I’ve been writing stories most of my life. Nearly all of what I write falls into science fiction, fantasy, or horror. Most of what saw the light of day is no longer in publication.
“Mabel and the Yellow Jackets”
This is the name of my new punk-metal band. OK, actually it’s a short story about an “older” woman fighting an aggressive home invasion.
(NB: I’m not big on killing bugs. When I wrote this, I was dealing with a yellow jacket infestation of my own home—and yes, they attacked us indoors. In general I’m more of a capture-it-and-put-it-outside kind of person. But that’s a different story.)
Flash fiction
A little ditty that might be titled (bc flash this short doesn’t have room for titles) “The Sexbot” was my first fiction to be accepted and published by a paying publication. My deep gratitude goes out to Alex Jane Massey, Editor of Story Seed Vault.
The incomplete serialized novel
I wrote The Candidate’s Maid in 2015. In New York City, Melody Baker, PhD, unemployed, with no job prospects and huge student debt, applies out of desperation for a research assistant position somewhere upstate—she finds herself in an unexpected role in the middle of a political campaign scheme rooted in old money, eccentric aristocrats, and absurdly horrible collaborators.
I sent the manuscript off to a professional editor, and with edits and feedback in hand, I set to work revising.
Then an idea occurred to me. A rather audacious idea—or so it felt at the time.
Collaborating with author Katherine M. Lawrence (a dear friend), I split up the story into five parts for independent publication as a serialized novel. A Spy in Stilettos was released in April 2016; Book Two, The Colonel’s Secret Service, a month later; and—
And then the country’s politics became … other. The satire I’d written—things that the freelance editor had pronounced too extreme to be unbelieveable—was becoming documentary. Real-world events matched and shot beyond some of the most absurd bits in my book. And all of a sudden, the setting of the story was out of date.
Disheartened, feeling marooned on an island surrounded by turbulent seas, I stopped the presses, leaving the first two installments out there, without parts three, four and five. In 2019, I blogged a bit about this. I’m considering pulling the books from print.
Still writing
When time and health permit, I submit my short stories I still like to science fiction and fantasy journals. Any good news I will link to here.
Meanwhile I’m trying to bring into shape The SF Novel, which is in what must be draft 20 (first draft circa 2008). And I have in the works a series of novella-length tales following one character on her adventures out in distant parts of the galaxy.
Any news I will be sure to share here and on my habitual social network account thingies.
A request
If you like a story—any story, not just mine—you can truly help that writer by posting a review. On Amazon, Goodreads, your own blog, it doesn’t matter. It helps the story get noticed by other readers who may like it.