I’ve got a new microfic up on Stupefying Stories, “First Date Magic.”

This was quite a challenge to write, literally. Based on a prompt by Pete Wood, the story had to be max 107 words long and contain the phrase, “I’m pretty sure he wasn’t our waiter.” A lot harder than I first thought, but I think I did all right.

You can read six other authors’ stories for the challenge on the site as well, each very different.

Exciting news! I have a brand new story out today in Nature Futures, “Birding With My Human.” This story combines my love of birds, birdwatching, and jumbled thoughts and feelings about both the benefit and overwhelming presence of technology in our lives.

You can read more about the inspiration behind the story on the Nature website. In a nutshell, the setting where the story takes place is real—the lake, the tower, the birds.

The story is free to read online here. It’ll also be in the digital version of Nature: Volume 595 Issue 7866, 8 July 2021.

Thank you for reading!

Two of my stories were recently featured on #sfstoryoftheday, a daily story recommendation curated by M.A. Blanchard on Twitter: “The Bones and Their Girl” on June 14th and “Forestborn” on June 26th.

My interview with Jen Gheller at Luna Station Quarterly is out today.

I talk about the inspiration behind my short story “Forestborn,” my writing process, and hares.

Just a quick note to let you know that my story, “The Bones and Their Girl,” is out now—and free to read—in Flash Fiction Online. You can read it here.

It’s a double news kind of day! I have two reprints out today: “Forestborn” in Luna Station Quarterly #046 and “The Bones and Their Girl” in Flash Fiction Online.

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“Forestborn” will always be special to me because it was my first pro-published story (originally appearing in Gamut). Years later, I still consider it one of my better stories. It’s a tale of love, persistence, homemaking, and letting go, taking place in a cabin in the forest.

I’m so happy to share it with you now—this is the first time it’s available to read online for free.

Read “Forestborn” on the Luna Station Quarterly website and/or buy the beautiful issue on Amazon, Weightless Books, or from the Publisher on Gumroad.

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“The Bones and Their Girl” first appeared in Syntax & Salt, and now you can read it again in the Special Reprint Issue of Flash Fiction Online (June 2021) edited by Samantha L. Strong. This story deals with love, secrets, death, vulnerability, and hidden hope, featuring two lovers, art, and bones.

Each month, Flash Fiction Online posts a new story on their website on Fridays, and mine will be up on June 11. If you can’t wait, grab a copy of the issue on Amazon, Weightless Books, or directly from the Publisher.

What happens when a group of writers are challenged to write a 100-word story that revolves around the line “Wish you were here”?

Read the results on the Stupefying Stories blog where the ten winning stories of The Pete Wood Challenge will be published this week, two stories every weekday, starting with “Are There Cats On Mars”? by Jonathan Worlde and my science fiction microfic, “Machine Learning.”

Recently, I had a story in the ever-popular PodCastle Flash Fiction Contest that made the final round. Alas, it was not crowned one of the three winners, but will be appearing in the same episode later this year as an Editor’s Choice! Thrilled to make a sale from the contest after all. Can’t wait to share this story with you.

And congratulations to the winners—Drew Czernik, Ally Chua, and Aleks Wittkamp—whose terrific stories you won’t want to miss.

Flash Fiction Online is in the process of redesigning the covers of their yearly anthologies, including the 2020 anthology. I already liked the previous look, but the new design has my—well, everyone’s—name on the cover, so I can’t complain.

Grab your copy either from Amazon or directly from the publisher and read my story “We Are the Moor.”

Flash Fiction Online came out with a new anthology last month, edited by Suzanne W. Vincent, collecting all the stories published in 2020, including one of mine, “We Are the Moor.”

The anthology includes stories from: Stewart C Baker, Samuel Barnhart, Rebecca, Birch, R.K. Duncan, Sam Dunnington,Corey Farrenkopf, Lora Gray, Maria Haskins, Dayla Haynes, Bryce Heckman, Sylvia Heike, Audrey R. Hollis, Jennifer Hudak, Juliet Kemp, G.T. Knight, Melanie Lau, Tara Lazar, Sheila Massie, Dafydd McKimm, Nancy Moir, Wendy Nikel, Hailey Piper, Kyle Richardson, Elsa Richardson-Bach, Kelly Sandoval, T.R. Siebert, A.C. Spahn, Renée Jessica Tan, Angela Teagardner, Cathy Tenzo, David Urbina, Marie Vibbert, Filip Wiltgren

» Buy Flash Fiction Online 2020 Anthology directly from the publisher (available as epub, pdf, mobi)
» Buy from Amazon