NEW SHORT STORY: "Define Heroes: A Lore of the Reluctant Short Story"

FREE PROMOTION! - Starting tomorrow, April 29, this story will be free on Amazon for five days!

This will probably be my final story release until July-ish. By then, MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK will have released and I'll have one more short story ready to go.

"Define Heroes" is a standalone short story that's set in my LORE OF THE RELUCTANT series. Timeline-wise, it takes place after THE OUTCASTS OF VAMPIRE FLATS and BLADES IN ELSINGR.

Here's the synopsis:

Acys, Jasper, and Kalen are three friends from our world who woke up one day to find themselves in a fantastical realm of swords and sorcery. But it's been a few years... Now they're bored.

In this adventure, the trio of sellswords have run out of money in an eastern kingdom that is enjoying an era of lasting peace. In their bid to avoid skipping out on another bill, and to put a little extra money in their pockets besides, they might just commit regicide and plunge the entire kingdom into civil war.

More portal fantasy for ya!

This series has always been super easy to write. It was originally part of my goal to learn the ins and outs of self-publishing and so I thought up a concept that would be just plain fun to mess around with. I love the idea of fantasy adventurers who are in on all the jokes and are unimpressed with a lot of the tropes. And, also, they're kinda sociopaths at this point. Fun all around!

As I said above, I'll be running a free promotion starting tomorrow (April 29 @ 12 AM PST, as best as I can tell) and it'll run for about five days.

Be safe!

NEW BOOK: What Was Your Name Downriver?: Tales of the Shattered Realm

Another product of prolonged self-quarantine comin' at ya!

I've just gotta say, I'm so happy that I'm finally able to put this out in some way. These stories are the product of a lot of work and a lot of encouragement from interesting places. They're some of my favorite stories in that I love the characters and loved playing in their world.

WHAT WAS YOUR NAME DOWNRIVER? is a collection of three stories (one novella, two short stories) that take place in my fantasy western setting, The Shattered Frontier. They follow the adventures of war veteran, bounty hunter, and famous/infamous gunslinger, Evaline Cartwright, as she endures the travails of one of the most lawless counties in the nation. The kind of fun place where Evaline might fight your average brigand one day, and the next day a volatile mage who can destroy entire cities on accident.

Here's the synopsis:

TALES OF SIX-GUNS AND SORCERY! 

Evaline Cartwright: war veteran, bounty hunter, known to many in Ariasun County by her thoroughly-earned appellation, "Calamity Cartwright." 

Trivan Esterhazy: a woman gravely wounded, hoping to find a better life for herself in more civilized parts of the nation. 

The two have only just met, both riding a steamboat north through the county to escape foul dealings in their respective lives, but a violent attack by a rogue mage has ensured their abrupt alliance. Armed with Evaline's wits and weaponry and Trivan's instincts and common sense, the women will have to plot their way through hostile territory and wild woods in the hopes of defeating the mage and freeing themselves of its volatile magicks.

History Time! If you don't mind indulging me!

Evaline has appeared in a few other places publicly:

• The first short story I ever sold was the first story I ever wrote about Evaline called "The Lonesome Dark." It appeared in BLACKGUARDS and was recently republished in BRIGANDS.

• Michael J. Sullivan put out an open call for short story submissions to be published with the third book of the Ryria Chronicles, THE DEATH OF DULGATH, and, while it didn't make it to publication, "The Horse Thieves of Ariasun County" was a runner-up.

• "Gunfight at the Thornmount Colossus" was a runner-up in the 2016 Baen Books Fantasy-Adventure Award.

After getting that kind of positive feedback, I spent some time really fleshing out the world and the characters themselves, and doing research into American history for flavor, with the intention of writing a novel tentatively titled RIDERS OF BITTER PROSPECT. Another novel commitment was something I couldn't realistically do while I was at university and, subsequently, abroad for a year. The Japanese work week just didn't frequently allow for it.

So I opted for a collection of short stories which, again, was a pretty tough commitment. You might have noticed that progress bar on the side that hasn't moved in a while. One of those short stories just kept going until it became a novella, the anchor story WHAT WAS YOUR NAME DOWNRIVER? It's a straight-forward adventure, but it does the heavy-lifting as far as providing a cross-section for what the setting is all about and what potential stories might emerge as a result.

