things to read
(and hear, too!)
Short Fiction
"One-Way Ticket"
Published in Nevertheless (Tesseracts Twenty-One), out on EDGE.
Alexis gently toes the ground as she steps off the gangplank, unsure of the gravity. She has visited the moon, backpacked the First Colonies on Mars. New ground always excites her, and she is tempted, even now surrounded by strangers, to take off her shoes and sprint in the grass.
"The Yarnball Woman"
Published in the Metaphorosis September 2018 issue.
She had just painted her nails in aquamarine, and the tiny nub lay lifeless on the hardwood like a dead scarab. There was no blood and no wound, just a smooth, curved tip. Like it hadn’t come from Patricia at all.
"Replacement Parts"
Published in Syntax and Salt 2018:02 issue.
Nancy sometimes dreamt of herself on a cool grey operating table. A surgeon in magenta scrubs would split her open lengthwise like an avocado and Evan would be curled inside her, a soft and snoring Z-shape. The doctor would scoop him out with a kitchen knife and toss him into a container of medical waste. They would pop a fresh husband from a bulk set, handsome and roundish thirty-something men stacked like spoons in vacuum-sealed plastic.
"Lucy the Third"
Podcasted on The Overcast, episode 79.
Dana remembers her inaugural date with the first Lucy, the timid way she came out as a Synth only after the fourth drink. She had just installed a blushing reflex, and Dana reached over and caressed her too-red cheek. If word got back to her ex-girlfriend that Dana was canoodling with a mass-market copy, there would be hell to pay.
"Inheritance"
Published in Behind the Mask, out on Meerkat Press.
“You’re the most important thing in the world to him.”
Other than fires and bank robberies and bus crashes, Oliver would think but wouldn’t say. It felt hard to compete with disasters. There were so many of them.
"Destinations"
Published in Singular Irregularity, out on Grey Whisper.
A typhoon of saliva swelled in Tanya's mouth as she contemplated this potential failure. She imagined they would have to go and find the charred bones of these two naive rich infants in scorched Japan, scraping up their remains in a dustpan.
"Passage"
Published in The Sockdolager Summer 2016 issue.
There had been dozens, hundreds of almost just-right places on Rowan’s field missions. Barneys with blue eyes. Angelas who spoke Spanish instead of French. The letters of the alphabet going ACB instead of ABC. She always found the problem in a few hours, maybe once it would take a day, but she would catch it and move on.
"Traveller"
Published in Love Hurts, out on Meerkat Press.
Thumping from inside the house as Henry’s son Jason opens the door. He has shed a dozen toys behind him, ones that Henry barely remembers buying.“When were you today, Daddy?”