Category: short stories
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Juniper
In the light of day, six months ago, when she bought the house, the bushes seemed lovely. Charming hedgerows, grown six feet high, provided privacy and a fence of sorts. A wrought-iron gate, only three feet high, filled a gap between the bushes and blocked off the cracking walkway to solicitors. Sure, the brown grass…
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Strange Water
1. Constance Gramercy hadn’t attended Harvard and Yale, survived fifteen years in the Space Force, battled her way through the astronaut training program, left her two children behind, and divorced her asshole ex-husband just to die on Mars. She took another deep breath of plastic-smelling oxygen and forced one booted foot in front of the…
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Only the Wind
There are no streetlights in the new development just outside of town, only the dark outlines of modern square homes silhouetted in the half-moon light. Eerie shadows give the xeriscaped lawns a strange texture. If the boxy houses gentrifying this borderland between Elephant Butte and Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, aren’t enough to make the…
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Leftovers
Archie always told me good food was about layers of flavor. When he taught me how to season, he explained the necessity of salt and acid. He showed me how to cook and plate a dish so that it hits your tongue in the right areas, filling the space in your mouth with umami, starting…
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The Day the Storm Ends: New Story Published!
I have exciting news. James Gunn’s Ad Astra has just released my short story “The Day the Storm Ends” in their eleventh volume. So if you’re in the mood for some science fiction…please give it a read.
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“The Demon in the Gray Suit” Published
Yay! It’s publication day for my newest short story “The Demon in the Gray Suit.” I’m very excited for you to read it. This story came from a mash-up of inspirations, including Dante’s Inferno, the structure of Anton Chekov’s “The Huntsman,” and a dash of The Good Place’s sense of humor (with a focus on…
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The Rejection Collection
My most recent short story rejection was a “personal” one. The one before that was a form rejection. As were the three before that. I am making progress on my rejection goal. 100 rejections for 2021. Why aim for so many rejections? Am I a masochist? Do I enjoy making myself feel bad? Do I…