That's it! I hope you'll consider giving it a try. If this book does well, I'd like to work in this setting indefinitely. Love hanging out there!

Be safe!

NEW SHORT STORY: "Our Sun Is Shining on the City"

One of the very few perks of the self-quarantine lifestyle is that it has freed me up to start packaging some short stories that I had intended to get onto Amazon at some point. Well, that point has arrived!

"Our Sun Is Shining on the City" is a science fiction/post-apocalypse short story about people surviving inside the guts of decaying alien machinery that was once used to hollow out the planet's core. Here's the synopsis:

From origins unknown, towering machines descended upon the planet of Narashi and forcibly hollowed out its core, leaving behind an uninhabitable world, a decimated civilization, and a sprawl of interconnected drilling rigs that dwarf even the tallest mountains. 

Inside these decaying rigs, what remains of Narashi's natives endure, subsisting on captured oxygen, water from cooling lines, and what little food can be grown with scant sunlight. 

Taura and Carth are young siblings who scavenge abandoned settlements in the dark for their benefactor. As they pick through emptied shelters and shops, they begin to wonder just how long any of them have, as the alien machinery that sustains them begins to show signs of death throes.

I really liked how this story turned out. The inspiration for it actually came out of some books I read that centered on environmental justice. Stories about outsiders coming in, taking what they need out of the ground, and then just leaving, usually devastating communities in the process. I wanted to extrapolate that out to a planetary scale, where people literally have nowhere to go and just have to survive in what's left.

By the time this is posted, the story should be published. It should also be included in Kindle Unlimited, if you happen to have that!

Stay tuned for some more stories! Also, if you missed my last post, I have a story coming out soon in the sci-fi anthology, MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK.

Be safe, everyone!

ANTHOLOGY ANNOUNCEMENT: My Battery Is Low and It Is Getting Dark (July 1, 2020)

I'm finally able to announce that I'll be contributing a short story to another ZNB anthology this year on July 1st! The story is called "Ain't Done Haunting" and it'll be published in MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK, a sci-fi anthology about various forms of technology finding renewed purpose in obsolescence.

Here's the synopsis for the collection:

A military attack drone turned shepherd. A train on the London Underground evolving into something new and wondrous. A troupe of robotic actors struggling to find meaning when the audience has disappeared. Explore the myriad ideas of what happens when out-of-date and abandoned technologies are given a second life—one that takes them in a new direction, far outside their intended programming and beyond their original purpose.  

MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK features fourteen stories of quiet hope, heartbreak, creation, and death from fantasy and science fiction authors Dana Berube, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, Jacey Bedford, Anthony Lowe, Chris Kocher, Brian Hugenbruch, William Leisner, José Pablo Iriarte, Alethea Kontis, Kari Sperring, Edward Willett, John G. Hartness, Alexander Gideon, and Stephen Leigh. You may never look at your smart speaker the same way again.

I was very excited to be able to work with Zombies Need Brains again. They are just a well-oiled machine at this point after so many successful projects and they put out quality products by unique voices.

And "Ain't Done Haunting" is a story I'm particularly proud of, so I'm glad it was able to find a home here.

You can preorder the anthology right now, either directly through the publisher or through Amazon. It'll also be available through the usual suspects (Nook, Scribd, Kobo, Baen, etc.) on the release date. If you're all about physical copies (like me), those will be available, as well.

Hope you'll consider giving the anthology a look when it's released on July 1st!

MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK

Zombies Need Brains Official Store

(Supports the publisher directly)

Kickstarter Paperback Edition

eBook (Epub, Mobi, PDF)

Cover Art Print

Amazon

Kindle Version

UPDATE (4/2/20): The sale went over well! I've donated 100% of what I made to United Way of San Joaquin County and also purchased a batch of stories from the sale. Here's what I got! Looking forward to checking these out.

