A science fiction short story published in Wastelands: The New Apocalypse, June, 2019.
In the post-apocalyptic wasteland, the only things that matter are how fast your car can go and whether or not you think it’s cool to eat an entire box of kittens.
The protagonist in this story doesn’t think that is cool at all.
A science fiction short story published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October 2018.
In a near-future Kansas City, the police have deployed new technologies aimed at dealing with crimes committed via aerial drones. Special “Passenger” tech is used to mentally link a trained eagle and a human officer, forming a third gestalt mind. Together, they patrol the skies and deal out justice with beak and talon.
There is illicit prey in our skies. OUR SKIES! we scream, indignant. We are dimly aware of the radio chatter: “10-71,” “sniper drone,” and some frantic beat cop screaming, “The mayor is down!” These details matter little now and we push them aside to focus. There has been a violation of the law and we are called to serve. Already we’re dipping our wings and turning as our Passenger directs us gently with a feeling as if the magnetic poles of the world have shifted. We will capture our prey. We will earn commendations and the tastiest morsels of meats.
A science fiction short story published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 2018.
How do you kill a virtual mind and take their place? What could possibly go wrong?
Cee in the Sixth Octave, daughter of Eff in the Fifth Octave, sang an invitation to her sister. A single, crystalline note rang across the private mindscapes of eight hundred sister-mothers within the bio-survey ship Agatha Bhatti.
A science fiction short story published in Lightspeed Magazine, January, 2015.
A story of near-future lefitist politics, protest movements, drones, and right-wing genetic engineering designed to end it all. When protest organizer Mara’s ex-boyfriend brutally murders his roommate, Mara is called home from college to investigate. And when fellow protesters drop out of the movement one by one, she begins to suspect a conspiracy. We […]
A science fiction short story published in Asimovs, August 2014.
This story came to me wholly formed in a dream one day. I wrote it in a white hot tear, desperate to capture all the details and emotions that had seemed so immediate in the dream. It’s about how our pets live such short lives compared to us. It’s about what happens when someone tries […]
A science fiction short story published in Lightspeed Magazine, January, 2014.
The story is about our desire to explore space. It’s about love. It’s about failure. You know, human stuff. Thom met Lilian under a Nebraska sky, stars shining through the fabric of space so intensely that he sometimes mistook them for the falling whales, burning brightly. He tended to stargaze; it was the frustrated astronomer […]
A fantasy short story published in Lightspeed Magazine, November 2012.
I’ve been obsessed with the idea of the human soul for as long as I can remember; the idea of some crucial essence that makes us, us. In this fantastical setting, human souls are rare, and people can fill the hole where a soul should be with the soul of an animal. Human souls become […]
A fantasy short story published in Fantasy, June 2011.
This is the third of the stories set in the Magic P1r4cy setting, where teens pirate magic online and run them as “spell programs” on computers and phones. It’s fun to read these stories and see how they evolved as smartphones became a thing. The clock on the radio of your rusting 1992 Toyota Tercel […]
A fantasy short story published in Black Gate, 2011.
Once upon a time, Black Gate was a fiction magazine, and when they were, they published a story about my favorite goblin dad, Groob. Groob lives in a city built in the safest place possible–atop a giant machine that is devouring the world. He’s smarter than your average goblin, but he has grubs to feed, […]
A fantasy short story published in Way of the Wizard, 2010.
Another tale in the Magic P1r4cy setting, where spells are turned into programs called sprogs. In this story, we learn that it pays to read the terms of service when using magical SaS. STUCK THREAD * Six Lessons Learned in MAA’s Captive Servitude Posted by Hidr at 7:42 PM Yesterday Yeah, the rumors are true. […]