Publications

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A "Multiplicity" Contest

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The Best of Every Day Fiction Three is now available, which features my story "Multiplicity" along with 99 other fine stories published last year at Every Day Fiction, including stories by K.C. Ball, Gay Degani, Ben Loory, Aaron Polson, and many more. Many thanks to Camille Gooderham Campbell and Steven Smethurst and Carol Clark for including me. The anthology comes in two formats, hardcover and trade paperback, which you can purchase here. Or, if you'd like, you can win a free signed copy from me.

Last year when I gave away a copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction Two, I tried to do it as a Twitter giveaway. That had mixed results. So this year I've decided to keep it simple. You know how in high school you would take those math classes and always ask when you'll ever need to know any of those equations in real life? Well, here you go. If you'd like a chance to win a copy, simply enter some kind of mathematical equation in the comments section. That's it. The crazier the equation, the better, though honestly at the end of the week a random name will be picked. This contest runs until the midnight Friday EST. Have fun!

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The Honeymooners

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I have a new story up at Dark Sky Magazine called "The Honeymooners." It's a story inspired by this news article.

A few weeks ago Kevin Murphy, the editor and publisher of Dark Sky Magazine, emailed me asking if I would be interested in participating in a kind of, well, literary experiment. As he said:

We assign you a particular date in May. On that date, you pick a news story of some sort from the headlines. In reaction to that news story, you come up with a story of your own, or it can be a poem, or an essay, or a piece of art, video, music, etc. All we ask is that the piece you contribute relates to the news headline you choose and that you turn it in to DSM no later than 3 pm Pacific time.

I of course jumped at the chance and the day I was assigned was yesterday ... which I sort of forgot about until, around noontime, I suddenly remembered and went: Oh shit.

I hurried to the computer and started searching the online news and came across a few articles. As I had to head to work later in the day, I only had about two hours to find an article and write the story. So I decided on the news article about a recent in-flight disturbance and, after a few minutes of thinking, knocked out the story. I walked away from it for about a half hour, came back and read through it again, and sent it off. And there you have it.

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Noogle Knock At ChiZine

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ChiZine has recently gone through a major revamp, and to celebrate, this month they're offering a mega-issue, an issue so large that they're releasing sets of fiction and poetry every week. The stories and poems in this particular mega-issue have been donated by previous contributors. Some are rare reprints, others are originals. So far they've published work by Neil Gaiman, Tom Piccirilli, Stewart O'Nan, and many more. This week includes fiction by Mike Carey, Brian Hodge, Nancy Kilpatrick, Lee Thomas, Richard Thomas, and me with a strange little story called "Noogle Knock." Seriously, people, this one is strange. Enjoy, and if you can, consider donating to help keep ChiZine going.

In The Land Of E-Books

My story "In the Land of the Blind" won the 10th Annual Chiaroscuro Short Story Contest and was published at ChiZine in 2004. It was reprinted just last year in the first volume of The Best New Zombie Tales, edited by James Roy Daley. Most importantly, it was the inspiration for my forthcoming nontraditional zombie thriller The Dishonored Dead.

Wait -- what?

That's right, I have a zombie novel. It was written many years ago, though, before the zombie craze really hit. And it was well-received by publishers but ultimately passed on because it's not your typical zombie novel (i.e., no flesh eating) and so not marketable to the typical zombie reader. Here's what it's about:

In a not-so-distant future, the world has devolved and most of the population has become the animated dead. Those few that are living are called zombies. They are feared and must be hunted down and destroyed.

Conrad is one of the animated dead. A devoted husband, a loving father, he is the best zombie Hunter in the world. But when he hesitates one night in killing a living adult, his job is put in jeopardy. Instead of being outright dismissed, he is transferred to a program so secretive even the Government would deny its existence -- and where Conrad soon learns a startling truth about how his own son might be in danger of becoming a zombie.

As living extremists become more emboldened and blow up a Hunter Headquarters, as a power-hungry Hunter becomes more enraged and will stop at nothing to gain absolute power, Conrad begins to question not just his profession, but his own existence. And before he knows it he is on a journey of self-discovery, remembering a past he was forced to forget, and soon finding himself not only a hunted man, but a man who must now save both his son and the entire world.

“The Dishonored Dead is one of the most original and gripping zombie novels I have ever read, offering a glimpse into the life of a zombie in a world turned backwards, where zombies live and humans are feared. Highly recommended!”

— Jeremy Robinson, author of Instinct and Threshold

Yes, yes, The Calling isn't even released yet (soon, people, soon), but here I'm presenting a new e-book: In the Land of the Blind includes the original contest-winning story, as well as the prologue and first three chapters of The Dishonored Dead. Available for 99 cents here:

Formats for the Nook, Kobo, and Sony readers coming soon, though both Nook and Kobo use the epub format, which you can purchase at Smashwords and transfer onto your device now.

Or, as always, you can pay with a tweet or Facebook post.

Enjoy.