• Twelve Ways to Die in Galadore, Coleman Alexander

• Fire in the North, Richard J. Lowe (No relation 😄)

• The Blood-Tainted Winter, TL Greylock

• The Half Killed, Quenby Olson

• Street Cultivation, Sarah Lin

• The Dragon's Blade Trilogy, Michael R. Miller

• The Crimson Queen, Alec Hutson

Author Bryce O'Connor has put together one heck of a cool charity event called LOCKDOWN READFEST.

From March 30th to March 31st, 60+ authors have pledged to lower the prices of their books/short stories to 99 cents and donate 50% of their proceeds (more, in some cases) to charities relating to COVID-19 relief.

In my case, I've pledged the revenue from the two novels and three short stories I have available through Amazon. When Lockdown Readfest has concluded, I'll be donating to United Way of San Joaquin County.

San Joaquin County borders two of California's most densely populated counties and, as a result, has begun to feel the impact of COVID-19 and shelter-in-place order. Funds donated to United Way of San Joaquin County will be directed to local non-profits and shelters, and will help provide relief to folks in our county's most vulnerable communities.

I'll also be going through and picking up a bunch of stories from some talent authors in the hopes they'll be able to help out their own communities, as well!

For more information about Lockdown Readfest, as well as the authors who have pledged to the event, CHECK OUT THE REDDIT POST HERE.

Check out some fantastic stories, buy some on the cheap, support some worthy causes that'll bring relief in these stressful times!

• LOCKDOWN READFEST Information and Author/Story List

• United Way of San Joaquin

• Bryce O'Connor Official Website

NEW RELEASE and STORY SALE: "We Suffered Such a Man as This" via Mystery Weekly Magazine

One of the short stories that I wrote in Japan, about an eccentric old west detective in Calaveras County, now has a home at MYSTERY WEEKLY MAGAZINE.

Here's the synopsis of "We Suffered Such a Man as This":

Arriving in the small mining town of Copperopolis in fall of 1899, Georges Armadale, self-proclaimed detective extraordinaire, has taken it upon himself to solve a murder recently committed in a local church. At the standard rate, of course.

As part of my ongoing fight to write more stories around or near the San Joaquin Valley in California, I decided to try my hand at detective fiction and set it in one of my favorite little towns in the foothills at the turn of the century. Copperopolis is a small town wrapped around Lake Tulloch with a long history of mining for, as one would imagine, copper. Much of what was mined during the 1860s was sent east to be smelted for ammunition during the Civil War.

Copperopolis is also located in Calaveras County, where Mark Twain spent much time working with family and friends during the Gold Rush. His time here inspired the story, published by Bret Harte, that would become his first real success: "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" Nearby Angels Camp is, as the story goes, where the story's narrator first heard of this frog competition. And Jackass Hill, where Mark Twain spent his time working, can also be visited and plays host to an old replica of what his cabin would've looked like (and is old in its own right, despite being a replica).

Hope you'll consider checking out this month's issue for the story!

Mystery Weekly Magazine | Amazon

And I can also announce that I've sold another story! Can't get into details, but it's one that I really enjoyed writing. Will drop more details the closer we get to publication.

NEW RELEASE (Kinda): Brigands: A Blackguards Anthology

A lot going on these days! I'm back from Japan and I've got a new-ish project to talk about!
The first story I ever published was "The Lonesome Dark" back in BLACKGUARDS by Ragnarok Publications. Since then, Outland Entertainment has taken over publication duties, and their first act was to take all of the BLACKGUARDS stories (even those of us published in the e-book and extra digital material) and give the whole thing a proper physical re-release. Pretty exciting!
So while you couldn't get a physical copy of "The Lonesome Dark" before, you absolutely can now!
It currently seems to only be available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but I'll update this post and the My Books section if I track down any further marketplaces.
"The Lonesome Dark" is a fantasy western set in Ariasun County, a secondary world where a lot of my current projects are taking place. The main character, Evaline Cartwright, is a bounty hunter/hand-for-hire in a part of the world where it's really hard to find work that doesn't end in some kind of betrayal or undue violence. She takes a job bringing the body of a Sharath boy back to a commonage, which sounds innocuous, but the trip starts to unravel as she draws closer to her destination.
Hope you consider checking it out!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble