A Mirror in the Dark - dark fantasy - published July 2022 in the Knight Writing Press anthology, “Particular Passages 3”
A traveling hero fights a nightly battle against grim spirits, wielding the only weapon that can harm the haunts. The battles grow more trying every night, though, and her time in this city is drawing near its end.
Eyes Like Empty Windows - horror flash fiction - published December 2021 in the Pulse Publishing anthology, “99 Tiny Terrors”
Brief, frightening glimpses into life after moving into a haunted house.
Tides Now Lost - dark fantasy - published September 2021 in Pulp Modern Magazine
Something not entirely unlike a mermaid, something with ulterior motives, tells two children the story of how she became trapped in a small pond in a dense forest, rather than swimming free in the oceans of her youth.
Split - horror - produced in audio format September 2021 by Thirteen Podcast, Patreon exclusive
A young woman wakes from a restless sleep to find that her phone contains a multitude of pictures and video files that only she could have taken…but that she nevertheless did not take. Deleting them doesn’t help; each day her sleep satisfies less, and each day she finds new images in her gallery.
Grasping - horror microfiction - published July 2021 in the Ghost Orchid Press anthology, “Hundred-Word Horror: The Deep”
Reminiscent water horror in exactly 100 words
Preserved - sci-fi horror microfiction - published May 2021 in the Ghost Orchid Press anthology, “Hundred-Word Horror: Cosmos”
Claustrophobic space horror in exactly 100 words.
Upgrade - science fiction - published January 2021 in Write Ahead / The Future Looms Magazine
Leah and her team are low-level nobodies in the resistance, and they know it. Their first mission is more of a test than a real job, and they know that, too. But even if they are only supposed to be disrupting one scripted propaganda-heavy wrestling match, Leah’s going to take the task seriously and get it done right.
I didn’t write this story for my friend Steve, but he helped with the brainstorming for initial plot details. He passed away right before this story found its magazine home. So though it wasn’t for him when I wrote it, I’ll remember him every time I think about it.
Circling Shadows - modern fantasy - published December 2020 in From the Farther Trees Fantasy Magazine
Olivia Mason has been living in a bunker under the foothills of the Colorado Rockies ever since the Mingling changed the world. But she can’t hide away from everything — there are pixie removal commercials on television, her only friend is a dwarf, and an uninvited representative of Dreki Industries, LLC, has just knocked on her door. A door the Dreki bigwigs and their harpy underlings aren’t supposed to know about at all.
Calm Waters - fantasy - published December 2020 in Prismatica Magazine
Lyssa Sorne and her partner, Niethan, want to enjoy a quiet, early retirement as riverboat traders on the River Cabre in the half-tamed Cabrish Territories. But when their favorite town to stop at gets hit one too many times by bandits, the women find themselves involved in the two things they had been trying to leave behind them — intrigue and violence.
The Pilot - steampunk romance - published October 2020 in the Air and Nothingness Press anthology “Upon A Once Time”
When Edmond Stockington is rejected by Pearl, the last woman of means within the city whom he has tried to court, he sees his chances for getting back into his parents’ good graces by making a good match slip between his fingers. Then his eccentric inventor cousin, Ivy, comes to visit for a season, and Edmond realizes that he can make use of his cousin’s eccentricities — and her good nature — to help him get what he wants. But while Ivy is trying to help Edmond woo Pearl, she begins to realize that she has feelings of her own for the object of her cousin’s attention.
They Feed - science fiction horror - published October 2020 in Night Shift Radio’s Storytellers Series Print Edition
Six year old Porter has been having a recurring nightmare, and though his moms weren’t worried at first, the dreams have grown more and more intense. Now it’s disrupting their lives, and the only pediatrician on Mars Orbital Station recommends uploading the dream using his neuralnet link up and watching it with him on a screen to help him contextualize it. The images they see are not the fearful fancies of a child, though. Shortly after that, Porter’s moms begin to have his nightmares, as well. How far will they spread?
The Defunct Villains Club - humorous fantasy - published August 2020 in “The Villains and Antiheroes Issue” of Write of Passion Magazine, on page 24
Erzsebet — once known as the feared Bone Sorceress — might tell you that she’s a prisoner. But the sisters who run Blessed Bezarva’s Home for Aged Magicians wouldn’t like to see it that way. They also wouldn’t like to see what Erzsebet would do if she was able to harness her magical powers again. The old sorceress doesn’t care what they like.
The World-Spanning Dreams - fantasy - published July 2020 in Idle Ink
Athary comes from one of the Single Sea’s smallest islands, too small to warrant a name. The greater islands rule the waters, but as a student of magic at the Order of the Mended Night’s Academy for Girls, Athary may be able to find the power to change that. Except that this term has been…different. Things seem more tense, and the named islanders are bolder than they’ve ever been. When she returns home after her term, disembarking on her own small island, she discovers why. There’s been a regime change, and life for the people of the nameless isles has grown much less pleasant than before. Athary can’t sit idly by any longer, but what consequences will her actions have?
The Captured Prince - middle grade fantasy - published July 2020 in the Chipper Press anthology “The Princess: A Collection of Royal Tales,” available in paperback from Barnes and Noble or Amazon
Princess Ythelia of Aetland prefers to be called Lia. She also prefers not to be ignored or shooed away, and she definitely prefers not to be the last to know a big secret. Especially when the secret is that her lifelong friend Auggie (alright, she’s supposed to call him Prince Augellan of Quom, and technically the two are supposed to have an arranged marriage some day, but she’d rather not think of either of those facts) has been taken captive by a dragon. Lia has to find a way to convince her parents to help save Auggie. Then she has to find a way to be part of the rescue party. And that’s only the beginning of the trials that await her.
To Preserve That Space - flash nonfiction - published July 2020 in Impermanent Earth
Remembering one of the places that gave me breathing room as a kid, the playground near my childhood home, and thinking about the ways it has changed and what those changes mean.
Animal Control - flash modern fantasy - published June 2020 in Prismatica Magazine
Greg wakes up in the middle of the night to what he believes is the sound of a burglar in his home. Gathering his courage — and grabbing a baseball bat — he decides to confront the intruder.
There And Not There - modern dark fantasy - published May 2020 in Idle Ink
So many children dream of finding a magical door to another land. When one boy finds it, his mother doesn’t think it’s an exciting adventure at all.
A Punishable Offence - modern dark fantasy - published May 2020 in The Cabinet of Heed
Natalie’s been hanging around at concerts and music festivals for a long time. A long, long time. When you’re a demon working the vengeance angle, there’s a surprisingly steady stream of mortals in need of punishing in a scene like that.
To Slow Down - flash nonfiction - published April 2020 in The Cabinet of Heed’s Stream of Consciousness special issue
A response to a prompt for stream of consciousness pieces about the early days of the coronavirus lockdowns in the USA
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