Story | Where | About |
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The Lindworm Lily |
Halloween Issue: Science Fiction Horror — |
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The Zero Day Nine |
Cold Steel and Hot Blasters |
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 |
Tomorrow’s Crimes |
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 |
Gulliver’s Other Travels |
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Do You See What I See? |
Science Fiction Holidays |
But they care about hers. Because it’s about to change. |
Button Button |
Blaze Ward Presents: Every Tomorrow Worse? Oct 2023 |
Button sized, perhaps. |
Bidden Fruit |
Cutter’s Final Cut, Issue 5: Crones Aug 2023 |
![]() 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 |
Tramp Freighter Captains Jul 2023 |
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 |
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 |
A novel about magic and forest Aug 2022 |
![]() 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 |
Witches, Cutter’s Final Cut: Issue Four, from 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. |
Tea and Cookies |
After the Fall |
![]() 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. |
Better Selves:
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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? |
Not Go Quietly |
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 |
Space Opera Digest 2022: Have Ship, Will Travel, January 2022 |
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When Strangers Meet |
Dispatches from Anarres: Portland Writers Pay Tribute to the Vision of Ursula K. Le Guin, edited by Susan DeFreitas. |
When strangers meet, all benefit. |
Courage:
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“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. |
If You Ready |
Anthology: 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. |
Landfall: Book Three, The Stranger Trilogy |
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. |
Shelter from the Storm |
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. |
Maelstrom: Book Two,The Stranger Trilogy |
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 lea![]() Though they walk separate paths, Amarta and Innel’s questions are one and the same: Who am I now? |
The Angels’ Share |
Re-released July 2020 First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Dec 1996. Get your copy here. |
![]() 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. |
Touchstone |
First published by Baen Books, 2016. Get your copy here.. |
![]() 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. |
Unmoored: Book One,The Stranger Trilogy |
The sequel to The Seer. Get your copy here.. |
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Happy Birthday |
In anthology Imps and Minions, edited David F. Shultz. Aug 2019. Available in paperback and kindle here. | ![]() Maybe not this time. |
The Seer |
Available in ebook, paperback, and audio. From Baen Books, 2106.
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![]() Everyone wants answers. No one wants the truth. 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. |
Done |
LORE vol. 2, no. 5; published April 2014. Out of print, but occasionally available here, on Amazon. |
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Jay and Me – A Story in Three Short Acts |
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 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! |
Flush Fiction: 88 Short-Short Stories You Can Read in a Single Sitting from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, 2012
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![]() A letter from a fan to the greatest scientist of the age, about his dog, time travel, and saving the world. |
Descent |
Anthology Dark Descents from Hazardous Press, Dec 2012.
Out of print, and not available anywhere, so if you have a copy, don’t lose it. Sadly, Hazardous Press is no more. |
![]() 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”. |
Romance, with Mice |
Dadaoism Anthology, Chomu Press, 2012. Still in print. |
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Mirror Test |
Tomorrow Project: Seattle |
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The Rejection Saga |
Journal of Universal Rejection, 2011 | ![]() |
Payback |
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 |
HarperPrism, 1996 No longer in print, but available from various places including the obvious. |
Exploring the classic fantasy themes of heroism, non-traditional families, and explosives.
Stands on its own — you don’t need to be a Magic the Gathering player to enjoy the story. MTG Wiki plot summary here |
Multiply and Conquer |
An essay dressed up as fiction, and connected to the story, “A Hand in the Mirror”. | |
Chef’s Surprise |
Anthology Distant Planes, Wizards of the Coast, 1995
As far as I know the anthology is out of print. Let me know if you find out otherwise. |
There are some interesting posts about this book, among them these two: The Throat Wolf card and what I did with it in The Cookbook and this description of Asmor(…), which is a summary of my story. 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 of my favorite fan artwork for this story. |
When Strangers Meet |
First publication New Legends anthology, edited by Greg Bear, 1995 |
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The Going Price |
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 |
Pulphouse, issue #18, 1995 | Religion, consciousness, and virtual reality in university politics. |
A Hand in the Mirror |
Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Aug, 1993. Cover story. Also 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 |
Expanse Number 3, May 1994.
Also, Dark Descents, from Hazardous Press, 2013. Both are out of print, alas. You can sometimes find them used. |
What’s worse than growing up in a big-city apartment with roaches? |
There is a Season |
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 |
In print and available here. Original publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Nov 1993 |
![]() Eleven light-years from Earth, in a place beyond time, Kelly struggles with an alien captor for her freedom. Or at least the truth. |
Motherhood |
Pulphouse, issue #16, Sep 1993. Reprinted in the collection “Dark Descents” from Hazardous Press, 2013. | It’s about motherhood. Also, sanity. Go figure. |
The Animal Game |
Anthology Infinite Loop: Stories About the Future by the People Creating It : Software Development’s Own Anthology of Science Fiction, Ed Larry Constantine, pub. Miller Freeman, 1993 |
![]() Yes, it turned out, I could. And it turned out to be humor. FTW! |
Carnival
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Willamette Writers Kay Snow First Place Winner, 1993. Available here on Smashwords
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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 |
Midnight Zoo (Vol. 2, No. 1), Jan 1992
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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 w So I rewrote it, took it to the limit, and she published it. My first sale. Available to my patrons. Subscribe here. |
Blades
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First place winner, Kay Snow Writing Contest 1992, Willamette Writers. Available on Smashwords.
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It’s a bit edged, and leaves in the mouth a taste somewhat like iron. ![]() |

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