the Beholder

Short story · Midnight Zoo (Vol. 2, No. 1) · Jan 1992

I workshopped this gruesome tale at a SF&F convention in 1991. One of the pros took me aside afterwards and said: “rewrite it without pulling your punches, and I’ll publish it.” I thought the story was already over the line. She assured me it wasn’t. So I rewrote it, took it to the limit, and she published it. My first sale. Available to my patrons. Subscribe here.

Blades

Short story · First place winner, Kay Snow Writing Contest · Willamette Writers · 1992 · Available on Smashwords

My first professionally published story. It’s a bit edged, and leaves in the mouth a taste somewhat like iron.